Why couldn’t we replace the cell membranes of an animal with some other support and transport structures, to create a massive cell that works like an animal?
Maybe? But how woupd it think?
It could have communication systems that work as nervous tissues
I dont see how that would work
Brains are made of nodes connected together with connections. There is no good reason I know why this system needs to be split up amongst multiple cells
The main problem is that multicellular organisms have many specialized cell types to perform different functions. For a single cell to be able to create extremely specialized regions, it would require such a degree of compartmentalisation/subdivision of the cell, I’d say it becomes unclear whether you can still call it single celled.
As for the nervous system (as we know it), it specifically depends on the cell membrane to propagate an electric potential. It’s not the kind of system that can just run in the cytosol. So, you’d get a pretty interesting structure doing something like that with a single cell (could probably use something like a weird really streched out vacuole as well). Also, the system relies on junctions between different neuron cells (synapses) to allow signals to jump from cell to cell, but not under all conditions. That’s also difficult to do with a single cell.
8 Likes
Exactly my point, to become truly single celled and large, you really can’t have a nervous system. You can be kinda single celled, sure, but it’s not the same.
you could have protein structures that mimic neurons muscles bones joints tendons ligaments vascular tissue or just about anything else you could think of if we had a protein editor specifically for polynucleates
I personally think it would be cool if you could play in the multicellular environment as a very large, polynucleic cell, but it doesn’t make sense for your cell to get to aware stage.
1 Like
it does if you evolve something that allows transmission of electricity to allow faster intracellular communication and eventually cluster some up to make a much smaller and more compact brain than any multicellular organism could ever hope to accomplish
But what mechanism or organelle could do this?
It would likely be Non-LAWK, but would be interesting to experiment around with the idea and see if it could be proven to work
(LAWK means ‘Life As We Know it’, in case anyone was unaware)
no it could just be calcium channels encased in a protein membrane or carbon nanotubes so it could definitely be lawk for at least the first one
@TristanMisja it would be a wire organelle that accepts multiple charges but only releases one in the event of a high enough charge
How would that be more efficient than multicellular brains? And you aren’t specifying what compound or organelle could do this. Also, neurons aren’t wires. There’s spiking and neurotransmitters and polarity (among other things) that just wires don’t have. You also don’t specify how an electric current would form, and what this brain organelle would actually do, how it would communicate with the other organelles, etc.
Moreover, what about reproduction? Will the daughter cell get some of the mother cell’s “memories”?
1 Like
i am using “wires” by the definition of a cord that moves an electrical charge and the brains would be more space efficient as they don’t have to have machinery to keep the cell wall in mint condition as there is a protein barrier not a multimolecular wall that has to have molecules replaced and thus only take up the necessary space to hold a carbon nanotube while keeping the water out or hold a calcium ion channel or a very thin string of conductive metal
That wouldn’t be able to do any computation. If you want to use wires for computation on that scale the organism would also need to evolve semiconductors for logic.
1 Like
i mean wires with a unit at one end that takes multiple charges and neurotransmitter chemicals and only releases a charge if there is a high enough charge going in and an organelle at the other end of the wire to transmit neurotransmitters. just like a regular brain cell except proteins and wires and organelles
no the daughter cell would likely not get the mother cell’s memories as that would require a pressure to encode the memories into nuclei or smaller packages and would likely be created by budding or eukaryotic conjugation being used as a gene transfer method to enable sexual reproduction
Okay, but what mechanism would do that? What protein equivalent would work? And how would this be any more efficient than multicellular brains? What would this brain even be used for? Single celled organisms behave intelligently enough to survive. Also, what would these wire be made of? What is creating current?
1 Like
a dendrite organelle that accepts multiple inputs from axon like organelles that use a wire to transmit electricity and releases different chemicals based on the strength of the signal then the dendritic organelle sends a signal of the combined strengths of all it’s inputs
a protein casing around a wire connecting two cell organelles
faster reaction time, smaller neurons, less calcium intake required, faster processing time, signal speed is just under a third of the speed of light given there isn’t anything stopping the electricity, faster max speed.
not if they want to be large unicellular animals
copper, silver, lead, iron, literally any other highly conductive metal, carbon nanotubes.
mitochondria
That doesn’t answer the question.
That doesn’t answer my first question, and animals, by definition, cannot be unicellular. Also, macroscopic unicellular organisms on Earth live perfectly fine without “brains”.
Mitochondria cannot create electric currents.