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Gaia Wakes presents a compelling new framework for understanding the past, present, and future of our planet. Starting from a strong foundation in economics and drawing on a vast range of multidisciplinary scholarship, Topher McDougal explores the possibility of a fifth transition towards an upgraded Earth: the development of a technologically enabled planetary brain capable of coordinating ecological functions and peering far into the future and universe.
Gaia Wakes endows the emergence of a planetary brain with both a plausible economic mechanism and a historical context in which that mechanism has operated over the course of 3.8 billion years of life on Earth. It argues that the global environmental devastation we are beginning to experience and rapid recent advancements in artificial intelligence may jointly be part of a naturally recurring cycle of “upgrades” that has driven the increasing complexity of life on Earth.
Ambitious and provocative, the author combines economics with a breathtaking range of subjects including futurism, technology, philosophy, ecology and planetary and environmental sciences to offer new insights into questions that have long challenged us about the relationship between humankind and the world in which we live. Gaia Wakes stands out as a bold and original perspective on the future of our planet.
— Jonathan Blake, Associate Director, Planetary Program, Berggruen Institute, co-author of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises
Are we on the verge of Earth consciousness just when we need it most? McDougal's daring and timely thought experiment explores if and how such consciousness might come about in our age when ecosystems are collapsing as fast as AI is advancing.
— Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, and author of Humanitarianism 2.0: New Ethics for the Climate Emergency
A bold and stimulating set of ideas.
— Bill Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts University, and lead author for the Nobel-award winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
A set of deep-running and potentially revolutionary thoughts that may yet lead us to treat Earth more gently and inclusively than we do in our current age.
— Jurgen Brauer, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Augusta University, Georgia, and author of War and Nature
A much-needed optimistic vision for our planet's evolutionary trajectory, one that defies the bleakness that pervades so much of the conversation about our environmental future. Gaia Wakes is an important and timely book.
— Richard Florida, Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and author of The Rise of the Creative Class
A provocative and optimistic vision that requires leaders to consider their role in preparing humanity to live alongside – and within – complex technological systems.
— Rebekah Bastian, Forbes
A riveting read for anyone curious about Earth’s next chapter.
— Alta Online
McDougal’s writing is academic yet accessible … Gaia Wakes is a well-polished and thought-provoking read.
— John Mauro, Before We Go
Introduction: emergence
1. A Map to the Next World
2. An Enterprise for Zealots
3. The First Five Worlds
4. The Age of Gilgamesh
5. The Logic of Coordination
6. Gaianous
7. An Economy of Enormity
8. Peace with Earth
9. Perfect, not Immutable
Appendices