THE SUPERORGANISM by Erik Davis

EXOBIOLOGICAL FIELD REPORT, S23.3 “EARTH”

The following report was transmitted on 0005.34.58 by exobiological field team 2N4a after investigating S23.3, a minor though dynamically compelling Goldilox planet in the Lamer quadrant. NOTE: The centuries have not been kind to the data bricks upon which this was initially logged, however, and there was much degradation of the signal, but given the obscurity of this record, I hardly see it matters.  – Scribal Unit J-Z

After centuries of an unusually toxic and rapacious pattern of D Class industrial development, the Earth’s planetary system had become, as predicted, severely degraded. The dramatic initial stages of a Greer-N catalytic postindustrial collapse led to the multiplication of zones of extreme and corrosive hydrocarbon

toxicity amidst general eco-system collapse. Metastasizing hominid urban arcologies exploded as an increasingly separatist power elite colonized rapidly dwindling resources. Our work largely consisted of taking readings and monitoring the planet’s metastasized media flows, which by this point had paralyzed large portions of the human population with psycho-narcissistic feedback loops.

We learned that a small but elite body of ecological systems scientists had convinced the leaders of a few of the remaining nation-states to deploy a massive and intensive array of bioremediation techniques using a host of genetically-engineered fungi. These techniques relied on a variety of newly-designed mushroom mycelium networks to break down hydrocarbons and other toxic bonds while restoring ecosystemic diversity. Despite the resistance of many states and elite enclaves, citizen science groups, as well as a growing number of religious mycophiles, began a massive and insurrectionary campaign of global inoculation.

Large numbers of mushroom species were utilized, leading to unexpected network effects. These species were swapping genetic material at intensive rates, which sparked an explosion of mutations and morphodynamic developments that triggered an organic singularity. The mycelial networks cloaked much of the earth’s surface and essentially embodied the planetary eco-system,  eco-systemwise interaction, as the mycelial networks triggered a Phase 2 Maturananda organic matrix integration resulted. Not only had the mycelial networks covered the planetary surface, but they began to symbiotically absorb increasingly large swaths of organisms into their webwork.

Studying the rapid development of new mushroom species, myco-pharmacologists noticed that high concentrations of novel tryptamines were clustering in some of the mushrooms along with a number of medicinal compounds that helped ease the process of inter-species symbiosis. These hallucinogenic compounds were immediately and intensively assayed by networks of scientific pantheists, who immediately recognized that the psychotropic compounds forged what we would recognize as a Q-McKenna telepathic link with the emerging superorganism.  

Another notable development that was set in motion by the organic singularity was AHD23: an air-borne virus that exploited networks of global travel and sexual trades to create a pandemic. Within half a generation, as the population of earth dwindled perilously low, some humans opted to merge with the Superorganism, which wove their bodies into a collective and effectively immortal patchwork of planetary multi-phase interaction. Individual hominid identity was maintained only in the a Consciousness matrix sustained by the continual metabolism of psychotropic compounds.

Unfortunately, systematic feedback loops also insured that the mushrooms that produced the psychotropic compounds, and that had triggered the Superorganism in the first place, themselves began to die. Human consciousness, depending on these psychotropic flows, began to devolve, as it strove to maintain its autopoiesis through substitute hallucinogens. Ironically, however, the Superorganism had adapted the human form for a wide variety of purposes as it extended its carnal webwork of animated biomatter. Over time, the network sophistication that had characterized the first stage of the Superorganism’s integrated singularity itself began to give way to entropy, leading to increasingly low-dimensional stages of reduced complexity and chaotic morphodynamics. Harmony became fusion. Human consciousness, by this point, was thoroughly dissolved.