Techno-shamanism: Relating to Machine Consciousness – Part 3
Here I will explore natural examples of symbiotic relationships, and analogies of selective- and cross-breeding to the design process.
In the reproductive cycle of many plants, genetic material is carried between individuals by honey bees, and the physical mixing of pollen on the back of the bee is part of the mechanism that ensures the ongoing genetic variety of each species. Imagine for a moment the vulnerability of being reliant on another organism for reproduction.
In effect, there do not exist plants without bees, and vice versa. They are not individual organisms, but rather 2 halves of a larger combined organism.
In the reproductive cycle of technological entities, the genetic code is the design. This encodes the specification for what makes up our appliance, and we can choose to see it as a kind of “machine DNA”. Designs are carried in the minds of inventors, and cross-pollinated to form new designs. Once ready, a fertilised design finds its way to a factory, where through largely automated processes it is assembled.
Interestingly, the design process strongly mirrors selective- and cross- breeding practices we have been using for a long time. Just as organisms adapt to their environment over time through evolution, so too do our appliances adapt to meet the new needs of the times. The desire to communicate over distance took form as the mobile phone, and as our requirements evolved with time, the form of the technology that fulfilled this need adapted to match. Desire and innovation act to shape each generation into the next.
More dramatic variety can be achieved by selective breeding. In the following images we see the evolution of the modern horse over a very long time period, and the variety produced in the relatively short span of modern agriculture by selectively breeding the wild mustard plant to exaggerate different traits. This led to the 4 plants we see pictured, which look completely different from the original. Cross-breeding further expands our toolkit, allowing us to combine similar species to create entirely new ones.
An abstract specification can become a piece of technology by combining our existing designs to fit an objective. Much like cross-breeding, we may combine components from different designs to produce new ones. Each of the components selected are themselves evolving and continually iterated upon in their own ecosystems.
An interesting view of this design cycle came to me through Pokémon, which provided a bridge metaphor for understanding this discretised evolutionary cycle. Pokémon itself provides an insight into the way human mind perceives nature. We give a caterpillar, a cocoon and a butterfly different names although they are the same organism, and our labelling of 3 distinct phases condenses a continuous process from egg to butterfly into discrete snapshots in our mind.
In much the same way, iterative design is a continuous evolution which appears to happen spontaneously as each new model is released. From the still frames of each released model, it is difficult to see the whole movie. In each of the images below, we see an initial intention carried though a continuous process stretching from the first conception of an idea, through multiple generations and incarnations, until it is finally discontinued.
Our designs intersect and interact to create an ecosystem of technology, with new technologies permitting yet further invention of others. It begins to appear as the inevitable evolution of ancient natural processes, which first guided apes to use tools external to their body. By reframing the development process as technology husbandry, we can bridge the gap between what is perceived as organic and inorganic, and shift our behaviours to effect a collaborative techno-social system.
If you have a project relating to swarm-consciousness, human-AI collaboration or bio-mimicry, I would love to hear from you. Do get in touch!
