Generative Epistemics and Aesthetics

Abstract: The recent proliferation of computational tools and generative models have profound consequences for scientific discovery and creativity, particularly as they can operate at levels of scale and opacity beyond human comprehension. How do we grapple with this potential epistemic and aesthetic upheaval?  

This talk explores this question by drawing parallels between metascience and foundation models, origins of life and open-ended evolutions, economic calculation problems and adaptive markets, and synthetic personae and interactive media. Through a mix of synthetic biology, game engines, generative AI models, and 3D printed hardware, my work plays at this boundary of natural versus artificial, scientific versus speculative.