the timboucher experience

I first saw the question posed here:

The question is: Is the map indeed a universal metaphor? Do people in other cultures have the same ‘natural’ ability to understand a birds-eye view from above of space, territory, and routes? This was a central question in the initial phase of Esther Polak’s NomadicMILK project in which I participated in the beginning (see also Tijmen Schep’s recent post). During our first fieldtrip we found out that nomadic Fulani herdsmen indeed draw rudimentary maps in the sand with a stick to depict routes and POIs (places of interest like waterholes, etc.). According to Markoff the map indeed is universal.

But, that’s only if you’re looking at humans. Obviously there’s something about the human animal that somehow seems to set us apart from other animals. We could run round in circles for days about what that is or where it comes from, but I see it as a given. I only say it though because I’ve become interested in a vision of ubiquitous computing which isn’t specific to one type of entity, species or way of being. After all, if computational environments are going to truly become ubiquitous, then that means we need to build in controls, sensors, inputs and feedback devices for other types of creatures. For example, if you look into that plane crash over the Hudson - the one caused by the birds? What if those birds had some way to communicate with the AI/human hybrid piloting that machine? Mutual disaster could be averted.

It may sound like science fiction daydreaming, but we could even apply this way of thinking to ecosystems and climates. What if the Earth could tell us very specifically how to fix global warming? My flight of fancy is starting to sound less like a lecture on Gaian intelligence and more like a deus ex machina at this point though. No great mystery beast is going to come from the earth or sky and save us.

I’m getting carried away again, as usual. Circular logic and all that. My point ultimately is this: if you want to talk about universal communication as a paradigm you MUST make it truly universal and not restrict it to one system or method of conscious experience. Therefore, we must widen the scope of our conversation to biomimicry. Let’s look at how animals convey a sense of location to one another by marking territores. Can a dog understand an overhead cartographic project of a piece of landscape? I doubt it, but dogs are essential allies and companions when it comes to natural human activities like getting around in the woods. I’d rather have a loyal canine companion at my side when I’m out walking across the wilderness than the world’s most accurate GPS system telling me what I already know: where I am.

There’s gotta be some kind of middle ground opened up in discussions about these subjects. Biomimicry seems like the perfect place to begin. What about bees? How do they communicate navigational instructions to one another? Nature seems to be nothing if not a symphony of living creatures continually signalling to one another for a multitude of different reasons. I expect that we’ll get substantially farther at looking at how nature handles complex technological processes. What works? What are the existing usepaths for this field of investigation? Any trackers and hunters out there? I’d like to hear your side of this discussion. What about birds? Don’t some people think they follow magnetic patterns in the great migrations of the certain flocks?

• Mandala OS: The Universal Application, Here we go!
• A little bird told me (they tell me a lot of things)
• Think photographs into existence
• Street Art Maps
• UFO Maps