The Parasite (Volume 1) Quotes

“My body is an interchange of time. It is traversed with signals, noises, messages
and parasites. It is not exceptional in this vast world. This remains true of animals and plants, of air and
crystals, of cells and atoms, of groups and constructed objects. Transformation, deformation of
information.
I had thought that interchanges were intermediaries, that interference was on the fringe, that the
translator was placed between instances43, that the bridge connected two riverbanks, that the path went
from the origin to the goal. There are no instances. Or rather, instances, systems, riverbanks, etc. are
analyzable in turn as interchanges, paths, translations and so on. There are no instances or systems
except for black boxes. When we do not understand, when we defer our knowledge to a later date, when
the thing is too complex for the means of the day, when we put everything in a temporary black box, we
prejudge that it is a matter of a system. When we can finally open the box, we see that this box
functions like a space of transformation. There are no systems, instances or substances except from our
ignorance. A system is non-knowledge. The other side of non-knowledge. Non-knowledge has a chaos
side and a system side. Knowledge bridges these two riverbanks. Knowledge as such is a space of
transformation.
This entire question is fractal.”
― Michel Serres, The Parasite (Volume 1)