Zach Lynch (who once served as an intern of the Institute), cc:'ed a copy of this letter which he sent to a list describing his bionomic interpretation of the living, breathing lifeform encoded in technological information. This lifeform, or as Zach calls it, a fungus, is made possible by the microprocessor. For the bionomic community, we understand what he was trying to get across, but the list may have thought he had a bit too much Bitter.

I too went to the Westwood Brewing Company on Monday and I must admit the John Wooden Bitter was mighty fine. I'd like to talk about Douglas Adams' meta-construction which is being created by humanity. He tried to describe it as living, however he was unable to reconcile the fact that it doesn't reproduce. I think if he viewed the system from a fungal perspective he might see a different analogy: I must warn you this a crazy thought.

The Fungus Among Us

As you read this text you are helping an entirely knew life system evolve. One which will be able to travel far beyond the limits imposed on biological organisms such as ourselves. With life spans thousands of times longer than its progenitors, these organisms will have the ability to explore far into the galaxy, possibly carrying ideas to worlds yet to evolve.

If this seems too far fetched, let's go 4.5 billion years into the past. To a time when a small yellow star on the fringe of a medium sized spiral galaxy radiated energy at a rock caught in its gravitational pull. Almost a billion years pass before certain bonds begin to form among atoms, allowing molecules to autocatalytically reproduce themselves. Soon hypercycles of recursive reactions reached a stability threshold in the form of what we now call RNA and DNA. Natural selection favored these energetically efficient structures because they could direct energy and matter so as to endure the rigors inflicted by a constantly changing environment. Another three billion passed before the Cambrian explosion unleashed body plans larger than one cell.

Hypothetically, if we were able to travel back 3.5 billion years and look into the pre-biotic soup which gave rise to the extraordinary complexity of life forms we would not believe it. But it did, and we and our lack of imagination are living proof of the future possibilities.

We might exist today at a very similar stage in cosmological evolution. Just 10,000 years has passed since our ancestors first created a vigorous information coding system robust enough to withstand both accidental and direct disturbances. Homo sapien sapien, doubly wise man, has begun to create a permanent information web, by using tools to invade and cultivate new areas for commodity production. The built environment which has resulted could be considered the pre-technologic soup of a new meta-lifeform.

Over the ten thousand years structures filled the landscapes of the world as more robust ideas and information coding systems allowed humans to live in new environments while simultaneously new physical and mental niches opened up for exploration. Our numbers increased as new wisdom was coded as knowledge, permitting places spatially and temporally very distant one another to communicate. We created structures allowing us to interact with each other more effectively, like horseless carriages and high bandwidth communication networks. In time, the feedback of energy and matter, directed by information, became tightly coupled. This stage could be considered roughly analogous to the initial stages of biological evolution.

Today, evolutionary programmers allow simple electronic programs to evolve complex behaviors. Who knows what the rapid interaction trillions of intelligent agents may bring in the coming years. The 21st century could witness the evolution of artificial intelligence's which could be placed in mechano-sensory devices, allowing them to explore and learn as beings.

Yes, this might be science fiction, but something along these lines could be occurring. Don't lose sight of a burning planet 4 billion years ago which gave rise to both the pixels in front of your eyes and the beer within my belly.

Is there a meta-construction, a fungus among us?