Intelligence in Nature - Jeremy Narby [85]
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P. 90: TREWAVASâS METHOD FOR FINDING IDEAS
Beveridge (1950) writes in his book The Art of Scientific Investigation: âThe most important prerequisite is prolonged contemplation of the problem and the data until the mind is saturated with it. There must be a great interest in it and desire for its solution. The mind must work consciously on the problem for days in order to get the subconscious mind working on itâ¦An important condition is freedom from other problems or interests competing for attention, especially worry over private affairsâ¦Another favorable condition is freedom from interruption or even fear of interruption or any diverting influence such as interesting conversation within earshot or sudden and excessively loud noisesâ¦Most people find intuitions are more likely to come during a period of apparent idleness and temporary abandonment of the problem following periods of intensive work. Light occupations requiring no mental effort, such as walking in the country, bathing, shaving, traveling to and from work, are said by some to be when intuitions most often appearâ¦Others find lying in bed most favorable and some people deliberately go over the problem before going to sleep and others before rising in the morningâ (p. 76).
CHAPTER 8
P. 95: SLIME MOLDS
Stephenson and Stempen (1994) write: âSlime molds, or myxomycetes, as biologists call them, may not have a particularly attractive name, but members of the group produce fruiting bodies that exhibit incredibly diverse forms and colors and are often objects of considerable beautyâ¦Myxomycetes have long intrigued and perplexed biologists because they possess characteristics of both animals and fungi. The fruiting body and spores they produce resemble those of many fungi, but some of their other attributes, including the capability for locomotion, are normally associated with animals. For most of its life, a myxomycete exists as a thin, free-living mass of protoplasm. Sometimes this mass is several centimeters across and, as the name slime mold suggests, viscous and slimy to touch. The mass of protoplasm, which is called plasmodium (plural: plasmodia), can change form and creep slowly over the substrate upon which it occurs, much like a giant amoeba. As it moves, it feeds by engulfing bacteria and tiny bits of organic matter, another animal-like featureâ (pp. 13â14). Zimmer (1998) describes multi-cellular slime mold Dictyostelium in action: âRather than crawling around randomly, the amoebas start streaming toward one another in inwardly pulsing ripples. As many as 100,000 converge in a swirling mound. And then, remarkably, the mound itself begins to act as if it were the organism. It stretches out into a bullet-shaped slug the size of a sand grain and begins to move. It slithers up toward the surface of the soil, probes specks of dirt, and turns around when it hits a dead end. Its movements are slowâit would need a day to travel an inchâbut in a stop-action filmâ¦the deliberateness of the movements eerily evoke an it rather than a they. After several hours, the Dictyostelium slug goes through another change. The back end catches up with the tip. The blob stretches upward a second time, and now some amoebas produce rigid bundles of cellulose. They die in the process, but their sacrifice allows the blob to become a slender stalk. Perched atop the stalk is a globe, bulging with living amoebas, each of which covers itself in a cellulose coat and becomes a dormant spore. In this form the colony will wait until somethingâa drop of rainwater, a passing worm, the foot of a birdâpicks up the spores and takes them to a bacteria-rich place where they can emerge from their shells and start their lives overâ (p. 88).
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P. 96: SLIME MOLD SOLVES MAZE
Nakagaki (2001b) writes: âIt is a common insult in Japan to hear someone ridiculed as âone-cellular,â indicating minimal mental capacity on the part of the subject of the remark. But this