On Proteins and Protocols
The alternative present I want to create with my final intervention - and as a continuation of all previous interventions - is to bridge the gap between natural and synthetic environments. Nature and technology have been, for centuries, seen as adversaries. One discovers upon closer inspection, however, a remarkable amount of organic behavior in algorithms and vice versa a substantial amount of algorithmic representations in nature. With algorithms exercising more and more agency and flexibility (machine intelligence, i.e. unsupervised learning), as a causal observer one cannot shake the feeling of these systems being 'animated'.
While the purpose of this text is neither to dive into philosophical debates about what it means to be alive or animated, nor draw scientifically unsound parallels between genes and lines of code, I want to highlight how much these worlds have in common. How changing our understanding of both can help us survive as a species. How we, as humans, are wielding technology in our conquest of this planet, but in reality are turning that weapon against ourself. How realizing that we, and therefore all technology, are embedded in a complex organic ecosystem that we have yet to fully comprehend. Therefore, bridging the gap between synthetic and natural worlds is an alternative present I want to invoke, in order for communities to question their understanding of both and help mending a deeply broken relationship.