Earthling Theory:

Earthling Theory is a new theory of humanity based on a re-interpretation of human evolution through the lens of modern ecological neurophenomenology.  It is an account and an acknowledgement that everything, that makes humans unique, including our dynamic intelligence, has come to us from the Earth. 

I propose that reexamining the science of paleoanthropology through a more diachronic neuro-ecological perspective will have profound implications to the way we understand human evolution and in the way we perceive, coordinate, and govern ourselves today. Earthling Theory suggests we can create a world where we live more equitably, sustainably and joyfully.

As artificial intelligence ascends, Earthling Theory will increasingly remind us of our deeper, more ancient intelligence - one earned through millions of years of intimate dialogue between human consciousness and each of Earth's living systems. This is not a return to the past, but a recovery of essential accumulated wisdoms now needed to navigate humanity's next evolutionary emergence.

The Paradigm of Earthling Theory

Earthling Theory rests on a diachronic paradigmatic core that differs from the heterodox anthropocentric view. It arises from integral and reciprocal feedback between the following three philosophical tenets:

1. Deep Continuity - Ontological continuity is ultimately cosmic in breadth, but most relevant today from planetary to personal scales (aka Earthling Theory).
2. Relational Creativity - Nature’s intelligence is fundamentally ecological, creatively expressed through right-relationship, and made palpable to humans as the Creative Life Force.
3. Neurophenomenological Entanglement - Enactive Neuroscience explains how 1 & 2 naturally led to human consciousness and provide a potent transformative force when experienced by human intelligence as psychic-entanglement.

These three tenets provide a novel way to understand the unique Earthly dimensions of humanity that are consistent with broad natural history (including evolutionary, paleoanthropological and archeological evidence). Earthling Theory differs fundamentally from the conventional synchronic account in that it; (1) acknowledges the deep time continuities across all domains and dimensions of reality, (2) values the fundamental power of relation over transaction, and specifically privileges the creativity of right-relationship over un-right-relationship, and (3) distributes intelligence into the relational space that exists between things and their environment including organisms and habitats, brains and minds, and nature and culture.  

These three conceptual pillars play out across cosmic, geological, biological and paleoanthropological timescales as Earthling Theory to manifest as an ecologically, psychologically, technologically and culturally idiosyncratic spectrum of effects we call consciousness "in" Homo sapiens sapiens. But as you might be able to see, in this dynamic and diachronic paradigm, it's hard to maintain the claim that consciousness resides resides solely in the human. 

In other words, Earthling Theory answers a complex question with a simple answer. 

            Q:    What makes us human?     

            A:     The Earth.    

The Narrative of Earthling Theory

Cosmic evolution as revealed by science is a 13.8 billion-year story of pockets of increasing complexity manifesting ontological continuity.  Earthling Theory hypothetically picks up the narrative 7 million-years ago in a central African forest when sunlight reflects off a red berry growing in a low bush.  The glimmer triggers an impulse in the mind of a primate, probably S. tchadenis, who is sitting in a nearby fig tree (the figure of Oika, a curious, playful, Sahelanthropis child came to me in a dream, and still visits in special moments). This event was the local culmination of celestial phenomena still now impinging as the motivating force within the ecological trajectory of humans that’s been playing out as the story of our vanishingly small and infinitely creative planet for the past 7-million years.    

Whether as metabolic hunger or cognitive curiosity, the starlight and berry have conspired in the mind of a primate to leave the tree. This event marks the enacted moment that will carry her kin far into our present and possible future.  

Eons of successive generations of relationship with the habitats of Earth imprinted a unique signature of ecological intelligence upon what humans would become. No other organism can claim such a diverse and comprehensive history of intimacy with this planet. 

By the time our ancestors reached western Europe about 40 thousand years ago, art was flourishing and our ubiquity, impact and ego have been inflating ever since. 

We can see and feel the imprint of ecological intelligence today in the difference between humans and chimpanzees. At the time our ancestors left the trees we were all the same species.  The kin we left behind stayed, and became the chimps and bonobos of today. The chimp lineage never left sub-Saharan Africa.  They never even left the trees.  

So without the 6+ million years of relationships across the habitats of Earth, and the ecological intelligence that comes with it, chimps only got as far as chimpanity.  Humans, on the other hand, became Van Gogh, Amanda Gorman, The Fonz and all that we are. 

I'm saying that all of the intelligence that created the exquisite diversity of the Earth dwells within you right now. The ecological endowment of the Earth is alive inside every human being. We are literally Earthlings. We don't teach this in school, but I bet you can feel it in those special moments when nature gently gestures to stir the Oika that's still within you.

Many of us seem to have forfeited (or been distracted from) this gift of the Earth, bizarrely and for pretty stupid fictions that are culturally derived and reinforced,  I think restoring our Earthling identity will be crucial for long-term human viability on this planet and in the cosmos (but planet first). The real trick is to own your belonging!

Oika is an invitation to remember and re-inhabit our Earthly inheritance -- and in some sense climb back up into the trees to see the light reflected in the puddle -- not as primates but as the humans we've become.  I believe this will help us heal the many forms of injustice we collectively suffer. Without a sense of being an Earthling, we feel a nagging alienation that we can't acknowledge, much less explain. So we medicate with hyper-consumption. I believe the current state of the world is a consequence of our accidental divorce from nature.

Earthling Theory presents an ancient, inclusive and beautiful reality upon which to build a viable human identity. Being an Earthling comes with a profound sense of inclusion, gratitude and contentedness that naturally transcends so much of what separates and sucks today. 

The Contemporary Context of Earthling Theory

Earthling Theory arises out of an abiding frustration with popular conversation on the state of the world and how we may collectively improve personal and planetary flourishing. I listen deeply to what is being said by the most informed and well-intentioned people among us. But somehow, the fundamental idea that I attempt to articulate below is always missing. It feels like an omission with existential consequences.   

So much of what I hear being discussed on the Internet today has its cart before it's horse. For an explanation of this see my video from the 2023 Consilience Conference here: https://youtu.be/Rv7EIHTEjg0?si=oHMW3lOrdS9-tYxB&t=2922  

Earthling Theory breaks the spell of anxiety and habitual doomsday thinking by regaining a reasonable grip on the reality of our situation. We are invited to take stock of the natural abundance all around us and participate in the simple intrinsic resiliencies that have always been active in the world by activating them within ourselves. 

The future is beautiful, or there isn't one.

Rich Blundell

Aug, 2013