Wiring Gaia in the Anthropocene: “Smart Earth” Digital Technologies and Environmental Futures

A presentation from 2022–2023 Matina S. Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor Karen Bakker

Karen Bakker is a professor at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. She studies the implications of digital innovation for governance and sustainability.

At Radcliffe, Bakker will be writing a book titled A Digital Green New Deal (MIT Press, under contract). Her current research project is situated at the confluence of two transformational trends: digitization and global environmental change. How are digital technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, blockchain, and digital bioacoustics) being mobilized to address biodiversity loss and climate change? What are the potential benefits and pitfalls? The project will also advance debates over multispecies justice by documenting emergent examples of digital technologies which enable nonhumans to influence and participate in environmental regulation. How might the tools of the Digital Age create novel possibilities for advancing nonhuman personhood and environmental rights? 

Event Video