The Technological Embryogenesis of the Biosphere and Cyborg Earth

The Humongous Fungus is a specimen from Armillaria Ostoyae. It has been crowned the world’s biggest single organism. Although it has honey mushrooms on the surface, its mass is largely derived from a vast mycelial web of filamentous tendrils that lies below ground. It covers more than 2,000 acres and weighs 30,000 tons. But I’d argue that Humongous Fugu is a microcosm of what I call Cyborg Earth, the true world’s largest organism. What is Cyborg Earth? Eastern religions suggest that all life forms are fundamentally connected. Cyborg Earth is an extension of the concept.

Biological life is thriving all over the world. Every second, quintillions and quintillions biomolecular calculations are performed. This is what powers all life. Mycoplasma bacteria. Leafcutter ant communities. The Humongous Fungus. Beagles are beloved dogs. Seasonal influenza viruses. Parasitic roundworms. Families of Canadian Elk. Vast blooms cyanobacteria. Humanity. Complexity arises out of simplicity, which in turn is a result of the quantum mechanical laws that lie beneath the molecular level.

All organisms rearrange atoms differently. Termites, beavers and other organisms rearrange more atoms. Humans have learned to communicate with atoms in a more complex way as they progressed through the stages of human evolution, from the paleolithic age to metalwork, industrialization, space age, the information revolution and artificial intelligence. We are the actors of an opera, subroutines in evolution, interwoven patterns and an epic chemistry.

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Cyborg Earth and the Technological Embryogenesis of the Biosphere