I am completely in love with the mycorrhizal network. I like to describe it as an intelligent network that communicates with the relevant participants in the community it serves, understands the needs, and deploys resources where they are needed.
Here is the Wikipedia definition: Mycorrhizal networks (also known as common mycorrhizal networks, CMN, the “Wood Wide Web”[1]) are underground hyphal networks created by mycorrhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals. The formation of these networks is context dependent, and can be influenced by factors such as soil fertility, resource availability, host or myco-symbiont genotype, disturbance and seasonal variation.
Interdependent networks are how the natural world works. Everything feeds off another thing, one way or the other. Or, to put it more simply, one things’ poop is another’s pudding. The system is designed so there is no waste.
Humans used to live more interdependently until advances in the technological world gave us the illusion that we didn’t need others as much. Strip away the modern world and you have a large part of the world that no longer even knows how to feed itself.
Feeding oneself goes beyond finding nutrition for the body. It’s finding human connection, deep satisfaction and meaning in your life. It’s understanding the system you live in and how you fit into it.
From the simple act of borrowing something to the profound act of coming together to help a community member through a tragedy, we naturally gravitate towards working together to meet our needs.
It is when we are isolated from each other and don’t participate in the need/needed cycles that we find our levels of satisfaction with our lives decreasing.
Nature will teach us everything we need to know, if we just follow her lead. As below, so above. We can create our own intelligent network that grows to become almost intuitive in its ability to meet the needs of all within it.
I know that sounds like a pretty lofty goal for a web platform. It is not the platform that creates the system. The platform provides the tools for us to come together and create our own systems. Communities may use the tools differently and systems will evolve to meet different needs. We learn from each other, we rely on each other and we feed each other. What more can we ask of our world? http://www.growsoc.com to join our interconnected, vibrant network. Grow with us.
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