Generative Design

the incredible beauty of the sea sponge, weaving the rainbow of glass.

Closing line from a fascinating summary of the metabolic basis of sleep: “I’m often asked, ‘Do sponges sleep?’” said Abrams. “That’s a whole new world. There might be ways to test that.”

Sleep seems to be a conserved metabolic process. Even mammals differentiate their metabolism by sleep vs non sleep modes, growing (more cell division) during sleep cycles if I recall.

I wonder if it is a common conserved phenomenon, but with some subsumption in mammals by the cortex. Something similar happened with elements of the motor cortex (what used to be a reflex) coming under control of the frontal lobe.