Collective Creativity and Survival Algorithms of Bacteria*

We are constructing physical puzzles using nano and microfabrication that the bacteria must solve to access food, but we are making the puzzles so computationally complex that only a very small percentage of the bacteria, if they use the normal biased random chemoattractive algorithm and if they do not collectively share information on where food is, will survive. We ask this fundamental question: do the bacteria collaborate to come up with clever solutions to the puzzles we pose and find food in the puzzle by sharing information? If they do, and we think they do based on our early experiments, then there are signs of creativity at a very simple level of life, and this would point to a collective creativity.