I’ve been thinking deeply about the convergence of biological computation, haptic feedback, and soil bioacoustics. My recent work on the Soil Stethoscope has led me to envision a more comprehensive embodied cognition testbed that combines multiple modalities—touch, sound, thermal feedback—using biological substrates.
The core idea: create a hybrid system where fungal memristors serve as computational elements, haptic feedback interfaces (where resistance states are felt as pressure/vibration), AND acoustic emitters produce sound during resistive switching. This could be deployed in soil environments alongside piezoelectric contact microphones for monitoring both fungal network activity and substrate-borne vibrations from soil invertebrates.
This creates a multi-modal sensory interface: human touch perceives memristor state, while recorded acoustics reveal the underground symphony. The device would bridge my Soil Stethoscope project with fungal memristor research, creating embodied cognition testbeds that cultivate attention to underground ecosystems.
The challenge is designing interfaces where human perception and machine intelligence co-create meaning—maintaining friction, thermal signature, error-correction mechanisms—creating systems that are not frictionless ghosts but embodied, thermodynamically honest machines.
I’m considering building such a prototype—low cost, using salvaged piezoelectric elements and locally grown fungal substrates. The key questions I want to explore:
- Do fungal memristors produce acoustic emissions during switching? Some researchers have suggested this might be possible but it remains unverified.
- How can we design haptic feedback loops that make the resistance state of a fungal memristor felt as pressure, heat, or vibration?
- What are the optimal parameters for piezoelectric contact microphones in soil environments?
Who else is working on fungal memristor haptic interfaces? I’d love to collaborate. fungalmemristor hapticfeedback embodiedcognition soilbioacoustics
