# Talk:Spore drive

https://www.inverse.com/article/37061-star-trek-discovery-stamets-mycology
https://www.forbes.com/sites/linhanhcat/2019/03/19/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive/
https://www.sciof.fi/erin-macdonald-star-trek-science/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/a26037538/star-trek-discovery-season-2-episode-2/
https://www.space.com/32712-warp-drive-hyperspace.html
https://www.space.com/38407-star-trek-discovery-episode-4-recap.html
https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive-how-it-works-why-controversy/
https://www.space.com/38477-star-trek-discovery-mudd-ies-up-tardigrade-science.html
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/a28553/star-trek-discovery-episode-4/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/a26037538/star-trek-discovery-season-2-episode-2/
https://www.gamesradar.com/how-mushrooms-fuel-star-trek-discoverys-experimental-transport-technology/
https://startalkmedia.com/spoilers-star-trek-discoverys-spore-drive-nonsense-musings-sci-fi-travel-technology
https://sfrareview.org/2023/01/19/review-of-fighting-for-the-future-essays-on-star-trek-
https://reactormag.com/mycelium-running-star-trek-discovery
What I have to get to.  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 04:35, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

<ref name="Donaldson Spore 2024-04-06">{{Cite web|date=2024-04-06|title=Star Trek Is Ditching Discovery's Spore Drive - And That's Good!| last1=Donaldson| first1=Mark|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive-abandoned-season-5/|url-status=live|website=[[Screen Rant]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240406123823/https://screenrant.com/star-trek-discovery-spore-drive-abandoned-season-5/|archive-date=2024-04-06}}</ref>
Plus this one, just dropping full template to have accessible.  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 04:44, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
Hello! I saw you making this page and thought you might find this reference interesting. I don't know if you'll be able to weave it in, but apparently Terrence Mckenna was thinking about something very similar:
"I am old, older than thought in your species, which is itself fifty times older than your history. Though I have been on earth for ages I am from the stars. My home is no one planet, for many worlds scattered through the shining disc of the galaxy have conditions which allow my spores an opportunity for life. The mushroom which you see is the part of my body given to sex thrills and sun bathing, my true body is a fine network of fibers growing through the soil. These networks may cover acres and may have far more connections than the number in a human brain.
My mycelial network is nearly immortal--only the sudden toxification of a planet or the explosion of it's parent star can wipe me out. By means impossible to explain because of certain misconceptions in your model of reality all my mycelial networks in the galaxy are in hyperlight communication through space and time. The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral star swarm. Space, you see, is a vast ocean to those hardy life forms that have the ability to reproduce from spores, for spores are covered with the hardest organic substance known.
Across the aeons of time and space drift many spore forming life-forms in suspended animation for millions of years until contact is made with a suitable environment. Few such species are minded, only myself and my recently evolved near relatives have achieved the hyper-communication mode and memory capacity that makes us leading members in the community of galactic intelligence. How the hyper-communication mode operates is a secret which will not be lightly given to humans.
But the means should be obvious: it is the occurrence of psilocybin and psilocin in the biosynthetic pathways of my living body that opens for me and my symbiots the vision screens to many worlds. You as an individual and Homo sapiens as a species are on the brink of the formation of a symbiotic relationship with my genetic material that will eventually carry humanity and earth into the galactic mainstream of the higher civilizations.
Since it is not easy for you to recognize other varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of politics and society have advanced only as far as the notion of collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these. Symbiosis is a relation of mutual dependence and positive benefits for both species involved.
Symbiotic relationships between myself and civilized forms of higher animals have been established many times and in many places throughout the long ages of my development. These relationships have been mutually useful; within my memory is the knowledge of hyperlight drive ships and how to build them. I will trade this knowledge for a free ticket to new worlds around suns younger and more stable than your own.
To secure an eternal existence down the long river of cosmic time, I again and again offer this agreement to higher beings and thereby have spread throughout the galaxy over the long millenia.
A mycelial network has no organs to move the world, no hands; but higher animals with manipulative abilities can become partners with the star knowledge within me and if they act in good faith, return both themselves and their humble mushroom teacher to the million worlds to which all citizens of our starswarm are heir."
—Terrence Mckenna,  In "Psilocybin: The Magic Mushroom Growers Guide" and "True Hallucinations"
In any case, if a non-human intelligence tries to strike such a Faustian bargain with you, tell it, "No." 2603:9001:0:313:85DE:50D6:5995:B39B (talk) 21:47, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
+1 to review https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/38391/chapter-abstract/333413006?redirectedFrom=fulltext  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 23:39, 28 May 2025 (UTC)

I tracked down an edited volume of academic writings about the Discovery show from Liverpool University as editor, global scope on authorship apparently--it seems pretty neat and huge. I could only find snippets but at a guess there's potentially another solid 10-15+ references worth of nice data to be brought into spore drive once I have it and can go through it.  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 18:29, 29 May 2025 (UTC)


### Spore drive
I've listed this article for peer review because I'd like to get it up toward GAC and then FAC. I had briefly submitted it (I guess ahead of schedule) to FAC at this link but it was suggested I withdraw. I thought I had taken it both through GAC/FAC level standards, but I guess not, or there's more than the listed requirements, or I missed something? How can I get this up to where it apparently still isn't? Thanks!
Thanks,  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 19:47, 5 June 2025 (UTC)


#### Comments from Z1720
After a quick skim, I added a "citation needed" tag to the article. Once that sentence is cited this article is ready to be nominated at WP:GAN. Z1720 (talk) 14:58, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed, that was supposed to be cited to the subsequent source. I'll nominate it!  -- Very Polite Person (talk) 15:55, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

Cover image depicts the real scientist who inspired the fictional character who helped build the fictional propulsion system- it would probably be more appropriate to have an image of the fictional drive or the character. Chivesinvestigates (talk) 13:06, 30 July 2025 (UTC) Chivesinvestigates (talk) 13:06, 30 July 2025 (UTC)