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+\chapter{A Deal with Life}
+
+Life is one of the most beautiful things in the universe.  Arguably,
+it is because we humans belong to the kingdom of Life that it
+fascinates us so.  Beyond its intrinsic beauty to which our sensory
+organs are attuned, it also deeply attracts us because of the
+self-referentiality of its contemplation: when thinking about Life, we
+often think about our interactions with it, and ultimately
+about ourselves.
+
+Self-referentiality is also a hurdle: it is intrinsically difficult to
+conceive of oneself.  Even though theoretical computer science is no
+substitute for philosophy, I enjoy taking Gödel's incompleteness
+theorems\footnote{\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel's_incompleteness_theorems}}
+and especially Hilbert's
+\emph{Entscheidungsproblem}\footnote{\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entscheidungsproblem}}
+and the halting
+problem\footnote{\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem}}
+as vivid examples: Turing's famous proof states that a Turing machine
+cannot generally decide whether another Turing machine will ever halt.
+Since abstract computing devices can be seen as distant
+mathematizations of the human brain, this formal result hints that
+entirely conceiving of our mind---and by extension of Life itself---is
+borderline intractable.
+
+The difficulty of self-referiantiality is also deeply disturbing,
+especially because understanding how our bodies function within their
+environments has so many essential implications: dealing with the
+climate crisis, tackling diseases, improving the quality of life, to
+only cite the foremost ones.  To avoid the worry of looking into the
+mirror for too long, one can brutally build a wall between oneself and
+``the rest'' of Life, and adopt what may be called the Engineer's
+position: a living organism is a machine constituted out of mechanical
+pieces, whilst the human disassembles, adjusts, and reassembles them
+again, improved.
+
+Modern biology, medicine, biotechnology illustrate the high
+performance of the Engineer's approach, and this text is not
+a criticism of mechanicism per se.  Nevertheless, its efficiency does
+not entail total truthfulness, nor even exclusivity about truth.
+In other words, mechanistic views allowing for impressive technical
+achievements does not mean that these views fully reflect reality, nor
+that mechanicism is the final stop on our journey to understanding
+Life.  In my research, I aim for exploring different approaches to
+Life and tools supporting such approaches.  I take particular
+enthusiasm in thinking about striking \emph{a deal with Life}:
+establishing \emph{mutually beneficial} interactions with living
+systems.
+
+Concluding deals as opposed to taking the Engineer's position resets
+the power balance in our relationship with Life: instead of seeking to
+control, hack, or otherwise dominate living organisms, the goal is to
+further take into account their well-being.  I believe that
+approaching Life from this viewpoint is essential if we are after true
+solutions to fundamental problems such as the climate crisis or
+complex diseases.  On a more philosophical note, the framework of
+mutually beneficial interactions should remind us that our
+intelligence in no way warrants an extraction of the human being into
+an exceptional superior stance---we are part of Life, and we ought to
+think and act accordingly.
+
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