slime molds

Single-celled slime molds, which lack brains yet can solve mazes, optimize networks, and learn simple patterns, are at the center of a growing scientific dispute over how intelligence should be defined. Researchers disagree on whether such abilities reflect genuine cognition or simpler biological processes, a question with implications for neuroscience, philosophy, and artificial intelligence.

Scientists are revisiting slime molds, single-celled organisms that can solve mazes and optimize networks despite having no brain, prompting renewed argument over whether the word 'intelligence' should apply beyond animals. Critics say such behavior is better described as simple adaptive processing, while others argue cognition exists on a spectrum across life forms.