The Technosphere as a Complex System

Chemical industries play a major, yet in technology studies still underestimated role in the establishment of the technosphere and for the course of history in the Anthropocene. Artificial  fertilizers, ammunition, plastics, fuels, pharmaceuticals are drivers for paradigmatic Anthropocene dynamics in all spheres of the Earth- and socio-technical systems. (Great Acceleration Observatory). Via their industrial technicality, a large set of molecules need to be addresses as part of the technosphere. It is the ongoing „transformation of chemistry“ towards sustainable process structures, that calls for an understanding of the full scope of industrial chemicals for the actual historical condition.  more

How did a state shift in planetary conditions occur in the wake of local transformations and how does that state shift feed back to such localities, further spurring their transformations? Can we map, and thereby discern, the systemic drivers and their mutual interdependencies that mesh the global fabric of the Anthropocene? In the collaborative project Teleconnections we seek to develop a new visual grammar representing social, technological, and ecological transformations across space and time, helping to get an evolving technosphere into view. more

The project explores the innovative approach of utilizing games as educational tools to enhance understanding and skills in complex system thinking. Complex systems, characterized by their intricate and interdependent components, pose significant challenges in comprehension and analysis. Games, with their interactive and engaging nature, offer a unique platform for learners to experiment with and understand the dynamics of such systems in a risk-free environment. more

Simulations have emerged as a powerful tool for source criticism, offering a novel approach to evaluate and understand historical, scientific, and media sources. more

Analyzing social tipping dynamics within the context of structural language evolution offers a novel lens through which to understand the mechanisms driving societal change. more

The concept of bioeconomy, defined as an economic system utilizing renewable raw materials to foster sustainable practices across sectors, has garnered significant attention amidst ongoing climate crises. Since around 2009, supranational entities like the OECD and various governments have promoted bioeconomy as a pivotal solution. This has led to an unusual convergence of interests between industry stakeholders and social movements, uniting former adversaries such as environmental activists and the biotech industry. However, the central question persists: Can the bio-transformation of industrial production serve as a viable alternative to oil dependency, or will it exacerbate resource overexploitation? This research seeks to elucidate the historical roots and ongoing tensions in the bioeconomic field by examining its evolution from the 1960s to the 2000s. more

By analyzing existing publications from the last three decades with methods from the framework of socio-epistemic networks, the project aims at uncovering the historical roots of the emergent science of Geoanthropology. more

This project explores changing epistemes among surveyors during Old Babylonian period, or the early second millennium BCE in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It asks, “How and to what extend did knowledge change in this community?” “Who affected this change?” and “What impact did this change have on the surveyor’s themselves and on other communities?” more

The project aims at reconstructing building blocks of the Anthropocene engine by building a collection of reduced agent-based models that simulate key aspects behind the so-called great acceleration. more

Deep-learning-driven large scale information extraction from historical maps and high resolution aerial images more

The project aims to create an AI assistant to support research in the emerging, highly interdisciplinary field of geoanthropology. The new generation of generative AI is starting to transform scientific practice across all disciplines. In particular, large language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming better at understanding text and quickly generating accurate responses, making this technology broadly applicable across many domains, including science. more

The "Dynamics of the Technosphere" project is dedicated to understanding the complex and interconnected systems that constitute the technosphere and their interaction dynamics. By identifying distinct subsystems and measurable proxies for key system parameters and variables, our research aims to elucidate the fundamental relationships that govern the behavior of these systems. Through a combination of empirical data collection, computational modeling, and theoretical analysis, we seek to uncover the core principles driving energy and material fluxes, structural organization, and entropy within the technosphere. Our work will explore the specific mechanisms that couple different subsystems, aiming to provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing the dynamics of this intricate network of subsystems. more

Any response to societal challenges involves policy and behavior changes. To be effective, these need to be data driven and evidence based. Furthermore, all these challenges represent complex or wicked problems that do not have simple, optimization-based solutions. For such cases the Decision Theater provides a platform for the creation and implementation of model-based scenarios, models, and visualization that allow the exploration and analysis of the consequences of individual and collective decisions. more

The project emphasises global environmental justice and examines how resource extraction has unevenly affected regions worldwide, influencing economic, societal, and ecological dynamics. The project aims to understand historical decisions guiding energy extraction and transitions, fostering dialogue among scholars and stakeholders on climate justice and policy strategies. Through these discussions, the project aims to develop insights into the impacts of the historical oil industry and contribute to informing sustainable development policies in resource extraction. It also includes a sub-project comparing historical oil exploration in New Zealand and Galicia, exploring regulatory frameworks, technological advancements, and socioeconomic outcomes to understand regional disparities in oil industry trajectories better. more

This project explores historical discourses on petroleum extraction in Galicia, highlighting contrasting perspectives: one of technological advancement and another of moral and economic concerns. It investigates how these debates reflect broader global trends in environmental determinism and nation-building, shaping contemporary mindsets. Utilizing advanced computational methods, including text embeddings and divergence measures with Language Model Models (LLMs), the project aims to analyze and compare historical press coverage across linguistic traditions. Simultaneously, it addresses biases in archival data through innovative simulation techniques, promoting transparency in Geoanthropological research. By implementing rigorous pre-publishing standards for data and code, the project ensures the reliability and reproducibility of its findings. more

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Finding a Pre-industrial, Pan-tropical 'Anthropocene more

RESILIENT: Forest Cities - Utopia and Development in the Modern Amazon is a 3 year-funded project of the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of the special Programme: Lost Cities: Perception of and living with abandoned cities in the cultures of the world. It focuses on 20th century ‘lost cities’ in the Amazon created and abandoned in association with different extractivist projects. RESILIENT will use multiple historical documents to explore the resilience of industrial cities in tropical forests from both a human and non-human perspective. Amazonian lost cities are privileged spots for investigating the pitfalls in discourses on modernization and progress so prevalent on large-scale development projects, which continue to shape the imaginings, expectations, and lives of people in the Amazon to this day. more

The last 5 years of research in the tropics have not only started to demonstrate the long record of human presence emphasized above, but also the fact that human societies have left legacies of varying nature and intensity on different aspects of tropical ecosystems and their associated earth systems. This project applies varied methods to build detailed records of human interactions with different aspects of these environments across space and time including: more