Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence

A human-centric notion of intelligence takes the backseat in this fascinating survey from artist Bridle (New Dark Age). Intelligence, he writes, “is not something to be tested, but something to be recognized, in all the multiple forms that it takes.” To that end, he notes that plants have the “ability... to remember” and self-driving cars exhibit knowledge with their neural networks and learning patterns. Indeed, one of the author’s key insights is the way momentous advances in technology can lead to a better understanding of the “more-than-human world.” In a prime example, the rise of the internet and the corresponding notion of network theory made possible the discovery of how such networks operate “in the real world,” namely in the symbiotic relationships that connect fungi and plant roots in the forest. Bridle makes a solid case for his argument that “everything is intelligent” and that all life on Earth is interconnected, and his notion that intelligence is “one among many ways of being in the world” is well reasoned and convincing. This enlightening account will give readers a new perspective on their place in the world. Agent: Antony Topping, Greene & Heaton (U.K.). (June)