Mycelium Studies

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Aihwa

Based on other creatures, both similar, and different, I cannot reasonably assume that what appears to be intelligence, is anything more than instinct.

For a different creature, lets take wolves. They're cunning group hunters, but are they really "intelligent"? No, they appear that way, but what they do just comes to them, they don't plot or scheme, They know what they need, and how to get it naturally.

They do not change their environments to suit them in any way. They don't innovate, they don't create. In fact, trying to communicate with it would be pointless in itself, why would a fungus need to communicate? Why would it need to develop thought patterns?

We've been over the animal intelligence stuff before.....

Aiwha you're sort of derailing the thread, but you are correct......even the largest fungi do not posses true sentience, they only mimic it through the effects they have on the environment. Everything they do is an instinct added to a catalogue of instincts compiled by thier ancestors and passed down through genetics. But, like I said, under the right conditions and with enough time, I do think that they could develop such traits.

As for animals, each Phylum has their own "animal intelligence" poster child/children. Mammals have Apes, Dolphins, and Wolves, Reptiles have Monitor lizards, Birds have African Grey Parrots and Ravens, Fish have Sharks, Groupers, and Cichlids, and so on......

None of these are sentient. Some get very very close, like apes and dolphins, but they do not possess it.

These facts have been accepted by the scientific community at large, so stop arguing about it. This is a thread about fungi. Maybe you should make a thread in debate if you want to pursue this further.....

ON TOPIC:


Anyway, here are some pictures of the carnivorous fungi:





These show two different types of traps working to capture prey; the first one uses the rings in the hyphae to "handcuff" nematode worms. After a worm triggers the trap, the cells in the ring expand, and the worm is caught. Then, feeding hyphae are extended into the worm's body, and it is consumed.

The second one appears to be more of a disorganized net that coils around soil invertebrates that wander too close.

And, here is a video of a different kind of fungus: