A group of scientists from the Unconventional Computing Laboratory (UCL) at the University of the West of England in Bristol have demonstrated a kind of living biocomputer created, or one might even say grown, from mushrooms. By doing so, the researchers have demonstrated the possibility of implementing the so-called wetware concept, the use of living organisms as hardware and software for computing systems.
In nature, mushrooms create sufficiently vast and ramified networks under the ground with the help of mycelium, a kind of analog of the root system of plants. In the "mushroom" computer mycelium is used as a conductor, connecting the various components, analogous to a processor and memory, in the role of which are already mushrooms. Scientists have shown that fungi can exchange electrical signals through mycelium and use it as a memory.
Transmission of signals through the mycelium is very similar to the transmission of signals between brain neurons. And to increase the speed and reliability of this "mushroom" communication, researchers have learned to increase the conductivity of individual strands of mycelium by stimulating them at certain points.
Of course, "mushroom" computers cannot compete with conventional computers in performance and versatility. However, they do have some advantages. For example, they are rather fault-tolerant entities, capable of regenerating themselves through self-regeneration, they can reconfigure right on the fly, using natural growth and development processes. In addition, "mushroom" computers consume a minimal amount of energy, demonstrating excellent efficiency.
"Right now it's all at the level of proving the workability of such an idea. We have simply demonstrated that it is possible to create basic logical elements and electrical circuits that perform the simplest computational operations using mycelium," the researchers write, "In the future we will be able to grow more advanced computers from mycelium, capable of performing complex algorithms and control some kind of biological processes."
In conclusion, it is unlikely that even in a few years you will be able to see a computer motherboard, woven from the finest threads of mycelium, on which mushroom caps, processors, memory modules, etc. are located. But you have to admit that the idea of using mushrooms as computer components is in itself interesting and very unconventional.