[TeMPOraL]

I'm just thinking in terms of energy expenditure on the margin. Humans need more energy to sustain themselves, but for a given cognitive task, I imagine they need to expend less energy than slime mold - being able to solve problems by gathering photons and sending electrons down a maze is much more energy-efficient than having to move or grow your body, made of matter, to solve the same problem by touch alone.

[digging]

That's fair and may. I don't know what the caloric needs of a slime mold are. But this is completely off topic, tbh. The point is that they solve problems in a way that is alien to us, and alien intelligence is interesting. I may have given a poor explanation before, but efficiency is not the important part.