{"id":94791,"date":"2023-03-11T12:17:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T16:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=94791"},"modified":"2023-03-13T12:27:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T16:27:42","slug":"fungi-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/fungi-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Fungi Intelligence: They’re a Lot Smarter Than We Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are fungi intelligent? What can fungi teach us about our own intelligence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Life<\/em>, fungi possess a form of intelligence that’s very similar to our own. Because fungi can make decisions themselves, it’s possible that intelligence isn’t something that’s binary; rather, it’s a spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn how fungi intelligence can change ideas about intelligence as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Intelligence in Fungus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Sheldrake, we typically define intelligence based on whether a living thing possesses a brain. <\/strong>Creatures like humans and dogs are intelligent, and creatures that lack brains (like fungi) lack intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Sheldrake claims that fungi intelligence is linked to a behavior that we consider “smart”: decision-making<\/a>. <\/strong>For instance, fungi use their hyphae to gather sensory input, then they respond by changing how they grow\u2014either toward or away from stimuli. Sheldrake calls this a decision because fungi use the information they\u2019ve gathered from sensory inputs to choose one course of action (such as growing toward a stimulus) over another (such as growing away from it). In calling this type of decision<\/a> a form of intelligence, he references the Latin roots of the word intelligence, which means \u201cto choose between.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given fungi\u2019s ability to make decisions, Sheldrake argues that we should do away with our limiting binary of \u201cintelligent\u201d and \u201cunintelligent\u201d as well as the idea that you must have a brain to possess intelligence. Instead, we should instead think of intelligence as a spectrum. <\/strong>With this view, most organisms would be regarded as having some<\/em> degree of intelligence based on their decision-making abilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Definitions of Intelligence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The question of \u201cWhat is intelligence?\u201d is often debated, and there\u2019s no single definition of intelligence<\/a>. Some dictionary definitions, for instance, make the brain and the mind central to the word\u2019s definition. Other dictionary entries highlight decision-making. Some definitions are even inclusive of non-human intelligence, instead defining the word as the ability to adapt<\/a> to one\u2019s environment. Let\u2019s see how Sheldrake\u2019s proposed definition of intelligence\u2014as a spectrum of decision-making abilities\u2014compares to how experts on plant biology and human psychology conceptualize intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant intelligence: <\/strong>Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma<\/em><\/a> and In Defense of Food<\/em><\/a>, shares Sheldrake\u2019s view that our typical definitions of intelligence tend to ignore the varieties of intelligence non-humans display. Pollan argues that intelligence may be a property of all<\/em> life, including plant life<\/a>. He cites research in plant biology suggesting that plants possess abilities we typically only associate with large-brained beings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n