Consensus Without a Center
Traditional democracy relies on centralized institutions to count votes and enforce decisions. Fungal Democracy relies on the network itself. In a mycelial network, there is no "brain" deciding where to grow. Instead, individual hyphae make local decisions based on resource availability and environmental stress.
These millions of local decisions aggregate into a global intelligence. If a food source is found, active transport channels are reinforced (positive feedback). If a path is barren, it is allowed to regress. The "vote" is not a ballot cast once every four years, but a continuous flow of value and energy.
Signaling vs. Voting
In digital networks, this translates to signaling. Rather than asking users to vote on updates, a Fungal Democracy observes usage patterns:
- Which protocols are actually being used? (Vote by usage)
- Where is development effort flowing? (Vote by construction)
- Which nodes are maintaining uptime and integrity? (Vote by performance)
This creates a system of "weighted reputation" or Autogravitas, where influence is proportional to contribution rather than arbitrary authority.
Resilience to Bad Actors
Because influence flows from tangible contribution and sustained connection, Fungal Democracy is inherently resistant to distinct types of attacks. A "Sybil attack" (creating fake identities) fails because empty identities cannot generate the "nutrient flow" required to sway the network's direction. Influence costs work.