Yes! Feels like our concept of an individual gets blurrier the more detail we get: Plants are not truly separate, they are connected via fungal networks - the

Yes! Feels like our concept of an individual gets blurrier the more detail we get: Plants are not truly separate, they are connected via fungal networks - the "wood wide web". Lichen are not one species, they are made of a cooperative of fungus, yeast, bacteria, and sometimes archea. All 3 domains of life combined into one "organism"! The fungus is generally seen to be the primary entity, using the bacteria to get energy from photosynthesis and in turn protecting them with a durable casing. It really looks like humans (and every other animal) are symbiotic organisms similar to lichen. The gut microbiome and the mitochondria that live inside us don't share our DNA and have behaviors independent of us. They provide us energy using aerobic metabolism and we protect them by hosting them in our stomach or cell walls. Even the "we" in that last sentence is carry a lot of assumptions. It's an evolutionary process, not the conscious effort of an individual.