A brain may be the network of neurons integral to life in many organisms — a solid brain, located specifically in space. A brain might also be the liquid, amorphous cognitive networks guiding ant colonies and immune systems.

In a themed issue in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, a collection of papers explores the differences between "liquid" and "solid" brains, their varied abilities to perform computations, and their inherent limits.

Edited by SFI External Professors Ricard Solé (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Melanie Moses (University of New Mexico), and Stephanie Forrest (Arizona State University), this special issue is the result of the 2017 SFI Working Group "Liquid Brains, Solid Brains."

Below are links to articles within the issue, and to SFI-affiliated co-authors:

Introduction: Liquid brains, solid brains
Ricard Solé, Melanie Moses, and Stephanie Forrest
The Cognitive Lens: a primer on conceptual tools for analysing information processing in developmental and regenerative morphogenesis
Santosh Manicka and Michael Levin
The brain: a concept in flux
Oné R. Pagán
Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains
J. Scott Turner
Metabolic basis of brain-like electrical signalling in bacterial communities
Rosa Martinez-Corral, Jintao Liu, Arthur Prindle, Gürol M. Süel, and Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo
Memory inception and preservation in slime moulds: the quest for a common mechanism
A. Boussard, J. Delescluse, A. Pérez-Escudero, and A. Dussutour
Plant behaviour in response to the environment: information processing in the solid state
Salva Duran-Nebreda and George W. Bassel
The plant body as a network of semi-autonomous agents: a review
Beata Oborny
Statistical physics of liquid brains
Jordi Piñero and Ricard Solé
A brief history of liquid computers
Andrew Adamatzky
The computational stance in biology
C. C. Wood
How does mobility help distributed systems compute?
William F. Vining, Fernando Esponda, Melanie E. Moses, and Stephanie Forrest
Surface curvature guides early construction activity in mound-building termites
Daniel S. Calovi, Paul Bardunias, Nicole Carey, J. Scott Turner, Radhika Nagpal, and Justin Werfel
Evolutionary aspects of reservoir computing
Luís F. Seoane
Modular structure within groups causes information loss but can improve decision accuracy
Albert B. Kao and Iain D. Couzin

Read the full issue, Liquid Brains, Solid Brains, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (April 22, 2019)

May 15, 2019

Viewpoints collide in social reactors working group

Viewpoints collide in social reactors working group