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=== Go Ask A Mushroom === 

Musings on Afterculture

By Natalia Borissova

==="..We are born from fungi. 600 million years ago.." Paul Stamets"===

What possible intelligent natural systems can we look to for inspiration and guidelines in the patterning of our human living environments, and for sketching out a kind of positive vision for the approaching Afterculture. How can we innovate more naturally? Assuming that humans are not the only intelligent organisms on this planet, I would try to look into "plant intelligence" in relation to resilient life after culture. Granted, there’s nothing new in assigning to the "mushroom" the role of multifunctional "World's healer", nor in trying to  engage this intelligent organism in remediation of the culture and turn everything into magic mushroom, but still – when talking about collaborations, culture and life, we can’t overlook the lowly mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus).

===Spawning the resilium===

In mycoforestry and mycogardening mycelium links all the elements of the system together. It unlocks nutrient sources stored in plants and other organisms, converts rocks and organic debris into food for other species, redistributes nutrients to wherever they are most needed, builds the soil and maintains ecosystem diversity. It does cardinal, life-enhancing work on a grassroots and in constant dialogue with its environment. Human intervention damages wild nature, artificial fertilizers cause mycelia to retreat and the soil to lose its vibrancy. But mycelial networks are resilient. They survive catastrophes and able to re-grow. They remediate poisoned land, decompose toxic wastes and radioactive pollutants. 

Idea: If the fungi can thrive even on gifts, can not we engage them in remediation of a society poisoned by relentless abuse of power and mycofiltrate our contemporary culture polluted by artificiality, commercialism, mercantillism, egoism, fetishism, conformism, biological racism bureaucracy, competition, kitsch, trends etc as well as to control populations of "dead" objects, "fed" projects, curators, collectors, directors, managers, provocateurs and cultural animators, hm? In my opinion, one of the most significant problems with contemporary culture is that it tends to focus on the "objects" themselves, surface appearance and pragmatic formal constructs rather than mutually interconnected system solutions (that save resources, energy, labor) and what is most important - the relationships and how we treat each other - that what creates a whole. These relationships are what turn a collection of unrelated "objects" into a functioning system, whether it’s a garden, cultural community, or an ecosystem. 

So, what if we inoculate culture with a mycorrhizal "fungi" to generally enhance the health of it's environment, that as soon the conditions are right, a multifarious fruits will rise up 'poisoning' the world with beauty, opening minds, seeding other mycelia, and growing into fresh territories? When the mycelium exhausts the food sources in one area it expands outward in a circular fashion and the fungus cannibalizes the inner mycelium. It extracts whatever nutrients it can get from there and moves them to the outer, growing regions. Whatever cannot be recycled is shut off from the growing region and allowed to decay. May be it's time for the culture to cannibalize the inner of decaying itself, extract whatever nutrients left and redistribute them according to the true needs?

By analogy with mycelia a "resilium" could be compared with a resilient organism which spreads out widely through time and space, popping up in the most unexpected places to spark joyful illuminations. It adsorbs complex reality upside down, digests it externally by relishing enzymes of curiosity, amazement, inventively, and non-discriminative knowledge and makes it available for other organisms to feast on. Btw, this method of enzyme releasing into the surroundings and providing food for the others is natural way of resilium's feeding. When enough nutrients are collected in it's network fruiting bodies emerge – flotilla feasts, mountain bear missions, remote sensing flight operations, shroomshops, augmented harvests and many other unique happenings. These materialisations respond to prevailing conditions and circumstances, and can be repeated in various forms as other creatures from all walks of life can join in. The vaster the resilium, the more extravagant the “fruiting bodies” arise from the fertile undergrowth. When they die down, mycelium, the essential part of the organism, is still alive. And it is not a static object. It growths random in response to chemical signals of other members of the ecosystem.  

===From mono no poly===

What layout or design of our environment could be called "nature-logical"? I assume that it is one that is "open" and links many possible components and organisms into one heterogeneous kingdom of useful relationships and mutually beneficial connections among microbes, fungi, plants, insects, birds, mammals, and all the other inhabitants of our world, including human species. Each individual organism has multiple roles and interconnected within the system, edges are optimised and resources reused. Problems, limitations and mistakes are embraced creatively, and the environment thrives. There is no need to impose connections from the outside, as each of the ecosystem’s parts is self-organising. The design of this self-sustaining ecosystem differs from the formal, monocultural approach, where the parts are mostly disconnected from each other and serve just one single purpose. 
Hopfully human domination and the "mono" attitude gradually will give up in favor of rotations and symbiotic communities in favor of constructs used for pragmatic convenience as in fact "we are composites..We are these large mosaics of microbes."

What might happen to us?