The Wisdom Hidden in Simple Rules

In 2010, researchers at Hokkaido University published a study in Science that stunned the engineering world. They placed a slime mold — a single-celled organism with no brain and no nervous system — on a map of the Tokyo metropolitan area, positioning food at locations matching the city's major train stations. In just twenty-six hours, the mold had grown a network of nutrient-carrying tubes that almost perfectly replicated Tokyo's actual rail system.…