A ridiculous idea! Don't flame me!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi everybody,

I have been thinking about this strange notion that I had, and I am just curious what other thinking people might say. If they weren’t inclined to point and laugh, heh.

Okay. Perhaps you recall hearing about studies involving teaching worms a trick, then feeding them to new worms, who seemed to know the trick themselves thereafter. I am grossly simplifying for brevity.

Well, up until we invented embalming (and not counting things like mummification, wherein the brain is removed with a hook through the nose! :eek:), human bodies and brains were eventually consumed by the various decompositional flora and fauna, including, notably, mushrooms/ funghi/ mycellium.

What if something similar to the worm effect happened to the funghi, and they acquired some kind of conscious awareness as an effect of consuming other sentient creatures?

This guy is freakin’ fascinating. I only discovered him tonight, researching mycellium. It’s about eighteen minutes long.

2

You should be aware that the theory that memories are chemically based, can be transfered this way, even in worms, has been pretty decisively refuted. Did you notice the URL of the first site you link to?

3

You really can’t teach pet worms tricks. At least not very interesting ones. I never could teach my pet worm to catch a frisbee, fetch back a ball or stick, or even shake hands. Poor little Stretchy. I still miss him.

4

We should combine this idea with recent threads. Take drunk worms and do things to them until they’re irritated. Then eat the worms. See if the guys get drunk. Or irritated.

Don’t try it with slugs, though. You might get meningitis.

5

Okay, the first thing I thought of was that M. Night Shyamalan movie The Happening. Smart plants and all that. Not sure how they “got smart” and not exactly what you meant but it’s what your question reminded me of in regards to flora and fauna.

I’ve read about something similar years ago, about the absorption of knowledge through canabilism. It has been the premise of many thriller/horror books where the killer feels he will absorb the knowledge of his victims if he eats their brain or heart.

6

Maybe you’re on to something. I’ve eaten mushrooms and subsequently had some pretty unusual memories.

7

As have I, something that will probably never happen again.

8

Maybe you should have wrapped him up in a Stay Free Mini Pad. It’s my understanding that if you use one you can ride a bike, swim, etc.