In some far off world, maybe there is such thing as tiny little microbe geniuses that’ve figured out the secrets of life before their bigger, more top o’ the food chain human-like counterparts. Maybe those microbes know we exist! Maybe they know if an orange red crayon is more orange or more red! Hell, maybe bacteria on our planet are that smart. That’s what an artist wants to find out.
Jonathan Keats is opening a scientific institution (an institution!) to test the intelligence of billions of microorganisms. If it sounds crazy, don’t worry, it is. Batshit crazy. But it’s art! So roll with it…? Anyway, Keats contends that the human mind is too complex to figure out the simple answer to life so he wants to see if simple bacteria to find out the answer.
“For years scientists have been saying that the theory of everything must be very simple. Yet the more we work to unify the forces of nature, the more complex our theories get. Clearly we’re overthinking things. Our brains are too complex to comprehend the underlying simplicity of the universe. Cyanobacteria are not burdened by all that grey matter.”
The dumber you are, the easier you grasp the simple things, I guess? So Keats has built a celestial observatory for bacteria in petri dishes. The petri dishes are set on top of a flat screen monitor that shows images of cosmos from the Hubble Telescope and because the bacteria can perform photosynthesis, they’ll be able to detect patterns. And if capable, figure out something humans can’t.
Of course, even if these magical bacteria ever figures out the answer to life. It’s not like we can stroll up to them and go, ‘Hey Backy, what’s the answer to life?’. No matter says Keats! To him, as long as the universe is understood by something, it’s all good by him. As ridiculous and hilarious and parodic Funny or Die video as this art project sounds, I’m totally rooting for the bacteria to figure it out and then band together and destroy humanity. Or something like that. [SFAC]
Ozoneocean
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:19 PMHa! Yes, it’s really quite a silly project and his rationale would probably get him a b+ if he was still an art student. It’s a bit naive and childish.
On a simple technical level- how would a micro organism be able to intuit the difference between a 2 dimensional, FLAT image, and the 4 dimensional reality where those stars that’re all pretty blobs of light on a screen are actually separated by millions of kilometres and millions of years?
This project might actually be a bit more worthwhile and interesting if he took the time to think about it carefully and design a better format. Even if he instead projected telescope images directly FROM a telescope onto his samples it’d be a superior setup.
zbeam
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 12:49 AMever heard/seen the product of yogurt cultures interfering with data on cd roms?
Osiris Fox
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 11:47 AMAgree with ozone that the format is stupid, but the idea is not that stupid. The brain itself is just a collection of advanced networked cells that exists within, and is supported by a closed system. Who’s to say that a culture of bacteria don’t have a “collective” intelligence of sorts.
In fact judging by some of the experiments they have done lately, science suggests they do. For instance, Physarum polycephalum will navigate through a maize to the nearest food source when presented with multiple options. Mycobacterium vaccae can increase intelligence in mammals. Hell, your GUT bacteria can influence your mood and demeanor (and we cannot exist without them, but they can without us). Keep in mind that a bacteria has the most simplest of objectives… survive.
We only exist via the “grace” of bacteria when you think about it. Some are benevolent, some are malevolent. Your body contains/supports more bacterial cells than human cells. What does this suggest? Perhaps you’re just an “earth” or ecosystem for those bacteria. They even have a number one enemy that seek nothing else but to destroy them… viruses.
Tin foil hat moment: Let me not get started on viruses possibly being advanced alien entities that communicate via each other via quantum links in an open system and thus a specific species is a collective intelligence.