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  • Szerszynski - Viewing the technosphere in an interplanetary light 2016-07-26

    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Anthropocene Review, 4 (2), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at The Anthropocene Review page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/anr on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

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    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Viewing the technosphere in an interplanetary light

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>08/2017
<mark>Journal</mark>The Anthropocene Review
Issue number2
Volume4
Number of pages11
Pages (from-to)92-102
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date19/10/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this paper I argue that discussion about the ‘technosphere’ as an emergent new Earth system needs to be situated within wider reflection about how technospheres might arise on other worlds. Engaging with astrobiological speculation about ‘exo-technospheres’ can help us to understand whether technospheres are likely, what their preconditions might be, and whether they endure. Engaging with science fiction can help us to avoid observer biases that encourage linear assumptions about the preconditions and emergence of technospheres. Exploring earlier major transitions in Earth’s evolution can shed light on the shifting distribution of metabolic and reproductive powers between the human and technological parts of the contemporary technosphere. The long-term evolution of technical objects also suggests that they have shown a tendency to pass through their own major transitions in their relation to animality. Such reflection can shed new light on the nature and likely future development of the Earth’s technosphere.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Anthropocene Review, 4 (2), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at The Anthropocene Review page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/anr on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/