Life Beyond Us, page 65
part #1 of European Astrobiology Institute Presents Series
However, even this is not the pinnacle of symbiont communication skills. The imaginary throne belongs to fungi. The fruiting bodies, so familiar as mushrooms, are just short-lived, above-ground protrusions of fungi, intended for spreading spores. The real fungus is a tangle of fibers residing underground called mycelium. Mycelia themselves do not live in isolation. They usually establish close symbiotic relationships with plants: mycorrhiza. Various types of mycorrhizae range from covering the root tip and ingrowing between its cells, to directly penetrating them and forming specialized cellular compartments. However, they all have in common that the plant supplies the fungus with energy-rich sugars produced in photosynthesis in exchange for water and minerals from the soil.
It is clear that fungi and plants had to establish communication channels between each other. More remarkable, however, is that mycelia usually connect many trees, shrubs, herbs, microbes, and fungal individuals1. They can grow for miles, and some of them are probably the oldest and largest living organisms on Earth. At the same time, they distribute water, minerals, and sugars among different individuals. In addition, this “wood wide web” transmits signaling molecules produced by plants under attack to warn others against parasites or herbivores. While it would be tempting to see an interconnected forest ecosystem as one big family where everyone helps each other, we should not forget the fickle nature of symbioses. Under certain conditions, plants tend to force their nutrients on fungi and take whatever minerals they want. Conversely, many fungi have become parasitic in their evolution. We therefore encounter harmonious coexistence in the forest ecosystem, but it is a hard-won and constantly negotiated harmony.
Truly bizarre are discoveries suggesting that fungal fibers transmit information not only on a chemical but also on an electromagnetic basis. Specifically, the individual fibers generate and transmit electrical pulses. The characteristics of these pulses vary from species to species, but their duration is usually measured in hours and intensity in millivolts. Spikes of electrical activity follow each other in series and their distribution is highly non-random. They are remarkably similar to the electrical activity of nerve cells in animal brains. Of course, based on this similarity alone, we cannot claim that fungal mycelia think. The similarities can only be superficial. However, various evidence suggests that this may not be the case. The characteristics of spikes and trains of spikes change in response to chemical, optical, and mechanical stimulation. In addition, they play a role in the interaction with the plant root.
Recently, linguistic studies analyzing the complexity of the electrical activity of mycelia and comparing it with texts in Indo-European languages have gained attention. Their results showed that the electrical activity of fungi even exceeds human languages in several aspects of complexity. Fungi can use up to fifty different “words,” i.e., typical series of spikes, and their length distribution is similar to human languages. Studied species differ in the characteristics of their electrical activity, but it seems that they could transmit a comparable amount of information. It is difficult to say whether we can talk about language or languages of fungi based on these findings. After all, we also do not describe the activity of nerve cells in the brain in linguistic terms. However, it is very likely that, in addition to the transfer of nutrients, fungal fibers also serve to transmit a considerable amount of information.
Can this help us in the search for alien life-forms? Surprisingly, yes! If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence (or any other intelligence unknown to us), the basic problem will be mutual understanding. That is the same problem organisms encounter in the initial stages of symbiosis. A number of disciplines, from information theory to linguistics, deal with the difficulties of communication. However, try to decipher and translate, for example, one of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions. Although you will ideally identify individual symbols and be able to roughly assign them an English word or phrase, you will often miss the meaning of the whole message. That is because the key aspect of communication is mutual understanding, which results from sharing the meaning of individual signs (e.g., words).
This is the focus of semiotics, or biosemiotics. Many biosemioticians would argue that establishing and interpreting the meaning of individual signals, as well as creating adequate responses to them, are among the most basic aspects of being an organism. This includes their symbioses with other organisms.
At the same time, symbioses probably have their own biosemiotic rules. It is not surprising that closely related organisms “understand” each other’s signals better than distantly related ones. However, studies show that the meaning of certain signs—such as hormones or proteins regulating development—remains very conservative for a long time after separation from a common ancestor. For example, the Pax6 gene, or rather its protein product, regulates the formation of eyes in almost all bilaterally symmetrical animals. If we switch Pax6 of fruit fly with Pax6 of mice, it works almost identically and leads to the formation of a fully functional insect eye: all despite fundamental differences in the structure of fly’s and mouse’s eyes, as well as hundreds of millions of years of separation from their common ancestor.
All these findings have a common denominator. The meaning depends on the context. The closer the contexts of two different sides—for example, language speakers or species—the greater the understanding between them. However, symbioses show that understanding can also be built. This may not be easy. There must be a willingness on both sides to sacrifice something for the joint venture. Nevertheless, evolution on our planet shows that joining into this effort through symbiosis is one of the few ways to create something genuinely new. We have no reason to doubt it will be the same elsewhere in the universe.
FURTHER READING
Adamatzky, A. (2022). “Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity.” Royal Society Open Science, 9(4), 211926.
Markoš, A., & Švorcová, J. (2019). Epigenetic processes and the evolution of life. CRC Press.
Schmidt, T. S., Raes, J., & Bork, P. (2018). “The human gut microbiome: from association to modulation.” Cell, 172(6), 1198-1215.
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1 Editor’s note: Looking back at previous stories, can you imagine Ondrej Bohatý from “Defective” talking to the ecosystem in “Forever the Forest”? Many stories converged on the strife for communication, and sometimes the hard-won understanding, so crucial for our hopes of ever making contact with life beyond us.
Afterword I
Forming A Bridge
Wolf D. Geppert
Astrobiology and its related scientific issues have always fascinated writers and artists. The questions the field deals with—How did life originate on Earth? and Is there life on other celestial bodies?—as well as the technological challenges and opportunities of space exploration, including those of missions searching for life elsewhere, have always captured human imagination.
This did not just begin with the Godfather of Science Fiction, Jules Verne. Earlier authors like Cyrano de Bergerac and philosophers such as Emanuel Swedenborg let their fantasy have a go at the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Many Greek philosophers like Democritus and Epicurus as well as Renaissance thinkers like Giordano Bruno also deemed it very likely that other planetary bodies would be inhabited.
Modern space research in the 20th century somewhat dampened the hopes of hitting upon life elsewhere in our solar system, but that neither deterred scientists from looking for traces and tracers of such life, nor did it quench the dreams of science fiction authors. Many subjects that capture the interest of scientists and the imagination of writers and artists are covered in the present anthology: the possibility of life on Mars and Venus, exploration of space by robots, the search for life on other planets, or life in extreme environments, to name just a few.
Science fiction is a great way to encourage people’s interest in science—even those whose relationship with natural sciences and mathematics has been difficult. It has the potential to reach a wide sweep of audiences. However, there is one problem: the boundary between science and fiction is not completely clear for all readers—and taking fictional statements as facts can lead to misconceptions.
Therefore, anthologies like Life Beyond Us are very important. They offer the reader exciting and fascinating reading, but also illuminate concepts through authoritative essays covering the scientific background of the story. So, people get both—entertainment and scientific facts.
Moreover, science fiction can form a bridge between scientists and creative writers and artists. Relationships between these groups have not always been cordial; some scientists have frowned over the allegedly excessive fantasies of science fiction authors, while some writers and artists have mocked the dry style in which exciting new findings are presented by scientists. Increased cooperation between these two groups could benefit both—and most of all, benefit the scientifically-interested public. For instance, consider scientists, like Fred Hoyle, who count science fiction novels amongst their works.
Ultimately, science fiction needs a sound basis in science. Due to the vastness of the field of astrobiology and the multitude of scientific questions associated with the search for extraterrestrial life, national and local research communities alone will often be unable to muster the expertise to perform ground-breaking research in the area. This is something we hope the new European Astrobiology Institute (EAI) can achieve.
Life Beyond Us is the second anthology published since the inception of the EAI. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to the EAI Project Team “Science Fiction” and especially to Team Coordinator, Julie Nekola Nováková, who pulled off this project. Many thanks also to the publisher, co-editors, and authors of the different entries in the anthology—they ensured we included a wide and versatile collection of essays and stories. Last but not least, I want to thank all the backers of the crowdfunding project—without their generosity the publication of this anthology would not have been possible.
—Wolf D. Geppert, Chair of EAI, Stockholm, Sweden, 2023
Afterword II
Don’t Forget Earth
Lucas K. Law & Susan Forest
What do artificial limbs, scratch-resistant lenses, and insulin pumps have in common? All were developed because of technology originally pioneered for spaceflight. Add to that list: Lasik surgery, solar cells, water filtration, camera phones, CAT scans . . . and the list goes on and on. Space research has yielded unexpected advances in unlooked-for arenas—all applicable to our earthly lives.
A superficial survey of both current news headlines and life experience slaps us in the face with crises human life—and all life—on Earth is facing. The list is not pretty. Global warming and extreme weather conditions; habitat loss, pollution, and mass extinctions; food shortages; war, displacement, and civil unrest; lack of affordable housing, personal safety, and food and energy security; and poor access to basic health care and eldercare, all threaten some or all of us.
Could the field of astrobiology be used to meet some of these current and future crises? In our view: a cautious and optimistic . . . yes.
We may be doomed, as speculated in many science fiction stories, to face a more hostile world than the one we were born into. Yet over the past two years, the world has looked on in awe as, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s governments came together in an unprecedented single mindedness and unity of political will, to bring vaccines on stream in record time. In the mid-twentieth century, humanity transformed from a non-spacefaring world to landing a man on the Moon in only ten years.
We’ve proved it. If—when—all branches of society, from public and private sectors, and from different faculties and resources and expertise, work together, we can do anything we truly set our minds to, including solving the world’s most urgent problems.
There, of course, lies the rub: our will to set aside our petty desire for ego, profit, and greed. For our species to survive, people everywhere need to feed their own curiosity, devour science, and access the educational opportunities available to them. Teachers everywhere need to allow the wonder of science to blossom for their students. Policy makers everywhere need to incorporate science into curricula, encourage its programming on all media, and fund research initiatives.
And writers—and publishers—need to continue to engage their readerships with enticing fiction, essays, or articles based on accurate scientific underpinnings so people everywhere will be empowered to engage their government representatives to fight for the survival of the human species.
Life on Earth—the only life in the universe we are truly aware of—is precious. Once our species has used up the resources we need to survive and poisoned the world for our own use, Earth and its living organisms will continue. But from a human perspective, to preserve our own kind, action is needed now. If we don’t take care of life on Earth, if people are too busy dealing with one crisis after another or too burnt out to worry about tomorrow to have the capacity for creative and critical thinking, there will be fewer explorers and discoverers, dreamers and doers, space travellers, scientists, and researchers. Fewer options for survival and well-being.
So, take time when you step outside your door today. See the natural wonders beneath your feet, in the water, and in the air. Appreciate and respect the life on Earth. Maybe even look to the skies to discover a “life beyond us” from one of the stories or essays in this anthology.
—Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Calgary, Canada, 2023
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
JULIE NOVÁKOVÁ
The book you’re holding is a collective effort of over sixty people. All of them, and all the 691 backers on Kickstarter who enabled its existence in the first place, deserve thanks. I’m deeply grateful to my co-editors Lucas and Susan for giving the idea for Life Beyond Us a chance and embarking on such a massive and unusual (translation: commercially risky) project, and my colleagues from the European Astrobiology Institute for chiseling the idea and helping draft the whole project, writing some of the essays or finding the right person for a given topic, and spreading the word. Ultimately, I must thank all the people who inspired me and set me on my path: Writers, scientists and educators who lit the spark (Sagan, Grygar, Margulis, Dawkins, Zimmer, Clarke, Asimov, Lem . . . the list could go on and on) or steered me more directly. In the latter group, big thanks go to the Czech FameLab organizers, especially Dáša Sephton from the British Council and Jan Špulda from the Czech Centers (without them, I might never have gone to an astrobiology meeting in Sweden to later become part of the EAI from the very start), and to the people who gave me great inspiration at the Charles University (especially Jaroslav Flegr, Jelena Lenka Příplatová, Jan Votýpka and Daniel Frynta). We really are standing on the shoulders of giants.
LUCAS K. LAW
Many thanks go to Julie Nováková and Susan Forest for sharing the joy of co-editing, Jared D. Reid for his creativity and sharp attention to details in this anthology’s interior layout, Veronica Annis for her cover graphic design, and Dan O’Driscoll for the cover art. And thank you to my partner, Tim, for his patience, understanding, and encouragement. Finally, a huge thank you to European Astrobiology Institute, our backers, and the authors; without you, there is no “Life Beyond Us.”
SUSAN FOREST
Thank you to Julie Nováková and the European Astrobiology Institute for their confidence in me, and for the opportunity to team up again with the amazing Lucas Law of Laksa Media Groups on this inspiring anthology! I’d also like to thank the authors and artists for their gripping stories, insightful essays, and beautiful images, as well as our backers and all those who contributed to bringing out this classy book. Finally, and always, I’d like to thank my husband, Don, for his steadfast support.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Jacques Arnould was born a few days before Yuri Gagarin’s flight and nourished by the exploits of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He was nevertheless interested in Heaven through the path of theology. Since 2001, he is the ethics advisor of the French Space Agency (CNES). Charles Darwin, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Giordano Bruno are giants of thought on whose shoulders he seeks to see beyond space and time.
Eugen Bacon is an African Australian—her books Ivory’s Story, Danged Black Thing and Saving Shadows are finalists in the British Science Fiction Association Awards. Eugen is in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for “doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction.” She’s won or been commended in international awards including the World Fantasy Award, Foreword Indies, Bridport Prize, HWA Diversity Grant, Otherwise, Rhysling, Australian Shadows, Ditmar, and Nommo Awards for speculative fiction by Africans. Eugen’s creative work has appeared in Award Winning Australian Writing, Fantasy, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction. In 2022: Mage of Fools, Chasing Whispers and An Earnest Blackness. Website: eugenbacon.com / Twitter: @EugenBacon
William Bains is a biochemist exploring the chemistry of potential life on other worlds as well as how the chemistry of life on this world breaks down with disease and aging. He has affiliations with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cardiff University, and is co-founder of Five Alarm Bio, a start-up company developing drugs to treat the diseases and disabilities of aging. He is author on numerous papers on subjects as diverse as corporate law, cosmic life, drug chemistry and sewage treatment, and five books. He is a lifelong science fiction fan but has so far stuck with writing fact.
