Towards a Planetary Identity
Towards a Planetary Identity

2018
Theoretical part of the speculative project lys.

At present, human thinking is limited by each person's own cognitive abilities, perceptual experiences and the individual, reduced model of the world. Although we are expanding our cognitive abilities through language, thinking tools, (computer-)systems and interaction with other brains (Engelbart, 1963), (Clark, 2003), reality is becoming increasingly too complex for individual brains.

Our capitalist social structure has led to immense inequality for decades, weakened the ability for cooperation (Sennett, 2014) and resulted in the conscious destruction of the planetary habitat (Latour, 2018), (Steffen et al., 2015).

In contrast, lys is developing a decentralized complex adaptive system that forms the framework of a participatory collective intelligence. In a sustainable society, all human beings are networked via implanted synthetic neurons, so that their thoughts are already in the process of their emergence of common origin. This enables much more complex and novel thinking processes, decentralizes decision-making processes, and the individual acts less selfishly, but for the collective benefit and in planetary sustainability.