Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with Our Nonhuman Symbionts

by N. Katherine Hayles

Overview

A new theory of mind that includes nonhuman and artificial intelligences.
 
The much-lauded superiority of human intelligence has not prevented us from driving the planet into ecological disaster. For N. Katherine Hayles, the climate crisis demands that we rethink basic assumptions about human and nonhuman intelligences. In Bacteria to AI, Hayles develops a new theory of mind—what she calls an integrated cognitive framework (ICF)—that includes the meaning-making practices of lifeforms from bacteria to plants, animals, humans, and some forms of artificial intelligence. Through a sweeping survey of evolutionary biology, computer science, and contemporary literature, Hayles insists that another way of life, with ICF at its core, is not only possible but necessary to safeguard our planet’s future

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226835983
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	02/12/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

N. Katherine Hayles is distinguished research professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles and James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of literature at Duke University. She is the author of many books, most recently Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational.

Table of Contents

1 An Integrated Cognitive Framework
2 Can Computers Create Meanings? A Technosymbiotic Perspective
3 The Emergence of Technosymbiosis and Gaia Theory
4 Cellular Cognition: Mimetic Bacteria and Xenobot Creativity
5 Rocks and Microbes: The Two Different Temporal Regimes of Biological and Mineral Evolution
6 Inside the Mind of an AI: Materiality and the Crisis of Representation
7 GPT-4: The Leap from Correlation to Causality and Its Implications
8 Subversion of the Human Aura: Three Fictions of Conscious Robots
9 Collective Intelligences: Assessing the Roles of Humans and AIs
10 Planetary Reversal: Ecological Relationality versus Political Liberalism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

Energized by advances in AI, biotechnology, and semiotics, Hayles offers fresh interpretations of established theoretical paradigms from disciplines as diverse as cybernetics and new materialism to ecocriticism and literary studies. With the fearlessness of thought demanded by this unprecedented moment, Bacteria to AI provides incisive accounts of today’s most pressing technoscientific horizons—highlighting opportunities for collective meaning making.

Avery Slater

Bacteria to AI will change the terms of the debate on the cognitive capacities of contemporary AI and their place in human lifeworlds. Following from the groundbreaking critical insights of Unthought, Hayles traces her integrated cognitive framework into the age of generative AI. From the bacteria-inspired techniques of gene editing to the text generation of GPT-3, Hayles brings her unique and astute voice to some of the most urgent questions of our times. Bacteria to AI is a must-read.

Louise Amoore

"With a subversive message that turns traditional thinking on its head, Bacteria to AI: Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts outlines a surprisingly compelling new perspective on the role of humans in the world. Penned by a polymath with expertise in both chemistry and literary criticism, its eclectic content perhaps reflects the unconventional, integrated approach that the author advocates for our future existence, breaking down disciplinary boundaries and synthesising latent meaning from truths we have known all along. It certainly prompts the reader to re-evaluate some deeply-held conventions, offering a provocative challenge to human-centred thinking."

British Society for Literature and Science

A brilliant reimagining of what it means to think—and even to be human—at a time when all around us, we can see the lines between the artificial, the natural, and the informational beginning to dissolve.

Fred Turner

"In a charming, wonkish interview of the type only the most vanguard humanists can pull off . . . Hayles lays out the complexities of determining who or what is responsible for certain kinds of allegedly ‘intelligent’ behavior."

Science Goddess - Margaret Wertheim