Bacteria Want Food

Disambiguate the misunderstanding: when we say ‘want’, what we really mean is ‘tends towards’.

If bacteria don't want food, then they at least drift towards nutrients with no awareness of their needs.

What does it mean, after all, to want?


What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
2010

Progress

Systems – all systems - generate their own momentum.

(p15)
What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
2010

Technological Complexity as a Function of Latitude

More complex technological units are needed (or have been invented) by historical hunter-gatherer tribes the higher the latitude of their homes.

(p25)
What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
2010

Chef Prometheus

Cooking with fire is a form of predigestion, and changed the human genome 200,000 years ago.
-wider variety of edible/digestible food
-smaller teeth and jaw muscles
-supplemental stomach
-artificial organ

Our genes have coevolved with our inventions. In the past 10,000 years alone, in fact, our genes have evolved 100 times faster than the average rate for the previous 6 million years. … We have domesticated ourselves. … Technology has domesticated us. … If all technology – every last knife and spear – were to be removed from this planet, our species would not last more than a few months. We are now symbiotic with technology. (p37)

What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
2010