04.04.2024

<aside> 🔖 A speculative research by Katharina Brutscher

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A lot of human technologies are already inspired by nature. So what if we could grow our own internet, using mushrooms to build our own “wood wide web”?

Mycelium is easy to grow, sustainable, and it grows back once its broken. Recent studies show its potential in fungal electronics, wich is already amazing, but I’d like us to think bigger:

We could have an internet that is resilient, self repairing, easily expandable to rural areas, accessible and based on bio material that is not just eco friendly: It actively enriches ecosystems, increases the fertility of soils, and plays an important role in co2 absorption by forrests (2).

Mycely-what?

Ok, quick term update for beginners: Mycelium is like the “roots”, mushrooms are the fruiting bodies and the whole family is called fungi. Ready? Here we go:

Mycelium is everywhere. It’s not just the biggest living organism that we know of, its part of so many systems in nature, some scientists believe life on earth would not be possible without them (3). Fungi break down stones into minerals, digest oil spills and plastic, provide medicine, food and even clothing. Without them the surface of the earth would be covered in organic material, slowly turning into oil and coal. No, thats not a cool thing.

If you take a look at the pictures below you might notice: the growth pattern of mycelium it is actually quite similar to the network we created for the internet. The strands (called hyphae) grow outwards, finding ways to new sources of food, getting thicker in the center.

(Mycelium in a petridish) (Map of the Internet)

Speaking of growth: If you take a small piece of living fungi and place it in the right environment, it will begin to grow again. Similarly, if you break up the substrate (the material the mycelium grows on), it will automatically reconnect its branches.

It goes into hibernation if its to dry or cold and just starts growing again once the circumstances are right. There are fungi adept to every climate, some like it hot, some cold, some thrive under pressure.

The internet is needy

Curently, the internet is accounted for about 10% of global energy use, and with the growing demand for data and online services this numbers will most definetly grow (4, 5).

And that is while a lot of rural areas still lack access to it (6, 7) which comes with it own questions about equality, access to information and the kind of society we want to live in.