If we're ever going to colonize space or even do automated manufacturing in space on any scale we need to build a system which can manufacture "anything" that can be sent in a small number of launches and watched over by just a few people.
Eric Drexler's "assembler" concept has been stuck for the last 25 years, but biological systems are a good model because if they can build you out of a cell they could build just about anything else out of a cell. This kind of mycelium network is running fast compared to the neurons in your brain.
Do we have to believe this will scale and be "generally useful" (whatever that means) in order for it to be interesting enough to talk, discuss and think about?
My reaction is more, how does this work, what is it about mushrooms and mycelial networks, and sure, what is possible - but not, how soon can I monetize this
"what can we use it for?" I'd understand why someone would ask. Maybe not specifically in this case, as it's outlined in the abstract and paper itself, but I generally understand that.
"will it scale?" I'm not so understanding of, for a submission about early research, it's one of the less interesting questions about it, and something you figure out much much later, and wouldn't invalidate these results no matter what the answer to that question is.
Using fungus in more advanced ways? Yeah for sure.
Using shiitake mushrooms to build memristors for space? Eh.
Just worth noting that fungus in general is a world we know very little about, despite them being more closely related to animals than plants are. It's why so many mushrooms tend to have healthy compounds in them. It's something we should be studying in any generic sense, just because the knowledge gap is so huge.
Note: the reason it's dangerous to eat random fungus isn't because it's likely to kill us, but rather because they produce such an absolute plethora of chemicals that one is bound to not mix well with us. False morels produce hydrazine! That's rocket fuel!
If we're ever going to colonize space or even do automated manufacturing in space on any scale we need to build a system which can manufacture "anything" that can be sent in a small number of launches and watched over by just a few people.
Eric Drexler's "assembler" concept has been stuck for the last 25 years, but biological systems are a good model because if they can build you out of a cell they could build just about anything else out of a cell. This kind of mycelium network is running fast compared to the neurons in your brain.
Do we have to believe this will scale and be "generally useful" (whatever that means) in order for it to be interesting enough to talk, discuss and think about?
To be fair, among the first questions interested people would ask about something like this are, "what can we use it for?" and "will it scale?"
Interested people being investors I guess?
My reaction is more, how does this work, what is it about mushrooms and mycelial networks, and sure, what is possible - but not, how soon can I monetize this
"what can we use it for?" I'd understand why someone would ask. Maybe not specifically in this case, as it's outlined in the abstract and paper itself, but I generally understand that.
"will it scale?" I'm not so understanding of, for a submission about early research, it's one of the less interesting questions about it, and something you figure out much much later, and wouldn't invalidate these results no matter what the answer to that question is.
Can I eat it? Can I fuck it? Will it eat me? Will it fuck me?
Why would belief have anything to do with doing interesting research to see what can be done in this universe?
Using fungus in more advanced ways? Yeah for sure.
Using shiitake mushrooms to build memristors for space? Eh.
Just worth noting that fungus in general is a world we know very little about, despite them being more closely related to animals than plants are. It's why so many mushrooms tend to have healthy compounds in them. It's something we should be studying in any generic sense, just because the knowledge gap is so huge.
Note: the reason it's dangerous to eat random fungus isn't because it's likely to kill us, but rather because they produce such an absolute plethora of chemicals that one is bound to not mix well with us. False morels produce hydrazine! That's rocket fuel!