Im gonna leave that as a solid maybe.
So the Charon monster.
Welcome to the forums! Also, with your first post, I think you managed to break the record for the longest topic name in the forums ever. 
idk, probably
Incorrect. The longest forum post name was- 
I forgot, arghhh, if I find it I’ll post it here. But yeah, parasite, maybe.
Probably, but it isn’t very realistic to gain intelligence by consuming sentient things. Growing and powering a huge brain doesn’t care whether the energy comes from just eating meat or eating sentient creatures.
Hive minds that have a realistic way of communication will probably be possible at some point.
Gaining intelligence from the hosts memories
IDK honestly, there isn’t enough IRL research to prove the concept, but if u can stimulate and read brain signals/ replicate them, and access them it should be good, but you won’t find that on a small parasite, more like a huge mega mind creature that produces the parasites
Consuming memories seems highly unlikely to work. Mainly because even now with all of our technology we can’t do that, so I don’t think it is in any way feasible for evolution to produce a species that could do that.
The only way I could maybe see this happening, or something similar, is by copying the neural pathways.
For example, a fictious (think that’s a word) plant I have made called boneshade roots onto a hosts bones, or analogous structures, and then their roots and leaves copy the neural pathways shape, allowing sapience
Really it is just a recreation of the original creature, because we individually form our own neural pathways, but anyway while this could work the idea itself almost has more things that need to be figured out that politics do.
But generally except in extremely specialized circumstances I agree, and then we run into why those circumstances would exist in the first place to even be able to do something similar, much less actually do it. It is very unlikely for something like the parasitic idea or my bone shade to actually exist
As an aside, I had an idea for a sapient hive mind made of extra intelligent individuals forming almost a neural network within the swarm as a group
Upon contact, the Pod infector will rasp away at clothing and flesh until it has burrowed into the chest cavity, mortally wounding them. As the host dies, the Pod infector extends tentacles that tap into the victim’s spinal cord or other nerve center, forcing a “match” with the nerve signals previously produced by the host’s living brain. They then synchronize with the host’s nervous system and gain control of their body, replacing its now-absent consciousness with the ravenous and voracious psyche of the Flood. Any useful information present within the memory centers of the host’s brain, such as battle strategies and technical knowledge, is retained for use by the Flood. Despite this lingering of certain memories
so like take over their brain
Oh no.
This sounds like pure fiction. Not something that could realistically evolve.
While I disagree generally about mobile plants/fungus being unrealistic, I did note for my boneshade that it is very very very unlikely (I won’t say impossible but near to it), and I have the same opinion on the Parasite idea this thread is about, at the very least how it is currently described
Seems too Non-LAWKI (life as we know it) for Non-LAWKI
some parasites can control the minds of snails and ants IRL. One is a fungus (For ants) and the other is a worm-like thing (for snails).
yeah but they dont steal memories or even have the capacity to think. more like rabies tbh.
those are more of like emitting chemicals to change brain functions, not taking full control of the body in perfect precision as the forum states, though it is close its no where near powerful enough.