Accept All Cookies
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“Computation was discovered as much as it was invented.”
“The present total available artificial computation on Earth equates to roughly 1 zettaFLOPS, or henceforth 1 Planetary Computation Unit (PCU). What happens with 10 PCU? 100 PCU? 1000 PCU?”
“Sciences are born when philosophy learns to ask the right questions. Philosophies are born when technologies force the inception of new languages.”
“An Intelligence explosion happens to a planet, not just on a planet. Intelligence is something that a planet does.”
“Artificialization is adaptation; it is niche construction. Species that get good at it persist, until they don’t.”
“To artificialize something is to rediscover what it is.”
“History of Earth in 15 words: Lithosphere makes a Biosphere that makes a Technosphere that is now part of the Noosphere.”
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These are some of the ideas explored in this powerful short book. It is a guide to the foundational concepts that will drive the next phase in the evolution in technology from the author of the landmark volume, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty, a book that mapped in advance the rise of planetary computation over the last decade.
Accept All Cookies by Benjamin Bratton features pointed provocations on the evolution of synthetic intelligence, the nature of artificial computation, the role for a new philosophy, the dynamics of recursive simulations, the geopolitics of stack systems, and the paradoxical relationships between planetary intelligence and long-term transformations.
The 100+ concise catalysts for deliberation, synthesized into direct and memorable aphorisms, are drawn from the work of Antikythera, a multidisciplinary research organization directed by Bratton and incubated at Berggruen Institute. Antikythera seeks to reorient planetary computation as a technological, philosophical, and geopolitical force. It publishes a journal and book series with MIT Press, hosts intensive R&D studios around the world, curates private salons and exhibitions, and supports cutting-edge research and early-stage development. See antikythera.org
Published by the Berggruen Press with Antikythera, Accept All Cookies was originally produced as part of the Antikythera x MIT Architecture exhibition, “The Next Earth: Climate, Computation, Cosmology,” which was held at the Palazzo Diedo at the 19th International Architecture Biennale in Venice.
