The purpose of the talks about “Utopia(s) reloaded: Science, activism and the techno-eco-social transformation” we are preparing for 26-28 October 2023 is to raise awareness of the scientific basis on which action can be effective in overcoming the current polycrisis. These talks are intended to explore the paradigm changes needed to transform our societies.

It is a coincidence that exactly one hundred years ago a precursor of scientific ideas on the evolution of humanity was born – the concept of the so-called noosphere, underpinned by considerations of the Russian founder of Biogeochemistry, Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, before World War II. According to him, the advent of humans on planet earth went hand in hand with the development of common work and scientific thinking, a process that Vernadsky paralleled to – or better set on top of – the emergence of the biosphere by the activities of living systems that have been transforming the geosphere (Vladimir I. Vernadskij 1997: Der Mensch in der Biosphäre – Zur Naturgeschichte der Vernunft, hrsg.v. W. Hofkirchner. Peter Lang, Wien). Thus, noogenesis, the emergence of co-operative rationality, is steering towards a qualitatively higher level of human development, though – through adverse actions of humans – this process can be hindered.

That view is a paradigm change that helps us understand the evolution of humanity.

See a conference on that topic in Berkeley, 17-19 November 2023: N2 Conference (https://event.fourwaves.com/n2conference/pages).