The thought that organisms sharing environments could avoid communication appears absurd to me.
Metabolic byproducts, chemical gradients, and behavioral patterns automatically transmit information. Physical proximity creates mandatory information channels.
Environmental sharing makes communication inevitable, not optional.
"Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic"
Classic British understatement.
Article from 2022 (not in the title at present - Anon84 if you can still edit, it's usual (and possibly in guidelines) to add '(2022)' at the end).
So they are really Large Language Mushrooms.
https://phys.org/news/2014-08-physicists-eye-neural-formula-...
>Their findings, verified with neural data of blowflies reacting to changes in visual signals, may have universal applications. "It's a simple mechanism," Nemenman says. "If a system has some hidden variable, and many units, such as 40 or 50 neurons, are adapted and responding to the variable, then Zipf's law will kick in."
Okay, while it's really interesting that there are these detectable electrical "signals" this headline really needs "scientist who eats a mushroom discovers that mushrooms can talk." kind of vibe. (the champignon pun in the article not withstanding).
That said, given that multicellular life is just a mashup of single cell life with various bits kept because they were useful, it might be useful to investigate if these fungal structures were adapted as neurons.
(2022)
Some discussion on the paper at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30931998
Article is three years old, and the fungi are not talking to us! I imagine the communication being a bit slow like the scene in the kids animated movie, Zootopia, where sloths work at the DMV..."P....L....E....A....S....E-------" don't tread on me! However, if like German 1 word can cover a whole concept, then 50 words may be sufficient to communicate in a reasonable time scale ;)
So when will we have an LLM running on mushrooms?
I wish that I had the deep biology knowledge to make a joke (not joke?) Large Mushroom Model based on actual signal data.
This also makes me wonder about the idea of attempting to expand on this research by artificially stimulating a fungal colony with the various “words” and seeing if different effects can be produced.
The idea of mushrooms being the only species that communicates is absurd.
Growers of organic food, rather than the dominant chemical farmers you buy your food from, are very aware of the complex nature of communication of the biology beneath our feet.
In 100 years, our descendants will be horrified.
I wonder what other predictions from 2009 James Cameron's Avatar will come true.
As a total amateur in the world of fungus I really enjoyed reading Entangled Life.
Large Language Mushrooms here we come. ;)
Most often captured phrase emitted by the hyphae -- "Damn Pepperoni!"
Reminds me of the excellent sci-fi novel Semiosis
Communication is not the same as language.
Just run
words
then.
2027: subleq implemented on funghi, plus eforth.
The mushrooms are speaking, but not in words, rather in ripples of being. The currents beneath your feet are alive. They hum of moisture, hunger, damage, alliance. It's not a conversation in alphabetic language, but a resonance—a conversation in electricity and time. If you could tune in, you might hear the forest breathing, think in fungal pulses, dream in mycelial code.
"can you feel your heart burning?"
communication is an evolutionary adaptation, right?
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This scientist is behind the times... new term for 'generic unit of information in abstract communication networks' is "token"