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Bamboo & Fungi in the Digital Age
You might wonder what bamboo and fungi has to do with digital technologies and our digital lives. Perhaps more than one might think. For thousands of years humans have been experimenting with various kinds of materials for the technologies that enable our survival as a species.
Today, much of our digital technologies are, quite literally, in our faces. We engage with our digital world through screens, keyboards, styluses, touch and voice. Most of the feedback from our digital world is delivered through screens.
As I’ve written before and has been put forward by leading minds like Clay Shirky, when technologies become invisible is when they become interesting. When technology fades into the background, is when it tends to deliver the greatest value, not just in economic terms, but as a social good.
The telephone is a prime example. At a very early age, we are taught by parents how to use a telephone and part of that is we’re inherently shown that the telephone is a form of social communication. The telephone is so present across almost every culture in the world that we don’t think much about it, we just use it. It is, in essence, invisible to us.
Increasingly, scientists are looking at embedding and using organic materials integrated with our digital technologies. Bamboo, wood, mycelium (fungi) and even plant…
