A Linden Tree in Tongerlo

Abstract

At the age of seven, children are invited to a barren place to plant a few trees and care for them for three years. The children must observe, make notes and drawings, write landscape biographies, draw palimpsests, and keep the trees and landscape alive. The Old Trees, an algorithm and Distributed Autonomous Organization, are the funders of this woodwide educational project. The consciousness of forests is linked with the internet-of-things, and with the help of machine learning and blockchain technology, they trade logging licenses and ecosystem services, make a profit, acquire their own capital and land, and expand. Iselin, a young archaeologist, planted trees in Tongerlo and discovered something dark that she could not grasp. The Old Trees and older people hid it and let her believe that she had imagined it. Nowadays, she works in an excavation campaign in toxic landscapes, because she hopes to understand, in the deep layers of the earth, what the Old Trees and elder people are hiding from the younger generations. However, she has not much time left.