Scientifically-plausible alien telepathy
A caveat I will begin this question with is this: this system MUST be entirely organic. In fact it must be EVOLVED. Therefore Ghost in the Shell or Metal Gear-style nanocomms or cranial implants are a no-go, because they rely on man-made technology.
With that out of the way, here's my idea. We already know that a lot of mind-altering fungal spores exist on our planet already, including the infamous "zombie ant" fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. So let's say that on an alien planet a sauropod species evolved both intelligence as well as a symbiotic relationship with a certain kind of mind-altering fungal spore that grows on their outer dermis. Any organism that inhales these fungal spores is susceptible to their psychotropic effects, which manifest when the spores begin to settle and grow in the brain's neocortex, forming a sort of biological transceiver that is uniquely tuned to the saurupod species' brain waves. Using this fungus, these creatures develop language based around telepathic communication, and can communicate their thoughts across language and species gaps, as well as control the motor functions of organisms that have been infected by these fungal spores.
On a scale of one to ten, how plausible is this as a form of telepathy? Would it work on organisms like humans that come from outside their biosphere? Would the fungus die in an organism with reverse chirality to the fungus' own mycoproteins?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/47665. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
One evolutionary path is if the fungus communicated using EM signals.
Electrical synapses use electricity instead of chemicals to communicate with each other. This typically means that they have to be really close together.
But if the fungus began to develop stronger and more sensitive communication cells, then the distance between them could be larger; First basically touching, to a few nanometers apart, then a few millimeters, then a few centimeters, and so on until they developed a kind of long range mesh network.
Fungus colonies that are close together would pick up and re-transmit the signal, boosting it in the process.
The more fungus in one area, the larger the distance they can communicate, and if some new fungus moves into range of a signal, it would repeat it, extending the range further still.
As to if they would infect humans, that's really up to you. If the spores either have a coating that cause the bodies defense systems to ignore them, or maybe bypass the defense systems altogether, then why not. The spores could grow/travel along nerves until they reach the area that you want, which would cause the infected nerve paths to act as an antenna for the signal.
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