You are logged into the Network of Networks — the perpetual universal engine for the creation of ever-evolving interoperable systems in which the “Will to Network” appears to be embedded into the very code of all life that from it springs.
In the Universe, the yearning for connectivity and evolution is expressed everywhere one looks attentively enough, and both micro and macro dimensions reveal networks that seem to naturally and incessantly self-refine towards maximum efficiency, resiliency and prosperity.
From the Universal smartweb of Life, to the smartweb of Humanity’s network operating system, and every other web in between, let’s explore the many and the one Network of Networks.
// Fungible Internet: Advanced Bio-Logical Interoperability in the Woods Wide Web
Most plants are equipped with a simple, perfume-based communication and defense system.
Plants, essentially, synthesize and release specific volatile chemical compounds depending on the exact response they wish to obtain from their environment (attract pollinators, repel pests, alert other plants of danger, etc).
But when plants are connected via their root system to the Woods Wide Web that fungi provide, their communication and interoperability becomes orders of magnitude more advanced!
// Thinking in Green
The field of plant communication is a fertile ground for scientific discoveries that leave humans speechless.
It’s not that plants have only recently started “talking”, it’s just that for a while humans were not really listening.
Once we did, we had to rethink “intelligence”, “consciousness” and even “internet”.
Today we know for a fact that plants are terrible runners — and thus they make up for that by being able to detect which exact insect is attacking them by analyzing its saliva, and then synthesize and release the specific chemical compound that attracts a natural predator for that bug?
*sprays* Airstrike! *sprays* I repeat, airstrike!
Plants — one could say — appear to be capable of introducing precise (biochemical) code into Nature’s operating system in order to obtain a desired output.
Fun Fact: Through their photoreceptors, plants can also detect their kin and grow their leaves and roots in directions that do not compete with their offspring.
That’s pretty sweet already, but it’s only a fraction of what plants can do without even being plugged to the fungi’s Woods Wide Web. Because that’s when magic happens!
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci
// Eco-System Operating Smartweb
The mushroom kingdom is fascinating.
Their morphology is closer to animals than to plants or bacteria, and they’re potentially the most widely and successfully distributed organism on Earth.
Their role in the wheel of Life is vital and foundational: They decompose and upcycle that which is old into the nourishment of that which is new.
But it’s the fungi’s networking and ecosystem-operating capabilities that are beyond extraordinary.
Fungi extend their fibers (mycorrhizae) across the Earth’s underground, connecting the roots of every plant in its reach to form a densely interconnected network.
Fun Fact: In just 1g of typical forest soil, there are ~200m of mycorrhizal fibers!
More than simply installing a physical network, fungi provide the “operating system” that allows bacteria and plants to interoperate, trade and thrive!
Thus, it’s through the interface that fungi provide that plants can talk to bacteria and request them to render available the exact essential blocks required for vegetative life (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, etc).
In turn, plants offer both bacteria and fungi that which only our green allies know how to photosynthesize: delicious carbohydrates ( #sugar) to power-up the whole network.
Quite the economy! Now, let’s have a look at plant-to-plant (P2P) communication in the Woods Wide Web.
“If you are a plant, having singular, concentrated organs is not an advantage.
Animals concentrate specific functions inside specific organs. A plant has a modular design, so it can lose up to ninety per cent of its body without being killed.
But not having the organ doesn’t mean not having the function!
Plants are able to see without “eyes”. They are able to hear without “ears”. They are able to taste, and to smell, to breathe, and to think without the localized organs.” — Stefano Mancuso
// Fungi-Assisted Communication
When a plant is connected to the Woods Wide Web its reality is augmented.
Once online, plants become capable of sharing resources (e.g. nutrients and data) with other neighboring plants in smart new ways.
For instance, we know that younger and weaker plants are always assisted by the larger, healthier ones.
By feeding plants a traceable, radioactive form of carbon, researchers are able to literally see and measure the movement of this critical plant nutrient.
Essentially, if only a large “mother tree” is given the traceable carbon isotope (through a leaf), and one hour later a large amount of this radioactive carbon is detected on a neighboring plant, then a deliberate P2P transference occurred.
Consistently, data shows that nutrients are always transferred from healthy or “mother plants” to less vigorous ones — and never the other way around.
Using the fungal smartweb, mother trees are even able to increase the chances of survival of their seedlings by 4x!
It’s clear that plants prioritize their direct offspring, and send them more resources than to plants of a different kin or species. How familiar is that?
We are only now scratching the surface of plant and fungi communication, intelligence and consciousness.
Just a couple of decades ago, today’s top researchers could rarely even obtain funding for their nonsensical inquiries.
Today, the role of mycorrhizal networks — the Woods Wide Web — is central in forest science and Biology as a whole, and we know that it’s almost exclusively due to this fungal network operating system that colossal forests can even interoperate into such thriving bio-economies.
And chances are the next time you go for a hike in a forest, or have a look at your desktop plant partner, will be radically different experiences.
consciousness (n) — “the state of being aware of and responsive to one’s surroundings”; “the ability to model one’s position in space in relation to other organisms, and to time.”
// The Human Smartweb
A species’ networking and operating capabilities are its primary technological foundations on which the depth and rate of its progress depend almost entirely.
Ask any plant! ☻
Through the right lens, looking at Elastos and the Cyber Republic reveals something profoundly familiar, yet so novel. Radically novel!
radical (n) — from Latin ‘radix’, ‘root’
Elastos is the Human expression of this universal “Will to Network”. It’s the “Web” — done smart, open, free, decentralized and fair by design.
It’s true Web3: Elastos addresses the very root of Human communication and interoperability — the Internet, and how humans and devices interact with it.
Today, Elastos is the most cutting-edge, critical and foundational technological artifact of all — and it’s the only one that’s capable of carrying and linking all the siloed blockchains and techno-systems of the world, to unlock a completely new interoperability paradigm.
artifact (n) — from Latin “arte” (product of Human creation) + “factum” (to make)
// About the Author
I am an artifact maker, and I have been fascinated by the Network of Networks and by the smartwebs and operating systems of Life for as long as I can remember.
I am fascinated by how certain entheogenic tools [breathwork, plants and fungi, meditation, etc] allow the user to log-in to their own mind as root.
Standing on the shoulders of giants, I have been researching the Human Mind OS for the past 15 years, expanding upon the “8-Circuit Model of Human Consciousness” [Leary; Wilson].
I express my views and feelings on all these things best through sound and light. I write, too.
I am a Free Agent, and I work freely on/for the things I love.
I sell some of my art as NFT to fund my work and my family.
I also gratefully accept donations, if you find my work valuable and wish to support it. Thank you!
» ELA: EQ5C8dcVquxmafSDYNZNAJDpJGPNQF3x1y
» BTC: bc1qjkdzgvp5w0nejvsl7qxh0ee3svl4hjea99lwev
» ETH: 0x6205693626cCF10C0d7bf4a6d47D99B56fa1dAf0
I use F/LOSS [free/libre open source software] in my work.
// Suggested Reading
- “Intelligence in Nature” — Jeremy Narby, PhD
- “Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence” — Stefano Mancuso, PhD
