Thomas

The things we call intelligence have transformed us from small, slow, physically weak apes to the solar system’s most lethal apex predators. However, when we ask whether other animals are intelligent, we’re not usually asking what capacities or kinds of bodies were advantageous in their evolutionary past. We’re really asking whether they do things... See more

We rely on the existence of an “away,” where all this heat, waste, everything, goes to and stays in. But it never disappears – it comes back.

The word “sympoiesis” derives from the ancient Greek sún (“with, together”) and poíēsis (“creation, production”), meaning “making-with” or “becoming-with.”5 As Donna Haraway (2016, 58) explains, “Sympoiesis is a simple word; it means ‘making-with.’ Nothing makes itself; nothing is really autopoietic or self-organizing. In the words of the Inupiat... See more

“Once we’ve spent the carbon costs necessary to put a new building up,” Heatherwick argues, “it’s crucial that it stays there being useful for as long as humanly possible. The worst thing we can do is knock the building down after just a few decades and put something new up. This is why boring buildings are much worse for the environment than... See more

Bits of information provide neither meaning nor orientation. They do not congeal into a narrative. They are purely additive. From a certain point onward, they no longer inform — they deform. They can even darken the world. This puts them in opposition to truth. Truth illuminates the world, while information lives off the attraction of surprise,... See more