Antarsam: Speculative Fiction about a different Internet
The Antarsam project is a speculative exploration into alternate histories and potential futures, inspired by ecological systems, technological artifacts, cultural contexts, and linguistic roots. Antarsam represents an immersive dive into the possibilities that emerge when the threads of history, technology, and ecology intertwine to weave a new societal fabric.
How might we reconceptualize our systems of production if we consider them not as fixed infrastructures but as evolving boundary objects? The social structures and cooperative behaviors of ants provide a profound metaphorical framework for exploring the possibilities of a politics of logistics centered around decentralized food production and distribution.
This theoretical lens allows us to interrogate the boundary between biological systems and technological infrastructures through the use of speculative fiction. My exploration started with a set of intriguing jump-off points:
- An ecological system: Ants producing and distributing liquid food
- An artifact (thingamajig): Liquid food packets and their decentralized production and delivery system
- A place: Bengal
- A name: Antarsam
Ecological System: Drawing Inspiration from Ants
Introduction: The Divergence Point
The year 1943 marked a devastating milestone in Bengal’s history - a famine that claimed nearly three million lives. While our timeline saw this tragedy followed by the Green Revolution of the 1960s, elsewhere in the multiverse, a different path unfolded. This document examines that alternate trajectory, where a single change in history reshaped not just a nation, but the very nature of technology, society, and sustenance itself.
The Alternative Timeline: Netaji’s Survival
In this alternate reality, Subhashchandra Bose - the revolutionary leader who challenged Gandhi’s non-violent approach to Indian independence - did not perish in a plane crash in 1945. Instead, Netaji (as he was respectfully known) continued his resistance against British colonial rule with tactical support from Japanese forces. Following World War II, he strategically positioned himself against both American and Japanese imperial ambitions, which had divided their control over the north-west and north-east regions of what would have been India and Pakistan.
Witnessing the Bengal famine and subsequent food crises through the 1960s, Netaji’s government prioritized food security above all else. “A nation that cannot feed itself cannot truly be independent,” became his defining philosophy, reshaping the entire trajectory of this alternate India’s development.
The Ant Paradigm
The breakthrough came from an unlikely source: myrmecology, the study of ants. Micah, a biologist specializing in social insects, observed how ant colonies solved complex resource allocation problems through decentralized systems. In her landmark 1952 paper, he wrote:
“Ants have no central authority dictating distribution. Each ant follows simple rules, yet collectively they create remarkably efficient supply chains. Their social digestive system - where food is passed from ant to ant, processed at each stage - provides a blueprint for reimagining how humans might approach resource distribution.”
This insight catalyzed two revolutionary innovations that would transform society.
The Twin Innovations
1. Mrutaru (The Nectar Plant)
The first breakthrough came through interdisciplinary collaboration between nuclear scientists and geneticists. Building on discoveries in isotope science, they developed a genetically modified house plant called Mrutaru (from Sanskrit “mruta,” meaning essence, and “aru,” denoting vitality).
The Mrutaru plant functioned as a biological processor, converting raw ingredients into a nutrient-rich liquid that contained complete human nutritional requirements. The efficiency was remarkable - each plant could convert low-quality organic matter into approximately 65-70 kilograms of nutrient solution weekly. A standard household with three plants could therefore produce up to 200 kilograms of liquid nutrition per week, sufficient to feed not just the family but contribute to community reserves.
Dr. Ayan (no relation to Netaji) explained the science: “The plant utilizes modified photosynthetic pathways and nitrogen-fixing bacteria to create protein structures and complex carbohydrates with unprecedented efficiency. Unlike conventional agriculture, which wastes nearly 60% of potential energy in each trophic transfer, Mrutaru captures almost 80% of input energy, approaching theoretical limits of thermodynamic efficiency.”
2. Annacharkha (The Food Wheel)
The second innovation addressed processing and customization. The Annacharkha - combining “anna” (grain/food) and “charkha” (spinning wheel, ironically evoking Gandhi’s symbol of self-sufficiency) - was a bicycle-powered device that processed Mrutaru’s output into various food forms.
By incorporating different catalyst tablets into the Annacharkha’s processing chamber, households could adjust nutritional profiles and flavor compounds. The device’s design made it accessible for home production while ensuring standardization of the final product. Its bicycle-powered mechanism also offered a practical solution to both energy conservation and public health - early studies showed regular use contributed significantly to cardiovascular health, particularly addressing the rising rates of obesity in urban areas.
Antarsam: The Food Internet
As these innovations scaled across the nation, a new challenge emerged: coordinating decentralized production to ensure equitable distribution. This need birthed Antarsam, a communication network unlike the internet that developed in our timeline.
The term “Antarsam” merges “antar” (meaning ‘in between’) and “sam” (abbreviated from ‘samachar,’ meaning ‘news’) - literally “news between,” but conceptually representing the connections between nodes in the food distribution network. Unlike our internet, which evolved from military and academic roots with packet-switching technology, Antarsam developed as a specialized network for matching surplus and deficit regions in real-time.
The system operated through three tiers:
- Household Nodes: Families registered daily production and consumption, automatically reporting surpluses or deficits
- Neighborhood Hubs: Local coordination centers that balanced resources within communities
- Regional Exchanges: Larger facilities that handled inter-district transfers when local balancing was insufficient
“a nervous system for collective nourishment.” Physical infrastructure - a combination of pneumatic tubes for urban areas and dedicated bicycle couriers for rural regions - enabled the rapid transfer of both information and resources.
The Langaar System
The comprehensive decentralized food system became known as “Langaar,” borrowing the Sikh concept of community kitchens where people of all backgrounds eat together. This naming reflected the system’s social dimension - it wasn’t merely about sustenance, but about redefining community relationships through food.
Traditional cooking didn’t disappear but transformed. Households still prepared conventional meals for special occasions, while daily nutrition came primarily through Mrutaru and Annacharkha. New cultural practices emerged around “flavor sharing” - the exchange of catalyst tablets that produced distinct regional tastes. Marriages often included the ceremonial exchange of family flavor formulas, creating literal “fusion cuisine” in newly formed households.
The system fundamentally altered gender dynamics as well. With basic nutrition secured through a less labor-intensive process, the traditional burden of food preparation - which fell disproportionately on women - was significantly reduced. This created space for greater participation in other economic and social spheres, accelerating women’s integration into previously male-dominated fields.
The Outside observer
Paul didn’t consider himself a time traveler - he preferred “possibility navigator.” A quantum physicist from our timeline, he had accidentally discovered a method to traverse not through time but across divergent realities. His specialized equipment allowed brief observational periods in alternate timelines, though interaction remained limited.
“The differences are both subtle and profound,” Paul explained during a sanctioned presentation to the Antarsam Community Meeting in 2023 (their timeline). “In my world, technology optimized for individual consumption rather than community distribution. Our ‘internet’ connects information, but rarely connects physical resources in meaningful ways.”
Reflection: The Power of Small Changes
The fiction was an exploration on how relatively small changes to historical trajectories can cascade into fundamentally different social structures. By reimagining resource allocation through the lens of collective nourishment rather than individual accumulation, this alternate India created technological and social systems with profoundly different values and outcomes.
This case study reminds us that even seemingly monolithic systems in our own world are ultimately human constructions - the result of countless decisions, values, and historical contingencies. The alternate timeline of Antarsam offers not just an intriguing “what if,” but a mirror that helps us examine the assumptions and priorities embedded in our own technological and social systems.
It is also interesting to compare the conditions that led to the development of liquid food in the current reality ala Soylent and the circumstances of this fiction.
Rhinehart used to view food as a time-consuming hassle and had resolved to treat it as an engineering problem. He blended the ingredients with water and consumed only this drink for the next thirty days. Over the course of the next two months, he adjusted the proportions of the ingredients to counter various health issues and further refined the formula.
We are also able to see other examples of digital infrastructures currently being speculated on for food networks ala Antarsam
Blockchain for Organic Food Traceability: Case Studies on Drivers and Challenges
