In the surprising and exciting Alive: Synthetic Cells, Feral Robots, Rebellious AI, and the Design of Radical Life, sentience is a concept that’s both ordinary and bizarre: “We are stuck in one body and cannot function without the electrical gelatinous substance inside our imprisoning head,” writes author Madeline Schwartzman in the book’s introductory pages. With two previous works focused on human perception and techno-sensual interventions, Schwartzman is an extraordinary curator, and she organizes Alive as an encyclopedia of strange projects in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, biology, synthetic biology and art. This remarkable book offers a compelling dive into ideas you may never have considered. Take for example Thomas Thwaites, a designer who invented an apparatus that allowed him to live as a goat for several days, or Tina Gorjanc, the scientist investigating the ethics of making leather jackets out of lab-grown human skin. A chapter called Change of State is devoted to the kinds of epiphanies that astronauts often experience when seeing the Earth from space. “There are many speculations about the Earth in this time of ecological crisis, most significantly whether the Earth is alive,” Schwartzman explains. “This book is about the perception of life, which is almost as important as actual life. It is about the slippery slope between being alive and seeming to be.” It’s heady, thought-provoking stuff, but the photo-heavy, well-designed and colorful package helps it go down easily. Alive is highly recommended for readers who are curious about the intersection of science and art, and what it will mean to be a human in the future.
