This project is a speculative exploration around the idea of what Humans will look like in a Society of Trees.

To begin this momentary speculation - at a macro scale - Richard Power's book "The Overstory" discusses this from the perspective of 9 characters who have unique life experiences that address the destruction of forests.  The story talks about various criteria of the tree, such as the roots, trunk, the crown, while the characters, for example, a computer designer who designs high-fidelity characters in Eden, are depicted through story vignettes.  But ironically, it felt less about the characters and more about the trees, an interesting way of appreciating what is around us, what trees are giving us, how our planet works, and why we need to care about our environment.

Growing up in California, my family went camping twice a year at minimum, and seeing the Coast Redwood at Henry Cowell Redwood California State Park spoke differently every time. My mother used to say that phytoncides are the reason why we feel good, and supposedly when plants release these organic compounds to nature, humans breathe these chemicals which increase the number and activity of a type of white blood cells that helps to kill tumors and virus-infected cells in our bodies!

On the other hand at a micro-scale, conversations do happen in nature!

I remember coming across crown shyness, a phenomenon I was only able to experience through my computer screen during a lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Crown shyness is a phenomenon in which the branches of particular species of trees do not grow into each other or overlap, creating gaps between the branches of different trees in a forest. This is thought to be a mechanism for preventing damage to the branches and leaves of trees, and it is seen in numerous tree species around the world.

Trees are so forgiving and helpful, staying true to the idea of a community and accountability, filling in for one another, and being altruistic rather than egoistic.

Reflecting on my work, and how I approach projects, I was building an app that used ML-Agents to encourage competition against one another, mimicking humans, and ultimately encouraging the agents to push themselves to improve and build incentives.

Acts of competition, and even jealousy, have been fundamental emotions humans have. It got me thinking - is it necessary to innovate?

With trees, one tree doing better is not encouraged, if not, disallowed. Seeing the unlimited growth of corporations, unlimited acquisitions, and monopolies - would that be possible in a society of trees? Once it becomes a certain size, trees begin to share resources to help neighbor trees grow and care more deeply for the system of trees without taking all resources for yourself.

What about emotions - are trees shy? Are they happy? Smiley? Are growth and lushness the only metric for such qualities? Do trees love winter?

What if the first point in this momentary change is that trees don't follow emotions too closely? Maybe seasons are our new emotion of adaptation, and time is much slower and more patient.

Taking cues from my observation about trees so far, what would our criminal justice system look like as a society of trees? I wonder, would trees punish each other in place of power? What would a criminal look like in this momentary society? Could they quantify their damages, or when humans attack and kill trees, do they criminalize humans for our actions?