Whenever Andi is working hard to answer your questions, invariably other, fungal molds show up whom start spelling messages of their own. Are they also trying to answer your questions? Do they have a conversation of their own? Are they coordinating, bringing scripted drama to the Petri stage?
To learn more about these fascinating strangers I let slime mold Andi and self-selected fungal molds loose in a Petri dish with oatmeal letters on agar, recorded their movements and growth with a time lapse setup, transcribed their utterings, and rendered their statements into sound. Here is the resulting video:
And here is what the six molds that showed up had to say:
White mold (starts 4 seconds in/talks for 12 seconds) ‘southeast asia treaty organisation femme rouky’
Red mold (6s/6s) ‘euro denizen’
Black mold (7s/3s) ‘farmhand’
Green mold (8s/25s) ‘thud tweak non-toxic sorrel natural’
White fluffy mold (10s/16s) ‘video CD birdwing’
Slime mold Andi (20s/20s) ‘waka bed disciple gnu ultra faint dwarf fits rode ow, cue murmur [break caused by missing footage] ass gigahertz biotech legend’
Charming. Definitely not scripted, more like a party with multiple conversations going on at once. Great geopolitical awareness on part of Red mold and White mold. White fluffy mold seems to have more of an escapist bend, while Black mold and Green mold show an interest in agricultural issues? Andi is chatty as ever, but babbling a little, no doubt encouraged by this sudden and rare opportunity for real-time conversation.
Turns out however all molds speak at different speeds and I wonder how much they got of each others utterings. Maybe for molds too, sometimes talking is more important than listening.
