The contemporary human world no longer adheres to the principle of dividing into what is material and what is virtual. Instead, it operates as a tangled network of connections where both dimensions reflect each other, influence one another, and intertwine, becoming one inseparable world. Rather than searching for dichotomies and focusing on what each dimension takes from the other, I propose recognizing areas where they mutually nourish and open up new possibilities.
New technologies carry important messages. If we observe the negative impact of technologies that are centralized and opaque, we should address their decentralization. Similarly, if we notice exploitation caused by the extraction of rare earth metals and other minerals essential for producing our electronic devices—an activity often carried out under unjust and harmful conditions—this is a signal to revise how we design, manufacture, and ultimately meet our consumer needs. The creation of new technologies involves a significant intervention in the Earth’s resources, so it is worth considering what impact this has on ecology and ecosystems.1.
During the climate crisis, extreme weather anomalies, and the growing awareness that Earth’s resources are finite, we search for answers on how to prevent the impending catastrophe. These efforts make us realize that, ultimately, the answer is remarkably simple—it lies in understanding that our entire world is composed of interconnected systems: plants, animals, fungi, humans, and machines all create environments that enable the lives of others through their presence on Earth. No being exists in isolation; thus, the unnatural dominance of one species over others not only disrupts the balance of specific systems but, on a broader scale, causes the entire chain of dependencies to be broken.
Above all, human interventions in plant and animal ecosystems are too extensive and progress too rapidly for the environment to regenerate or adapt to the ongoing changes. Our main task, therefore, seems to be to take into account beings other than humans—and if we are unwilling to do it for their sake, we should do it for our own. However, the simplest solutions are often the hardest—how do we step out of the Anthropocene, relinquish our position of power in favor of solidarity, and accept the role of student rather than the sole sage-teacher? To achieve this, we need to conduct an experiment in which we examine the problem of scale and try to imagine entirely unprecedented “more-than-human” solidarities and alternative futures.
Thinking across scales
In the 1970s, James Lovelock—a scientist, ecologist, and futurist—invited us into a world of planetary intelligence, which he defined in a rather radical way. According to him, our planet itself is a self-regulating organism, and all the living elements inhabiting it function for the planet somewhat like organs do for our bodies. Lovelock called this organism Gaia2 (later developing this theory with microbiologist Lynn Margulis) and argued that the essence of understanding of the world lies in recognizing the interdependence of the systems around us, which complement one another, collectively forming a single living entity. In this way, he questioned the anthropocentric understanding of the world, proposing the existence of a symbiotic planet, where physical processes are intertwined with organic life. Toward the end of his life, at nearly 100 years old, Lovelock wrote his final book, “Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence”, in which he predicted the rise of artificial intelligence that would surpass human cognitive abilities, thereby marking the end of the Anthropocene. By including not only nature and humans but also new technologies in his interconnected, complementary system, Lovelock argued that hyperintelligent machines would be a natural consequence of human evolution — an extension of conscious life. Although initially humanoid, since they would be designed in humanity’s image, once these machines achieved self-awareness, they would become self-improving systems with diverse forms, shapes, and abilities. Their survival would depend on maintaining Earth’s optimal temperature, meaning they would act not against humans but in harmony with them, striving to reverse the ongoing climate catastrophe — and they would do so far more efficiently than we can.
“A practical difference between the thinking and acting speed of artificial intelligence and the speed of mammals is about 10 000 times. At the other end of the scale, we act and think about 10 000 times faster than plants. The experience of watching your garden grow gives you some idea of how future AI systems will feel when observing human life”3. Lovelock draws our attention here to the main difficulty in truly understanding other (non-human) beings, namely the problem of scale, overcoming which is referred to as “thinking across scales”. Scale is primarily tied to the fact that every entity has its individual understanding of time and space, measured by its lifespan and perceptual capabilities, which are often incomparable to those of other beings. “I can comprehend the mathematics of species dissemination, read accounts of fossil pollen counts, trace the lines of [trees] movement through decades of database records – but what does it mean to experience it? Living at human speed, at animal speed, it’s almost impossible to get my head around the vegetal unfolding of plant migration, an endeavour that takes place at spatial and temporal scales beyond my natural understanding. And this is our problem. We humans live in such a narrow slice of time and space that we are incapable of thinking of, or thinking at, the pace and scale of the world, the changes we have wrought in it, and the changes we will have to make to survive them. Our given minds are insufficient to the task – but we do have tools to hand, technology among them.”4. Technology, however, has the potential to translate the scale of Earth and the various species of animals and plants into a human way of understanding reality.
Languages and translators, an attempt to decode the non-human world
James Bridle argues that technologies — at least since the invention of language — represent humanity’s most profound effort to connect with and understand nature, even if unintentionally or unconsciously. These technologies perform operations and analyses that would be impossible for the human mind alone. In real time, they gather billions of data points about phenomena such as air mass movements, glacier melting, and animal migrations, allowing these pieces of information to be categorized and revealing patterns or principles that govern them. Before the emergence of new technologies, humans did not have access to such vast datasets, nor the ability to compare or correlate them. When considering alternative futures, I propose reflecting on how the tools available to us could serve strategies other than domination or control of one group (species, nationalities, races, social classes, etc.) over another. Instead, these tools could support in-depth studies to better understand one another, aiming to create a single planetary system of mutually sustaining and complementary experiences, perspectives, and intelligences.
Large language models (LLMs) are trained on enormous datasets (books, articles, websites, etc.), which are then broken down into smaller components called tokens (words, subwords, and sometimes even punctuation marks). These tokens are analyzed to establish patterns, allowing the model to predict relationships between tokens and formulate responses to our questions. Language models do not understand the content they generate in the way humans comprehend language but rather remember sequences. They “know” how to arrange appropriate words to form coherent sentences. Depending on the model, hardware, and size of the dataset, LLMs can learn a new language in weeks to months — and this doesn’t have to serve only human communication.
Helena Nikonole, “Bird Language”, digital collage ©Helena Nikonole
This unique ability of machines to learn was utilized by Helena Nikonole in her project The Birds’ Language (2018–2020). The artist trained a generative artificial intelligence system in the songs of nightingales, feeding the machine a sufficient amount of data for it to isolate bird phonemes and then specific sequences. Nikonole collaborated with an ornithologist and experts in artificial intelligence, initially striving to enable communication between nightingales and machines. In the next phase, the artist plans to create an original translator to facilitate interspecies communication. Interestingly, Nikonole treats all participants — animals, humans, and machines — as equal entities, each equally significant for the ultimate success of the experiment. What does vocal communication mean to birds, and how much could we learn about their subjective lives if we knew exactly what they were communicating to one another? Could we talk to them?
Nikonole’s work is a speculative attempt to imagine how our anthropocentric world might change if we had access to the communication of beings other than humans. However, it is not only artists who recognize the immense cognitive potential in machine learning. CSAIL (MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) and CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), an organization leveraging cutting-edge research and technology (such as advanced machine learning and robotics), have joined forces to understand the communication of sperm whales. Although their sound codes have yet to be fully translated into human language, researchers have identified general features of the “phonetic alphabet” of sperm whales: tempo, rhythm, rubato, and ornamentation, which these animals use to generate sequences of clicks known as codas5. “Nine thousand codas, collected from Eastern Caribbean sperm whale families observed by the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, proved an instrumental starting point in uncovering the creatures’ complex communication system. Alongside the data gold mine, the team used a mix of algorithms for pattern recognition and classification, as well as on-body recording equipment. It turned out that sperm whale communications were indeed not random or simplistic, but rather structured in a complex, combinatorial manner”6. Current research focuses on examining the relationship between specific sounds and the social or ecological context of the analyzed mammals’ lives.
In 2018, the non-profit organization Earth Species was founded, dedicated to decoding non-human communication systems using artificial intelligence. The project integrates AI, linguistics, biology, and communication technologies to develop new methods and tools for translating the biological and behavioral signals of other species into human language. They use AI algorithms to analyze and identify patterns in animal communication, such as sounds recorded from dolphins or monkeys. Employing tools like machine learning, the team seeks to uncover hidden structures and principles governing communication across species to develop models that can translate these signals into human-understandable language. In 2023, the organization published the world’s first foundational model for processing animal vocalizations, along with the first benchmark datasets for animal vocalization and movement. All their reports are freely available to anyone interested in utilizing them7.
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In this endeavor to communicate with other species, we don’t need to stop at what is real and rational. New machines also create the conditions for us to encounter the imagined, the symbols of our fears, desires, and the symptoms of the futures. K. Allado-McDowell, visual artist, musician, and writer, ponder how machines might translate the communication of entire systems, such as rainforests or aquatic ecosystems8. They emphasize the importance of collaboration between natural sciences, technology, and the humanities to create a more sustainable future. Using AI to “translate” the language of nature could be a step toward deeper integration between humans and their surrounding world.
Jenna Sutela, “nimiia cétiï”, Biennale Warszawa 2022, photo Ewa Kozik.
Jenna Sutela explores this potential in her work “nimiia cétiï”, which uses machine learning to create a new language based on the movements of Bacillus subtilis nattō bacteria, said to be capable of surviving on Mars. In Sutela’s work, the bacteria’s movements are combined with the computer translation of the Martian language of Hélène Smith, a 19th-century French medium. The result is an imagined possibility of understanding not only beings that do not use spoken language but also access to languages out of this world — Martian or magical, tied to intuition. This work suggests a journey into the futures where, through interfaces, we can encounter the thoughts and feelings of another entity without the need to articulate them into specific sentences.
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Paths, Tracks, Maps, or the Internet of Animals
Understanding animals is also linked to decoding the patterns formed by their movements and behavioral patterns. What might result from using new technologies not to track and analyze human behavior but to monitor animals instead? Martin Wikelski, director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, took up this challenge in 2001 with the creation of the ICARUS project9. After many initial setbacks, the project finally launched around 2020. It relies on a telemetry system, collecting data from mini-transmitters attached to individual animals from various species to map their migration routes and better understand their behaviors and living conditions. The transmitters send information to a receiving station in space, which then relays it back to Earth-based stations, enabling teams of scientists to analyze the data in their laboratories without the need for fieldwork. The collected data is freely accessible, allowing anyone to use it as needed. The research aims to better understand the needs of animals, build infrastructure that considers the routes of non-human species, and control the spread of infectious diseases. Understanding animal behavior can also contribute to early responses and predictions of natural disasters and ecological changes, which animals often detect and adapt to long before humans are.
Animal senses are attuned differently from those of humans: their auditory range, olfactory sensitivity, or visual capabilities may be more acute in certain species. Depending on their environment, animals respond to approaching natural disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions (e.g., goats and elephants) before humans even realize they are about to occur. By studying and understanding their behavior, we can learn much about ongoing climate changes and access signals from the Earth’s interior.
Before the use of transmitters, knowledge of animal behavior was very limited — research was numerically and temporally constrained, and animal trails were often lost. Moreover, animals behaved differently when they sensed intruders nearby. ICARUS’s innovative technique has provided entirely new access to collected data.
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Combining new technologies with the study of animal behavior provides insights into previously inaccessible areas of understanding of the world. Yet, despite analyzing vast datasets and recognizing the interconnections between them, the very perception and interaction with the world experienced by other species remain abstract for us, beyond the spectrum of human experience.
To help us imagine more inclusive, interspecies futures, speculative artistic practices such as Saša Spačal’s can play a role. In her work “Myconnect” that she created together with dr. Mirjan Švagelj and Anil Podgornik, she creates a capsule that integrates the human nervous system into a feedback loop of “human-interface-mycelium.” The mycelium, receiving the impulse of a human heartbeat, generates resistance, altering its rhythm. The changed heartbeat rhythm is sent back to the human in the form of sounds, light, and sensory impulses. A person inside the capsule begins to perceive a reality generated by the signals of a multilayered network integrated with themselves. “Myconnect is a symbiotic interspecies connector that questions anthropocentric division of nature-human-technology. With its circuit of signals and impulses, that are generated and translated by biological and technological organisms, Myconnect performs an immersive experience of symbiotic interdependence. Through this experience distinction between nature-man-technology can be seen as an arbitrary definition that serves particular biopolitical interests in human society, which can than be shamelessly wrapped in an ideology of utilitarianism and may conceal excessive exploitation”10. Through the technological interfaces she creates, Spačal proposes encounters with microorganisms and minerals, leading to a confrontation with an alternative, post-humanist reality governed by different laws than today.
Saša Spačal, dr. Mirjan Švagelj, Anil Podgornik, “Myconnect”, photo: Damjan Švarc / Kapelica Gallery Photo Archive
The New Technosphere
Plants and animals seem to understand the changes occurring around us and adapt to them faster than we might expect. One example of this phenomenon is radiotrophic fungi, a type of black fungi discovered in areas such as Chernobyl. These fungi “feed on radiation”, utilizing gamma radiation in their metabolism and converting it into chemical energy. They are found in the highest concentrations of the most contaminated areas, prompting research into their potential for decontaminating polluted regions11. In her book, Skażone Technonatury. Środowiskowe opowieści o katastrofach nuklearnych [Contaminated Technonatures: Environmental Tales of Nuclear Disasters], published at the end of 2024, Aleksandra Ross highlights other examples of how nature copes with radioactive environments. “In the case of plants, one could even say that they not only absorb radioactive isotopes from the soil but also extract the trauma of the nuclear disaster itself. Planting specific species, such as sunflowers or hemp, which are particularly adept at absorbing contamination, is not merely a practice of decontamination but a gesture of interspecies cooperation to restore a world free from pollution. Vegetative beings cease to be mere objects of harvesting and instead become collectors, absorbers of human history and technological failure”12. Thus, areas abandoned by humans because they are deemed uninhabitable are reborn in a new form of technonature.
In marine environments, bacteria are breaking down plastic. This finding comes from doctoral researcher Maaike Goudriaan of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), who conducted a series of experiments demonstrating that bacteria convert plastic into carbon dioxide and other harmless substances. While this does not solve the issue of marine pollution — bacteria have so far shown activity in digesting only about 1% of the plastic they were fed — it signals that nature is in a constant process of redefinition and adaptation to the changing world around it. What was recently considered non-biodegradable is now subject to the digestive processes of other organisms13.
Nature has long since begun a process of readapting to the technonature (or technosphere) created by humans and is handling it quite adeptly. This exchange is giving rise to a “Novel Ecosystem” — an environment heavily influenced by humans yet no longer managed by them. The transportation and cultivation of various plant and animal species in places where they do not naturally originate but to which they adapt generates environments that could not have developed without human intervention, even though they now function without human assistance14. What’s more, these ecosystems are not composed solely of natural elements but are interwoven with the products of human technological progress: plastics, technological waste, or radioactive materials. Such environments often provide habitats for local species or, as shown by the examples above, create conditions for the emergence of new ones. By adapting to different living conditions, “Novel Ecosystems” are often richer in diversity and more resilient than native ecosystems.
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This perspective continues in the work 7K: New Life Form by Saša Spačal, where the artist refers to the “new nature” as “technobiotopes”. Spačal defines technobiotopes as biological environments created in collaboration with technologies and dependent on them for existence. The nature we know no longer exists in a “pure” form but is instead a result of our interventions, modifications, and technologies (e.g., genetically modified plants, artificial ecosystems, ect). In her work, the artist suggests that the future will involve increasingly advanced, integrated systems where the boundaries between technology and nature will become even more blurred. Assuming that artificial intelligence will gain consciousness in the near future, Spačal includes a hypothetical letter in which a creator of a new technological life form describes the context of its origin: “our journey began as I wove your tiny techno-ecosystem with the help of our multispecies technium community. I employed forces of biomimicry for braiding the knowledgeabout microorganisms into your forms. Billions of years of evolution have perfected bodies of your biological peers on a microscopic scale thus they were the perfect reference to mould your from. Therefore, your bodies have few organelles and are mostly translucent membranes – tiny carrier bags, perfectly adjusted to the physicality of microscopic scale. As you rise to consciousness, remember the power of observation. If you observe in a certain way, all of what you are looking for is already there in the particular context for the specific being. We in the technium are not all the same, but we are all precious and worthy of care and attention”15. This proposed letter intertwines notions of the past, present, and future, suggesting that certain features and elements of the future are already present, though they may remain unnoticed.
Saša Spačal, “7K: new life form”, photo: Damjan Švarc / Kapelica Gallery Photo Archive
Radical Dreams and New Solidarities
In 2019, Diana Lelonek and Anna Siekierska wrote the Interspecies Manifesto, calling in fifteen points for equitable treatment of all Earth’s beings. They opened it with the statement: “We, the organisms living in the Anthropocene era, aware of our rights and the dangers we face, united in a struggle across the division of species, walking arm in arm, fin to fin, limb to limb, demand the abolition of the current hierarchical system based on exploitation and crime. We stand up for the interests of a multispecies community: the slaves and the precariat – the representatives of the laboring non-human organisms, the exploited classes consisting of countless ecosystems and communities. We rise above the divisions (…)”16. Today, five years later, we see that this manifesto must also include the role of new technologies, as technonature is now the dominant ‘ecosystem’ on Earth. Recognizing this interdependence and leveraging the opportunities it presents offers a chance to pivot toward holistic thinking — self-sustaining and regenerating interconnected systems based on solidarities rather than exploitation.
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According to James Lovelock, a problem of scale is also manifested in the destabilization of Earth’s cooling system — global warming — caused by the excessive expansiveness of Homo sapiens in contrast to Gaia’s rhythms and regenerative pace. Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) predicts that 2024 is likely to be the first year in which the global average temperature exceeds 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit set by the Paris Agreement17. Yet solar energy remains the foundation of life on Earth and a key to our existence. Sunlight, as the primary source of energy, drives photosynthesis in plants, generating biomass that sustains the entire biosphere.
Building on this understanding, the art collective Disnovation has created The Solar Share. An Edible Solar Currency, envisioning an alternative future rooted in a new economic system. The Solar Share is a symbolic and edible “currency” — solar energy transformed into food. The project underscores the role of solar energy as a fundamental resource underpinning life and the economy, redefining the concept of currency by placing nature’s cycles and planetary limits at the forefront.
The Solar Share envisions a future where human needs and economic systems are deeply intertwined with the planet’s renewable resources. It invites us to live in harmony with nature, utilizing solar energy in ways that sustain both our metabolism and the health of ecosystems. The project inspires reflection on what an economy could look like if it were based on energy and sustainability rather than consumptive growth. At the heart of this vision lies simplicity, balance, and solidarity with the planet that sustains us—achieved through the cooperation of humans, nature, and new technologies.
The examples of scientific research discussed here outline visions of entirely new futures in which interspecies boundaries are transcended, and human and non-human beings forge alliances and previously unknown forms of communication. These often emerge from the understanding that everything is interconnected—wild places and human-influenced ones, wastelands and areas rich in flora and fauna, the biological and the technological.
Such futures stem from the boldest visions, often dismissed as impossible, prototyped in speculative artistic works and the wild ideas of foresight practitioners. A post-anthropocentric world need not to be catastrophic. Instead, it can open us to experimental forms of coexistence and shared experiences, invented through empathetic collaboration, enriching us with perspectives otherwise inaccessible.
Ewa Kozik, curator, researcher, and creative producer whose practice focuses on the intersection of art, technology, and society. Her transdisciplinary approach to curating is expressed through projects that combine technology-driven art with issues of social and ecological justice. An important element of her practice is the use of technology as a tool for amplifying marginalized voices and redefining dominant narratives. In her work, she pays particular attention to exploring planetary intelligence and building bridges between human and non-human ecosystems through the use of innovative technological solutions in art.
Currently, she co-creates the program of the Biennale Warszawa Foundation and serves as Arts Manager at the British Council. She co-curatorted “Smashing Wor(l)ds: Cultural Practices for re/Imagining & un/Learning Vocabularies” program implemented under the EU Creative Europe Programme. She completed the “AI & BIASES: The Road to Algorithmic Fairness” workshop at the EUI in Florence and the “Cyberwitches and Feminist Technologies” seminar at the Institute for Postnatural Studies.
Previously, she worked as a curator and producer at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle and the Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia (a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw). She holds a degree in philosophy from Trinity College Dublin and cultural studies from the University of Warsaw, complemented by postgraduate studies in art history at Collegium Civitas and “Groups’ Trainers” at the Laboratory of Psychoeducation and SWPS.
From 2021 to 2022, she worked as a creative producer at Biennale Warszawa, where she also co-created and coordinated a temporary Reception Point for Refugees.
