Tree of Life v. 0.99
Exercises in Utopian Algorithmics

Tree of Life is an apparatus that visualizes/sonifies mathematical models to explore how they behave in a finite space over time.
Built with soft-tech, FLOSSH ethics, and recycled materials -recycled speakers and cardboard, arduino's free hardware-, the installation searches for a utopian algorithm to ‘solve’ ecological collapse refusing technological opulence.
The installation subtly whispers the sounds of field recordings, some of which are endangered, and others endangering creating an everchanging and conceptually complex sound ecosystem.
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The concept of the tree of life has been an ancient symbol across all continents through history.
The front of the installation represents a tree of life as totem of our finite planet where sounds and lights perform te (dis)equilibrium of earthlings on Earth.
The back -containing all the wiring, electronics, and cotton threads for suspending the speakers- resembles a "wishing tree" where the diverse hanging materials are prayers and offerings for finding a peaceful and sustainable equilibrium on Earth
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Our collective, Neoterrism, imagines that "Tree of Life" is one the proto-machines that Aythor recycled from the abandoned cities of The Great Transition's world, and treasured in Toje's vault".

"Tree of Life" currently implements Markov Chains math models to perform the interaction of multiple beings that belong to three categories (earthlings, Earth's natural elements, human machines) on a finite space.
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Each individual is embodied by one speaker/LED pair and can populate one of 16 possible places available on the tree. Each being is recognized as belonging to a group based on the color of the light and the category of the "field recording" being played from the speaker/led pair.
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Each individual can die, kill, or reproduce based on randomized probabilities.
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The system resets when the diversity collapses: the game is over when one group either colonizes all available space or reaches extinction.
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The installation iterates through random values hoping that the three groups -interdependent for their mutual survival- will reach a stable equilibrium.

Markov Chains are used to predict the next step in a process where each step depends only on the current state.
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Tree of Life implements a time-inhomogeneous discrete-time Markov Chain on a finite state space, specifically structured as an ecological stochastic process.
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The state transition at cell \((x, y)\) for species \(i\) is given by:

\[ S_{i}^{t+1}(x, y) = \\ f(S_{i}^{t}(x, y), M_i, R_i, \text{Interactions}) \]

Mortality Process

\[ P_{\text{death}}(i, x, y) = \\ \text{MATRICES_M}[i][x][y] + \\ \text{tasa_mortalidad}[i] \]

Reproduction Process

\[ P_{\text{birth}}(i, x, y) = \\ \text{MATRICES_R}[i][x][y] + \\ \text{tasa_reproduccion}[i] \]

Markov chains are used as prediction models in Ecology, Machine Learning, Game Theory, International Relations, Data Analysis, Economics, Genetics, Chemistry, Physics, Bioinformatics, Epidemiology, and Healthcare.
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Markov chains play a significant role in internet technologies like recommendation systems, search engine rankings, social network analysis, personalized content delivery, clickstream analysis, ad targeting and marketing, chatbots and virtual assistants, traffic routing and load balancing, dynamic pricing algorithms, spam detection and filtering.