How would an intelligent forest control and direct its animal minions?

The Wold (Forest) is one vast, interconnected, possibly digital mind. The mind is primarily built of one cloned individual of a single plant species, but there are over a dozen 'helper' sub-minds and hundreds of symbiotic plants, fungi and insects that play a vital role it its optimal functioning.

Now I'm undecided whether this vast network arose naturally, was built by 23rd century eco-fanatical AIs or by a human xenobiologist called Deidre Skye. I'm undecided whether it's a dark swamp or a bright and sprightly forest. I'm also undecided on the thinking speed: it could ponder things with Ent-like slowness or its thoughts could reverberate across the network in a millisecond.

Regardless, I've hit a limitation that I need Worldbuilder support to overcome. Since the Forest will always be threatened by various plants and animals, it requires mobile minions to enforce its will. Ideally, these would range in size from insects to massive beasts, but I'm open to more restrictive solutions too. Now how would a sentient forest control and direct such a host of animals?

Good answers would have:

• a signalling mechanism, perhaps allowing for relative speed;
• a way to use a subclass of minion to interact with the (as usual) hapless human POV character;
• a way to ensure minion obedience, perhaps to the point of self-sacrifice.

posted about 9 years ago

Serban Tanasa‭

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