Origin of Intelligence

What is intelligence, and how deeply is it rooted in the fabric of life itself? In this talk, I explore the fundamental emergence of intelligent behaviours far beyond the animal kingdom. Beginning with spiking electrical activity observed in slime moulds, plants, and fungi, I will demonstrate how simple biological networks exhibit complex decision-making and adaptive behaviours — without neurons or brains. These organisms challenge our traditional notions of cognition, revealing that intelligence may not require a nervous system at all. I will also present recent work from our laboratory where we build and study proto-brains: experimental ensembles of proteinoid microspheres that spontaneously generate spiking patterns, coordinate actions, and process environmental information. By examining these synthetic and natural minimal systems, we gain insights into the deep origins of intelligence, suggesting that cognition may emerge wherever matter organises to sense, decide, and act upon the world.