Ways of Being
Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence
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5,0 • 1 Bewertung
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- 10,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
'Heady, exhilarating, often astonishing' New York Times
'Iridescently original, deeply disorientating and yet somehow radically hopeful ... worth reading and rereading' Brian Eno
'Be prepared to re-evaluate your relationship with the amazing life forms with whom we share the planet. Fascinating, innovative and thought provoking: I thoroughly recommend Ways of Being' Dr Jane Goodall, DBE
Recent years have seen rapid advances in 'artificial' intelligence, which increasingly appears to be something stranger than we ever imagined. At the same time, we are becoming more aware of the other intelligences which have been with us all along, unrecognized. These other beings are the animals, plants, and natural systems that surround us, and are slowly revealing their complexity and knowledge - just as the new technologies we've built are threatening to cause their extinction, and ours.
In Ways of Being, writer and artist James Bridle considers the fascinating, uncanny and multiple ways of existing on earth. What can we learn from these other forms of intelligence and personhood, and how can we change our societies to live more equitably with one another and the non-human world? From Greek oracles to octopuses, forests to satellites, Bridle tells a radical new story about ecology, technology and intelligence. We must, they argue, expand our definition of these terms to build a meaningful and free relationship with the non-human, one based on solidarity and cognitive diversity. We have so much to learn, and many worlds to gain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A human-centric notion of intelligence takes the backseat in this fascinating survey from artist Bridle (New Dark Age). Intelligence, he writes, "is not something to be tested, but something to be recognized, in all the multiple forms that it takes." To that end, he notes that plants have the "ability... to remember" and self-driving cars exhibit knowledge with their neural networks and learning patterns. Indeed, one of the author's key insights is the way momentous advances in technology can lead to a better understanding of the "more-than-human world." In a prime example, the rise of the internet and the corresponding notion of network theory made possible the discovery of how such networks operate "in the real world," namely in the symbiotic relationships that connect fungi and plant roots in the forest. Bridle makes a solid case for his argument that "everything is intelligent" and that all life on Earth is interconnected, and his notion that intelligence is "one among many ways of being in the world" is well reasoned and convincing. This enlightening account will give readers a new perspective on their place in the world.
