#conformitygate theory

They even added the Truman broadcasting boarder over everything! (@misspracticallydelulu) The emphasis on final season is killing me.

Here’s some lines of dialogue from shows that Netflix used for the video that stood out to me:

“We’re on the precipice of something desperately exciting.”

I jolly well hope so!

“You’re a lot more than people think.”

This sounds like they’re talking to Stranger Things. Take a look behind the curtain GA! Open the curiosity door!

“It feels like a forever thing.”

It certainly does…

“Do you need something?” “I found it.”

The Duffers/Netflix asking us if we need something, and we’ve found it (just don’t have it).

“You’re the one who can’t look away.”

Calling us out I see, not our fault you lot riddled this show with puzzles and layers.

Then right at the end of the video…

“I’m excited for the future, and I think you should be too.”

Part 1

This took awhile to put together because I’ve been so tired lately. You’d better believe, however, that there are more Upside Down/spore and fungi connections!

Shoutout to the coolest @gritstartar for helping with this one! Thanks so much for all the leads.

And so, without further ado…

Mycelium: The Woodwide Web

Mycelium is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates. A typical single spore germinates into monokaryotic mycelium, which cannot reproduce sexually; when two compatible monokaryotic mycelia join and form dikaryotic mycelium, that mycelium may form fruiting bodies such as mushrooms. Mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or may grow to span thousands of acres as in Armillaria.

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When most of us think of fungus, we imagine mushrooms sprouting out of the ground. Those mushrooms are in fact the “fruit” of the fungus, while the majority of the fungal organism lives in the soil interwoven with tree roots as a vast network of mycelium. Mycelium are incredibly tiny “threads” of the greater fungal organism that wrap around or bore into tree roots. Taken together, myecelium composes what’s called a “mycorrhizal network,” which connects individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals. German forester Peter Wohlleben dubbed this network the “woodwide web,” as it is through the mycelium that trees “communicate.

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Mycelium comes from spores! They make me think of the UD and MF, it’s a whole system. The root-like form of mycelium looks just like the Mind Flayer veins that the Flayed get when they are activated.

Mycelium is an extensive, underground network of fungal threads (hyphae) often referred to as the “Wood Wide Web.” It exhibits decentralized decision-making, dynamic adaptability, and resource-efficient communication. Key features include:

Local Adaptation: Hyphae respond to environmental cues individually, allowing localized adjustments without global disruption.

Self-Repair and Resilience: Damaged areas quickly regenerate or reroute nutrients, maintaining overall network integrity.

Efficient Communication: Slow chemical and electrical signals primarily impact local areas, preventing network-wide disruptions.

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The way mycelium functions is very similar to the Flayed. Because of the hive-mind, the Flayed work together, making decisions subconsciously and acting, similarly to mycelium. They’re also very resilient! Remember the hospital scene in ST3 when Nancy and Jonathan were chased and attacked by the Flayed? They were very strong and hard to fight because they were Flayed, almost “levelled up” in a way.

The construction of mycelium structures is primarily categorized into three approaches. These include growing blocks in molds, growing in place monolithic structures, and bio-welded units. The first approach cultivates mycelium and its substrate in forms, after which it is dried in ovens and then transported and assembled on site. The second approach uses existing formwork and adapts cast-in-place concrete techniques to grow monolithic mycelium structures in place. The third approach is a hybrid of the previous two referred to as myco-welding, where individual pre-grown units are grown together into a larger monolithic structure.

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Mycelium can be used for building. Man-made constructions, yes, but just consider for a second perhaps sci-fi version? A villain who used someone to “build” the tunnels? Which are filled with spores and other UD fungi looking stuff, by the way!

Slime Moulds

Slime moulds are a variety of small or microscopic organisms in different groups. They have both single-celled and multicellular forms during their life cycle, the individual cells coming together to form fruiting bodies that produce spores. Most live in damp places such as rotting wood.

More formally, the slime molds are a polyphyletic assemblage of distantly related eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myxogastria form larger plasmodial slime molds visible to the naked eye. Spores are often produced in macroscopic multicellular or multinucleate fruiting bodies formed through aggregation or fusion; aggregation is driven by chemical signals called acrasins. Slime molds contribute to the decomposition of dead vegetation; some are parasitic.

Slime molds, with their small size and moist surface, live mostly in damp habitats including shaded forests, rotting wood, fallen or living leaves, and on bryophytes.

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The Upside Down is filled with rotting vegetation (leaves, trees, etc) and spores, both of which can be linked back to slime moulds!

Most slime moulds are terrestrial and free-living, typically in damp shady habitats. Eumycetozoa flourish in swamp forests. Some myxogastrians and protostelians are aquatic or semi-aquatic. The phytomyxea are parasitic, living inside their plant hosts. Geographically, slime molds are cosmopolitan in distribution. A small number of species occur in regions as dry as the Atacama Desert and as cold as the Arctic; they are abundant in the tropics, especially in rainforests. Slime molds have a variety of behaviors otherwise seen in animals with brains. Species such as Physarum polycephalum have been used to simulate traffic networks.

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There’s no water in the UD (which makes so sense from a scientific perspective, but whatever) so any aquatic moulds can be ruled out. Phytomyxea, however, are parasitic! They invade plants, just like what was discussed in Part 1.

(BOSTON) — If you didn’t have a brain, could you still figure out where you were and navigate your surroundings? Thanks to new research on slime molds, the answer may be “yes.” Scientists from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University have discovered that a brainless slime mold called Physarum polycephalum uses its body to sense mechanical cues in its surrounding environment, and performs computations similar to what we call “thinking” to decide in which direction to grow based on that information. Unlike previous studies with Physarum, these results were obtained without giving the organism any food or chemical signals to influence its behavior.

(Source)

Slime Moulds don’t have brains but they can “think”. Similarly, UD spores/MF particles certainly don’t have a brain, but they “think” too.

In conclusion…

There is so much more to mycelium and slime moulds, all the connections I found are in this post, hopefully I didn’t miss anything too important (although the chances are high).

With that being said, if you’re interested, I would highly recommend looking into them! If you think I’ve missed anything let me know!