Contemporary computation’s narrowness stems from its severance from older biological communication systems.

Evidence

Bridle’s expansive meditation on intelligence beyond the human reframes AI within a biological-ecological context — slime molds, octopi, forest networks — to argue that contemporary computing’s narrowness reflects its severance from these older communicative systems. Methodologically, the book combines reportage, art criticism, and philosophical reflection. For doctoral candidates engaging AI critically, Ways of Being offers a generative alternative to both techno-utopian and pure-doom framings, with implications for thinking about what “intelligence” could mean beyond human-machine binaries. — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 1522

Categorization

• SEED: Could anchor an essay arguing AI critique needs an ecological rather than purely critical frame.
• XREF: Connects to Crawford’s materialist AI critique and to posthumanist communication theory. — connects to: The boundary between biological and cultural evolution is dissolving — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 493; Greeks modeled physical motion on biological life rather than mechanical machines — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 866; Every communication medium pairs its symbols with a symbiotic mechanism anchored in organic existence (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Every communication medium pairs its symbols with a symbiotic mechanism anchored in organic existence #corroborates (0.85)
• The boundary between biological and cultural evolution is dissolving #corroborates (0.62) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 493
• Greeks modeled physical motion on biological life rather than mechanical machines #complicates (0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 866