Paul: Most fungi have a symbiotic relationship with their host.
Kris: Meaning a cooperative relationship?
Paul: Yes, like plants get what they want from fungi and fungi get what they want from plants. But there are aggressively parasitic fungi too. Ones that can take over a body. There's a jungle fungus that rains its spores down on ants passing below. The spores fill the ants bodies up and they become zombie fungus ants.
Kris: No, you're making this up.
Paul: I tell you, fungus in ants clothing. But most of evolution is a mix of cooperation and competition. You find find both in Nature.
_________
Voice-over
Merlin Sheldrake describes the intelligence of fungi. Their hyphae are like a collaborative system, a social network, a web of interconnected "thinking".
No comments:
Post a Comment