Entangled Life

Merlin Sheldrake  is a not a character in Harry Potter, he is a biologist and author who has written a great book called “Entangled Life.”  The content within about fungi and amoebas rivals any magic and mystery I’ve come across in fiction.  

The book explains how single-cell organism’s without a brain, without a detected central command center, that combine and cooperate with other cells, create massive organizations (at times up to hundreds of tons) inhabit the world and set the stage for other forms of life. One type of amoeba, more specifically Physarum polycephalum (nicknamed slime molds) are observed to “make decisions”  about wayfinding. For example Japanese researchers released slime molds into a petri dish that contained a model of the Greater Tokyo area. In just a day the slime mold had outlined the most efficient rail route between the areas that represented major urban areas and avoided areas that represented physical obstacles like mountains.  The natural evolution of how cities grow have an astoundingly similar pattern to how slime molds expand. 

In our work, we continually examine how the actions of multiple individuals and their feedback creates places.  Cooperation and communication among humans are what led us to civilization, and it is what forms the aspiration and goals of our planning assignments. What is striking is how human coordination, getting feedback, development and redevelopment all take time – much longer than the day the slime mold took to route Tokyo’s rail network.  We like to believe we are thoughtful and responsive, but actions of the whole are so much more complex when it comes to people. 

If you like reading I highly recommend this book.  If you want a more immediate overview here is a YouTube video of a Ted Talk - Heather Barnett: What humans can learn from semi-intelligent slime it offers a few highlights of the wonder of what scientists and others are studying and how we may learn from these cell formations and behaviors.

-Ellison