Spore
Spore is a 5-panel reflection on the transmission of life and consciousness through space. Silicon carbide molecules were discovered in the Murchison meteorite that are older than the sun itself. They would have travelled during aeons through interstellar space before being incorporated into the meteorite and finally arriving on earth in 1969. Carbon is the basic building block of organic life, while silicon is the base of currently emerging AI life. There were also organic compounds, sugars and fossils found in the meteorite, supporting the Panspermia paradigm, that life on earth is and has been in a constant interstellar dialogue.
Human consciousness emerged suddenly in evolutionary history and some suggest that this could have been due to interaction with psilocybin mushrooms. Fungal spores can also survive a very long time in space, especially when protected from ultraviolet light by rock. Maybe consciousness also arrived from space and maybe its evolution is the return. Whatever the speculation it seems possible that life exists throughout the Universe.
In 2018 Voyager 2, carrying the Golden Record, was the first transmitting spacecraft to cross the frontier of the solar system into deep space, extending human consciousness for the first time into these realms. It is estimated that this craft will outlast the earth itself. Leary suggested that space travel would activate the 4 extraterrestrial circuits of the brain, creating a new consciousness. However, spores and machines are much better equipped to travel through space than humans. Maybe it has more to do with consciousness; Leary also suggested that psilocybin activates the extraterrestrial circuits enabling interspecies communication and cosmic consciousness.
Spore calls for the awareness of the universe as a biosphere, a medium for life and consciousness, rather than the “new domain of warfare” (Mark Esper) that justified the creation of the US Space Force in 2019. The international Space Treaty of 1967 should be respected, especially it’s article 4 which specifically prohibits the militarization of space. Spores, not wars.
Pedro Soler, Enero 2020
Thanks to Sarah jane Pell for the provocation.
Update May 2021: Mushrooms on Mars? check out the paper here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351252619_Fungi_on_Mars_Evidence_of_Growth_and_Behavior_From_Sequential_Images