Alive: Synthetic Cells, Feral Robots, Rebellious AI, and the Design of Radical Life

A timely examination of a wide range of projects exploring the boundaries of our existence.

A silicone jellyfish with a rat's heart, a drone that smells using the antenna of a moth, wearables made from cultured human skin, an AI-populated digital snack bar in the metaverse. These projects and many more offer a mind-bending, head-turning vision of the future that Madeline Schwartzman demonstrates is just around the corner.

Curated from new developments in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, biology, and art, this broad-ranging survey demonstrates the myriad ways in which our perception of what it means to be alive has dramatically changed. Where do we draw the new lines? Are there any boundaries we should not cross? And what if?. . .? By examining these new "beings," Alive maps out a vision of new partnerships, uncanny hybrids, and collaborative intelligences, as science fiction rapidly becomes science fact.

Book cover: Adapted from "Analog Electronic Songbird" (2018), by Kelly Heaton.