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Mycelinfo

Reshaping Human Ecological Memory with Interspecies Intelligence

Mycelinfo explores new interspecies ways to understand our relationship with ecology. It features a symbiotic encoder recording our daily ecological practices with mycelium, and a revealer decoding it into readable interfaces - ecological diary in a nonhuman lens, reshaping our ecological ideology.

The Encoder

The encoder is a wearable symbiotic device. Its core is a petri dish with growing mycelial intelligence, surrounding which are three key electronic components: indicator, fan, and pheromone sensor. These components work together, sensing the user's interspecies interactions for the mycelium to access more pheromones in the air. The encoder also contains contextual sensors such as GPS, clock, and temperature sensors to record more contextual information for the ecological memory.

The Revealer

The AI-driven revealer decodes ecological memory. When the user inserts the encoder into the revealer, it begins scanning the mycelial morphology and analyzing the pheromones, then interpreting the interspecies interactions associated with its timestamp, location, and environment. Using large language models, it generates poetic descriptions based on this information. The decoded morphology, pheromones inside, and descriptions are then displayed on the interface. Over time, the mycelial intelligence learns the user’s ecological character, producing increasingly specialized ecological memory content.

The Mycelium

In the experiment, the fungal species Neurospora crassa is selected for its distinct morphological response to pheromones and its stable, consistent growth pattern, which enables precise temporal alignment.

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About ShanghaiTech University

Jointly founded by Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2013, ShanghaiTech University aspires to be a small-scale, high-standard, international university oriented towards research and innovation, for nurturing the next generation of innovative scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.
West area, Next Nature Museum, Noord Brabantlaan 1A , Map No. C1
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Fully Wheelchair Accessible
Wifi available
Toilets available