As a public service to advance how we all think together and make collective decisions, let's mush together two natural phenomena: leaf-cutter ants and mycelial networks. Then we'll add a dash of technology, with playlists. After that, we'll look up to see what potential this fungal concoction might have.
Leafcutter ants
As you'll see in this cool nature video, leafcutter ants can't digest leaves. So what are billions of them doing carrying leaf bits to their nests? In the nests, a specialized subset of those ants mulches the leaves with their saliva, then adds that mixture to feed a fungus that they tend symbiotically. The ants then feed off the fungus and the nectar it generates.
Leafcutter ants are also known as "farmer" ants, because they're "farming" the fungus.
What if, metaphorically, we were helping one another weave a shared context that was nutritious for civilization? A context that included Wikipedia, but went way beyond it?
Mycelia
The external Brain I've been curating for over 27 years feels like a mycelial Ur-network of concepts, beliefs, assertions, events, etc. Like mycelium, every now and then the organism sends up a fruiting body we call a mushroom, which humans can harvest and eat. Books, posts, podcasts, presentations, etc. are the fruiting bodies of the bigger network, but they are connected through the network.
Mycelia make amazingly useful metaphors.
Playlists
Presentations are just playlists built from nuggets.
Same goes for books.
We'd love it if you jumped in. There's a chance we can improve education, journalism, politics, science, publishing and more.
Perhaps consider The Big Fungus an antidote to the Information Superhighway metaphor we've loved to hate for so long.