Overview
Artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridleās Ways of Being is a brilliant, searching exploration of different kinds of intelligenceāplant, animal, human, artificialāand how they transform our understanding of humansā place in the cosmos.
What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans or shared with other beingsābeings of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon? The last few years have seen rapid advances in āartificialā intelligence. But rather than a friend or companion, AI increasingly appears to be something stranger than we ever imagined, an alien invention that threatens to decenter and supplant us.
At the same time, weāre only just becoming aware of the other intelligences that have been with us all along, even if weāve failed to recognize or acknowledge them. These othersāthe animals, plants, and natural systems that surround usāare slowly revealing their complexity, agency, and knowledge, just as the technologies weāve built to sustain ourselves are threatening to cause their extinction and ours. What can we learn from them, and how can we change ourselves, our technologies, our societies, and our politics to live better and more equitably with one another and the nonhuman world?
The artist and maverick thinker James Bridle draws on biology and physics, computation, literature, art, and philosophy to answer these unsettling questions. Startling and bold, Ways of Being explores the fascinating, strange, and multitudinous forms of knowing, doing, and being that make up the world, and that are essential for our survival.
Includes illustrations
This book title, Ways of Being (Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence) - 9781250872968, ISBN: 9781250872968, by James Bridle, published by Picador (June 20, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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