Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation Author(s): Karl Chu Source: Perspecta, Vol.

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Karl Chu

of Metaphysics Genetic Architecture and

Computation

Figs. I, 2, 3 ZyZx, MetaxY. ZyZx symbolizes a sampling from the set of configuration spaces of architecture inherent within the universe of cellular automata. Karl Chu would like to thank Chris Sandes for programming cellular automata and Christian Lange for assisting with digital constructions.

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Chu-Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation

76

All is algorithm!GregoryChaitin'

I Gregory Chaitin, "Leibniz, Information, Math and Physics" [online text], <http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/ CDMTCS/chaitin/kirchberg.pdf> (2003), 9. 2 Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science (Champaign: Wolfram Research, 2002), 41. 3 Alan Turing, "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,"Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, 2:42 (1936). Alan Turing developed for the first time the conceptual blueprint for an abstract machine noted as the Turing machine in the above mentioned paper. 4 Stuart Kauffman, Investigations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 142-4. Kauffman's concept of the Adjacent Possible was applied in the context of his investigations into the origin of life based on autocatalytic systems, which are derived from random interactions of nodes within Boolean networks.

5 "Life Is Inevitable in Stuart Kauffman's Creative Universe," The Paula GordonShow [website], <http://www. paulagordon.com/shows/kauffman/> (posted date unknown; accessed February 13, 2004). 6 Alan Turing developed the Universal Turing Machine, an abstract machine in the logical sense of the term, in response to David Hilbert's call for the resolution of the decision in problem, or Entscheidungsproblem, mathematics. 7 Paolo Rossi, Logic and the Art of Memory.'The Questfor a Universal Language (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), I45-94. 8 John Wheeler, "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links,"in Wojciech Zurek (ed.), Complexity,Entropy,and the Physics of Information,proceedings of the SFI workshop of the same title, held May 29 to June Io, I989 (Redwood City: Addison-Wesley, 1990), VIII. 5.

Withthe dissolutionof the last utopianprojectof Man in the nameof Communism, the greatspecterthat once hauntedEuropeand the restof the worldhas all but vanished,leavingin its wakean ideologicalvacuumthat is now beingfilledby the tentaclesof globalization with its ecumenical ambition.As humanityhas become mesmerized what by the triumphant spellof capitalism, remainsless apparent in the aftermath of this dissolution is that the worldis movingincipiently towarda threshold that is far moreradicaland fantasticthan anyutopic vision sincethe dawnof the Enlightenment. Onceagain, the worldis witnessingthe rumblings of a Promethean firethat is destinedto irruptinto the universeof humanity, callinginto questionthe natureand function of life worldrelationsas they so far haveexisted.These rumblings, stemmingin largemeasurefromthe of computationand biogeneticsin the latter convergence havealreadybegunto partof the twentiethcentury, invokegravidvisionsof the unthinkable: the unmasking veil of reality. of the primordial The evolutionof life and intelligence on Earth has finallyreachedthe point whereit is now deemed possibleto engendersomethingalmostout of nothing.2 In principle, a universeof possibleworldsbasedon inherentwithinnatureand the principles generative is universe considered to be withinthe realmof physical once quantumcomputingsystems the computable becomea reality.For the firsttime,mankindis finallyin the possessionof the powerto changeand transform geneticconstitutionof biologicalspecies,which,without for the futureof life a doubt,has profoundimplications on Earth.By bringinginto the foreground the hidden of life in all its potentialmanifestations reservoir through of the geneticcode, the unmasking the manipulation or the transgression of whatcould be considered the first principleof prohibition--thetakinginto possessionof to be the powerof God to whatwas once presumed createlife-may lead to conditionsthat are so precarious as to eventhreatenthe futureviability and treacherous of the species,Homosapiens,on Earth.At the sametime, into the universe dependingon how mankindnavigates that are about to be of possibleworlds siphonedthrough it could once againbringfortha poetic computation, of the world,one that resonateswith all re-enchantment of a pre-modern era derived,in this the attributes of the seemingly irreconinstance,fromthe intersection cilabledomainsof logos and mythos.Organically that is to forma new planeof immanence interconnected of a global digital,computationis the modernequivalent the worldinto alchemicalsystemdestinedto transform the sphereof hyper-intelligent beings.

77 The powerof computationis alreadyevidentin the fact that in less than seventyyearssincethe inceptionof it has usheredin the the UniversalTuringMachine,3 Revolutionby givingriseto one of the most Information and now indispensable phenomenonin the significant the Internet,or,whatcould historyof communication: the as universeof the Adjacent be characterized also StuartKauffmandefinesthe AdjacentPossible Possible.4 as the expansionof the networksof reactiongraphs withinan interactive systeminto the neighborhood domainof connectivitywhichuntilthen remainsonly in Kauffmansuggests,"The a stateof purepotentiality. Universehas not exploredall possiblekindsof people, and legal systems,economiesor othercomplexsystems," that"autonomous Agentstend to arrangeworkand coordinationso that they areexpandinginto the AdjacentPossibleas fast as they can get awaywith it."' Likeeveryphasetransition,the Internetmarksa new the planetwith a virtual, worldorderby re-configuring matrixthat is becomingincreasingly albeitan interactive spatial,intelligentand autonomous:a global selforganbustlingwith neuralintelligence synthesizing fromeverycornerof the MilkyWay possiblydetectable and beyond.It is at the levelof the constructionof are for architecture possibleworldsthat the implications The thesisthatwill be advancedat most pronounced. is the latterpartof this paperis that architecture dependenton geneticcomputabecomingincreasingly constructionand the mutual tion: the generative coexistenceof possibleworldswithinthe computable domainof modal space. Yet,whatis the natureof computationthat is destined No instruto changethe worldincludingarchitecture? sincethe mentalconceptor logic of implementation inventionof the wheelhas fosteredso muchenthusiasm and promiseas computationhas. Beyondthe normative conceptionof computingmachinesas mereinstruments it is and communication, for calculation,fabrication importantto recognizethe natureof the underlying ambitionsof computationand its relationto architecas it may seem,the and provocative ture.As controversial ambitionsof computationarealready underlying life and intellithe embodimentof artificial apparent: machinesor gencesystemseitherthroughabstract mutationof organicand inorganic throughbiomachinic the subsequent substances, and, most significantly, of physicaland actualworldsinto higher sublimation formsof organicintelligence by extendinginto the domainof possibleworlds.At the most computable computation,like natural prosaiclevelhowever, in its most general dealswith information languages, of integers, form.Computation functionsas manipulator and manyotherkindsof entities. graphs,programs, In reality,however, computationonly manipulates of that the objects.It should represent strings symbols also be pointedout that, accordingto the late Richard at Feynman,computingsystemscould be constructed the atomicscale:swarmsof nanobots,each functioning in accordance to a simpleset of rules,could be madeto infiltrate into host organisms or environments including is a the humanbody.In its simplestform,computation througha discrete systemthatprocessesinformation the results of its preceding of sequence stepsby taking it to the next stagein accordance stageand transforming function.Suchan iterative to a recursive procedure has provedto be astonishingly basedon recursion powerfuland is classifiedas belongingto a class of machineshavinguniversal properties. lies that the originof computation It is not surprising reasonin an in an attemptto embodyinstrumental machine6 abstract along with the attendantdriveto encodethe logic of life and the worldaroundus in all its The questfor a UniversalLanguage7 manifestation. and functions all the attributes whichcould encapsulate form and structure of all the to inscribe necessary worldsis becomingone of the most persistcomputable in the shorthistoryof computation.Since ent endeavors at the most processing computationis aboutinformation the prominent fundamental level,JohnWheeler, of wholegeneration to a influential Americanscientist in the latterhalf of the twentiethcentury, physicists initiatedan information-theoretic conceptionof the that everyitem in the universehas at worldby stipulating bottom-at a verydeepbottom, in most instances-an that is informationsourceand explanation immaterial that The fact in theoretic origin.8 computationis a the existenceof a selfphysicalprocessfurtherstipulates consistentlogicalloop: the lawsof physicsdefinethe allowedmechanical operationsand the possibleactivities of a UniversalTuringMachine,whichin turndetermine and whichmathematical operationsarecomputable In other definethe natureof solvablemathematics. words,the lawsof physicsgeneratethe verymathematics This discoveryof thatmakesthose lawscomputable. the inextricable linkagethatexistsbetweencomputation that physical and physicshas led to the awareness of forms in fact are computation,and, nowhere processes mademoreexplicitthan in Stephen is this understanding of the Principleof Computaformulation Wolfram's "Allprocesses, Wolfram tionalEquivalence. remarks, whetherthey areproducedby humaneffortor occur in nature,can be viewedas computaspontaneously

Chu-Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation

78 shiftin This propositionreflectsa fundamental tions."9 the waywe thinkaboutthe natureof the physical it is nothingshortof a paradigmshift,which universe; withoutan underlying wouldnot havebeenconceivable of such a worldview: thesisthat enablesthe construction Thesisas formulated the Church-Turing by Alfonso in and Alan the Church Turing earlypartof the twenti'functionwhich eth century. Accordingto Turing, "Every as computable' be regarded can be wouldnaturally Turingmachine."'10 computedby the universal Although the absoluteveracityof the thesiscannotbe decidedby logicalmeans,all attemptsto givean exactanalysisof function calculable the intuitivenotion of an effectively Eachanalysisoffered haveturnedout to be equivalent. has beenprovento pick out the sameclass of functions, by the Turing namelythose that arecomputable
machine."1

9 Wolfram, Stephen, A New Kind of Science (Champaign: Wolfram Research, 2002), 7I5. IO David Deutsch, "Quantum Theory, the Church-TuringPrinciple and the Universal Quantum Computer," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A:400 (I985), 3.

1 Apart from the analyses defined in terms of lambda-definability by A. Church and recursiveness,there are analyses in terms of register machines by J. P. Shepherdson and H. E. Sturgis, E. L. Post's canonical and normal systems, combinatory definability by M. Sch6nfinkel and H. B. Curry, Markov algorithms, and G6del's notion of reckonability. 12 Craig Venter,"Supermicrobe Man," Wired, IO: 2 (December 2002),
13 Rem Koolhaas, "Junk Space," October, 00oo (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002), I75-90.

of computation is the Parallelto the development discoveryof the DNA code in the earlypart of the the significance of whichhas only twentiethcentury, begunto be realizedwith the completionof the Human of GenomeProject.Finally,with the convergence the worldis now moving computationand biogenetics, the so-called Post-Human into Era,whichwill bring mutationof organic fortha new kind of bio-machinic is the currency Information and inorganicsubstances. and nowhereis this that drivesall thesedevelopments moreapparent than in the wordsutteredby CraigVenter, whichcompletedthe of CeleraCorporation, the ex-CEO "Thegoal is to engineera new humangenomesequence: speciesfromscratch."'2 This statement bluntlyannouncesthe unadulterated ambitionof the biogeneticrevolution.It is only a matter of timebeforethe worldwill witnessbio-machinic into everyfacet of what mutationof speciesproliferating so far has been the culturallandscapeof humanity. Architectstakenote:this is the beginningof the demise, of the reignof anthropology, if not the displacement, whichhas alwayssubsumedarchitecture. Architecture, especiallyfromthe standpointof its mythicalinception, the expulsion has alwaysbeen a subsetof anthropology: it into the the beast,by entrapping of Minotaur, builtby Daedalus,the mythicalarchitectat labyrinth of architecture Knossos.The potentialemancipation us to thinkfor is alreadyaffording fromanthropology with its the firsttime of a new kind of xenoarchitecture own autonomyand will to being.In orderto break of complacency and self-imposed throughthe barrier whatis neededis of the discipline, ignoranceon the part of architecof the prevailing a radicalization paradigm manifestoes, ture,beyondretroactive by developinga

79

that is adequateto the new conceptof architecture demandsimposedby computationand the biogenetic revolution. Eventhougharchitects haveincorporated computing systemsin the designand constructionof buildings and environments, the phaseof transmodernity thatwe arenow in is perhapsbest characterized by the use of still under the computation operating vestigesof the old has stillyet to paradigm.In otherwords,architecture the architecture of computationinto the incorporate Withinthe contemporary computationof architecture. discoursetherearetwo diverlandscapeof architectural trends with theoretical motivations: the morphogent to dynamicaland the morphogenetic systemsapproaches the designand constructionof buildings. Thesetwo of a strikingly similarproblem systemsarereminiscent that existsin modernbiology,whichis still attempting to that existbetweenmolecular synthesizethe differences on the one hand, and developmental biology, biologyon the other.Whatis neededin architecture also is a similar synthesisof the two. Aftermorethan half a centuryof with the avant-garde, the practiceof engagement architecture has becomeincreasingly consciousof its embeddedness withinthe generaleconomyof forces, and relationships, the globaleconomy.The morphotwo different dynamicalapproach,whichhas spurred in dealingwith programmethodologicalorientations maticissues,is the moredominantof the two at the moment.The morphogenetic systemis still moreor less

in its embryonic stageeventhoughit is by far the more fundamental and necessarysinceit dealswith the construction of objectsdirectly. Whatfollowsis a brief excursioninto conceptualissuesthatmotivatethe two in architecture beforeproviding a brief approaches sketchof GeneticArchitecture in the latterpartof this article. Theoperaof globalization The firstand most influential of the two directions within the morphodynamical is Rem Koolhaas's reapproach formulation of architecture as the spatialregistry for the new worldorderengendered by International Capital. with the heroic of Long dispensed spirit modernityand the attendantneed for salvation,Koolhaasresembles a man who fell to Earth,saturated with the discretecharm of a nihilistwho nonethelesspreoccupies himselfwith the problemsof the world.He is essentiallyan idealist wearingthe cloak of realism,whichallowshim to of a surveyor with embodythe perceptive intelligence a vision of the worldthat is at once pragmatic and with the organization and cynical.Concerned primarily modulationof forcesoperative withinthe globalmarket allowshim to engagein a economy,his detachment mannerist of modern architecture critique I) by deploythe of the modernist ethos that he is ing verylanguage criticalof, and 2) variouspretensions and absurdities of life whichfindsuchcompulsive withinthe expressions culturaldomainincludingarchitecture. A thinlyveiled if not a lack of toleranceaccompanies this impatience demeanor: "It'sthe economy,stupid!Get on with infrastructure and the flow of Capital." A realistpresentimentthat is all the morereasonable whenviewedfrom the standpointof the practiceof architecture embedded withinthe capitalistsystem.But, whatis left unsaidor remainsunthoughtis that architecture, with especially the demiseof the USSR and the subsequent openingof the marketeconomyinto Russiaand the People's the wild and Republicof China,whichhas embraced far morethan the United States unrulyside of capitalism of America,has becomethe instrument of the ontological destinyof Capital:a trulyprolificsystemcapableof nationalboundaries and ideologies. transcending The stakes,no doubt, are supremely high. This is not withoutmerit.The Koolhaashowever, approach, ian outlook calls attentionto the proliferation of wastelandsand JunkSpace13 as well as to the general machinesthat regulate economyof abstract monetary flux, systemsof production,supplychains,modes of new markets, distribution, shopping,shiftsin demogratraffic etc. We shouldnot overlookthe fact phy, patterns,

Fig. 4 It from Bit. Representation of the Universe in terms of binary digits by John Wheeler

andComputation Chu-Metaphysicsof GeneticArchitecture

80

14 CoolSpaceis a termthatI coined to referto the cool andtranslucent aesthetics. natureof minimalist L. Hays,"TheWal15 Constance MartWayBecomes TopicA in TheNew York BusinessSchools," Times, July27, 2003,Section3, Io. "TheNew World," 16 RemKoolhaas, Wired,1:6 (June2002), I 115-37. of aesthetics 17 Seethe cinematic directed by Jean-Luc Alphaville,
Godard (I965). Alphaville, a story

and Kim,Supervenience I8 Jaegwon Mind(Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1994), 92-5. andMind, I9 Kim,Supervenience
101-2.

fromDiogenes, 20oA kynic,stemming but stubborn is the provocative witha plebianintelligence, moralist unlike who lets out a satirical laughter, to Sloterdjik, the cynicwho,according the smileof an enlightened harbors on his lip.Peter falseconsciousness Reason of Cynical Critique Sloterdjik, of Minnesota University (Minneapolis:
Press, I988).

whichunfoldsin a utopianworldof is governed the future, by a totalitarian counts systemin whichthe individual foralmostnothing,and an alienated societyhas no use forart,poetry,love, or eventhought.Peoplearereduced to the levelof robots. essentially

that, unlikerealdynamicalsystemsthat arefoundin as a consenature,Koolhaas's framingof architecture quenceof the marketeconomydoes not lead to the constructionof architecture dynamical per se. This the on aspectof performative placesemphasis approach and alludes,in some rare culturalprogramming This of reactivesublimation. instances,to an architecture of Cool in the compression is most vividlydisplayed the heightenedarrestof immanentforcesby Space14: the dramaof life withinthe systemas a quasibracketing transcendental zone, at once liminaland erotic,strangely detachedand yet simultaneously belongingto the world. Its operative projecting modality:the eye of the architect his cool light, tingedwith sublimeirony,into the Space of Capital. of the regimeof YC$and reminder Withhis persistent to geo-politicaleventsas partof the everreferences shiftingglobalmatrixthat governsand constrainsthe Koolhaasoffersa criticalrealism designof buildings, of the given.Not unlike that dealswith the imperatives thesesocial,political the art of politicaldramatization, and economicissuesareframedstrategically by Koolhaas in a condensedfashion,with the aim to provoke and shatterthe decrepitmindof a stubbornarchitect holds onto the defunctformalismof who still indulgently Due in partto his eloquence,which the avant-garde. are tendsto be laconicand pungent,his pronouncements almostalwaysaccompanied by seductiveimages of facts and events. designedto heightenthe surrealism especially they areall the moreeffective, Consequently, with who havebecomedisenchanted for those architects or and who haveeitherlost the desire are the avant-garde encumbered by the senseof futilityin developingnew be smoothed ideas-which in theireyes will inevitably in framingconditionsof overby the capitalistmachinery, for the programmatic genesis possibilityor impossibility withinthe capitalist of architecture and construction Giventhis intention,it is systemof axiomatization. that sucha venuerelies understandable yet unfortunate on the defaultlanguageof modernarchitecexclusively tureand its typologywith its attendantsemiologyto form.By appealingto organizeand frameits dramatic the generic,Koolhaastakeson an objectivestancewith a withoutindulgingin extraneous minimalistvocabulary The embellishments. designsolutionsor idiosyncratic solelyto the genericaffect,especiallywhensubordinated is liableto be co-optedand dictatesof the commercial, Marshall blendedinto what Blonsky,a professorof semioticsat the New Schoolin Manhattan,refersto as with everyof everything "theindifferent equivalence thingelse,for an audiencethat has no concernfor that

and no discernment of quality"and where difference, least commondenominators "America's gathered Basedon the reductive rationality befitting together.15 of whichKoolhaasis fully awareof the a bureaucrat, of concealment the irrational by the rational-a very specialdeliriuminherentto the regimeof money, accordingto Deleuze-architectureis now in a position evenin the contextof his acuteawareness to concentrate, of this madness,on modulatingthe flow of programmatic issuesdrivenby the ever-expanding capitalistsystemof
circumlocution.

As such, the locus of forceis situatedneitherin the materialor formalcausebut positedexclusively in the efficientcause,i.e., programmatic determinants engendered by the system,which,for Koolhaas,constitutesthe fundamental reasonfor beingof architecture. The maininteresttherefore is not in the formalgenesisor in the searchfor the autonomyof architecture but to graspthe dynamicsof the capitalistregime,whichcomes repletewith a new zodiacfor a new worldorder16 representedby the evershiftingconstellationof corporate logos collectivelystandingin to framethe cosmography of Capital.Machinicassemblages of this regimearethen channeled,coalescedand constrained appropriately a medium with a quasi-transcenthrough spatial charged dentalaestheticsreminiscent of Alphaville.17 The therefore is inversely relatedto impotenceof architecture the cosmologyof the powersystemthat subsumesit; at best, accordingto this position,can do architecture, nothingmorethan to invertthis inversionthroughirony whilesublimating JunkSpaceinto a flattenedand translucentCool Space.His positionis one of reactivesublimation,whichcontentsitselfwith the mereaccomplishment of sublimeironyas opposedto gettinginvolvedin the messianicprojectionof possibleworldsto come. The Koolhaasianapproachtherefore is that of a journalistwho relishesan extensional descriptionof wherethe entireuniverseof relevantobjects architecture is captured underthe sign of Y?$. His methodis a topdown analysisof the brutalityof facts,of the realityof the givenbasedon epiphenomenal causation,18which revealsdependency relationsthat exist at the macrolevel of causalrelations ratherthan on the internalstructure that connectfacts and events.It is a versionof mereoa generalized appealto the logicalsupervenience,19 where the characterisof the macro-economy operations on the properties and relationtics of wholessupervene theirproperparts.The alchemical shipscharacterizing withintheseobjects-the transformations occurring of internalrelationsand hiddenmicro-economy interactions that exist at variousscalarand specification

thatlead to energy,and information regimesof matter, complexorganizations-remainoutsidethe scope of his surveillance and penetration. Beingall too comfortable with the fashionable displayof chartsand figures,as if alone they adequately explainthe innercomplexityof the world,Koolhaasseemsresignedto makingenlightened remarks on just abouteverything: fromLargosto this is Shanghaivia 9/I I. Farfrombeinga stalemate, only the beginningof the capitalistversionof alchemy: the incarnation and mutationof affectsproducedby into the mindand body of Man as well as into Capital the organicand inorganicsubstancesof reality,an inevitable fatalismthat is destinedto fundamentally alter the verydefinitionof Man, along with it, the categoryof the species--Homosapiens.Koolhaas,for the moment, an indexof consciousness, a criticalfacet of represents whichexpandsarchitecture neo-conservatism outsideof its parochiallimitationsand allowsit to be subsumed, at a price,by the restricted undoubtedly economyof Capital. smileof a Finally,accompanied by the ambivalent who has become at kynic20 adept playingwith the flux of the disseminated Capital, message by Koolhaasis clear: be a capitalistwith the moralprerogatives of a skeptic who, in his case,is tingedwith a heavydose of asceticism wherethe principleof salvation,everan unacknowledgedsentimentwhichconstitutessucha monasticor aestheticsof architecture, with that repressed converges of the accrualof surplusvalue,neithercontradictory nor whenit comesto life and architecregrettable especially ture.It is this proposition-a massiverhetorical adumbrationif not an apologeticfor the capitalization of whichunabashedly subsumes architecture, subordinates, and suppresses the autonomyof architecture and its internalwill to freedomby lockingits interiority into the restricted economyof Capital,not leavingany roomfor the messianicexploration of worldsto come-that is most problematic with this orientation. In otherwords,it is the dissipationof the will to architecture througha transfusion of thatwill into the cartography of branding: the end of architecture and the beginningof the presumedenlightened Spaceof Capital,at least up to the Suchis the militantnatureof an stageof transmodernity. to naiverealism,an epipheontologicalcommitment nomenalistdramabasedon apparent causationthat characterizes the workof Rem Koolhaasand his who, far frombeing disciples-thoughtful architects fromthe latemodernistera, arenonetheless sleepwalkers all too willingand eagerto be caughtin a uniquely Western versionoffeng shui,albeitwithouttheirbeing awareof it, whichliterallymeanswindandwater-

andComputation of GeneticArchitecture Chu- Metaphysics

82

elementsthat constitute,in this instance,the fluid dynamicsof an esotericbeliefsystem.In otherwords,it

is the smoothing of the flow of oracles induced by the master into the flow of MM&M- Money, Matter, and

confluenceis the only Meaning-as if this magnificent theaterof the worldworthenactingon the planeof consistencywhichhas no placefor the irruptionof the notwithuntimelyor the intrusionof the unexpected,
standing the catastrophic events of 9/I I, and much less

the caesurathatmomentarily pausesthe soundand the This is the Koolhaasianrenditionof furyof everything. the Operaof Globalization. matter Morphing The seconddirectionwithinthe morphodynamical is represented by a host of youngarchitects approach with workingin the digitaldomain.Theyareconcerned of so-calledsoft morphologyand, for the architecture Influenced by Greg some,biomorphicrepresentation. Lynn'sinterestin animateform,on the one hand,and, to use of forcein for the lack of kinematical compensate Koolhaason the other,thesearchitects, beingplayfully featuressuchas with the use of dynamical enthusiastic within available particlesystemsand inversekinematics animationsoftwaresuchas Maya,Softimageand interactive morphingbasedon Houdini,instantiate linkedto contexgraphsthat arespuriously dependency tual forcesthat existwithina givensite or condition. Mobilityand flow are once againat the top of the that difference agenda.Unawareof the fundamental not to mention existsbetweenmodelingand simulation, the occasionallyambiguousrelationthat existsbetween modes of and non-representational representational computation,they thriveon the confusionderivedfrom mistakingthe behaviorof forcesenactedwithinthe as beingidenticaland isomorphicto virtualenvironment the complexbehaviorof forcesand relationsthat occur in the physicalworld.In most cases,they areexamplesof stagedon a virtualplaneof misplacedconcreteness consistencywithout,on the most part,the necessary in the modelingof complexadaptive rigorrequired In realworldsituations. behaviorthat approximates addition,neitherarethey involvedin the simulationof in or bodieswithout organs, possibilities, puredynamical the wordsof Deleuze and GuattariechoingAntonin traumaof beingbondaged Artaud,withoutthe attendant of the to representation. Instead,they aredeployments that features sameset of animation post-production use to and in both elsewhere, Hollywood companies, and films, virtualaffectsfor TV advertisements generate of parametric and in a few cases,the manipulation

2I Stuart Kauffman, Investigations, 13I.

83 softwareto instantiate withinengineering constraints some of these complexmorphing.Unfortunately, moreoften than not, tend to lapseinto animations, comicaldisplayof animatedforcesrepresented by the flow of particlesas they contortand distortNurb These surfacesenactedwithinthe virtualenvironment. contortionsarethen augmented already by narratives Koolhaas. rehearsed by stipulatedand featureof dynamicalsystemsin The characteristic not equippedwith generalis that they arefundamentally The formalconstitutionof these constructive processes. and on the quantitative properties systemsis predicated as construed are elementswhich couplingsof interacting elementsas matterand they fail to represent unformed that can giverise objectswith distinctinternalstructures into arraysof to behavior. disappear Objectstherefore confinedto holdingnumerical variables structureless of an objectclass.These valuesthat quantifyproperties intensiveordinatesthatmapchangesin valuesrepresent of a gene,the time,densityand space:the frequency of a chemical,the position and velocityof concentration of a gas, the rateof changein an aircraft,the pressure of the dollar,the density interestrates,the fluctuations of population,the earningsof a firm,the riseand fall flow of traffic,etc. As a of stocks,the diagrammatic is understoodas the temporal interaction consequence, valueof quantitative or spatialchangein the numerical This changeis capturedby a set of (determinisvariables. tic or stochastic)differential equations (or difference) and the solutionsof theseequationsmay then be viewed as a flow in phasespace,whichthen can be characterized as a manifoldthat governsthe set of possibletrajectories. involvesobjectsdirectly interaction In Nature,however, them.With valuedescribing and neverby a numerical regardto havingtoo muchfaith in statistics,a caution contextis appropriate: by Kauffmanmadein a different of the configuration "thereis no finiteprestatement is thereone for a truly Neither spaceof a biosphere."21 that is open to the radicalconceptionof architecture future. of conventional Going outsideof the framework takingthis observation dynamicalsystemsrequires Giventhe inherentlimitationof dynamical seriously. of one aspectof the systems,whichis an abstraction of this conceptual behaviorof nature,the application as an expositorysystemfor architecture apparatus has leadsto the assumptionthat architecture inevitably of notion interiorthe since own its of no interiority very of construction the objectsand their ity presupposes genesisovertime.The emphasisplacedby the dynamical is in the interactionof forceswithina therefore approach givencontextwhichis consistentwith the notion of architecture conceivedas an adaptivedisciplineprediinto a given or otherwise, catedon weaving,critically fabricof urbanconditionthatis alreadyinfusedwith a Whatis left set of social,politicaland economicreality. is the to crucial the behind,and this is point remember, the internalstructure whereby verylogic of construction of an elementor a groupof elementscausesspecific actionsto occur,suchas the replication, mutation, or deletionof substitution modification, construction, otherobjects,all of whicharepartof the grammatical in the genesisof functionsof a languagethatparticipates some an internalwill to architecture. Unfortunately, theoristsand criticswho arevehemently architectural almostto the point of beingmilitant,of the supportive, with its appealto especially approach, morphodynamical the flow of Capital,areundulyobstinatein avoiding formalissuesthat areinternalto thesesystems,which,in Concerned fact, give impetusto theirarguments. with the inductiveuse of associative reasoning, primarily the natureand functionof metaphoric importthat give powerto theseconcepts,whicharederived explanatory fromthe scienceof dynamical systems,remainlargely unthought. lack of critical Parallelto this is a corresponding the hegemonicinfluenceof software stanceconcerning by software systemsthat aremadeall too "user-friendly" use of pre-determined The uncritical manufacturers. functionswithinthesesystemstend to producearchitecthat arerecognizably turalaffectsand morphologies Whatis most problematic homogeneousand predictable. set of a pre-constituted is the unconsciouspropagation traits lead to architectural of functionsthat invariably devoidof any criticalimportor will to being:the multiwhichengenders, facetednoveltyof the ready-made of constraints, throughthe manipulation parametric variationsof the same--anothernewfound inexhaustible underthe regimeof Capital. lease on life for architecture The art of rewriting In contrastto the morphodynamical systemsapproach has its orientation the morphogenetic to architecture, premisein the idea of an internalprinciplethat generates It is an investment formand organization. architectural that is clearlylackingin the of the will to architecture whichdependsexclusively approach, morphodynamical on exogenousissuesto regulatethe compositionand form.Dynamicalsystemsare packagingof architectural systemsendowedwith the capacityfor selfgenerative but not self-replication. organization neithera descriptionof its logic and contain They

Chu-Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation

84 nor mechanisms for copying templateof its organization information onto subsequent generations. hereditary In contrast,a geneticsystemcontainsa description of itselfthat is necessary for self-replication. Of the two uses of computation,representational and non-representaallowfor the tional,non-representational procedures and of forms that areintrinsicto development emergence geneticsystems.The representational conceptof that exist outsideof modelinginsteadrelieson references the computational process,suchas in computersimulation. In non-representational modeling,thereis no a reference to model or condition priori any pre-existent that existsoutsideof itself;it modelsits own realityby inherentwithinan exploringgenerative possibilities axiomaticruleset. It is the purestformof information that is basedon inherentpossibilitiesand processing limitations. who areinvolvedin the Among the few architects22 therehaveemergedthree morphogenetic approach, directions:I) a genetichermeneutics of complementary architecture as represented by PeterEisenman,2) algorithmicarchitecture exploredby CecilBelmond,John and a few otherswho relyon fractalsystems, Frazer, to Lindenmayer systems,and geneticalgorithms definedgeometricobjects,and, generate recursively whichtakeson 3) a geneticmonadologyof architecture, as the modusoperandi for the construction symbiogenesis of possibleworlds.As it is presented here,this last is approach implicitlyrelatedto the firstand explicitly connectedto the second. All theseapproaches takeas theircentralidea the The difference in the interpretation conceptof rewriting. and use of this conceptessentially differentiates Eisenman'smethodologyand the othertwo positionswhich arebasedon recursion. EventhoughEisenmandoes not a precursor relyon formalaxioms,he can be considered to the morphogenetic orientation.His earlyinterestin the deep structures of Chomsky's is indicative grammar of his laterbut abidinginterestin the interiority of architecture and the autonomyof the generative, twin that are fundamental to the of concepts development a theoryof geneticarchitecture. It mustbe mentioned that Chomsky's grammar pavedthe wayfor Aristid to developa mathematical Lindenmayer theoryof plant formationcalledLindenmayer System,or simply, which is based on the L-system, logic of stringrewriting: a techniquefor definingcomplexobjectsby successively replacing partsof a simpleinitialobjectusinga set of
rewritingrules.23Genetics also presupposes the concept

22 John Frazer, An Evolutionary Architecture(London: Architectural Association, 1995). Some of the engineering work done by Cecil Belmond relied on fractal systems. 23 Aristid Lindenmayer and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (New York: Springer-Verlag,1990), I. 24 Betty Rojtman, Black Fire on WhiteFire (Berkeley: University of California Press, I998), I. 25 Rojtman, Black Fire on White Fire, I.

26 Ernst Haeckel's well known assertion that "Ontogeny is the short and rapid recapitulation of phylogeny" is based entirely on mechanical causes which are physical-chemical in nature. His position, unfortunately, led him to the ideology of National Socialism in Germany. In the case of Eisenman, there is no appeal to such mechanical causes or physical substances that provide the basis for such recapitulation. It is purely a hermeneutical gesture that attempts to address the interiority of architecture through the diagram, which has none of the absolute certainty that Haeckel implied with his assertion. Stephen J. Gould, Ontogenyand Phylogeny (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977), 76-85.

of rewriting withinits system.Eisenmanhas introduced a less formalconceptof rewriting: the diagram. The

85

In her Rojtmanin her studyon Jewishhermeneutics. book BlackFireon WhiteFire,Rojtmanrecountsand situatesthe originof the infiniteseriespropagated by textualexegesisas follows: The Torahthat God gaveto Moses openswith I amreferring to as a genetic hermeneutics the secondletterof the alphabet,the 'beth'of of architecture, derivedfromexegeticalprocedures, and a monadology The Lawof truth,the charterof the of plurality. architecture that I am which is an world's firstof all as genetic foundation,is thus presented proposing, extensionand transformation of Leibniz's disseminated at the 'Word' heart of the Monadology, unique. albeitwithouthis theogony.Froma philosophical This is the scene of that point original inscription deliberately of view,both approaches "a deeprent operatein the void openedup sidestepsanycoincidenceand instantiated in the fabricof an absolutepronouncement, it marksthe by the absenceof the Word,in the fertilespacethat is now beingtraversed entirerangeof historyto come,the placeallowedfor by computationwhich,as mentionedearlier, is involvedin the searchfor the code of the livingwithinan essentialWord."24 Furthermore, existence-even in the obliquesensethat it has imparted this "Exegesis repeats paradoxby positinga true to architecture sincetimeimmemorial. univocalmeaningthat nevertheless opensout towardthe worldand 'plays'betweenwritingand orality,between of the future the interpreted wordand the transmitted word.TM25 Archaeology PeterEisenman's architecture overthe last thirtyyears Let it be statedwithouttoo muchpreamble thatPeter on relies some form of at Eisenman's architecture must be understood as a similar consistently generative process, timeshighlyidiosyncratic, to arriveat architectural form. as partof the inner attemptto situatearchitecture AlthoughEisenmandeploysmorphingtechniquesin unfoldingof an exegeticaltraditionand the hermeneutisome of the projectsdone in the last few years,whatis cal rolethat the architect playswithinsuch a process, is that he is motivatedby the desireto uncover whichis highlynuanced,complexand syntheticwithout significant a phenomenology of interiority and autonomywithin outsideof the beingdialectical.Tojudge his architecture the disciplineof architecture his own context of the tradition of is by inscribing interpretation to miss a theoretical workwithinthe sametraditionin orderto fundamental thesisof his work:architecture is a formof disclosethe natureof that autonomythat he so wishesto situatedat the intersection of a inscriptionor rewriting This is a move that is not withouta degree perpetuate. past whichconstitutesits traditionand possiblefutures. of paradoxical relationto its subjectmatter.Correspond- It is mediated,at thisjuncture,by the diagramwhich folds and unfoldsthe textualtraditionof architecture, an ingly,he is consciouslyinvolvedin the chainof interpretationthat includesdialogicalrelationswith certain of the future that resembles an arithmetical archaeology selectarchitects fromhistory.His worktherefore can be series:infinitebut secretlycalculatedand, in the case of characterized as a genetichermeneutics of architecture. Eisenman,mediatedby an activerenewalof signification In contrastto geneticsystems,a genetichermeneutics is in the veryact of inscribing the diagram-writingthat a generative based on the modality principally interpreopensup the futurityof writing. tationof the senseof interiority embeddedwithina series The diagramtherefore traces re-presents by rewriting or tradition.By subsequently the results of of the word and the transmitted It is at word. re-investing interpreted its interpretation back into the structure, it attemptsto once diachronic and synchronic with regardto the maintainand furtherpropagate the unfoldingof the simultaneous of latenttrajectories thatevenregistration series.This move allowshim to acquirea dimensionof tuallyunfoldinto the configuration spaceof buildings. and with to the series. This is the theoretical work singularity autonomy regard geneticaspectof Eisenman's the condensation and of this in the of structure and However, which, perpetuation process unfolding,gives to is of architecture, series,whichconstitutethe historyof architecture, a singularity organicity the interiority done withoutthe benefitof any appealto formallogic or to an originalpresence, is that, by virtueof its reference axiomatics. a of endowedwith the imperatives of a messianicforce Correspondingly, genetichermeneutics architecture is groundedin the traditionof interpretation directedtowardthe futureunfoldingof the world. whichattemptsto decipherand unfoldan original in this context,is understoodas the developOntogeny, is both testifiedand ment of an organof architecture the presencewhoseinexhaustibility by recapitulating the tradition. The for tracesof interiority thatconstitutesthe lineageof a investigated by exegetical paradigm sucha hermeneutical is offered Bette Hereinlies the logic of the infinite branch.26 approach by phylogenetic in the two conceptionsof rewriting is fundadifference mental:the one that I am proposingis formal,whichis basedon recursion, and Eisenman's versionis founded This distinction inscription. upon hermeneutical Eisenman's which essentiallydifferentiates approach,

Chu-Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation

86

of architecture series,a genetichermeneutics engendered of the The spiritof the exegetical by languages unsayable. traditionis the call to readthe unwritable and followthe movementsof the hiddentracesof interiority, whichis with the logic and structure of the virtuallyidentified seriesitself.As can be seen,the theoretical positiontaken by Eisenmanis profoundeventhoughits archaeological in his builtprojects. dimensionis less than transparent At the sametime,it is extremely fragile,giventhe context of an exegetical wherethe specificity of globalization traditionis alreadythreatened by the capitalistsystemof If Eisenmanoffersa genetichermeneuaxiomatization. tics of architecture by tappinginto the lineageof a of its own, the conceptof with an interiority phylogeny that is offeredherewill implicate geneticarchitecture into the distributive deferrals Eisenman's phylogenetic networksof computingsystems,whichmay allowfor of a jungle,at once superthe rhizomatic proliferation with the desertof existence: co-extensive onto and posed a monad. of geneticarchitecture Monadology Havingidentifiedsome of the salientfeaturesthat are integralto dominanttrendswithincontemporary as well as the nuancedrelationsthateach of architecture thesetrendshavewith regardto the phenomenon and whichis increasingly of globalization, augmented firethat is now drivenby the gift of Promethean the culturaluniverseof humanitywith all saturating formsof transgenic mutation,we arenow in a positionto a morecomprehensive articulate theoryof architecture, one thatis adequateto the demandsimposedby the of computationand biogenticsin the soconvergence Era:a monadologyof genetic calledPost-Human of possible thatdealswith the construction architecture refersto whatRay Kurzweil worlds.As we now approach whichunderlies the myth of matter, as the Singularity,27 and practicaldiscussionsof architecmost theoretical ture,is aboutto be displacedby the mythof information. to Mies van derRohe'soft-quotedremark Contrary is the art of puttingtwo brickstogether, that architecture is the art the emerging conceptionis that architecture of puttingtwo bits together,at least bits that are and selfto self-replicate, self-organize programmed of emergent synthesizeinto evernew constellations relationsand ensembles. is basedon the fact The use of the termmonadology is an extensionand transthat geneticarchitecture formationof some of the propositions, especiallythose of relationships and properties that defineattributes amongmonads,containedin GottfriedW.Leibniz's

27 Ray Kurzweil, "The Singularity" in John Brockman (ed.), The New Humanists.'Science at the Edge (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003), 215-32. 28 Chaitin, "Leibniz, Information, Math and Physics." 29 Juan Alvarez de Lorenzana, "The Constructive Framework and the Evolutionary Systems,"in Stanley N. Salthe, Developmentand Evolution. Complexity and Change in Biology (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, I993), 298-9. Note: de Lorenzana's deployment of these principles is, primafacie, not based on computation. I have instead chosen to interpret these principles as being applicable to monadology of genetic architecture based on recursion.

30 Martin Davis, The Universal Computer:The Road From Leibniz to Turing(New York: W. W. Norton,
2000), I80-7.

31 William Poundstone, The Recursive Universe.'Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge (Chicago: NTC / Contemporary Publishing, 1985). See also: <http:// www.zyvex.com/nanotech/ selfRepJBIS.html#vonNeumann Architecture>. 32 John Divers, Possible Worlds (London: Routledge, 2002).

87 albeitwithoutits theogony,into an Monadology, is one architectural theoryof worldmaking.Monadology of the earliestattemptsin sketchingout a systemof that generalizes the natureof the worldfrom principles an abstract point of view;it sharesconceptualproperties to the science that arenow deemedto be fundamental and philosophyof computation.EventhoughLeibniz was impededby the lack of conceptualand technical resources at the time,his ideasnonethelesspavedthe way for subsequent of computationand, development accordingto GregoryChaitin,AlgorithmicInformation in the twentiethcentury. Leibniz'sMonadology Theory28 is arguably the earliestendeavor to proposewhatis now knownas an open-source basedon the architecture of philosophicalgenetics:the principleof principles condensation,the principleof combinatorial generative of expansion,and the principleof the conservation is a metaphysical information.29 treatise; Monadology Leibnizdefineseach monadas a metaphysical point, that is an irreducible of an atomic entity concept substance. endowedwith an immaterial Contraryto to God as the supreme Leibnizand withoutthe reference creatorof monads,a computational theoryof monadology wouldinsteadqualifyeachmonad as one bit of at the most irreducible information level,and by extension,a unit of self-replicating system.It is basedon this conceptionof a monadas a minimalunit of selfsystemthat a monadologyof genetic replicating is developedhere. architecture can be seen as Historically, geneticarchitecture of an extensionand transformation utopicideasimplicit to createnew worldsby drawing withinthe avant-garde Geneticsis a name on new sciencesand technologies. coinedby WilliamBatesonin 1905to encompassthe whole of the studyof hereditybut the termgenewas introduced by the Danish botanistWilhelmJohannsen, also aroundthe sametime,to accountfor the units characteristhe hereditary withinsex cells that determine tics.The meaningof both terms,geneticsand gene,are abstractand generalenoughto be used as sufficiently for architecture conceptsthat havelogicalimplications withoutbeinganchoredtoo explicitlyto biology.Implicit withinthe conceptof geneticsis the idea of replication of heritable unitsbasedon some ruleinherentwithinthe for withinthe mechanism geneticcode, and embedded function:the self-referential is a generative replication is a functionor rulethat recursion. Recursion of logic calls itself or its precedingstageby applying repeatedly a selfthe samerulesuccessively, therebygenerating of a sequenceor a seriesof referential propagation this is It transformation. logic encodedwithinan internal whichconstitutesthe autonomyof the generprinciple ativethat lies at the heartof computation. Eventhoughgeneticis a termderivedfrombiology, it is used hereas a genericconceptbasedon the interand self-replication connectedlogic of recursion whose philosophicalunderpinnings go far beyondthe confines of molecularbiology.It shouldtherefore be noted that architecture is a neither of biology genetic representation nor a formof biomimesis; instead,its theoretical origins, insofaras geneticarchitecture is concerned,can be tracedto Johnvon Neumann's inventionof the cellular automatonand the so-called"vonNeumannArchitecture"for self-replicating systems.Fromthe earlystages of moderncomputingsystems,the of the development was put forward idea of self-replication by Johnvon in discussions Eventhoughhe participated Neumann.30 of the firstelectronic leadingto the development computereverbuilt-the ENIAC-von Neumanneventuallycameup with whatis now knownas the von NeumannArchitecture-theprototypefor modern computingsystemswith its storedmemoryprogram. The von NeumannArchitecture managedto address itself: the idea of a machinethatcould manufacture and self-constructs a robot that self-replicates copies of This is a notion that lies at the heartof biology: itself.31 is organization-the the essenceof self-reproduction of abilityof a systemto containa completedescription to createnew copies.The itself and use that information for a self-replicating von NeumannArchitecture system is the ancestraland archetypical proposalwhich a UniversalComputer consistedof two centralelements: The UniversalComputer and a UniversalConstructor. that directsthe behaviorof the containsa program UniversalConstructor, which,in turn,is used to both anotherUniversalComputerand a manufacture Oncefinished,the newlymanuUniversalConstructor. facturedUniversalComputerwas programmed by in the Universal the contained original copying program would then begin and execution Computer, program is a therefore again.The von NeumannArchitecture of a geneticsystem. to the architecture precursor done so far usingvarious Whilemost experiments and kindsof algorithmic systemstend to be reductive of manifestidentityor selfliteralin theirappropriation containedwithinthese systems,genetic expression has a two-foldambition:co-evolutionary architecture
construction of complex ensembles or possible worlds32

in the languageof set theory)basedon universes (partial and disclosureof the sublimeotherwithin symbiogenesis, the samewithoutidentity.The firstambitionis conof a generaltheoryof world cernedwith the development

andComputation Chu-Metaphysicsof GeneticArchitecture

88 co-construction of makingbasedon symbiogenesis: worlds autonomous within a possible by agents symbiosis.A symbiosisis an ecologywheredifferent agentsand interactand live in close proximity with each organisms other.In biology,long-termstablesymbiosisthatleads to evolutionary Here, changeis calledsymbiogenesis.33 in is and symbiosis conceived termsof a worldgenerated constructed viral dissemination: the through clustering and mutationof genomicspacesengendered by viral thatis agents.Withthe capacityfor geneticpropagation destructive neitherintrinsically good/badnor primarily in its function,as it is commonlyunderstood,an unit of self-replicating virusis a parasitical architectural monadwith built-in system,a micro-computational for absorptionand conversionof a given mechanisms host organism-be it virtualor actual-into a new state on the logic of affairsor a possibleworld.It is predicated that leads to macro-transformaof micro-intervention tion at variousscalarand specification regimesof Virusesusually mutationand organization. transaction, as a distributive systemwithina operatecollectively symbioticwhole-swarms of infectiousmonadsinfiltrate and genetically into a givenhost environment propagate each of its built-infunction(s)in orderto alter,modify contentof both the the information and transform networksof host as well as the intratextual intertextual In the process,virusesre-configure and reorganisms. of a host organism into a new organizethe metabolism set of interstitial entitywith a different organizational vestibulesand vestigialtraces,which,in turn,establish and conditionsof possibilityfor furthertransformation New formsof into futureorganisms. differentiation haveshownto and organizations powerstructures that are symbioticin emergethroughviralinterventions

and 33 Accordingto LynnMargulis these Dorion longmergers, Sagan,

as termbiologicalfusionsbeginning
Dorian Sagan, Acquiring Genomes Basic,2002). (NewYork:

nature. Even though viral interaction is aleatory in scope,

it is deterministic in function. Consequently, autocatalytic reactions of viruses could lead to the conjunctive synthesis of emergent morphology that is fundamentally

ofspecies are the engine symbiosis, and See: evolution. Lynn Margulis
a wordthatI 34 Physiovirtualis coined,forlackof a term,to address the inextricable linkageanddepend"DigitalMeta35 EricSteinhart, inTerrell Ward Bynumand physics," H. Moor James (eds.),The Digital andMalden:BlackPhoenix(Oxford well, 1998),117-34. andgeneticprogeneticalgorithm under the allfall category gramming of evolutionary algorithm. TheAgeof 37 SeeRayKurzweil's Viking, Spiritual Machine (NewYork: A NewKindof Science, 38 Wolfram,

cohesive. A viral theory of architecturetherefore is based derived on the premisethatcollectivetransformation

withthevirtual, encyof thephysical

fromdistributive systemswhoseinternalelementsor
population is embedded with a high degree of generative

neural nets, annealing, 36 Simulated

autonomy could potentially lead to the emergence of a new kind of possible world, one that is intrinsically democratic in its performance and aspiration. The
meaning of globalization is radically incomplete and

inadequate without an architecturaltheory of viral

infection.

I999).

392.

The conceptof worldis a philosophicalabstraction transcribed into the idea of a computational entity, which can be scaled to any desired level of manifestation.

89 As such,it doesnotpresuppose reference to anya priori a world of sizeor scale.In a general canbe thought sense, an inconsistent as anemergent multiplicity, phenomenon, withits ownsymbiosis at different scalar andspecificaAt thelevelof architecture, of organization. tionregimes ensemble is anheterogeneous a world bythe generated and between monads of freedoms symbiotic cooperation a unit Eachmonadcanbe a genotype, human societies. or a phenotype as a collective of self-replicating system As genotypes, witha globalmorphology. ensemble andas phenotypes, existon theplaneof content, monads the on planeof expresmorphology theyareemergent clusters of micro-monadic sionengendered bymassive scalar and existatvarious As such,monads interactions. an of organization: an object, specification regimes a a group of buildings, a building, of objects, aggregation a bionicbeing, of genetic architecture, proto-species etc.34 aphysiovirtual environment,
genotypes -~ computation > phenotypes

theplaneof
content -> the planeof - computation
expression

is the mediumfor in vitrofertilization Computation

aremechaof genetic architecture; systems computing Suchthingsare buildotherthings. nismsin whichthings thatgenerate andfunctions essentially processes A string machine. a within computing symbolic strings of atomssuchas a grouping is a listthatrepresents
and 'c' ((aI, a2, a3)(bI, b2 (cI))) wherethe symbols'a,'"b'

which canalsotaketheroleoffunctions areelements basedon interactions of combinatorial within a system of at the core As mentioned recursion. before, genetic itself calls that is a recursive engine computation is an architecture the at heart genetic repeatedly; An its internal thatconstitutes principle. algorithm thatis morethanan is a software program algorithm as a instruction set;it shouldalsobe understood Software rational maybe programs pattern. dynamic butat thelevelof hardware, only complex exceedingly overandoveragain. arerepeated a fewoperations of abstract areorderings therefore transformaPrograms are andtheirexecutions statesof affairs tionsof abstract states concrete of concrete series of of transformations to Eric histories. constitutes that According affairs is its of a program "Thesetof allexecutions Steinhart, of a theextension As a setof histories, 'extension'. of a thing true A is 'nature'. its defines program program with is co-extensive thatits nature to theextent exactly

of thething.935 As opposed thenature to a clockwork or is inherently a steam constructive: engine, computation it is a formal thatenables structures to system symbolic in a consistent buildfurther structures way; symbolic content thesesymbolic structures haveinformation that internal structures of the objects. convey in of computation, whatis needed Giventhenature in a architecture is a theory of theconstruction of objects It allows forthecodynamical setting. many-body of possible worlds basedon symbiotic construction of Hyperwithin theSphere of viralagents corporation network of the machines virtuality: global computing a monadic Theinfrastructure thatconstitute organism. andnested within each is mirrored of theglobalsystem monadorcomputing system. Complex organization of fromtheinteractions andthesynthesis emerges within such a constructive activities combinatorial that It is within sucha setting dynamical system. in a canbeperformed of symbolic interactions strings of complex thatleadto theconstruction manner into canthenbemapped which strings, symbolic It is in thissensethata universal expression. geometric of computing or a engines computing system network monad. of as a cohesive canbe thought Although an organizaan to internal is principle, emphasis given of an subsets areeither which tionhasmany generators which of axioms axiomor a compilation together In general, a thelogicof aninternal constitute principle. is a well-defined or an evolutionary algorithm genetic via that mathematical contingency procedure generates andsiftsit via somelawlike somechance process constievolutionary algorithms process.36 Eventhough of Darwinian tutethemathematical underpinnings of so far,areincapable mostof thesesystems, theory, to without complexity having specified generating fromtheoutside. in fitness criteria Defining smuggle in pre-existing notions to bringing is tantamount fitness it requires theinputof intelliof specified complexity: in the Thismaychange of thesystem. gencefromoutside
has gone so far to saythat Wolfram future,however.37

to natural theDarwinian selection, contrary approach than rather reduces to accepted wisdom, generates
complexity.38

andpower liestheefficacy At thecruxof theproblem Reason of Sufficient codes.Leibniz's of genetic Principle twocontemporary thebasisforcomparing provides to be diametrion thesurface, which appear, approaches, of cellular to eachother: Wolfram's theory callyopposed Information Chaitin's and automaton Algorithmic whatsotruth thatforevery Leibniz stipulates Theory. foritsbeingso rather reason is a sufficient there ever,

andComputation Chu-Metaphysicsof GeneticArchitecture

90

Chaitin,"Onthe Intelligi39 Gregory and theNotions bilityof the Universe and Irreof Simplicity, Complexity ducibility" [onlinetext],<http://www. umcs.maine.edu/~chaitin/bonn.pdf>
(2002).

Reason of Sufficient 40oThe Principle thatforeverytruthwhatstipulates reasonforits ever,thereis a sufficient See thanotherwise. beingso rather G. W. section32 in NicholasRescher,
Leibniz's Monadology (Pittsburgh:

of Pittsburgh Press,I99I), University

I6. 4I Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, 465. 42 Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, 23-41.

47 G6delcameup withhis monumental treatise titled,"TheTheoryof andUndecidability," Incompleteness in 1931 for his PH.D. thesis.Thetheory call to DavidHilbert's is in response of the entirefieldof for the completion onceandforall. Alan mathematics a constructive laterprovided Turing of Godel'sresultsby interpretation placingthemon an algorithmic and therearenumbers foundation: functionsthatcannotbe computed by anylogicalmachine. Chaitin,TheLimitsof 48 Gregory Mathematics (London:SpringerVerlag, I998), 1-27.

of 49 Chaitin,"Onthe Intelligibility the Universe."

50 Chaitin, Exploring Randomness,2I. 5I Zurek (ed.), Complexity,Entropy and The Physics of Information, I37-48.

at the arrived 43 In addition,Wolfram insightthatcomputation provocative with Calculus willeventually dispense once andfor all sincecomputational cellular automata, especially processes, can emulate anythingthatexistsin withouthavingto relyon nature differential equations.
44 Wolfram, A New Kind of Science,

than otherwise. Wolfram's idea of the physicaluniverse as generated a set by simple of cellularautomatonrule affirmsLeibniz's stipulation.Chaitin,basedon the idea of program-sized complexity, suggeststhatit is theoretiof callyimpossibleto provethe absolutesufficiency an algorithm.Sincecomputation is aboutthe orderingof of Algorithmic Chaitin's formulation information, Information establishes close connection Theory betweenthe physicsof entropy, whichis a probability measureof the amountof disorderor randomness within thatwhile Chaitinremarked a system,and information. his own research dealswith software"complexity," Wolfram is concernedwith hardware "simplicity."39 Leibniz's of Sufficient Reason,40 Echoing Principle remarks that the existenceof sucha simple Wolfram "wouldvalidatethe idea thathumanthought program of the universe."41 the construction can comprehend use of cellularautomatais perhapsthe Wolfram's clearest,purestand most effectivein exposingthe unbehaviorof generative adulterated systems:one dimensionalcellularautomaton.Basedon his experiments, notion that arrived at the counter-intuitive Wolfram complexoutcomes,and the simplerulescan generate a totally physicaluniverseis one such outcome42: deterministic Any random systemwithoutrandomness. phenomenonthatwe see in nature,accordingto In otherwords,it is is merelypseudorandom.43 Wolfram, Reason the clearestexampleof the Principleof Sufficient manifestedthroughcellularautomaton.The formal of reasonbehinda ruleset, Wolfram argues, sufficiency cannotbe givenaheadof timedue to computational thereis no way to predictthe outcome irreducibility:44 of computational processesaheadof time by traditional the only methodsbasedon mathematical formulation; wayto find out is to let the systemrun and thenwait to see whatthe resultsare. the GregoryChaitin,on the otherhand,formulated basedon programTheory45 AlgorithmicInformation In consonantwith Wolfram's size complexity. computathe followingset of diagrams tionalirreducibility, his thesis: illustrates information The basicidea of algorithmic theory
(AIT)

andUlrich Czarnecki 52 Krzysztof

W. Eisenecker, GenerativeProgramming: Methods, Tools, and Applications

is that a scientific theory is a computer

Addison-Wesley, (UpperSaddleRiver:
2000).

737-49. Information, 45 Chaitin,"Leibniz, MathandPhysics." of the Intelligibility 46 Chaitin,"On andthe Notions of the Universe andIrreComplexity, Simplicity, ducibility."

the moreconcisethe and the smaller, program, is, the betterthe theory! program information centralidea of algorithmic The [...] in the beliefthat the following theoryis reflected in all havesomethingfundamental diagrams much information common.In each case,ask how we put in versushow muchwe get out. And is digital,discrete. everything

9I

Shannon information (communications theory noiseless engineering), coding:

of GodelandTuring's on theresults Building analysis on thelogicandlimitations of computing programs,47 thatthe Chaitin makes theprovocative assertion random mathematical universe is intrinsically and encoded -aremathematical truths that There infinitely complex. message -, decoder original aretrueforno reason; theyaretruebyaccident.48 message theentire there is no hopeof evercompressing Therefore, of mathematics an method: universe code as Modelof scientific Hilbert by elegant He a definition of a random suggested.49 proposed be algorithmically as onethatcannot comscientific sequence -theshortest of a random is theory calculations-, empirical/ pressed: description sequence itself.Ontheotherhand,Chaitin's thesequence experimental simply himto discover enabled a real data program-sized complexity fortheAlanTuring's number Q, halting probability: "Q2 value is unknowable.50 is whose numerical information definition maximally Algorithmic theory(AIT), will thatanarbitrary theprobability of program-size program computer complexity: in a weaksense, butits halt.Q is computable eventually random and binary digitsor bitsarealgorithmically program-> computer-> output of independent be distinguished cannot fromtheresult Q hasno pattern of of a fair Chaitin. molecular tosses remarked Central coin," biology: dogma is thatQ2 is interesting shares two or structure. What -irreconcilable DNA properties: "algorithmic apparently embryogenesis/ -> randomness" and Related "computable enumerability." development organism to this,Charles Bennett hascoinedthetermlogical depth in theproblem of time-complexity involved of a Hilbert-style to designate abstract formulation Turing/Post Since randomness as a axiomatic mathematical formal pervades everywhere theory computation.51 in as well as there is no in mathematics choicebut for mechanical nature, deducing procedure systematically setof axioms within to anexisting a to addnewaxioms fromtheaxioms: allpossible consequences Even to generate in order program specified complexity. it is of Sufficient if there existssucha Principle axioms -- deduction-> theories Reason, thata particular to prove theoretically impossible in or the the in find a to efforts is, fact, shortest string program question Theory physicists' Contemporary one. andoptimal mostefficient of Everything (TOE): necessiChaitin's discoveries Givensucha situation, on the of combinatorial tatetheprinciple TOE -> calculations-- universe expansion is evercomplete or thatno software program grounds to its affects. decidable with on Metaphysics, I686: Leibniz,Discourse regard absolutely potential In otherwords, is an a genetic program open-ended that can newaxioms andfitness Ideas -, Mindof God -- the World incorporate system in order of axioms to intoits existing matrix criteria a generative much sideis smaller, In eachcasetheleft-hand complexity. Ideally, generate specified andself-organizshould be a self-reproducing side.In eachcase,the thantheright-hand smaller, program andevolve other with the to constructed side can be capacity generate (re-constructed) ingsystem right-hand thisprinciple or systematically, fromtheleft-hand self-reproducing Furthermore, programs.52 mechanically, of the levelin theconcept is reflected side.Andin eachcasewewantto keeptherightyeton another viral thatgrows a multiplicity Possible: sideas theleft-hand handsidefixedwhilemaking through Adjacent The and mutation over time. dissemination we Oncethisis accomplished, smallas possible. Adjacent of into the networks is bidirectional: Possible sideas a measure canusethesizeof theleft-hand expansion intotheglobalmatrix as wellas extending of thecorreor thecomplexity of thesimplicity interiority In addition or agency. of a monadic outside side.46 organization spondingright-hand of symbolic andsynthesis activities to combinatorial

andComputation Chu-Metaphysicsof GeneticArchitecture

92

53 Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, I39-40. 54 The Matrix (1999), directed by

andAndy LarryWachowski is the storyof a world Wachowski, andthe by computation generated who tryto escapefrom protagonists controlof the system. the hegemonic the The storyhowever distinguishes realworldfromthe virtualworld.
55 eXistenZ (I999) is directed by

57 It shouldbe notedthatsucha monadicsystemdoes not necessarily entaila despoticregimebuiltup on a hierarchical systemas impliedby Deleuze.It is morethe casethat are monadicsystemsof organization freeandself-organize intrinsically on a themselves withoutdependency system. givenhierarchical
58 David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality (New York: Allen Lane, 1997), 3. 59 Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality, 3. 60 Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality,
132.

It has a plot that DavidCronenberg. realandwhat's seemsto blur"what's is in not real?" Theworldof eXistenZ andit is abouta videogame the future, controlled by a joystickthatlooks likean internal organ.You something withthe gameby interface directly cordliketube a umbilical inserting a smallhole in into your"bio-port," the smallof yourback.Onceplugged in, the gametakesyou to a virtual realitywithoutleavingthe confinesof yourownroom.
56 Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game. Magister Ludi (New York: Bantam, 1972), 6.

6I Rudy Rucker, Infinity and the Mind

Princeton (Princeton: University

Press, 1995), I94.

it also applies stringswithina computingenvironment, to the infiltration of nanobots53 into the body of Man. that is both insideand outsideof the body Everything becomesintertwined to forma socialorganon:an interconnectedplenumthat formsthe world-wide Webof In otherwords,geneticarchitecture Existence. is that aspectof processcosmologywhichinvolvesthe generaenvironand weavingofphysiovirtual tive construction ments,each of whichis a worldunto itself.In other words,the principleof combinatorial expansionis wherethe essentiallyaboutpart/wholerelationships increasein magnitudeof the wholeis a functionof the of parts. multiplication In this respect,therearetwo kindsof aggregation the firstis a heap to combinatorial with regard expansion: or a groupingwith no internalconnection;the secondis of unitshavinga regulatory an organizedclustering of networkof somekind.An interconnected aggregation that of is a set entities monads continuously computing the matrix transformation itself pathways; regenerates by A monadic is irreducible. that providesconnectivity ensemblecan be eitherone of thesetwo kindsof or a combinationof both. A point to note is aggregation on other thatmonadsarepatternsthat supervene fractal monad is a Each systemand the cluspatterns. patterns teringof monadstherebyleadsto the emergent onto in turn,supervene Thesepatterns, of organization. otherpatternsin orderto arriveat the autogenetic constructionof a monadicensembleor a possibleworld: Sucha possible of geneticarchitecture. proto-species can be a complexobjector worldof architecture virtual games,interactive building,evolutionary etc. The completeoverallcoordinationof environments, of one monadicagentsareso manyrepresentations singlecomplexworldsystem,each depictingthis commonuniversefromits own point of view.Clearly, of to the construction thereis nothingmorefundamental possibleworldsthan the principleof the conservation of information. it natureof geneticarchitecture, Giventhe abstract of to illustrate the wouldbe helpful concept geneticspace the worldof a fiction into sublime a by providing glimpse involvedwith the that has inspiredmanya theoretician TheGlassBeadGameby phenomenonof computation: HermanHesse.TheGlassBead Gamecan be interpreted of the ambitionsof computation. as the embodiment which the logic of the universe, By encapsulating the to do, it exemplifies is currently Wolfram attempting reasonin a monadicorgan. of instrumental fulfillment for the As a novel,it clearlyestablishes precedent which conceptof the worldunderstoodas a simulacrum,

93 ad infinitum.It is therefore can be reproduced not to findresonanceof this idea in such sci-fi surprising
films as The Matrix54and eXistenZ.55 Bear in mind that

this quotationis interpreted as an extrapolation of a of on the world based purely metaphysics possible computation. All the insights,noble thoughts,and worksof art that the humanracehas producedin its creative eras,all that subsequent periodsof scholarlystudy into havereducedto conceptsand converted all this immense intellectual body of property-on valuesthe Glass BeadGameplayer intellectual playslike the organiston an organ.And this organ its has attainedan almostunimaginable perfection; manualsand pedalsrangeoverthe entireintellectual cosmos;its stops arealmostbeyondnumber. is capableof this instrument Theoretically in the Glass the entireintellectual reproducing contentof the universe.56 TheGlassBead Gameis a magisterial expositionof a fictionalworldby HermanHesse,who was unmistakably influenced by Leibnizamongothers.The Game,of is an idealizationof a possibleworldin whichthe course, computationis embeddedand folded logic of universal of the embodiment into its matrixof social organization: into the social organonwhose machinicintelligence internalorgan(s)could model the behaviorof itself as Leibnizwas carefulto well as the entireuniverse. of and imperfection the acknowledge incompleteness monadswith regardto the embodimentof absolute reason.The organin Hesse'snovelhoweveris endowed with the capacityto engenderthe entireintellectual in fictionalform, It exemplifies, contentof the universe. reason of the dreamof instrumental the fulfillment of albeit musical in the couched body a sociusor organic, to Deleuze in contradistinction social body-with-organs, The notion of body-without-organs.57 and Guattari's GlassBead Gameis an exampleof a worldorderthat has contentof the the information completelysaturated and entireuniverseinto its systemof organization The premiseof the storylendssupport transformation. that the world,at a very to JohnWheeler's argument sourceand explanation deepbottom, has an immaterial in origin.As such,the organ thatis information-theoretic in TheGlassBead Gameis a universal computingsystem theoretical whose with built-ingeneticproperties orientation,albeitaugmentedby KurtGodel'sTheory is centraland and Undecidability, of Incompleteness necessaryfor a philosophicalgeneticsof architecture. The basisfor such an organis not withouttheoretical fromthe scienceof support,at least in principle,

the Church-Turing computation: Hypothesisas mentionedearlier. This hypothesisas proposedby Turing, accordingto DavidDeutsch,a physicistworkingon is "a quasi-mathematical quantumcomputation, all that of the intuitive conjecture possibleformalizations mathematical notion of'algorithm'or 'computation' areequivalent to each other.""5 Thisis a non-physical view thathas beenre-formulated by Deutschas a Deutschreframed physicalprinciple. Correspondingly, it as the Church-Turing Principle: "Every finitely realizable can be physicalsystem perfectlysimulated by a universal modelcomputingmachineoperating by finite Deutschfurtherre-interprets the above means."59 which by callingit the TuringPrinciple, interpretation existsan abstract universal statesthat,"There computer whoserepertoire includesanycomputationthat any Thisis an possibleobjectcan perform."60 physically astonishingpropositionthat is foundedon the paradigm of quantumcomputationas opposedto the classical whichis basedon the Universal model of computation establishes the TuringMachine.The TuringPrinciple betweenthe universegenerated by the laws equivalence the lawsof of physicsand the universe engendered by computation,as impliedby the Principleof ComputaIn otherwords,the universeis a tional Equivalence. monad. So arethe outputsof genetic computational architecture. As a complimentto this co-evolutionary construction of possibleworlds,the secondambitionof genetic with sublimation. Sublimadealsprimarily architecture tion is a high levelnotion that has, at this stage,no clearlydefinedrelationto computation.Monadologyof seeksto accomplishthis by sublating geneticarchitecture well statesof affairsinto a as counterfactual factualas of non-objective being.In otherwords, phenomenology of anonymity and the figuration it is the condensation whichpoints to the sublimethresholdas represented by is the noumenalit of existence.Sublimation, therefore, of manifestidentitycontained aboutthe overcoming withinan object/species by furtherdisclosingthe otherof the itselfwithinitself.Anotherwayof understanding paradoxof the otherwithinthe sameis fromthe principle in set theory:no set is a of geneticformationof sets61 memberof itself.The universeof set theory,like is a Manythat does not allowitselfto be architecture, seenin this light,is thoughtof as a One.Architecture, conceivedas a quasi-transcendental notion, an indefinthat is in excessof the set of all possible ablesingularity worlds.As a globalconceptthat signifiesan inconsistent is pureexcessto everyspecific architecture multiplicity, of architecture. Everyinstanceof architecappropriation

Chu-Metaphysics of Genetic Architecture and Computation

94 in a quasi-transcendental tureis alreadyimplicated of the other,understoodas the Absolute, appropriation is co-extensive with the same.The which,paradoxically, otheris pureexcesswithinthe Absolute,which,in cannotbe totalizedby the same.The realityof principle, nonobjective beingsituatedat the sublimethresholdis arrivedat by meansof a negativedialecticsthatprogresof affectsproduced sivelyengagein the transformation at everystageof developmental In so organization. the of enablesarchitecture to doing, logic sublimation overcomesemiological references to identity,objectsand meaning. the planeof content -> sublimation-> the planeof nonobjective being Finally,in the attemptto developa newmetaphysics we shouldnot lose sightof the of geneticarchitecture, desireto fact thatwhatwas originallya metaphysical abstract attainomniscience through reasoninghas now new clothing:the the garmentof the Emperor's acquired of geo-politicalpowerand globalization instrument can be throughgeneticcomputation.Computation considered geneticto the extentthatit is basedon the of recursion functionsareselfand recursive logic that call themselves overand over referential procedures of hereditary again,therebyengagingin the propagation inherentwithina system.Let it sufficefor characteristics is not only the the momentto say that computation mediumbut the powerbehindthe message.The Nietwith the zscheanwill to powerhas becomesynonymous as whichcan also be translated powerof computation, is not therefore the computationof power.Computation innovationbut ultimately a merelyanothertechnological desireto uncoverthe of the metaphysical consequence Code of Life,and alongwith it, the inventionand the machinesthat could engender of abstract construction computationis possibleworlds.Giventhis orientation, lookedupon as the realityengine now increasingly channelingout thatmost abstractof immaterial substances-information-into the world.Suchan it may seem, and controversial outlook, as provocative fact thatinformation occupiesa points to the undeniable far morefundamental positionthan the othertwo of physicalexistence: energyand matter. parameters definedin termsof will be value Correspondingly, Sincethe conceptof valueis intimately information. of power,it is connectedto the sourceand sustenance beingdefinednot in termsof quantitybut insteadin

62 Kevin Kelly, "God is the Machine,"

I0:I2 (December Wired, 2002), I80-5.

63 Frank Tipler, The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and Resurrection(New York: Doubleday, I995). See also David Deutsch's interpretation in The Fabric of Reality, 347-59. 64 See Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel,"in Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby (eds.), Labyrinths. Selected Stories and Other Writings (New York: New Directions, 1964), 5I-8. 65 Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, I 19. 66 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, The Ages of the World (Albany: SUNYPress, 2000), 4.

67 Kauffman Stuart, At Home in the Universe:The Searchfor Laws of Selforganizationand Complexity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). See also Mark Buchanan, Nexus: Small Worldsand the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (New York: W. W.
Norton, 2002).

68 Howard Bloom, The Global Brain. The Evolution of Mass Mindfrom the Big Bang to the 2Ist Century(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000). Even though Bloom was concerned with the general interconnected nature of knowledge, culture and history from pre-historic times to the present without emphasizing the mediation of networks enabled by computation, what is significant here is the interconnected nature of a global organic intelligence embedded within the virtual matrix, of which the Internet is an early precursor. 69 Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines.

95

termsof"logicaldepth"and "algorithmic complexity." In otherwords,valueis a functionof how difficultit is to that is deemeddesirable. In this generatethe information than the Code of Life, context,nothingis moredesirable whichcould at least give the illusionof determination and controlof infinitelife:the potentialfulfillment of the dreamfor immortality itself.As such,one of the latent ambitionsof capitalismis to put into motion the valueof Information to Capitalas thatwhichgivessustenance the capitalistsystemof axiomatization. The new locus of therefore resides within the code. In the midstof power the resurgence of whatcould be considered a logocentric worldview,now increasingly understoodas an algorithmic conceptionof reality,all signsarenow pointing towarda renewed wherethe planeof metaphysics immanence is beingre-defined in termsof the domainof the computable. the transcendent Correspondingly, dimensionof alteritybeyondbeingis thatwhichis the radically nonbeyondthe pale of computation: as demarcated computable by the principlesof computation. Giventhe powerand promiseof computation, some havegone so far as to literallyidentifyGod with the Machine,albeita universal computingsystem,as KevinKellydid,62whichis profoundly misplaced.Be that as it may,this lendsfurthersupportto the fact that at the heartof computationlie the yearningsof a metaphysical whichis inexhaustible. desire,63 As mentionedbefore,one of the ambitionsof conditionsof possibility computationis in establishing for the embodimentof information both simultaneously insideand outsideof our bodiesby virtueof being interconnected to the matrixof the social organismat it wouldrequireus to re-conceptuallarge.Consequently, ize architecture fromone that dependspredominantly on the constructionof hardware as containerand modulatorof eventsand activitiesto that of intelligent networksystemswhichcarryas well as engenderbionic In this regard,the provocative information recursively. but insightfulquestionraisedby Borges,"Isthe book in the libraryor the libraryon the book?964 calls into the in inclusion of one the otherin a question possible mannerthat defiescommonsenseif not wisdom. the metaphysical and theological Notwithstanding inherentin Borges's the interrogation, implications problemof represenquestiondisclosesthe fundamental tation:the ancientantinomythat existsbetweentheory and practice,on the one hand, and the Cartesiansplit of the mindand body,on the other,is now couchedin the formof the difference betweensoftwareand hardware, and the privileged positionthat softwarehas over hardware. Finally,afterhavingusheredin the dawnof a

new era by computation,speculations suchas those once entertained the number by medievalmonksconcerning of angelsthat can danceon the tip of a pin no longer appearto be as strange,bizarreand esotericas we once thought,for the simplereasonthat all the information contentcontainedin all the books thathaveeverexisted sincetimeimmemorial could be compressed, in principle, onto the size of a thingthatis at least as smallas the tip of a pin.65 Unlikepreceding this attemptsat overcoming whichtend to privilege dichotomy, materialist/phenomeof the and its mobility,the nologicalconceptions body realityof simulation promisesto eliminatethis dilemma with a vanishingmediatorby blurring the boundary betweenthe two with feed-backand feed-forward mechanisms, thereby weavingall the nestedinterconnections of both domainsto forma singularity, a virtual monador an incompletetotality.Lurkingwithinthese is the age-oldmetaphysical symbioticcorrespondences desirethat drivesthe phenomenonof computation from its veryinception:the searchfor the codethatwould containa maximumof possibleaffectsor possible worlds.Lestwe forgetSchelling's that"the precaution worldis not a riddlewhosesolutioncould not be given with a singleword,"66 a premonition that is finally confirmed in Chaitin's AlgorithmicInformation Theory, the physicaland logicallimitsof computation will nonethelesstemperand constrainthis insatiable desire for omnipotenceand total communionwith the Absolute.Despitethe limitations, and lest we also forget in the nocturnalabyssof the thatwe areall travelers intergalactic spaceon a minisculeplanetwe calledEarth, this ambitionis now beingfueledby the spellof instrumentalreasonwhichhas takenon the scope of a tragiceuphoria,or tragictransport, that seemslimitless with regardto its possibilities. In the meantime,as computingmachinesareweaving the globalnetworkof communication and exchangeinto an inexorable matrixvia the Internet,capitalism is being into a demiurgic transformed systemthatis destinedto becomevirtuallyintelligentand alive.Kauffmanand othershaveshownthatwhenthe connectivityof nodes withina networkreachesa criticalthresholdor singularbehaviorthat is akinto an ity,it takeson an emergent Sucha globalapplication of neural organicentity.67 will networksystemsderivedfrombiocomputation lead to whatat the presentseemsunthinkable: invariably of a globalbrain68 or intelligence with an the emergence a self-organizing internalwill to being:69 and selfmonad. is in the Consequently, capitalism synthesizing froma restricted economyto processof beingsublimated

and Computation Chu-Metaphysicsof GeneticArchitecture

96 a generaleconomypredicated on the transvaluation of all valuesinto the valueof Information Capital. The Principleof Computational Equivalence implies that the physicaluniverse is a simulacrum engendered by With the eventual of bionic computation. proliferation and of beings proto-species geneticarchitecture populatwherethe Internetwill ing the Sphereof Hypervirtuality, and into a self-synthesizing be transformed eventually and artifacts virtual ghostly organ, self-organizing in a societies human with co-evolve will phantoms Long aftershe has symbioticcooperationof freedoms. departedfromthis materialworld,herDNA patented, into digitalarchives, and transcribed encrypted Madonna-the materialgirl-will most likelycontinueto sing and dance,at variousscalableregimesof organizawith all herprovocative tion and transmutation, passion her and seductivegesturesaugmented perpetually by Thisphenomenal renewedsenseof immortality. will neithertakeplacesolelyin however, performance, in the of the corporeallibrary Borgesnor represented but somepagesof the book of simulacra, incorporeal chamberof bionic wherein-between-a phantasmagoric if not thatwouldbe indistinguishable, proclivities
undecidable, from the global Sphere of Hypervirtuality: an interconnected but discrete plenum,70 which will be propelled, sustained and modulated by the evolutionary

Kurzweil: Olson,"Ray 70 Sander of TheMatrixCould Technologies

BeReal" Soon <http:// text], [online www.geek.com/news/geeknews/

2003Mar/bch200303050I 8948.htm>

(2003).

Dimen"The Turing 71 Karls. Chu, and in Frederic sion," Migayrou ArchiLab. (eds.), Brayer Marie-Ange Radical Experiments inGlobal
Architecture(London: Thames &

dynamism of a demiurgic capitalism that is poised to

flourish, with all the vicissitudes that accompany a

Hudson,2001),490-4.

fantasmatic dramatology of a brave new world, on the horizon of expectation. Welcome to monadology of genetic architectureon the Turing Dimension.71

97

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