Intro to Cognitive Ecology
A philosophical notebook
Cognitive Ecology is a notebook of philosophical meditations on the future of life on Earth, our techno-utopian dreams, and our relationship with the living world.
Caught in the whirlwind of progress, we forgot that we are living beings.
In our quest for optimization, our existence on this planet, in these biological bodies, remains neglected and unacknowledged.
As our thoughts, experiences, feelings, and creative energy are harvested for profit and human existence itself is commodified, we slowly join the rest of life on Earth as natural resources.
Is this the future of life on Earth?
To build better futures we must restore our cognitive ecology.
Human progress should sustain the future of life on this planet, not turn it into a resource to be extracted and exploited.
Technology should reintegrate humans into planetary life, not abstract us from it.
To transcend our human condition, we must once again embrace our embodied existence on this blue planet.
It is the most precious thing we have.
The notebook
Divided into three sections, the notebook unfolds weekly through thematic meditations.
The Human
Digital loneliness — coming May 17
Life and the universe — coming May 24
Embodied existence — coming May 31
Rewilding the self — coming June 7
Embodied cognition — coming June 14
Human extraction — coming June 21
End users — coming June 28
Cognitive sovereignty — coming July 5
The Planet
Forthcoming
The Future
Forthcoming
Cognitive Ecology will be collected in print at the end of 2026.
Archive
Beyond all ideas of right and wrong there is a field, I’ll meet you there.
—Rumi
🜃
Thank you for reading,
Claudia Befu
Thank you for reading the introduction to Cognitive Ecology.
If any thoughts, questions, or reflections emerged while reading, feel free to share them in the comments.