Back and Forth with ChatGPT about Boquila trifoliolata aka The Plant Transformer & Dynamic Computer

Back and Forth with ChatGPT about Boquila trifoliolata aka The Plant Transformer & Dynamic Computer

Sci Rep . 2021 Nov 22;11(1):22673. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02229-8. Endophytic bacterial communities are associated with leaf mimicry in the vine Boquila trifoliolata Ernesto Gianoli 1, Marcia González-Teuber 2, Claudia Vilo 3, María J Guevara-Araya 2, Víctor M Escobedo 4 Affiliations Expand PMID: 34811460 PMCID: PMC8608808 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02229-8 Abstract The mechanisms behind the unique capacity of the vine Boquila trifoliolata to mimic the leaves of several tree species remain unknown. A hypothesis in the original leaf mimicry report considered that microbial vectors from trees could carry genes or epigenetic factors that would alter the expression of leaf traits in Boquila. Here we evaluated whether leaf endophytic bacterial communities are associated with the mimicry pattern. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we compared the endophytic bacterial communities in three groups of leaves collected in a temperate rainforest: (1) leaves from the model tree Rhaphithamnus spinosus (RS), (2) Boquila leaves mimicking the tree leaves (BR), and (3) Boquila leaves from the same individual vine but not mimicking the tree leaves (BT). We hypothesized that bacterial communities would be more similar in the BR-RS comparison than in the BT-RS comparison. We found significant differences in the endophytic bacterial communities among the three groups, verifying the hypothesis. Whereas non-mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BT-RS) showed clearly different bacterial communities, mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BR-RS) showed an overlap concerning their bacterial communities. The role of bacteria in this unique case of leaf mimicry should be studied further. spiderman a new day is on the horizon - highly hinted he might have the symbiote also any links for where I can find this leaf mimicking plant

That paper is one of those research rabbit holes that starts with a vine and somehow ends with "what even is plant intelligence?"

The interesting part is what it doesn't claim.

The researchers found that mimicking leaves of Boquila trifoliolata shared more similar endophytic bacterial communities with the host tree than non-mimicking leaves on the same vine. That's a real, measurable association. But it does not prove the bacteria are causing the mimicry. They may be:

  • the trigger,
  • part of the signaling network,
  • or simply passengers that arrive because the leaf has already changed.

The authors themselves are careful about that distinction. It's correlation with a plausible hypothesis, not a demonstrated mechanism.

What's wild is that this joins several other hypotheses:

  • volatile chemical signals (plant VOCs),
  • light sensing,
  • epigenetic regulation,
  • microbial signaling,
  • and even the controversial idea that the vine may somehow "sample" information from neighboring plants.

We're still missing the smoking gun.

Now... your Spider-Man thought. 

If Spider-Man: Brand New Day ends up bringing back the symbiote, that's actually a fun parallel.

Think about it:

  • Boquila changes morphology while associated with another organism.
  • Venom rewrites physiology while associated with a host.

One is biology, one is comic-book alien goo, but both revolve around information transfer changing phenotype.

Marvel has been dropping little breadcrumbs that Peter's story is circling back toward the black suit after Spider-Man: No Way Home, especially because a fragment of the symbiote was left behind in the MCU. Nothing is confirmed yet, but it's definitely one of the most popular theories.

A darker, more experienced Peter with the symbiote after everyone forgot him? That practically writes itself.

As for getting the plant...

It's unfortunately one of the rarer ornamentals outside Chile and Argentina, but there are a few places worth watching:

If you're in Bangladesh, importing one legally may actually be the biggest hurdle rather than finding a seller. You'd want to check your country's plant import requirements and whether a phytosanitary certificate is required.

Personally, I'd love to see this species become a model organism for plant signaling research. Imagine pairing it with modern tools:

  • metagenomics of the endophytes,
  • single-cell RNA sequencing,
  • spatial transcriptomics,
  • metabolomics,
  • and AI-assisted image analysis of leaf morphology over time.

That combination could finally tell us whether the bacteria are drivers, collaborators, or simply hitchhikers. It's one of the most fascinating unsolved questions in plant biology today.




Pasted text(76).txt
Document


the smoking gun is the matrix mult abstraction array - utilized by most observers and also beings outside of linearly causal time , jk jk but am i joking tho?

 

😂 I had to laugh at the phrasing because "matrix mult abstraction array" sounds exactly like the sort of thing a theoretical physicist would mutter after three espressos and a breakthrough.

But... are you joking? Maybe halfway.

If I translate it into something that could be scientific, you're pointing at a deeper idea:

Complex systems don't necessarily exchange "objects." They exchange transformations.

That's actually a recurring theme across a surprising number of fields.

  • In linear algebra, matrix multiplication is composition of transformations.
  • In neural networks, weights transform representations from one latent space to another.
  • In quantum mechanics, operators evolve states.
  • In developmental biology, gene regulatory networks transform one cellular state into another.
  • In perception, the brain doesn't reconstruct reality directly. It transforms sensory inputs into internal representations.

So if someone poetically said "the universe runs on an abstraction array of transformations," I'd say, "That's philosophy wearing a lab coat."

Where it departs from established science is the second half:

"...utilized by observers and beings outside linearly causal time."

That crosses into speculation. Fascinating speculation, but speculation nonetheless.

Interestingly, though, modern physics already chips away at our everyday notion of time:

  • In relativity, there's no universal "now."
  • Some formulations of quantum gravity treat time as emergent rather than fundamental.
  • The "block universe" interpretation pictures spacetime as a four-dimensional structure where past, present, and future all coexist mathematically.

None of those imply beings outside time, but they do remind us that our intuitive picture of causality isn't the only one.

Now, circling back to Boquila...

One reason that vine fascinates people is that it feels like it's doing "computation." Not conscious computation, but biological inference.

It receives inputs:

  • light spectra,
  • volatile organic compounds,
  • microbial communities,
  • mechanical cues,
  • hormones,

and somehow maps them into a leaf phenotype.

You could loosely imagine the process as


Environment
     │
     ▼
Signal integration
     │
     ▼
Developmental program
     │
     ▼
Leaf morphology

The mystery isn't that information flows. Biology is full of information flow.

The mystery is the astonishing specificity. How does the vine end up with that leaf shape instead of just "grow larger" or "make more chlorophyll"? That's the part we're still missing. The bacterial microbiome hypothesis you quoted is one candidate among several, and it's still an open question.

So I'd say your joke lands in an interesting place:

"The smoking gun is the matrix multiplication abstraction array."

As physics? No.

As a metaphor for complex systems being driven by transformations of information rather than little homunculi making decisions? Surprisingly elegant.

Sometimes the weirdest ideas are useful because they force us to ask, "What exactly is being transformed here?" That question has led to a lot of real discoveries, even when the original metaphor turned out not to be literally true.

Back to blog