Inventive Life: Approaches to the New Vitalism [Hardcover]

This book demonstrates how and why vitalismthe idea that life cannot be explained by the principles of mechanismmatters now. Vitalism resists closure and reductionism in the life sciences while simultaneously addressing the object of life itself. The aim of this collection is to consider the questions that vitalism makes it possible to ask: questions about the role and status of life across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities and questions about contingency, indeterminacy, relationality and change. All have special importance now, as the concepts of complexity, artificial life and artificial intelligence, information theory, and cybernetics become increasingly significant in more and more fields of activity.This book demonstrates how and why vitalismthe idea that life cannot be explained by the principles of mechanismmatters now. Vitalism resists closure and reductionism in the life sciences while simultaneously addressing the object of life itself. The aim of this collection is to consider the questions that vitalism makes it possible to ask: questions about the role and status of life across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities and questions about contingency, indeterminacy, relationality and change. All have special importance now, as the concepts of complexity, artificial life and artificial intelligence, information theory, and cybernetics become increasingly significant in more and more fields of activity.Inventive Life - Mariam Fraser, Sarah Kember and Celia Lury
Approaches to the New Vitalism
On the Vitality of Vitalism - Monica Greco
Information and Knowledge - Suhail Malik
Pharmaceutical Matters - Andrew Barry,
The Invention of Informed Materials
The Performativity of Code - Adrian Mackenzie
Software and Cultures of Circulation
'Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist' - Celia Lury
A Trade Mark Style of Doing Art and Scielç