From the State of Control to a Praxis of Destituent Power

Abstract

The philosophy of biology informs the three approaches to thinking about life such as soul, meat, and pattern. It undertakes the twofold method of identifying a principle of life and boundaries of articulation. Biophilosophy implies a critique of all anthropomorphic conceptions of life. Biophilosophy is an approach to nonhuman life, nonorganic life, anonymous life, indefinite life, what Gilles Deleuze calls 'a life'. Whereas the philosophy of biology proceeds by the derivation of universal characteristics for all life, biophilosophy proceeds by drawing out the network of relations that always take the living outside itself. 'Swarm intelligence' is a term currently used to describe an interdisciplinary research field that combines the biological studies of 'social insects' with computer science. Just as a group of insects that are individually 'dumb' are able to collectively self-organize and forage for a food source or build a nest, so can simple software programs or robots self-organize in groups and carry out complex tasks.