The emerging science of planetary intelligence, and why our future depends on more than artificial intelligence
We can photograph almost every corner of the Earth from space, measure changes in forests and oceans, and increasingly use artificial intelligence to predict floods, droughts, and other environmental risks.
Yet we still struggle to act on what we already know.
We have extraordinary powers of observation, but comparatively weak capacities for collective judgment. We know a great deal about the damage being done to Earth’s life-support systems, but our institutions often seem unable to respond at the necessary speed or scale.
This raises a question that is attracting growing attention across the sciences, philosophy, and environmental movements:
Could humanity develop something we might call planetary intelligence—the capacity to understand, learn from, and act responsibly within the living systems of Earth?
And perhaps an even more intriguing question: Might forms of intelligence already operate throughout the natural world, in ways we are only beginning to recognize?
An emerging scientific conversation
In 2022, astrobiologists Adam Frank, David Grinspoon, and Sara Walker proposed that intelligence might be understood not only as a property of individuals but as a process operating at planetary scale.
Their argument raises a fundamental evolutionary question: Can a technological civilization develop the collective capacity to sustain, rather than destabilize, the planetary systems on which it depends?
More recently, researchers including Karl Friston and Sergio Rubin have explored mathematical models of a minimal form of planetary agency—the possibility that interacting biological and climatic processes could exhibit adaptive behavior at planetary scale.
This is not evidence that the Earth is conscious. It is an invitation to investigate how complex systems regulate themselves, and what, if anything, distinguishes such regulation from intelligence.
Meanwhile, writers such as Didi Pershouse are drawing attention to the many layers of discernment, communication, and adaptation within living systems—from cells and soils to ecosystems and human communities.
Another development is occurring in technology. The Group on Earth Observations now speaks of Earth Intelligence: combining satellite observations, environmental science, AI, and community knowledge to turn planetary information into useful decisions.
These approaches do not all mean the same thing by intelligence. But together they point toward an important new field of inquiry.
Intelligence is not the same as wisdom
The central challenge may be less about acquiring more intelligence than about learning to use what we know.
AI can analyze enormous datasets and generate increasingly sophisticated predictions. But it cannot, on its own, settle questions about what we should value, whose interests deserve priority, or which risks are acceptable.
A satellite may reveal that a watershed is deteriorating. A farmer may understand why previous restoration efforts failed. Scientists may identify the ecological processes involved. Communities and public authorities must still decide what to do—and who should bear the costs.
A genuinely useful planetary intelligence would bring these capabilities into conversation.
It would also need to recognize knowledge too often excluded from scientific and policy discussions: the experience of Indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers, restoration practitioners, women in rural communities, young people, and others who live closest to the consequences of environmental decisions.
The objective cannot simply be to bring more information into centralized systems. It must also be to improve how knowledge is shared, challenged, governed, and translated into action.
Introducing Possible Planet Lab
At Possible Planet Lab, we are exploring these questions through a developing research program connecting ecological understanding, human collective intelligence, artificial intelligence, and governance.
Our working premise is straightforward:
Planetary intelligence is not a supercomputer managing the Earth. It is a developing capacity to understand planetary conditions, make better collective decisions, and learn from the consequences—in service to life.
The Lab’s research roadmap focuses on trustworthy knowledge, responsible AI, collective decision-making, and locally grounded experiments.
One proposed direction is bioregional intelligence: bringing ecological monitoring, scientific research, community knowledge, and decision-support tools together in actual watersheds and landscapes, then testing whether they improve decisions and outcomes.
A related initiative, the Institute for Planetary Intelligence, is being developed to help build the broader scientific and practical conversation.
We are not proposing that planetary intelligence has been demonstrated as a new property of the Earth. We are proposing that the concept contains questions important enough to investigate—and practical possibilities worth testing.
An invitation to think together
What would count as evidence of planetary intelligence? Can AI help communities become more ecologically knowledgeable and effective? How do we prevent planetary-scale technologies from concentrating power or disregarding local knowledge and rights? And how might scientific research, traditional ecological knowledge, and democratic decision-making reinforce one another?
These are scientific questions, but they are also questions of public policy, culture, and civilization.
We are preparing a longer review, What Would Count as Planetary Intelligence?, exploring the emerging literature and the research and governance challenges it presents.
We welcome perspectives from scientists, philosophers, Indigenous and community knowledge holders, environmental practitioners, technology researchers, policymakers, and others interested in developing this inquiry together.
Perhaps the most important question is not whether the Earth is becoming intelligent.
It is whether humanity can learn to participate more intelligently in the living world of which we have always been a part.
Explore the Possible Planet Lab and its research roadmap. The companion literature and public-policy review is published at our companion website. https://institutepi.org.