The Genealogy of Biomimetics: Half a Century’s Quest for Dynamic IT

Abstract. Biologically inspired approaches to the design of IT are presently flourishing. Investigating the scientific and historical roots of the tendency will serve to prepare properly for future biomimetic work. This paper explores the genealogy of the contemporary biological influence on science, design and culture in general to determine the merits of the tendency and lessons to learn. It is argued that biomimetics rests on bona fide scientific and technical reasons for the pursuit of dynamic IT, but also on other more external factors, and that biomimetics should differentiate the relevant from the superficial. Furthermore the search for dynamic capacities of IT mimicking adaptive processes can bring is put forward as both the history and raison d’être of biomimetics. 1. Lifelike – á la mode Biology is enjoying enormous attention from different scientific fields as well as culture in general these days. Examples are legion: The victorious naturalization project in philosophy and psychology spearheaded by cognitive science in the second half of the 20th century; the exploration of biological structures in the engineering of materials or architectures [1]; a dominant trend of organismoid designs with ‘grown’ curves replacing straight lines to convey a slickness and efficiency not previously associated with life; 1 World Expo 2005 being promoted under the slogans “Nature’s Wisdom ” and “Art of Life”; 2 and biology’s new status as the successor of physics as the celebrity science which gets major funding and most headlines. These examples are neither historically unique nor culturally revolutionary. Life and nature have been fetishized before. Yet the fascination with the living has never previously dominated with such universality and impetus, as we presently experience. So we might ask: What is the reason for this ubiquitous interest in life and is it a result of cultural and scientific progress or merely an arbitrary fluctuation soon to be forgotten again? 1 Think of cars, sports apparel, furniture, mobile phones, watches, sunglasses etc

'Globalisering er ikke en ensrettet gade' - Interview med Ulrich Beck

Interview med professor i sociologi ved Ludwig-Ma¬ximilians-Universitetet i München, Ulrich Beck, der er en af de vigtigste stemmer i genopdagelsen af kosmopolitismen og i at formulere et politisk svar på globaliseringen. Interviewet diskuterer Becks vigtigste begreber og hans syn på EU som et kosmopolitisk projek

’Uundgåeligt side om side’ - interview med David Held

Interview med professor i statskundskab ved London School of Economics, David Held, der har udgivet en lang række vigtige værker om globalisering, international, kosmopolitisme og behovet for en global demokratisering af de politiske og økonomiske processer. Interviewet diskuterer Helds udgave af kosmopolitismen og hans vurdering af andre tænkere inden for feltet

How fast is a collective bacterial state established?

Bacteria in a biofilm colony have the capacity to monitor the size and growth conditions for the colony and modify their phenotypical behaviour to optimise attacks, defence, migration, etc. The quorum sensing systems controlling this involve production and sensing of diffusive signal molecules. Frequently, quorum sensing systems carry a positive feedback loop which produces a switch at a threshold size of the colony. This all-or-none switch can be beneficial to create a sudden attack, leaving a host little time to establish a defence. The reaction-diffusion system describing a basal quorum sensing loop involves production of signal molecules, diffusion of signal molecules, and detection of signal molecules. We study the ignition process in a numerical solution for a basal quorum sensor and demonstrate that even in a large colony the ignition travels through the whole colony in a less than a minute. The ignition of the positive feedback loop was examined in different approximations. As expected, in the exact calculation the ignition was found to be delayed compared to a calculation where the binding of signal molecules was quasistatic. The buffering of signal molecules is found to have little effect on the ignition process. Contrary to expectation, we find that the ignition does not start when the threshold is reached at the center-instead it allows for the threshold to be approached in the whole colony followed by an almost simultaneous ignition of the whole biofilm aggregate