It is hard to go even a few days without reading stories about how AI and other technologies are pushing the growth of massive data centers and the development of advanced computer chips. Those things require rare earth materials, which are hard to come by and a major issue politically.

On top of that, companies that need the advanced computer power have to pay top dollar not just for the hardware, but also for the electricity and cooling that is needed to run it.

What if all of that could be avoided, and the computing done using mushrooms?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

Well, according to a study published in PLoS ONE, it might actually be possible (though not anytime soon).

This is not the first time that mushrooms have been tested in this way. It turns out, mushrooms can be trained to ‘remember’ electrical states that they had. This means that they can technically serve as a storage/memory device and a data processor. It is called an organic memristor.

Dr. John LaRocco of Ohio State talked about this possibility in a statement, saying:

“Being able to develop microchips that mimic actual neural activity means you don’t need a lot of power for standby or when the machine isn’t being used. That’s something that can be a huge potential computational and economic advantage.”

Being able to dramatically reduce the power and cooling that is needed to operate computers on a large scale could save billions of dollars, not to mention eliminating massive amounts of pollution from fossil fuels.

In addition, after they are done being used, mushrooms are much easier and cleaner to dispose of than eWaste.

LaRocco and the coauthors wrote in the study:

“One of the key strengths of memristors is their capacity for efficient and self-adaptive in situ learning, which is critical for applications in robotics and autonomous vehicles. In memristor-based neural networks, the devices can adjust their resistance based on previous inputs, allowing for a form of analog learning that closely resembles the synaptic behavior in biological systems.”

For the study, the team used the very popular shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes). They dehydrated the mycelium from the mushrooms and then connected them to electrical circuits. From there, they applied a variety of different voltages and frequencies.

They explained what happened:

“We would connect electrical wires and probes at different points on the mushrooms because distinct parts of it have different electrical properties. Depending on the voltage and connectivity, we were seeing different performances.”

The mushroom computers that they made could switch electrical states nearly 6000 times per second, and they had an accuracy of about 90%. While this is not nearly enough to replace computers on a large scale, it is a great proof of concept.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!