ABSTRACT
Nature used to surround infrastructures. Most bridges, viaducts or dams were located in the countryside, and part of their aesthetic appeal lay in the marked contrast between their generally straightforward and artificial-looking lines and the seemingly spontaneous sinuosity of natural topography. Cities, just like infrastructures, took place in nature. Now nature takes place in infrastructures and cities. In contemporary science and philosophy, nature is interpreted as information driven. And since information is fundamentally commensurate with events a bit is nothing but an elementary occurrence, to paraphrase philosopher Pierre Levy, nature appears as a complex maze of events ranging from micro unfolding of ordered structures to macro changes. Contrary to what Mark Jarzombek suggested in the lecture series that gave birth to the present book, today's information-based nature is certainly not dead. Rainforests are threatened by human development, ice caps by global warming. Red tuna and pandas are endangered species.
