INFRATECTURE. Vivicities.

[3L2] VIVICITIES.

In the book Out of Control, Kevin Kelly presents the hypothesis that machines will become more lifelike while life simultaneously becomes more mechanical. The argument is that man’s first machines were primitive, clumsy, and inefficient, but as technology has become more sophisticated, complex, and adaptable, it is beginning to mimic life. Simultaneously, as technology augments and enhances life, it becomes a part of it; genetic engineering, for example, has already transformed the evolutionary process dramatically. Kelly calls the complex, synchronous models of the made and the born "vivisystems." Whether a beehive or the internet, a prairie or an economy, vivisystems all possess similar values: "[1] The absence of imposed centralized control, [2] The autonomous nature of subunits, [3] The high connectivity between the subunits, and [4] The webby nonlinear causality of peers influencing peers."¹¹⁶ Life is, after all, an excellent role model for the manmade: it is adaptable, evolving, resilient, boundless, and always new. However, its negative characteristics have been especially daunting: it is nonoptimal, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and ultimately incomprehensible. One could argue that the New York Stock Exchange or the city of Tokyo possess all of these life-like qualities, both good and bad. However, man continues the struggle to control, to organize, to predict, and to understand. These seemingly inherent urges are not negative or self-defeating unless they are applied improperly to vivisystems.

Air Flow Diagram

There are many examples of awkward battles to control or understand vivisystems. As the internet connects all local and national governments, for instance, the conflict between differing regional laws has generated many new controversies, with governments worrying about censorship, encryption, and intellectual property. The post-industrial city is another good example; a vivisystem which planners, developers, politicians, and architects are always trying to control. The so-called Death of Urbanism may have resulted from the fact that no one can fully understand, or control, the city. But instead of abandoning the effort, the players involved in shaping the city should understand the fundamental rules of vivisystems. From observations gleaned from the evolving science of complexity, Kelly declares the Nine Laws of God: "distribute being, control from the bottom up, cultivate increasing returns, grow by chunking, maximize the fringes, honor your errors, pursue no optima; have multiple goals, seek persistent disequilibrium, change changes itself."¹¹⁷ Once these rules are understood relative to the post-industrial city, we can engage with it effectively.

¹¹⁶Kelly, Kevin, Out of Control (Addison Wesley, 1994) p. 22

¹¹⁷Ibid., p. 468

Images: 1. Air Flow Diagram

A Master's Thesis in Architecture at Rice University by Blaine Brownell.