Lovely post overall. But on a related idea of how stories can take on lives of their own, see here for example on the wood-wide web theories (or at least it’s grander claims as made in pop sci): https://undark.org/2023/05/25/where-the-wood-wide-web-narrative-went-wrong/. And more narrowly, the perils of most pop science books/articles in exaggerating claims and often misrepresenting research findings.
Lovely post overall. But on a related idea of how stories can take on lives of their own, see here for example on the wood-wide web theories (or at least it’s grander claims as made in pop sci): https://undark.org/2023/05/25/where-the-wood-wide-web-narrative-went-wrong/. And more narrowly, the perils of most pop science books/articles in exaggerating claims and often misrepresenting research findings.