ABSTRACT
Human Policy is therefore often deficient, and may even imperil future survival. As such, the Plasmodium Consortium was formed to enlist the optimization abilities of slime moulds for policy analysis, addressing global problems ranging from food security and climate change to income inequality. In the Plasmodium Consortium, human and non-human scholars play out a complex choreography as senior students intermittently continue their investigations alongside slime mould. Moreover, process boards (filled with photos, documentation, relevant articles, annotated napkins from late-night take-away food, and other random musings) lined the wall, and televisions played live cable news, reinforcing the real time – and context-specificity – in which scientific research takes place. Slime mould was easy to work with, but there were logistical challenges that surprised us. Because slime mould grows in dark, moist environments, fungal contaminations were common and could be difficult to eliminate.
