Lorenz Oken
scientist · 1 mention across 1 reading
In this course
Oken appears here as a passing reference in an encoded passage that's difficult to read fully, but seems to invoke early 19th-century German naturalism's concept of primordial slime or proto-biological matter as a foundation for understanding life's continuity with technology. The excerpt suggests the course is using Oken's biological philosophy to argue that the boundary between organic and machine systems collapses when we recognize technology as a natural extension of life itself rather than something external to it. This Romantic-era naturalism becomes a conceptual resource for thinking through cybernetics and AI as continuous with rather than opposed to biological processes.
Background
Lorenz Oken was a German naturalist, botanist, biologist, and ornithologist. He became a professor of natural history at the University of Jena and from 1833 at the newly founded University of Zurich. He founded the journal Isis.
Wikipedia →Mentioned in 1 reading
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