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/
Accepted author manuscript, 202 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Viewing the technosphere in an interplanetary light
AU - Szerszynski, Bronislaw
N1 - 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/
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - technosphere
KW - Anthropocene
KW - astrobiology
KW - macroevolution
KW - history of technology
KW - science fiction
U2 - 10.1177/2053019616670676
DO - 10.1177/2053019616670676
M3 - Journal article
VL - 4
SP - 92
EP - 102
JO - The Anthropocene Review
JF - The Anthropocene Review
SN - 2053-0196
IS - 2
ER -