The title, Vital Forms alludes to the now outdated philosophy of Vitalism. Vitalism believed in a fundamental difference between living and non-living objects, as Johung reports in many instances throughout the book, the supposed difference between living/non-living or organic /non-organic is being shown to be false. One instance is the work of Rachel Armstrong using Protocells in biological architecture applications (p. 100); these cells have no DNA but can do most things biological ‘living’ cells do. It seems to me that these cells will play a major role in the stabilization and rehabilitation of our planet.

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