This comparison to RAID arrays and server infrastructure is brilliant. The invisible root system as the controler that hot-swaps visible components captures how biological redundancy actually works way better than just calling it a 'big tree', dunno why more nature writing doesn't use these metaphors. Had a dad who worked in data centers for years and never thought about forests this way until now. Makes you wonder how many other natural systms we misread by focusing on what's above ground.
Interesting that the writer only understands a natural phenomenon by comparing it with a computer... when the natural biological system was in place millennia prior to the invention of computing systems. If I (of an older generation) were to compare the Aspen tree to something, I would start with the human brain (as the underground, invisible roots) and it's system of different types of nerves to organs throughout the body (which can be imagined as the above ground part.) There are reciprocal messages to and from the brain. There are also reciprocal messages that above ground trees (other than Aspen) transmit to their roots. So why wouldn't above ground Aspens also do that? And, in humans, stem cells can develop and/or be modified into tissues ("above ground") other than their origin tissue ("underground".) But all cells in one body contain the exact same DNA (roots.) So, perhaps computing systems may be understood by some of us through analysis of the Aspen tree rather than the other way around. I reject analyzing living, reciprocal, biological systems thru a inflexible data lens, although I understand that, unfortunately, that is the only way some people see the whole world.
It’s funny to accuse the writer of only understanding Pando through computers when the whole essay is literally about how a biological system breaks our default categories in the first place. The metaphor isn’t “trees are just servers,” it’s “look, this organism behaves more like a distributed system than like a neat row of individuals,” which is exactly the kind of sideways comparison that makes people who don’t already think in biology pay attention. Also, if you’re allowed to reach for brains, nerves, and stem cells as your preferred metaphors, other people are allowed to reach for RAID arrays and data centers. That’s not a moral failing, it’s just a different cognitive toolkit.
This comparison to RAID arrays and server infrastructure is brilliant. The invisible root system as the controler that hot-swaps visible components captures how biological redundancy actually works way better than just calling it a 'big tree', dunno why more nature writing doesn't use these metaphors. Had a dad who worked in data centers for years and never thought about forests this way until now. Makes you wonder how many other natural systms we misread by focusing on what's above ground.
Interesting that the writer only understands a natural phenomenon by comparing it with a computer... when the natural biological system was in place millennia prior to the invention of computing systems. If I (of an older generation) were to compare the Aspen tree to something, I would start with the human brain (as the underground, invisible roots) and it's system of different types of nerves to organs throughout the body (which can be imagined as the above ground part.) There are reciprocal messages to and from the brain. There are also reciprocal messages that above ground trees (other than Aspen) transmit to their roots. So why wouldn't above ground Aspens also do that? And, in humans, stem cells can develop and/or be modified into tissues ("above ground") other than their origin tissue ("underground".) But all cells in one body contain the exact same DNA (roots.) So, perhaps computing systems may be understood by some of us through analysis of the Aspen tree rather than the other way around. I reject analyzing living, reciprocal, biological systems thru a inflexible data lens, although I understand that, unfortunately, that is the only way some people see the whole world.
It’s funny to accuse the writer of only understanding Pando through computers when the whole essay is literally about how a biological system breaks our default categories in the first place. The metaphor isn’t “trees are just servers,” it’s “look, this organism behaves more like a distributed system than like a neat row of individuals,” which is exactly the kind of sideways comparison that makes people who don’t already think in biology pay attention. Also, if you’re allowed to reach for brains, nerves, and stem cells as your preferred metaphors, other people are allowed to reach for RAID arrays and data centers. That’s not a moral failing, it’s just a different cognitive toolkit.