korrents

Neri Oxman

@neri-oxman · 16 positions · 0 changes of mind

Designer and scientist who led the Mediated Matter group at MIT and founded the company OXMAN, which builds products in collaboration with living organisms.

Neri Oxman did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    The things humankind designed are precisely the things that separated us from nature, and the point of design now is to undo that separation.

    Their wordsI think that let's say from the beginning of mankind going back 200,000 years, the products that we have designed have separated us from nature. And it's ironic that the things that we designed and produced as humankind, those are exactly the things that separated us.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:02:24 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 1st of 16 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    Nature holds a wisdom that sits above intelligence, and that wisdom, not intelligence, is what technology should be trying to tap into.

    Their wordsEverybody talks about intelligence these days, but I like to think that nature has kind of wisdom that exists beyond intelligence or above intelligence, and it's that wisdom that we're trying to tap into through technology.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:02:57 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 2nd of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    The mycelial network is not the model for a connected nature, because it stops wherever there is a physical gap.

    Their wordsWell, first of all, yes, they're connected, but that network stops when there is a physical gap. That network does not necessarily enable the whales in the Dominican to connect with an olive tree in Israel to connect with a weeping willow in Montana.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:06:36 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 3rd of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    What nature wants is to increase information while decreasing entropy, and that is the objective any design working with nature has to serve.

    Their wordsSo we keep coming back to this answer of nature wants to increase information, but decrease entropy. So find order, but constantly increase the information scale.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:10:16 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 4th of 16 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Living systems can be laid out on two axes, material sophistication and communication, and an organism that excels on one is usually poor on the other.

    Their wordsSo if you think about entire all of nature, let's say all of living systems as a matrix that runs across two axes one is material sophistication, which is terribly relevant for designers, and the other is communication. The termites ace on communication, but their material sophistication is crap.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:22:42 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 5th of 16 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    If you can predict it, it does not count as emergence.

    Their wordsSo if you can predict it doesn't count as emergence, actually.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:28:05 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 6th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Genetic modification is not one ethical question: a silkworm must never be modified, and bacteria are not in the same ethical range at all.

    Their wordsWith silkworms, absolutely let's not modify it genetically. Let's not modify it genetically. And then some. Because why did we get there to begin with 4,000 years ago in the Silk Road? And we should never get to a point where we evolve life for the service of mankind at the risk of these wonderful creatures across the across the kingdom of life. I don't think about the same kind of ethical range when I think about bacteria.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:46:42 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 7th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    The runaway emergence we are trying to prevent in AGI is exactly what we should be trying to cause in synthetic biology and bio-based materials.

    Their wordsWhat we don't want to happen with AGI, we want to happen with synthetic biology. What we don't want to happen online and software with language, we want for it to happen with bio-based materials.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:54:37 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 8th of 16 in this recording

    AGI

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Plants already have a language and it is made of molecules, not words; decoding it is what would let us hold a conversation with them.

    Their wordsThese incredible life forms are communicating using a different language than ours. We use language models, they use molecular models. At the moment where we can parse, we can decode these molecular moments is when we can start having a conversation with plants.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:56:14 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 9th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Precision agriculture as practised is too late by construction: by the time a drone photographs a crop that looks bad, the damage has already happened.

    Their wordsBecause right now we are using drones to take photos of crops, of corn, that look bad. And when we take that photo, it's already too late.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 0:57:38 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 10th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    The way we make things is out of tune with the time dimension of the natural world, and that has to change even if it means designing on the scale of centuries.

    Their wordsAnd the way of being in the physical world today is really not in tune with the time dimension of the natural world at all, and that needs to change.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:01:08 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 11th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Calling a fragrance bio-derived says nothing about what it cost nature: ten thousand rose bushes are burned through to make five millilitres of it.

    Their wordsBut when you look into the fragrance and you understand that in order to get to this bio-derived fragrance, you blew through 10,000 bushes of rose to create 5 mL of a rose fragrance. And all these 10,000 bushes of rose, they take space, they take water management, and so much waste.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:04:28 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 12th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    A designer must never stop at the object: a shoe, a chair or a building is only honestly designed once you account for the whole system it is sourced from.

    Their wordsAnd when you think about a product and you think about a shoe or a chair or a perfume or a building, you don't stop at the object. You want to go all the way to the system.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:05:40 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 13th of 16 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    Beauty is agency: a thing is beautiful because it has agency, not because of how it looks.

    Their wordsTo me, beauty is agency. To me, something that has agency, it is beautiful.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:12:59 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 14th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    The future of design is soft control: building highly controlled systems whose whole purpose is to enable the loss of control.

    Their wordsSo I think the future of design is in that soft control, is in the ability to design highly controlled systems that enable the loss of control.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 1:15:19 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 15th of 16 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Young people should not think in terms of a career at all: a career is imposed on you, while a calling comes from within and transcends it.

    Their wordsI think to the younger generation, I say, don't think of your career. A career is something that is imposed upon you. Think of your calling. That's something that's innately and directionally moves you, and it's something that transcends a career.
    spoken · official transcript hear it at 2:14:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Neri Oxman: Biology, Art, and Science of Design & Engineering with Nature | Lex Fridman Podcast #394youtube.com 16th of 16 in this recording

    Interesting