Is the earth intelligent, or is this something else?

A group of researchers have posed a fascinating — and downright mind bending — thought experiment: If a planet like Earth can be “alive,” can it also have a mind of its own? So – Is the earth intelligent, or is this something else? Maybe we should ask, how can there be an intelligent earth? For that matter, who says the earth is even alive? Or have we changed the meaning of alive?

The opening line is from an article in Futurism, titled Astrobiologists Suggest the Earth Itself May Be an Intelligent Entity.

Where does this idea come from?

The researchers point to evidence that underground networks of fungi can communicate to suggest that large-scale networks of life could form a vast invisible intelligence that profoundly alters the condition of the entire planet.

So we go from fungi that can “communicate” to vast invisible intelligence. And somehow, then there’s a leap to something that profoundly alters the condition of the entire planet.

Exciting stuff. And yet, it does challenge our intelligence, doesn’t it? Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if the goal of some scientists isn’t to essentially prove that we humans are pretty unintelligent.

But it doesn’t stop there.