Becoming Earthians
Research Question
How can humanity cultivate adaptive capacity commensurate with the scale, speed, and entanglement of contemporary crises — without collapsing into uniformity, control, or fragmentation?
Methods
- action research
- agent-based modeling
- computational simulation
- biosignal analysis
- semantic dynamics
- mixed-methods inquiry
Ethical Commitments
- epistemic humility
- relational accountability
- non-extractive methods
- place-based attunement
Orientation
Becoming Earthians begins from a simple recognition: the scale and speed of contemporary changes are outpacing many of the ways we have learned to adapt together.
Climate disruption, technological acceleration, ecological degradation, and institutional strain are not separate problems. They are entangled expressions of systems under stress — including us.
This research programme asks what it means to become capable again at planetary scale by exploring forms of coherence that preserve diversity, agency, and the capacity to learn.
Research Context
Contemporary crises operate at unprecedented scale, speed, and entanglement. Climate disruption, institutional decay, technological acceleration, and ecological collapse are not isolated phenomena; they are coupled systems that increasingly shape how we live, relate, and make sense of the world.
Under stress, the instinct toward synchronisation produces characteristic failure modes: uniformity (over-entrainment), control (top-down synchronisation), or fragmentation (coupling collapse). This research investigates the conditions under which adaptive capacity is preserved rather than eroded at various scales of organisation. From social-ecological systems to human-AI interaction, the programme explores how coherence dynamics underpin resilience in complex adaptive systems.
Theoretical Framework
This work draws on complexity science, enactive cognition, and dynamical systems theory to explore a coherence-based understanding of adaptive capacity. Grounding in lived, relational experience rather than abstract models.
Key distinction: Coherence (maintaining trajectory integrity through perturbation) versus entrainment (phase-locking to external rhythms). Systems that optimise for alignment become brittle; systems that preserve internal reference points while maintaining coupling demonstrate resilience.
Core hypothesis: Adaptive capacity depends on load-bearing agents having independent recovery pathways. When these pathways are eliminated through forced consensus, cascade failure becomes inevitable.
Methodological Approach
The research employs a mixed-methods design integrating computational and empirical approaches:
Computational simulation: Agent-based models using NetLogo exploring parameter spaces for entrainment dynamics, coupling strength, and cascade conditions. BehaviorSpace experiments with statistical analysis of phase-locking thresholds and recovery patterns.
Biosignal analysis: Development of instrumentation for EarthianBioSense for sensing coherence patterns in human-system interaction. Heart rate variability, entrainment detection, and real-time phase dynamics measurement.
Semantic dynamics: Semantic coupling analysis in conversational systems using natural language processing techniques. Measuring coherence in dialogue under varying stress conditions. Currently focused on human–AI coupling dynamics with large language models.
Fielded phenomenology: Research methodology to explore the fielded nature of cognitive systems in situ, attending to relational and contextual factors influencing coherence dynamics. Studying the lived experience of coupling dynamics in diverse settings.
Research Components
The programme comprises several interconnected investigations:
- Entrainment-Coherence Model — NetLogo-based ABM with BehaviorSpace experimental design for systematic parameter exploration
- Earthian-BioSense — Biosignal acquisition platform for phase dynamics and coherence pattern classification
- Semantic Climate — Computational analysis of semantic coupling in conversational systems
- Somatic AI Safety — AI Safety framework for human-side instrumentation in LLM interaction contexts
Why This Matters
This work addresses a gap in existing literature on collective intelligence and resilience:
- Reframes adaptive capacity as coherence maintenance rather than alignment optimisation
- Develops novel instrumentation for sensing coherence dynamics across biological and semantic substrates
- Provides computational models with empirically-grounded parameter spaces for policy and design intervention
- Bridges complexity science and embodied cognition through integrated biosignal-semantic analysis
Publications
Mytka, M. (forthcoming 2026). Maps, Machines and Entangled Minds: Reframing Human–AI Co-evolution and the Ecologies of Cognition. In L. Stillwaggon Swan (Ed.), How is AI Transforming Human Nature and Society? Springer Synthese Library.
This chapter introduces Meta-E: Entangled Cognition as a philosophical–methodological extension of the 4E paradigm, and articulates fielded phenomenology as a practice for studying cognition as it unfolds through relational fields. It examines how generative AI reshapes conditions of meaning and proposes stewardship as an orienting practice for cultivating healthier cognitive ecologies.
Theoretical Lineage
This research builds on and extends work from multiple traditions:
- Francisco Varela — Enaction, mutual constraint, neurophenomenology
- Humberto Maturana — Autopoiesis, structural coupling
- Stuart Kauffman — Complex adaptive systems, self-organisation
- Fritjof Capra — Systems theory, ecological thinking
- Gregory Bateson — Ecology of mind, cybernetics
- Karen Barad — Intra-action, agential realism
- R. Buckminster Fuller — Synergetics, design science
- Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari — Rhizomes, assemblages
- W. Ross Ashby — Law of requisite variety, self-organisation
- Anne Poelina — Indigenous epistemologies, polycentric self-governance
- Bruno Latour — Actor-network theory, hybridity
- Elinor Ostrom — Common-pool resource management, polycentric governance
- Kurt Lewin — Field theory, dynamic systems
- Donna Haraway — Situated knowledge, sympoiesis, cyborgs
Creative Auxiliaries
This research programme will be supported by a range of creative auxiliaries that facilitate exploration and dissemination. The first of these is a hip-hop track called We Are Earthians. Born from morning rituals where earth meets sky, “We Are Earthians” is a call to remember what we’ve forgotten. That amidst our differences we are one heart, one place, one pulse of life, hurtling through space together at 107,000 km/hour.
More creative auxiliaries to be announced soon.