Artist creates flesh-eating Mushroom Death Suit

This is an interesting concept, but I couldn't figure out just where to put it.

For most, death is followed by one of two options: burial or cremation. But both options pose serious environmental risks. The main chemical used to embalm a body before burial is the known-carcinogen formaldehyde. Cremation is energy intensive and releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases and heavy metals into the atmosphere.There might now be a third option that is more in harmony with our planet: donning a fungi-laced death shroud that consumes corpses.

Keep in mind that when it says "last week", the article is dated July 20, 2011.

Artist and inventor Jae Rhim Lee has come up with an unusual way to confront our attitudes about death. At the TEDGlobal conference last week, she talked to New Scientist about the flesh-eating Infinity Mushroom she's trying to cultivate.

Why a mushroom? Why not a worm?

It could have been a worm. But I felt that mushrooms were special because I found out that they clean up environment toxins in soil. There's no single mushroom that kills all environmental toxins, but they cover a lot of ground. What also started it was the mycologist Paul Stamets who I studied with. He is kind of the grandfather of people who work with mushrooms. He talks about the mushroom as being the interface organism between life and death, that mushrooms are the master decomposers. So what better organism to work with?

Do you think that one day lots of people will have their own mushroom death suits?

That's the hope. I think of this in steps, and the next step is to get this to actually work... but it's something people could adopt on a wider scale. I fully acknowledge that this requires a cultural shift towards an acceptance of death and decomposition.

newscientist.com


So, what do you think? Would you be willing to have your body decomposed by mushrooms?

you bet..

I think it is a GREAT idea..

here's why..

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Interesting idea I guess. As for me, I don't care if I am buried, creamated, mushroomed or just thrown in a river when I die......I will be dead, IMO what happens to my body after the fact is kinda secondary the whole dead thing is what concerns me. lol

Ill be holding out for the Psilocybin collection.

Couldnt you just put the body in quick lime?? Or feed the body to an animal like a pig, which will eat the bone and flesh?

en.wikipedia.org...

Because of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials.[7]

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


Probably could. The article does say it would be above ground. I thought about there being a lot of stuff left lying around.