Humanity as a planetary-scale organism

A study of human social systems at planetary scale examines whether our technology, economy, culture, and flows of information are component-processes in a unified, living system. Through a biological lens of structure, function, and geographic mapping of social systems, we consider collective humanity from evolutionary and developmental principles. We focus on how such a system could be evolvable, and the role for planetary scale information and communications technology in facilitating evolvability. Massively interconnected global technology has established a novel form of niche construction, stabilizing modes of collective inheritance while catalyzing innovation in cultural and economic spaces. Increasingly, this network appears to support goal-oriented cognitive processes that could facilitate a major evolutionary transition to a planetary-scale organism. We conclude that the total human ecosystem is more than mere ecosystem, but can be analyzed as an integrated, developmental process, driven by evolutionary mechanisms.