Superradiance (2024)

Chapter 1: Embodied Simulation

I stand before you today, A collection, of trillions of cells. — more than half of which are not even genetically human, But other microorganisms.

Trillions of incredibly complex, intelligent little machines, work together, to keep me alive, so that I can keep them alive. And somehow, through their interactions, I emerge.

And to me, it feels like I am a single unitary entity, with clear boundaries, that I call my skin. But intellectually, I know that I am in fact a network, a network of cells and organisms. A chimera.  A chimera. But I am more than that. I am not just the network of the cells within my body. I am also the network of atoms that I borrow, and exchange with my environment, with other living and nonliving things. The atoms that I eat and drink; the atoms I inhale and exhale.

Forged in the dying hearts of stars, exploding into supernova, billions of years ago, billions of light years away, spewed across galaxies to come together — for a very brief moment in time — to momentarily become me and you. I know I’m part of a living planet, but how can I feel this, in my body?  in my body.

Dance is one of our earliest biotechnologies. We dance to connect to each other. We dance to connect back to the living earth Extend our bodies beyond our skin, into the living environment. We dance to remember who we are

 I feel like I’m missing something, but what am I missing?

I am in superposition My body is an animal, alive in the present But my mind is trapped in the future and the past

I dance to a pulse inside me, that did not begin with me

 How do I care for you?

I stand before you today, nourished by ancient oceans Warmed by ancient starlight My body, a site of journeys and transits, portals and interfaces A chimera.

What if we shed our skin? Vibrate in collective effervescence Superradiance

 Superradiance

Chapter 2: Embodying Earth

Two miles beneath my feet, Life eats Rock. Draws energy from Metal.

In these sunless tunnels our ground is their sky.

We have burrowed into the heart of the Earth, Drilled into the clockwork of the planet

From the atoms forged in the stars I create the minerals of life. We are the alchemists, the earth shapers, the architects. We are the lichen, the fungi the microbes the chemolithotrophs,

metabolizing rock into soil.

I am the soil  [I am alive] I am the rootless plants  [bryophytes] that retain water. I am the wet sediment that becomes mud. I am the worms that wriggle. I am the cracks, that grow into rivers, veins across the skin of the earth.  [my skin]

Soil Stands Up

I am the soil that stands up, unfurls, [as fungi] lofts into the sky [as forests]

I am the forest feeding on the sun. I breathe You breathe We breathe

 How do I care for you?

I am the forest, rivers streaming water from the soil into the sky

Here in the sky water has a secret name: A microbe so perfectly shaped, it nucleates ice directly from vapor.

I am the trees lofting microbes to the sky. I seed my breath with life, Cast a spell  [Pseudomona syringae] to summon atmospheric rivers back from the living air; I call back the rain. From oceans above, to oceans below

My lungs  My lungs

My heart  My heart

 How do I care for you?

I am the moon that gently pulls on your skin I am the flowering tides My currents pulse like arteries My veins bloom blue-green I am the waves spuming with life I am the spirit in your breath I am the air-sea boundary The frisky interface Dynamic, Volcanic, Galvanic I breathe You breathe We breathe

I am the waves that caress your skin As my body warms, I thrash and tear deeper, deeper into the seabed, deeper into myself, deeper into my past My fury casts into the sky, ancient memories from the deep  [biosediments] Calcified remnants, of ancient life

I am the reefs that sing summoning wanderers I am the larva of coral and fish drifting in the open ocean. I follow the music of a thriving reef calling me to my new home

I am the diatoms, that once drifted in an ancient sea now a desert, in the Holocene depths of the Sahara: the cratered sand floor of a paleo lake a reservoir of dust, between paleo shores.

I am the sand, ancient memories of life I am the wind that swirls the desert dust into the living sky

Swarms Scatters across my body Atmospheric rivers bloom red, plumes of mineral dust

An offering, from the distant past

The past blows into the present, I am the soil thousands of miles away, Replenished Life, Laughs, Green. Unfurls, Deep memory

I am the fungal air vents that throw my spores to meet the winds I, Stand Up. Unfurl [as fungi] Loft into the sky [as forests] Bring life back to air Bring life back to earth