Literally Pulsating Brains
Slime molds apparently are incredibly smart for a single celled amoeba and where their smarts lie is in building efficient transport tubes for nutrients, which rival our own highways. They do this by rhythmic pulsating, allowing them to think with their whole bodies. They have also put them into robots and had them guide the robots so I know complex motor control is achievable in them as well.
My aliens are very much similar to these slime molds, but there is one big difference, mine are human sized and have a human level of intelligence.
Could this method of thinking work for such an advanced creature and produce things like abstract thought, detection of symbolism, and all the other things that humans enjoy from their brains?
They do have a neuron system (an alien equivalent), but is entirely dedicated towards sight and is meant only to react with the rhythmic pulsating and cause changes. Also the rhythm in them, unlike in the actual slime molds does't need to be universal: different parts of different pulsating structures could be producing the thoughts. But if possible I would prefer to squeeze as much intelligence out of as simple a system as possible.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/110574. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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