Terraforming Earth Lab 1: Constitution of a 21st-Century SocietyTerraforming Earth Lab 1: Constitution of a 21st-Century Society

Based on the insights provided by Jaya Klara Brekke and Jay Springett at the Terraforming Earth event on May 10, 2018 in this Lab a group of ecologists, coders, engineers, designers, and (legal) philosophers will formulate some constituting principles of a 21st-century society of humans, other organisms and machines.

All current constitutions are formulated around the basic right and obligation-holding unit of the 'natural person', which is based on the human individual. If we accept that a 21st-century society will be less human-centered, this central idea of the natural person will need be be re-considered. But how? Starting points may be provided by the legal persons known as foundations and corporations, that allow collectives to have certain rights and obligations as one unit. Should we replace the idea of the natural person by new notions of legal persons that can consist of different combinations of organisms, people and/or machines? Based on the first principles formulated in the Lab, participants will explore different modes of citizenship, which may include non-human entities; and will extrapolate the possible economic/ecological effects.

If you are interested in participating in this Lab, please send an email to k.kuitenbrouwer@hetnieuweinstituut.nl with a brief motivation.

The results of Lab 1 will inform the work of Lab 2 and Lab 3 in the Terraforming Earth series. Border Sessions is co-organiser of the second Terraforming Earth Lab : Autonomous Agents for Regenerative Ecology on 13 June 2018. The third Terraforming Earth Lab: Terrafiction, takes place on 28 September 2018 in Amsterdam, as part of FIBER's event-series Coded Matter(s)on Worldbuilding