Embodiment in distributed information processing: Solid plants versus liquid ant colonies

Abstract

Information processing is an essential part of biology, enabling coordination of intra-organismal processes such as development, environmental adaptation and inter-organismal communication. Whilst in animals with specialised brain tissue a substantial amount of information processing occurs in a centralised manner, most biological computing is distributed across multiple entities, such as cells in a tissue, roots in a root system or ants in a colony. Physical context, called embodiment, also affects the nature of biological computing. While plants and ant colonies both perform distributed computing, in plants the units occupy fixed positions while individual ants move around. This distinction, solid versus liquid brain computing, shapes the nature of computations. Here we compare information processing in plants and ant colonies, highlighting how similarities and differences originate in, as well as make use of, the differences in embodiment. We end with a discussion on how this embodiment perspective may inform the debate on plant cognition.