Beyond Extraction
The dominant logic of Web 2.0 was extraction: platforms harvested user data like a strip mine, leaving depleted soil behind. Users were resources, not partners. Myceloom proposes a shift to symbiosis, where the platform (the mycelium) only thrives if the users (the forest) thrive.
This is not a moral preference but a structural one. Parasites eventually kill their hosts. Symbionts ensure their hosts' long-term survival to secure their own. Sustainable digital infrastructure must be symbiotic.
1 + 1 = 3
Biological symbiosis often creates emergent properties that neither organism possesses alone—like lichens, which are a composite of fungi and algae capable of surviving where neither could live in isolation.
In technological terms, this creates synergy. A symbiotic tool doesn't just automate a task; it expands the user's agency. It creates a "centaur" or "cyborg" capability where the human + machine is greater than the sum of its parts. This contrasts with tools that de-skill or replace the user.
Mutual Valorization
Symbiosis requires mutual valorization—value must be recognized and returned. If a user contributes data that improves a model, that value must return to them (as better service, ownership, or capability) rather than being siphoned off to a third party. The Wood-Wide Web trades sugar for minerals; it keeps a ledger of honest trade.