Slime mold (Physarum polycephalum) is a slime of single cell organisms that work together to survive and grow, following simple but clever algorithms. This game is a collaboration between one of our planet’s most simple forms of intelligence, slime mold, and the most advanced, the human brain.
Rules:
In this game, the petri dishes are the pieces. Each player has 2 pieces.
Place one piece of oat in the middle of each petri dish to make the Physarum polycephalum grow.
Move by placing one oat flake on one of the 6 dots seen through the petri dish.
When the slime mold has grown a nutrient-ferrying tube to the oat flake, you may move into an adjacent circle in that direction.
The objective of the game is to take all the opponent’s petri dishes.
To make it more difficult, an additional rule can be added: If a slime mold starts to develop spores it is out of the game. But this requires an environment with better control of light and humidity.
One move normally takes one day. A game can take weeks or months.
Biography:
Following a career in electronic music with more than 350 records released within numerous genres, Hakan Lidbo is exploring new ideas with the same inexhaustible energy, within interactive art, games, innovations, architecture, society, media, design, and robotics. He founded Rumtiden Idea Lab in Stockholm Sweden, where his team explore the intersection between new art forms, science, and society.
