Alive

A timely examination of a wide range of projects exploring the boundaries of what it means to be alive, speculating on what 'life' is, and how humankind will (or will not) fit into a new order of hybrid species: a sort of sci-fi guidebook to lab-built humans.

A silicone jellyfish with a rat’s heart, a drone that smells using the antenna of a moth, wearables made from cultured human skin, an AI-populated digital snack bar in the metaverse. These projects and many more offer a mind-bending, head-turning vision of the future that Madeline Schwartzman demonstrates is just around the corner.

Curated from new developments in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, biology and art, this broad-ranging survey demonstrates the myriad ways in which our perception of what it means to be alive has dramatically changed. Where do we draw the new lines? Are there any boundaries we should not cross? And what if… ?

By examining these new ‘beings’, Alive maps out a vision of new partnerships, uncanny hybrids and collaborative intelligences, as science fiction rapidly becomes science fact.

Review

An exciting encyclopedia of weird scientific projects that explore what it means to be alive, perfect for anyone curious about what it will mean to be a human in the future... Schwartzman is an extraordinary curator... Thought-provoking [and] well-designed.-- "BookPage (starred review)" (9/1/2025 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Madeline Schwartzman is an artist, writer, filmmaker, architect and educator who explores human narratives and the human sensorium through all of the above. She is also the author of See Yourself Sensing and See Yourself X.