On classical and quantum error-correction in ciliate mate selection

Abstract

Ciliated protozoa sensing pheromones secreted from nonself mating types engage in preconjugal “courtship” dances and contacts. Using simulated “social” trials, I recently showed the heterotrich ciliate, Spirostomum ambiguum, can learn to advertise degrees of mating fitness to “suitors” and “rivals” when serially contracting or (ciliary) reversing at variable rates. Conspicuous consumers signal higher quality reproductive status by playing “harder-to-get” via metabolically wasteful avoidance displays that hinder the exchange of preconjugal touches between “courting” couples. Conversely, prudent savers conserve energy pending situations more favorable for conjugating a partner. These ciliates reply with lower avoidance frequencies, guaranteeing nearby conspecifics of being “easier-to-get”. By deciding to switch from behavioral strategies signaling conspicuous consumption to those signaling prudent savings, fitter ciliates learn to altruistically sacrifice net payoffs and persuade suitors to participate in paired reproduction. Less fit ciliates, unable to sustain long periods of high response rates, switch their behavioral strategies of prudent savings to briefly emit conspicuous consumption and thus learn to opportunistically cheat superior rivals. Mating competency depends, in part, on the efficiency of heuristics formed from recursive strategy searches and use. Heuristics represent stored patterns of action which evolve into ordered computational networks supporting entire courting repertoires. As ciliates expand signaling skills over many trials, the connectivity between strategies strengthens from Hebbian-like learning, leading to faster decisions about the appropriateness of courting messages and replies. The best experts master signaling decisions at efficiencies comparable to finding target solutions from superposed states with Grover’s quantum search algorithm. I here append these findings with a critique on the feasibility of serial behavioral strategies to perfect ciliate mate selection via classical repetition and quantum bit-flip error-correction codes that safeguard transmitted social information from noise and might be exploited for signal encryption.