Journey to the Central Nervous System of the Earth
LCAB PhD student Andrew Gibson shares his experience of the American Geophysical Union annual conference
For a researcher interested in the cognitive history and future of Earth, the American Geophysical Union annual conference is a truly extraordinary event. The work that I presented, to a session convened by Erle Ellis and Dorothy Merritts entitled ‘Anthropocene Science: What Next?’, detailed the theory that underpins my present PhD research. Very briefly, this proposes that cognitive systems, centred around (but by no means the sole preserve of) our species underwent a rapid growth in their spatial extent throughout the Holocene, and spawned the novel processes that characterise Earth’s present. I propose that this leaves Earth on the brink of entering ‘the Cognizocene’ – a novel planetary epoch in which cognitive systems assume control of Earth’s various surface processes1. The clear lack of intention behind our current planetary-scale impacts places this epoch squarely in the future; indeed, Earth is currently running wildly out of control.
There is of course no guarantee that humanity will successfully steer Earth into a Cognizocene state, meaning that a new planetary order may emerge by chance from the shattered remnants of the Holocene, irrespective of the wellbeing of the present biosphere. In blunter terms, this could well be the type of catastrophic event (or sequence of events) that would qualify as a mass extinction, leading to suffering on an unthinkable scale. Sceptics might disagree, but I think a Cognizocene future – and all that it entails – is almost certainly preferable. This leaves the crucial question, which my PhD research is exploring: how might we pursue such a future?
Providing specific, context-sensitive answers to this is well beyond the scope of a single PhD project, but I can at least propose some general principles for Cognizocene governance. This is all still very much work-in-progress, but the conceptual starting point is the ‘information horizon’, which I define as the spatial or systemic limits of the information sources available to a cognitive process1. Information can be thought of as a signal that flows from an object in the world* into the perceptive and cognitive faculties of an organism. Given that sensory perception is spatially limited (for example, we cannot see beyond the horizon unaided), it follows that the information available to any cognitive process is as well.
When an organism interacts with elements of its material surroundings that are beyond its information horizon, it cannot act with agency, which increases the probability that it will act contrary to its own interests. I argue that this describes our species’ inadvertent modification of the Earth system, which can be understood as the unintended (and in many cases unforeseen) consequences of deliberate actions taking place at smaller scales, such as burning fossil fuels for energy. The first step to remedying this is to ensure that the information horizons of governance institutions and decision makers extend to encompass the impacts of their actions at all relevant scales.
As I wandered through AGU24’s vast poster hall, I realised that this was essentially the function of the whole conference, and that its sheer scale (on the busiest day, over 32,000 people attended) marked it as a major event in the Earth system. The vast majority of the thousands of posters and presentations described research that in some way extends the boundaries of our knowledge of Earth – and in doing so encloses ever more of our material environment within our collective information horizon. These efforts are supported by the organisations present in the trade show, amongst whom were many manufacturers of all sorts of sensory equipment – seismometers, satellite data, LIDAR scanners etc. – which enable the flows of information that underpin the work on display in the poster hall next door.
The astrobiologist David Grinspoon, who also attended AGU24, has written2 that for any species that becomes a significant driver of its home planet’s behaviour, it is a practical inevitability that planetary influence will precede planetary control. I think this sheds light on the current situation on Earth – the human species sits somewhere in between influence and control, in an intermediate state of planetary awareness. If we think about our species as the primary cognitive component of our planet, discussions between the tens of thousands of researchers in attendance resemble the forging of connections between neurons, and the conference itself is very probably the single largest component of Earth’s burgeoning central nervous system.
* Including ‘cultural objects’, which are tricky to locate spatially – but interact with material reality and are therefore quite definitely ‘things’.
- Gibson, A. (In review), Anticipating the Cognizocene: A potential future metastable state of the Earth system. Unpublished manuscript.
- Grinspoon, D. (2016). Earth in human hands: shaping our planet’s future. New York, Boston: Grand Central Publishing.
Huge thanks to:
Erle Ellis and Dorothy Merritts, LCAB for funding the trip, Hannah Cooke, my supervisors for their patience while I am distracted from my actual PhD work, David Grinspoon, Shouk for the oyster mushroom shawarma (I had wanted one for YEARS and the reality was every bit as delicious as I hoped), NASA for letting me touch a piece of the moon, the anonymous lady who bought my coffee for no reason at all other than just to be nice.
