Yeah, I don't think the term intelligence helps define the novel behavior of fungus in this article. The better way to describe their behavior is adaptive. Fungus adapt in a way that's more like a resilient network than as a conscious being or organism. And that's really something we ought to focus on especially when it comes to engineering them for better use cases. I've seen one case of fungus being used for making insulation bricks for houses (non-load bearing) and it looks quite impressive considering it's cheaper and biodegradable.
> I don't think the term intelligence helps define the novel behavior of fungus in this article.
Maybe you are right, but I think humans are blind to any behavior that happens at a frequency either too low or too high.
If an organism responds too far out of our frequency band (on the order of hundreds of milliseconds), especially on the extreme low end, we seem unable to consider it 'intelligent' or even purposeful.
We barely even notice it and if any behaviour that unfolds over days seasons or even years.
It also doesn't help fungi that mycelial networks are almost all underground where they are literally invisible to us.
> The Elves do not imitate nature, they let nature do its magic and try to help it as best as they can. Allowing nature to solve a problem is extremely effective and efficient. The only downside is that it usually takes a lot of time - precisely the thing that the immortals have plenty of.
