The Planetary Experiment: A History and Theory of Science at Scale

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Abstract

The article introduces and discusses the concept of planetary experimentation, its history, and its implications for understanding the relationship between humans and the environment, highlighting the need for a better understanding of knowledge production in the face of global warming and other human-driven environmental changes. We use a historical approach to understand the development of planetary experimentation, from its early phases to its current forms. In particular, we distinguish three phases of planetary experimentation: (1) geoterritorial surveying (1830s–present), exemplified by the Magnetic Crusade of the British Empire; (2) cybernetic control (1930s–present), exemplified by nuclear bomb technologies and their testing programs as well as by the postwar Green Revolution initiatives of the Rockefeller Foundation; and (3) generative management (1990s–present), exemplified by AI driven initiatives aiming at establishing Digital Twins of the Earth, such as the European Union’s Destination Earth project. Our analysis suggests that the concept of inadvertent planetary experimentation is probably not the most helpful way to approach the causes and current dynamics of the problematic global changes captured by the term Anthropocene. We argue, though, that the history and language of planetary experimentation can open up contemporary discussions of engineering and technical solutionism to a critical history of politics, truth, and aesthetics.