I'd like to introduce you to an organism: a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. It's a mold with an identity crisis, because it's not a mold, so let's get that straight to start with. It is one of 700 known slime molds belonging to the kingdom of the amoeba. It is a single-celled organism, a cell, that joins together with other cells to form a mass super-cell to maximize its resources. So within a slime mold you might find thousands or millions of nuclei, all sharing a cell wall, all operating as one entity. In its natural habitat, you might find the slime mold foraging in woodlands, eating rotting vegetation, but you might equally find it in research laboratories, classrooms, and even artists' studios.
我想向您介紹一個有機體: 粘菌,多頭絨泡菌。 這是一個有身份危機的霉菌, 因為牠不是一個霉菌, 讓我們直接開始說明。 牠是屬於700個已知的 阿米巴界的粘菌之一。 牠是一種單細胞生物,一個細胞, 與其他細胞連接在一起, 以形成一個在超小區而大規模的細胞, 能最大限度地發揮其資源。 所以粘菌內你可能會發現成千上萬 或數百萬的核, 全部共用一個細胞壁, 為一體操作的實體。 在其自然棲息地, 你可能會發現粘菌在林地覓食, 吃腐爛的植被, 但你可能會同樣發現牠在 研究實驗室、 教室,甚至是藝術家的工作室。
I first came across the slime mold about five years ago. A microbiologist friend of mine gave me a petri dish with a little yellow blob in it and told me to go home and play with it. The only instructions I was given, that it likes it dark and damp and its favorite food is porridge oats. I'm an artist who's worked for many years with biology, with scientific processes, so living material is not uncommon for me. I've worked with plants, bacteria, cuttlefish, fruit flies. So I was keen to get my new collaborator home to see what it could do. So I took it home and I watched. I fed it a varied diet. I observed as it networked. It formed a connection between food sources. I watched it leave a trail behind it, indicating where it had been. And I noticed that when it was fed up with one petri dish, it would escape and find a better home.
我第一次碰到粘菌是大約五年前。 我的一位微生物學家朋友 給我一個裡面 有一點黃色斑點的培養皿, 叫我回家玩玩。 我得到的唯一指令是, 牠喜歡陰暗潮濕, 其最喜歡的食物是燕麥粥。 我是藝術家,多年來 與生物學、科學流程周旋, 所以有生命的物質對我是尋常不過。 我的工作曾經涉及植物、細菌、 墨魚、果蠅。 所以我非常熱切地 帶我的新合作者回家, 看看牠能做什麼。 所以我把牠帶回家,把牠看著。 我餵牠很多樣化的食物。 我觀察牠發展其網路, 形成食物源之間的連結。 我看著牠背後留下的痕跡, 顯示牠的足跡。 而且我注意到, 當牠受夠身在一個培養皿中, 牠會逃跑,找一個更美好的家園。
I captured my observations through time-lapse photography. Slime mold grows at about one centimeter an hour, so it's not really ideal for live viewing unless there's some form of really extreme meditation, but through the time lapse, I could observe some really interesting behaviors. For instance, having fed on a nice pile of oats, the slime mold goes off to explore new territories in different directions simultaneously. When it meets itself, it knows it's already there, it recognizes it's there, and instead retreats back and grows in other directions. I was quite impressed by this feat, at how what was essentially just a bag of cellular slime could somehow map its territory, know itself, and move with seeming intention.
我用縮時攝影 拍攝記錄我的觀察。 粘菌在一個小時左右生長一厘米, 所以現場觀看不是十分理想, 除非你有某種非常極端的冥想, 透過縮時攝影, 我可以觀察到一些很有趣的行為。 例如,如果牠剛吃了一堆不錯的燕麥, 粘菌會同時以不同方向 探索新的領域。 當牠遇到自己, 牠知道自己已經存在那裡, 承認自己的存在, 牠不會撤退回來, 而是會向其他方向生長。 我是相當受這一壯舉感動, 怎麼本質上只是一袋子細胞粘菌 能以某種方式映射其境, 了解本身,並有意圖地移動。
I found countless scientific studies, research papers, journal articles, all citing incredible work with this one organism, and I'm going to share a few of those with you. For example, a team in Hokkaido University in Japan filled a maze with slime mold. It joined together and formed a mass cell. They introduced food at two points, oats of course, and it formed a connection between the food. It retracted from empty areas and dead ends. There are four possible routes through this maze, yet time and time again, the slime mold established the shortest and the most efficient route. Quite clever. The conclusion from their experiment was that the slime mold had a primitive form of intelligence. Another study exposed cold air at regular intervals to the slime mold. It didn't like it. It doesn't like it cold. It doesn't like it dry. They did this at repeat intervals, and each time, the slime mold slowed down its growth in response. However, at the next interval, the researchers didn't put the cold air on, yet the slime mold slowed down in anticipation of it happening. It somehow knew that it was about the time for the cold air that it didn't like. The conclusion from their experiment was that the slime mold was able to learn. A third experiment: the slime mold was invited to explore a territory covered in oats. It fans out in a branching pattern. As it goes, each food node it finds, it forms a network, a connection to, and keeps foraging. After 26 hours, it established quite a firm network between the different oats. Now there's nothing remarkable in this until you learn that the center oat that it started from represents the city of Tokyo, and the surrounding oats are suburban railway stations. The slime mold had replicated the Tokyo transport network — (Laughter) — a complex system developed over time by community dwellings, civil engineering, urban planning. What had taken us well over 100 years took the slime mold just over a day. The conclusion from their experiment was that the slime mold can form efficient networks and solve the traveling salesman problem.
我發現無數的科學研究、 研究論文、期刊文章, 通通都引用了跟這有機體 相關的不可思議研究, 我將會與你們分享一些。 例如,日本北海道大學的一個團隊 在迷宮裡填補了粘菌。 牠連接在一起,形成一個巨大細胞。 他們在兩個時間點上餵養, 當然是燕麥, 牠形成了 食物之間的連接。 牠從空區和死角縮回。 通過這個迷宮有四條可行的路徑, 但一次又一次, 黏菌搜索了最短 和最有效的途徑。 相當聰明。 從他們的實驗得出的結論是, 粘菌有智能的原始形式。 另一項研究是定期給粘菌放冷空氣。 牠不喜歡它。牠不喜歡寒冷。 牠不喜歡乾燥。 他們重複間隔這樣做, 每一次粘菌反應地 放慢增長。 然而,在下一段時間裡, 研究人員並沒有放冷空氣, 但粘菌在因為預期會有冷空氣 而放緩成長。 牠在某種程度上知道這段時間 會有牠不喜歡的寒冷空氣。 從他們的實驗得出的結論是, 粘菌能夠學習。 第三個實驗: 粘菌被邀請去 探索覆蓋燕麥的領域。 燕麥是分枝形狀的格局。 從那裡,牠每發現有食物的節點, 牠形成了一個網絡,一個連接, 並保持覓食。 26 小時後,牠在不同的 燕麥之間建立了 相當堅定的網絡。 這,沒有什麼了不起的, 直到你發現, 一開始在中心的燕麥, 代表東京, 和周圍的燕麥是地鐵站。 該粘菌已複製了 東京的交通網絡。 (笑聲) 這是個複雜的、隨時間推移的系統, 由社區住宅、土木工程, 和城市規劃發展出來的。 我們花了超過100年做的, 粘菌僅僅用了一天。 從他們的實驗得出的結論是, 粘菌能夠形成有效的網絡 解決旅行推銷員問題。
It is a biological computer. As such, it has been mathematically modeled, algorithmically analyzed. It's been sonified, replicated, simulated. World over, teams of researchers are decoding its biological principles to understand its computational rules and applying that learning to the fields of electronics, programming and robotics.
牠是一種生物計算機。 因此,牠已在數學上建立了模式, 算法進行分析。 牠已經超聲波化、複製、模擬。 世界各地的研究人員 正進行解碼牠的生物學原理, 了解其運算規則, 並運用學習在電子、 程式編寫和機器人等領域。
So the question is, how does this thing work? It doesn't have a central nervous system. It doesn't have a brain, yet it can perform behaviors that we associate with brain function. It can learn, it can remember, it can solve problems, it can make decisions. So where does that intelligence lie? So this is a microscopy, a video I shot, and it's about 100 times magnification, sped up about 20 times, and inside the slime mold, there is a rhythmic pulsing flow, a vein-like structure carrying cellular material, nutrients and chemical information through the cell, streaming first in one direction and then back in another. And it is this continuous, synchronous oscillation within the cell that allows it to form quite a complex understanding of its environment, but without any large-scale control center. This is where its intelligence lies.
問題是, 牠是如何運作? 牠沒有中樞神經系統。 牠沒有大腦, 但牠可以執行 我們聯想到的腦功能。 牠可以學習,牠有記憶, 牠能夠解決問題,牠可以做決策。 那麼,牠的智慧何在? 這是一個顯微鏡,我拍的一段影片, 大約是 100 倍的放大倍率, 加快 20 倍左右, 粘菌裡面, 有一個節奏性的脈動流, 通過細胞,攜帶著 細胞物質、營養物質和化學訊息 的脈狀結構, 首先在一個方向流, 然後再在另一個方向。 就是這種在細胞內連續的、 同步的波動, 允許牠對其相當複雜的環境有所理解, 儘管牠並沒有任何大型的控制中心。 這就是牠智能的所在。
So it's not just academic researchers in universities that are interested in this organism. A few years ago, I set up SliMoCo, the Slime Mould Collective. It's an online, open, democratic network for slime mold researchers and enthusiasts to share knowledge and experimentation across disciplinary divides and across academic divides. The Slime Mould Collective membership is self-selecting. People have found the collective as the slime mold finds the oats. And it comprises of scientists and computer scientists and researchers but also artists like me, architects, designers, writers, activists, you name it. It's a very interesting, eclectic membership. Just a few examples: an artist who paints with fluorescent Physarum; a collaborative team who are combining biological and electronic design with 3D printing technologies in a workshop; another artist who is using the slime mold as a way of engaging a community to map their area. Here, the slime mold is being used directly as a biological tool, but metaphorically as a symbol for ways of talking about social cohesion, communication and cooperation. Other public engagement activities, I run lots of slime mold workshops, a creative way of engaging with the organism. So people are invited to come and learn about what amazing things it can do, and they design their own petri dish experiment, an environment for the slime mold to navigate so they can test its properties. Everybody takes home a new pet and is invited to post their results on the Slime Mould Collective. And the collective has enabled me to form collaborations with a whole array of interesting people. I've been working with filmmakers on a feature-length slime mold documentary, and I stress feature-length, which is in the final stages of edit and will be hitting your cinema screens very soon. (Laughter)
所以,不只是大學的學術研究人員 對這個有機體感興趣。 幾年前,我成立了 SliMoCo, 粘菌合作社。 這是一個在網上、開放、 民主的網路,給予粘菌研究人員 和愛好者分享知識和研究的地方, 跨學科 和學術領域。 合作社的成員是自我選拔。 人們發現合作社 就如粘菌發現燕麥。 成員包括科學家、 電腦科學家和研究員, 亦有像我一樣的藝術家研究員, 建築師、設計師、作家、 社會活動家,包羅萬象。 這一群成員非常有趣,不拘一格。 僅僅是幾個例子: 有一位用熒光絨泡菌油漆的藝術家、 一個結合生物和 電子設計 與 3D 列印技術的團隊, 還有另一位藝術家使用粘菌, 請社區團員繪製 其區域的地圖。 在這裡,粘菌被直接 用作生物工具,但比喻為 在談論社會凝聚力, 溝通及合作 方式的象徵。 還有其他公眾參與活動, 我辦了很多粘菌工作室, 用創造性的方式跟粘菌互動。 所以人們受邀來了解 粘菌可以做什麼驚人的事情, 而且他們可以設計 自己的培養皿實驗環境, 為粘菌進行導航, 使他們能夠測試其性能。 每個人都像帶一隻新寵物回家, 並應邀在合作社上發表他們 對粘菌發現的結果。 合作社使我 能夠與大批 有趣的人合作。 我正在與製片人 安排粘菌的長篇紀錄片, 我要強調是長篇, 正在編輯的最後階段, 很快就會在你附近的影院放映。 (笑聲)
It's also enabled me to conduct what I think is the world's first human slime mold experiment. This is part of an exhibition in Rotterdam last year. We invited people to become slime mold for half an hour. So we essentially tied people together so they were a giant cell, and invited them to follow slime mold rules. You have to communicate through oscillations, no speaking. You have to operate as one entity, one mass cell, no egos, and the motivation for moving and then exploring the environment is in search of food. So a chaotic shuffle ensued as this bunch of strangers tied together with yellow ropes wearing "Being Slime Mold" t-shirts wandered through the museum park. When they met trees, they had to reshape their connections and reform as a mass cell through not speaking. This is a ludicrous experiment in many, many ways. This isn't hypothesis-driven. We're not trying to prove, demonstrate anything. But what it did provide us was a way of engaging a broad section of the public with ideas of intelligence, agency, autonomy, and provide a playful platform for discussions about the things that ensued. One of the most exciting things about this experiment was the conversation that happened afterwards. An entirely spontaneous symposium happened in the park. People talked about the human psychology, of how difficult it was to let go of their individual personalities and egos. Other people talked about bacterial communication. Each person brought in their own individual interpretation, and our conclusion from this experiment was that the people of Rotterdam were highly cooperative, especially when given beer. We didn't just give them oats. We gave them beer as well.
牠也讓我進行我認為是 世界上第一個人類粘菌實驗。 這是在鹿特丹去年展覽的一部分。 我們邀請人們扮演粘菌半小時。 基本上,我們就把人捆綁在一起 形成一個巨細胞, 並邀請他們要按照粘菌規則做。 必須要通過振盪來溝通, 不能說話, 要作為一體、巨大細胞來行動, 沒有自我, 移動的動機便是 要探索環境 尋找食物。 因此,一堆混亂的人群 隨之而來, 這群被黃色繩索綁在一起的陌生人 穿寫著「我是粘菌」黃色的 T 恤, 在博物館的公園漫步。 當他們遇到樹木, 還得以巨大細胞的方式 重塑他們的連接和重組, 且不能說話。 這是一個非常滑稽的實驗。 這不是為了證實假設。 我們不是想證明,表明什麼。 但它確實為我們提供了 一個能讓公眾參與的方法, 充滿聰明想法、媒介、自主性, 並俏皮地提供了 有關隨後進行 討論的平台。 這實驗中 最令人興奮的事情 是之後的談話。 完全自發的座談 會發生在公園裡。 人們津津樂道地談人的心理, 是多麼困難地放棄本身 和自我。 其他人談論細菌的傳播。 每個人有 自己的解釋, 從這個實驗我們的結論是, 鹿特丹的人很合群, 尤其是喝了啤酒之後。 我們不只是給他們燕麥。 我們也給他們啤酒。
But they weren't as efficient as the slime mold, and the slime mold, for me, is a fascinating subject matter. It's biologically fascinating, it's computationally interesting, but it's also a symbol, a way of engaging with ideas of community, collective behavior, cooperation. A lot of my work draws on the scientific research, so this pays homage to the maze experiment but in a different way. And the slime mold is also my working material. It's a coproducer of photographs, prints, animations, participatory events. Whilst the slime mold doesn't choose to work with me, exactly, it is a collaboration of sorts. I can predict certain behaviors by understanding how it operates, but I can't control it. The slime mold has the final say in the creative process. And after all, it has its own internal aesthetics. These branching patterns that we see we see across all forms, scales of nature, from river deltas to lightning strikes, from our own blood vessels to neural networks. There's clearly significant rules at play in this simple yet complex organism, and no matter what our disciplinary perspective or our mode of inquiry, there's a great deal that we can learn from observing and engaging with this beautiful, brainless blob.
但他們不是像粘菌一樣有效。 粘菌,對我來說, 是一個引人入勝的題材。 牠是迷人的生物, 牠的計算有趣, 但牠也是一個象徵, 是種集合社區想法、 集體行為和合作的一種方式。 我的許多作品中借鑒了科研, 所以這個是對迷宮實驗的致敬, 只是以不同的方式。 粘菌也是我的工作物質。 牠是照片的、版畫的、動畫的, 參與事件的共同製作者。 雖然在粘菌不曾 選擇與我合作,確切地說, 但這也是一種合作的角色。 我可以預測某些行為, 透過理解牠的運作方式, 但我無法控制牠。 粘菌在創作過程中 有最後決定權。 畢竟,牠有自己的美感標準。 我們看到的這些分支模式, 可以看到各種大自然的形式, 從河流三角洲至雷擊, 從我們自己的血管,至神經網路。 在這個簡單而又複雜的有機體, 顯然有很明確的規則, 而不管我們的學科角度, 還是我們的查詢方式, 我們可以學到很多東西, 透過觀察 與跟這美麗卻無腦的物質互動。
I give you Physarum polycephalum.
這就是多頭絨泡菌。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)