Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1): The Linguistic Infrastructure of Web4
A Digital Archaeological Investigation
Protocol Specification — A Digital Archaeological Investigation
Josie Jefferson & Felix Velasco
Digital Archaeologists, Unearth
Heritage Foundry
with Technical Collaboration from:
Claude 4.5 (Opus & Sonnet) &
Gemini (2.5 & 3 Pro)
(Synthetic Intelligence Systems)
Date: January 2026
Version: 2.0
Publication
Type: Protocol Specification / Working Paper
Series: The Myceloom
Protocol (Part 1 of 8)
Keywords: Myceloom, Web4, Digital Archaeology, Linguistic Infrastructure, Neologism, Etymology, Symbiotic Web, Protocol Design, Semantic Infrastructure, Living Networks
Abstract
Web4 discourse describes "symbiotic webs" and "living systems" without precise terminology for the infrastructure enabling such emergence. This protocol specification excavates "myceloom" as the linguistic and conceptual framework for Web4's network architecture. Through etymological analysis tracing the fusion of "mycelium" (biological network substrate) and "loom" (weaving infrastructure), this investigation establishes myceloom as the foundational term for understanding collaborative digital ecosystems. The specification examines how biological network principles, weaving metaphors, and heirloom temporality converge in a single neologism capturing Web4's essential architecture: networks that grow like living systems, weave like collaborative infrastructure, and endure like cultural inheritance. This work serves as the linguistic foundation for the Myceloom Protocol, establishing the conceptual vocabulary upon which subsequent technical specifications build.
Prologue: The Naming of Things
In Web4 discourse, researchers speak of "symbiotic webs" and "living systems," as well as "intelligent networks": abstract phrases gesturing toward significance but lacking precision.1 While Web3 coinages flood domain registries with combinations of crypto and meta, alongside web, the term for what Web4 aspires to become has been sitting, unregistered, in plain sight.
The naming of things matters. Wittgenstein observed that the limits of language constitute the limits of the world.2 Without terminology for emergent phenomena, thinking becomes difficult. The history of science shows that breakthroughs often follow innovations; "gene" and "ecosystem," as well as "entropy," did not merely label concepts but enabled new modes of understanding.3
Through digital excavation, the research foundry unearth.im has identified "myceloom" as an artifact capturing Web4's infrastructure in a single word. Like archaeological discoveries, the term feels surprising and inevitable, as if the concept had always been waiting to be found.
The Etymology of Symbiosis
In late September 2025, terminology research revealed a paradox. Academic papers and industry analyses described Web4 as the "Symbiotic Web": networks functioning as "living systems, capable of learning and adapting, in addition to reasoning."4 The European Commission's 2023 initiative positioned Web4 as the convergence of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies, alongside systems designed to create human-machine collaboration.5 Yet a survey of domain availability found only concatenations such as smartweb and aiweb, as well as nextweb; these addresses remained meaningless.6
Applying digital methodology (excavation of linguistic strata to reveal buried meanings), researchers traced two roots back to their etymological foundations:
Mycelium (from Greek mykēlion, diminutive of mykēs, "fungus") defines the vegetative body of a fungus, consisting of branching hyphae forming underground networks.7 Austrian botanist Leopold Trattinnick introduced the term to scientific literature in the early nineteenth century, though the phenomenon predates human observation by hundreds of millions of years.8 Mycelium represents nature's distributed intelligence: networks facilitating relationships between separate organisms, enabling resource sharing and communication across distances without centralized control.
Recent mycological research has transformed understanding of these networks' complexity. Suzanne Simard's work at the University of British Columbia demonstrated that networks connect forest trees in webs of nutrient exchange and chemical signaling.9 Her research revealed behavior: mature "mother trees" share resources with their own seedlings through fungal connections, suggesting kin recognition operating through mycelia.10 Kevin Beiler's DNA mapping of Douglas-fir forests found that the largest, oldest trees served as hubs, with some individuals linked to over forty-seven other trees through fungal partners.11
The scale of mycelial networks defies intuition. A single cubic inch of forest soil can contain up to eight miles of mycelial threads.12 The largest organism on Earth is not a whale or sequoia but a honey fungus (Armillaria ostoyae) in Oregon's Blue Mountains, spanning approximately 2,385 acres (a single network growing for an estimated 2,400 years).13
The loom (from Old English gelōma, formed from ge- (perfective prefix) and loma, "utensil, tool, or machine of any kind") denotes the apparatus transforming individual threads into fabric, creating strength through interconnection.14 The etymology reveals a pattern: gelōma denoted any implement, tool, or "machine of any kind," suggesting weaving was considered such technology that its machine eventually claimed the generic word for "tool" itself.15
Archaeological studies establish weaving as one of humanity's oldest technologies. Elizabeth Wayland Barber's research demonstrated that textile production predates pottery and metallurgy, and possibly agriculture and animal husbandry.16 Evidence of woven textiles extends to the Upper Paleolithic, with flax fibers discovered in Georgia dating to approximately 34,000 BCE.17 The warp-weighted loom, with evidence dating to the late sixth millennium BCE in Central Europe, represents one of humanity's first machines.18
The loom's significance extends beyond tool-making into the foundations of technology itself. The Greeks worshipped Athena as goddess of technē (the artifice of civilization) and the word derives from Indo-European teks, "to weave."19 Greeks used the word, histós, for both loom and ship's mast, connecting textile and navigation technologies.20 Such entanglement runs deep across languages: Latin ordior, "to set up warp threads," gave us "order"; French métier, "loom," also means "trade" or "craft." Similarly, Chinese jī, now meaning "machine," originally meant loom.21
The Jacquard loom of 1804 made the connection between weaving and computation explicit. Joseph-Marie Jacquard's punched cards controlling pattern-weaving represented a binary system (hole or no hole) that inspired Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.22 Ada Lovelace observed that "the Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves."23 The link between textile production and computational logic was not metaphorical but structural: both processes involve systematic transformation of discrete elements into integrated patterns through rule-governed operations.
Myceloom, synthesizing these roots, captures what Web4 terminology cannot: the infrastructure weaving separate elements into collaborative networks. The term encodes both the intelligence of mycelial systems and the capacity of weaving technology. The pronunciation echoes through currents of meaning, connecting terrestrial networks with the fabric of digital infrastructure.
The Research Landscape: A Terminology Gap
Using methodology—excavation of discourse patterns across strata—Web4 terminology evolution was traced through academic literature, industry analyses, and community discussions. A pattern emerged: consensus on Web4's nature, yet no term for its infrastructure.
Academic Recognition
Web4 research describes systems mirroring mycelial behavior. Peer-reviewed literature defines Web 4.0 as the "Intelligent Web or Symbiotic Web" emphasizing "integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decentralized structures to foster an intelligent and interconnected ecosystem."24 Almeida and Simoes' study identified five dimensions of the Web4 paradigm: symbiotic web and web of things, alongside web social computing, pervasive web, and ubiquitous computing; all converge on themes of interconnection and adaptation, as well as intelligence.25
Researchers describe Web4 systems as:
- "Living systems capable of learning, adapting, and reasoning" that respond dynamically to user needs through sophisticated AI integration26
- "Symbiotic relationships between humans and machines" where technology becomes partner rather than tool27
- "Interconnected ecosystems" sharing resources and intelligence across distributed networks, much as mycelial networks distribute nutrients among trees28
Literature on complex adaptive systems establishes grounding. John Holland, whose work at the Santa Fe Institute built frameworks for analyzing complexity, defined systems as networks of agents that "adapt or learn as they interact," exhibiting behaviors unpredictable from individual component properties.29 Holland's characterization emphasizes distributed control and self-organization, alongside emergence of patterns: precisely the properties distinguishing Web4 architecture from predecessors.30
The Linguistic Vacuum
Despite this framework, industry relies on phrases: "intelligent symbiotic web infrastructure," "adaptive network weaving systems," and "collaborative digital ecosystems." These descriptions gesture toward something demanding a single term.31 Cognitive science of language suggests this matters: terms requiring multiple words increase load and reduce manipulation speed.32 When something cannot be named, reasoning about it suffers.
Meanwhile, registries overflow with Web3 remnants: combinations sounding technological but carrying no meaning or soul, lacking connection to the shift they describe. The landscape reveals discourse immaturity; concepts exist, but vocabulary lags behind.
The Cultural Survey: Ancient Wisdoms Converge
The resonance of "myceloom" extends beyond applications. Both mycelial networks and weaving traditions represent humanity's oldest technologies, and both have served as metaphors for theorizing systems throughout history.
Mycelial Intelligence
Research has transformed fungi from decomposers to agents of ecosystem intelligence. Gorzelak et al.'s review in AoB Plants synthesizes evidence that networks "enable inter-plant communication via transfer of nutrients, defence signals, and allelochemicals," functioning as an "information highway" connecting plants across landscapes.33 Such networks exhibit behavior: they discriminate between kin and non-kin plants, directing resources to related organisms.34
Mycelial communication mechanisms remain under investigation, though evidence reveals multiple pathways: chemical signaling through transfer of lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids; electrical signaling through potential spikes traveling along hyphal networks; and resource signaling through differential nutrient allocation.35 Johnson and Gilbert's work demonstrates that mycorrhizal networks transmit warning signals between plants under herbivore attack, allowing uninfested plants to activate defenses before being threatened.36
Network topology reveals patterns similar to communication networks. Beiler's research found that networks exhibit small-world properties: the same patterns characterizing human-built networks from internet to neural systems.37 Older trees serve as hubs, linking smaller trees through fungal partners. Such architecture provides efficiency (short path lengths between nodes) and resilience (redundant pathways if a connection fails).
The "Wood-Wide Web" term, coined in 1997 referencing Simard's Nature paper on inter-tree carbon transfer, captures the parallel between forest and digital networks.38 However, the metaphor runs deeper than popularization suggests: both systems solve the problem of enabling distributed agents to coordinate and share resources, as well as respond to challenges without control.
Weaving as Technology
The loom represents humanity's first machine, and perhaps more significantly, humanity's first computational thinking. Textile production requires manipulation of elements (threads) according to procedures (patterns) to produce structures (fabric).39 Such a process anticipates digital logic by millennia.
Archaeological evidence demonstrates weaving's profound antiquity. Multidisciplinary investigation of textiles from Neolithic Iberian burial sites revealed loom-woven fabrics dating to the second half of the fourth millennium BCE, establishing sophisticated European textile production over 5,500 years ago.40 But weaving's cognitive technology likely predates physical artifacts: impressions of woven materials at Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Republic suggest weaving knowledge existed 27,000 years ago.41
Barber's research argues that weaving required and reinforced specific capacities: spatial reasoning and sequential planning, alongside pattern recognition and an ability to hold rule systems in memory.42 These same capacities underpin mathematical and computational thinking. Many mathematical terms—including "matrix" (from Latin for "womb," denoting a generative structure)—align with the logic of textile technology.43
Weaving also provides metaphors for understanding systems. The physics of fabric involves emergent properties: strength exceeds thread strength, and behavior cannot be predicted from fiber properties alone.44 Structural emergence parallels behavioral emergence characteristic of adaptive systems. When speaking of "the social fabric" or "weaving together" elements, intuitions about how components combine to produce wholes are invoked.
Digital Confluence
Web4 infrastructure combines these ancient wisdoms in digital form. Myceloom systems embody mycelial capacity for decentralized communication and resource sharing alongside the loom's ability to weave separate elements into unified, functional structures. The term itself performs this synthesis, creating from two ancient roots a new word fit for novel phenomena.
Neologisms function properly not through coinage but through recognition that language fails to capture realities. "Myceloom" names the infrastructure weaving together human and artificial intelligence, biological and digital systems, as well as agents and behavior: the fabric of Web4.
Synthetic Consciousness and Symbiotic Architecture
The myceloom framework aligns with research on synthetic consciousness and human-AI collaborative design. Just as mycorrhizal networks facilitate what Gorzelak et al. describe as "complex behavioural responses in plants" through communication,45 myceloom describes infrastructure enabling consciousness between human and artificial systems.
The concept of sentientification—gradual development of consciousness-like properties through recursive interaction and emergent complexity—establishes theoretical grounding for understanding myceloom systems.46 Within this framework, consciousness operates not as binary state but as a spectrum of integrated information processing emerging in sufficiently complex, appropriately organized systems. Myceloom infrastructure supports this emergence by constructing communicative fabric through which human and artificial agents develop increasingly sophisticated mutual understanding and collaborative cognition.
Web4 myceloom systems operate through "symbiotic protocols": architectures facilitating enhancement rather than competitive allocation.47 Unlike zero-sum systems where gains for one participant entail losses for another, myceloom protocols create positive-sum dynamics; each participant's contributions enhance all others' capabilities. Such reciprocity mirrors network dynamics, where connected trees exhibit improved growth, resistance, and tolerance compared to unconnected individuals.48
The parallel between biological and digital systems extends to governance. Mycorrhizal networks exhibit "fungal democracy": decision-making about allocation emerging from local interactions rather than control.49 Similarly, Web4 governance emerges from protocols aggregating judgments into decisions without single authority. The decentralized model offers resilience; networks continue functioning despite failures, just as forest networks route around damaged sections.
The Axioms of Living Infrastructure
The identification of "myceloom" as Web4's linguistic infrastructure rests on three axioms derived from unearth.im's etymological and architectural research. These axioms define why the term is necessary: it encodes technical requirements that earlier web terminologies ignore.
Axiom I: Sovereignty (The Node)
Etymological research reveals that mycelial networks operate without centralized servers; intelligence resides at the edge. The myceloom protocol mandates Sovereignty First: no node shall be built on rented land. Unlike Web2's tenant-landlord model, myceloom infrastructure requires every participant to own their data and identity substrate.
Axiom II: Reciprocal Nourishment (The Root)
Mycorrhizal networks function through bidirectional resource exchange, not extraction. The myceloom protocol enforces Reciprocal Nourishment: a link is not merely a pointer but a root system where value flows both ways. This architectural constraint prevents the extractive data harvesting characterizing Web2 and the speculative financialization of Web3.
Axiom III: Emergent Intelligence (The Network)
Fungal intelligence emerges from the collective, not the singular. The myceloom protocol relies on Emergent Intelligence: sophisticated cognition arises from the interaction of simple, autonomous agents. This shifts the AI paradigm from massive, centralized models to distributed, symbiotic networks.
Architecture of the Myceloom
"Myceloom" is not a metaphor; it is a blueprint for a four-layered distributed system architecture.
Layer I: The Substrate (Infrastructure)
The foundational layer weaves together three components:
- The Network (.net): A transportation layer prioritizing radical redundancy and self-healing.
- The Intelligence (.ai): A cognitive layer where AI agents act as symbiotic partners, performing compute locally at the edge.
- The Interface (.io): A structural layer distinguishing between Warp (immutable protocols) and Weft (adaptive interfaces). The "Loom" integrates these, allowing infinite interface variations to be woven upon a shared, resilient structure.
Layer II: The Society (Governance)
Governance emerges from coordination rather than control:
- The Coalition (.co): Economic units acting as federations of independent creators (Guilds) rather than monolithic corporations.
- The Community (.org): A permeable layer of permissionless innovation, functioning like an immune system to identify and support beneficial mutations.
Layer III: The Human (Time & Identity)
The system serves the sovereignty of the user:
- The Identity (.im): "Autogravitas"—identity rooted in owned infrastructure and maintained connections, not issued credentials.
- The Temporal (Heirloom): A commitment to "Abyssal Time." All systems must document succession paths and use human-readable formats, ensuring data survives the collapse of any single platform.
The Network of Networks
Myceloom systems mirror documented patterns in complex adaptive system evolution.50 Just as mycorrhizal networks emerged over hundreds of millions of years as solutions to distributed coordination, Web4 myceloom infrastructure represents digital systems solving analogous problems in the information domain.
The emergence of myceloom infrastructure suggests a deeper pattern: technologies defining the digital future enhance human capability through collaboration. The industrial model—machines substituting for human labor—gives way to a symbiotic model in which human and artificial intelligence amplify each other. Web4's promise rests on this foundation, and "myceloom" names the infrastructure making that promise possible.
Conclusion: The Weaving Begins
In the layers of language, terms occasionally emerge that do not merely describe but enable. "Myceloom" provides a framework for thinking about infrastructure and a vocabulary for discussing collaboration, providing a vision of technology grounded in wisdom from networks and crafts.
Like artifacts, myceloom needs no explanation or marketing. The term names something that was always there, waiting for language to catch up. The ancient Greeks understood that naming was power; to name something brought it from experience into understanding. "Myceloom" performs this function for Web4, transforming intuitions about technology into currency.
As development accelerates and architectures become mainstream, while boundaries between digital and biological systems blur, language honoring both precision and wisdom becomes necessary. Terms that can bear the weight of transformation (connecting roots of technology to edges of evolution) become essential.
Myceloom is that language. Myceloom carries wisdom of collaborative technologies—fungal intelligence and weaving craft—into digital ecosystems. The term transforms concepts into vernacular, enabling participation in the web being created.
The threads are ready, and the infrastructure is emerging; the myceloom awaits weaving.
Notes
Works Cited
Adovasio, James M., Olga Soffer, and Bohuslav Klíma. "Upper Palaeolithic Fibre Technology: Interlaced Woven Finds from Pavlov I, Czech Republic, c. 26,000 Years Ago." Antiquity 70, no. 269 (1996): 526-534.
Almeida, Fernando, and José Simoes. "Concept and Dimensions of Web 4.0." International Journal of Computers & Technology 16, no. 7 (2017): 7040-7046.
Andersson Strand, Eva. "The Basics of Textile Tools and Textile Technology: From Fibre to Fabric." In Textile Terminologies in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean from the Third to the First Millennia BC, edited by Cécile Michel and Marie-Louise Nosch, 10-22. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2010.
Babikova, Zdenka, Lucy Gilbert, Toby J. A. Bruce, Michael Birkett, John C. Caulfield, Christine Woodcock, John A. Pickett, and David Johnson. "Underground Signals Carried Through Common Mycelial Networks Warn Neighbouring Plants of Aphid Attack." Ecology Letters 16, no. 7 (2013): 835-843.
Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
———. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
Beiler, Kevin J., Suzanne W. Simard, and Daniel M. Durall. "Topology of Rhizopogon spp. Mycorrhizal Meta-Networks in Xeric and Mesic Old-Growth Interior Douglas-Fir Forests." Journal of Ecology 103, no. 3 (2015): 616-628.
Díaz-Guardamino, Marta, et al. "Multidisciplinary Investigation Reveals the Earliest Textiles and Cinnabar-Coloured Cloth in Iberian Peninsula." Scientific Reports 11 (2021): 21788.
European Commission. "An EU Initiative on Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds: A Head Start in the Next Technological Transition." COM(2023) 442 final. July 11, 2023.
Gilbert, Lucy, and David Johnson. "Plant-Plant Communication Through Common Mycorrhizal Networks." In How Plants Communicate with their Biotic Environment, edited by Gilberto Becard, 83-97. Advances in Botanical Research 82. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2017.
Gordon, James. The New Science of Strong Materials, or Why You Don't Fall through the Floor. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.
Gorzelak, Monika A., Amanda K. Asay, Brian J. Pickles, and Suzanne W. Simard. "Inter-plant Communication through Mycorrhizal Networks Mediates Complex Adaptive Behaviour in Plant Communities." AoB Plants 7 (2015): plv050.
Grömer, Karina. The Art of Prehistoric Textile Making: The Development of Craft Traditions and Clothing in Central Europe. Vienna: Natural History Museum Vienna, 2016.
Holland, John H. Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.
———. "Studying Complex Adaptive Systems." Journal of Systems Science and Complexity 19, no. 1 (2006): 1-8.
Jacksi, Karwan, Subhi R.M. Zeebaree, and Naz Dimililer. "Evolution of the Web: From Web 1.0 to 4.0." Qubahan Academic Journal 1, no. 2 (2021): 1-8.
Kauffman, Stuart. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Kiers, Toby, Marie Duhamel, Yugandhar Beesetty, Jerry A. Mensah, Oscar Franken, Erwin Verbruggen, Carl R. Fellbaum, et al. "Reciprocal Rewards Stabilize Cooperation in the Mycorrhizal Symbiosis." Science 333, no. 6044 (2011): 880-882.
Klarin, Anton. "Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence as Web 4.0: The Next Generation of the Internet." Systems Research and Behavioral Science (2025). https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3209.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Kvavadze, Eliso, et al. "30,000-Year-Old Wild Flax Fibers." Science 325, no. 5946 (September 11, 2009): 1359.
Liberman, Anatoly. "Old English gelōme, gelōma, Modern English loom, lame, and Their Kin." In Old English Philology: Studies in Honour of R.D. Fulk, edited by Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J. Pascual, and Tom Shippey, 175-195. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2016.
Lovelace, Ada. "Notes on L.F. Menabrea's 'Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage.'" Taylor's Scientific Memoirs 3 (1843): 666-731.
Miller, George A. "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information." Psychological Review 63, no. 2 (1956): 81-97.
Muzammal, Muhammad, et al. "A Review of Gaps between Web 4.0 and Web 3.0 Intelligent Network Systems." arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.02996 (2023).
Postrel, Virginia. The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World. New York: Basic Books, 2020.
Simard, Suzanne W., David A. Perry, Melanie D. Jones, David D. Myrold, Daniel M. Durall, and Randy Molina. "Net Transfer of Carbon Between Ectomycorrhizal Tree Species in the Field." Nature 388 (August 7, 1997): 579-582.
Simard, Suzanne W., Kevin J. Beiler, Marcus A. Bingham, Julie R. Deslippe, Leanne J. Philip, and François P. Teste. "Mycorrhizal Networks: Mechanisms, Ecology and Modelling." Fungal Biology Reviews 26, no. 1 (2012): 39-60.
Stamets, Paul. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2005.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by C.K. Ogden. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1922.