Mycelium

I’ve been thinking about mushrooms and how amazing they are. Not in a magic mushroom kind of way, which is admittedly a very cool part of mushrooms. I was thinking of how the network works.

The fruiting body is just what we see with our eyes on the surface. What’s beneath is a vast network connected to trees, shrubs, plants you name it. It’s the largest organism network in the world.

Engineered in such a brilliant way to transfer information, resources and aid. Humans can learn a lot from this setup. It’s based on mutual benefit principles, has no hierarchy and if one part is cut off or stops working it doesn’t affect the system as a whole.

Trees of course are not consciously aware that they are all connected by this network, yet they all do their part. When a tree dies it sends the nutrients to trees that need it.

I’ve been on a journey to build a platform to connect people with resources, knowledge and skills and I’ve met thousands of others who were basically creating this network. It’s a movement and with enormous relief I am realizing that I am not alone. Just like a tree I wasn’t aware of this large network until I saw the fruits of peoples labor.

We already have a network - we just need to make the fruits more visible so we can see each other better. The mycelium will do what it’s always done: connect us, transfer resources where they’re needed, and make us resilient. We just have to stop pretending we’re separate trees in separate pots, and start acting like the forest we already are.