Now imagine a lot of trees living together as neighbors then expand the concept to shrubs and grasses. One shrub here, a lot of shrubs there; here a clump of grass, there an expanse of grasses.

Installation view of Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg, Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles (all photos David S. Rubin ...