In the mycelium network: They discuss the relationship between fungi and humans at FILC

Naief Yehya is a scholar of the impact that technology has on society and culture. So when he was invited to write a book about hallucinogenic mushrooms, his proposal ended up covering the relationship between humans and these fungi since time immemorial.

The book "The Planet of Mushrooms" (Anagrama, 2024) this Saturday on the penultimate day of the 2025 Coahuila International Book Fair (FILC) with comments by writer and journalist Christian García and the author.

In the talk, Yehya shared how one of the starting points for his approach to the topic was the similarity he found between one of his most important subjects of study, the Internet, the World Wide Web , with mycelium , or the underground network that allows fungi to communicate and carry out a good part of their biological activities.

The conversation, full of good humor and references to both pop culture and the most extraordinary cases of the reality of these mushrooms —so capable of establishing symbiotic units with entire forests and of controlling small zombie-like insects—and their use.

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From the theory that early hominids "awakened consciousness " thanks to these mushrooms to the CIA's attempt to use psychedelics to destabilize movements, as well as their current replacement by "cyberdelia," where digital stimuli now produce similar effects, but, he argues in the essay, with an influence from these mushrooms.