At the uncanny edge of the scientific frontier, Gaia’s Web explores the promise and pitfalls the Digital Age holds for the future of our planet. A new generation of innovators is deploying digital and biological technologies to come to the aid of the planet, but will they end up doing more harm than good? Combining insights from computer science, ecology, engineering, environmental science, and environmental law, Gaia’s Web introduces profoundly novel ways of addressing our most pressing environmental challenges—mitigating climate change, protecting endangered species—and creating new possibilities for ecological justice by empowering nonhumans to participate in environmental regulation.
Author Karen Bakker passed away in August 2023, shortly after finishing this book. Gaia’s Web is part of what Karen conceived as a trilogy exploring how biological and digital technologies could bring more empathy with nature, help regenerate our damaged planet, and give greater agency to our fellow earthlings. In the award-winning first volume, The Sounds of Life, Karen beautifully narrates the hidden realm of nature’s sounds and the transformative power of digital technologies to connect us with other species. In this second book, Gaia’s Web, insightfully engages with the promises and conundrums of emerging bio-digital technologies. Sadly, Karen did not get a chance to write her final volume on a new political future, in which humans co-govern rather than dominate Earth, but she leaves behind an extensive and insightful legacy of works, and a message of love and hope.
Publication date: April 16th, 2024