## The Regenerative Internet We’re standing at a crossroads in history. The planetary systems that sustain us are collapsing, exemplified by the climate emergency and growing global unrest. In front of us, there is a choice: continue on the road to self-destruction or redefine the role of humanity within nature. Changing direction means questioning the basic assumptions of our society, and reshaping its structures, institutions and tools. Images of a future lived in a metaverse ruled by corporate AI while our human and planetary bodies wither away should serve as a warning, not a map. Beyond redefining communication and productivity, the internet has become the backbone for entire communities, economies and governance structures. If we hope to build human ecosystems that support life rather than extract profit, adapting our digital infrastructure to the task is now more important than ever. ***How can digital ecosystems accelerate the transition to a regenerative civilization?*** ## About this project Diome is an exploratory research project investigating the role of digital technologies in supporting the transition towards a regenerative civilization. ### Project Goals The goal of the project is twofold: 1. to collect knowledge and best practices on building regenerative digital tools, spaces, and communities. 2. to support the creation of and/or launch new digital tools, spaces, and communities that accelerate the regenerative transition. ### Project Activities In order to achieve that, Diome will take the following steps, in a continuous rather than linear fashion: #### 1. Create a digital garden of relevant research In order to better understand the space, identify connections and [Learn In Public](https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public/), I am launching this website as a [[Digital Garden]] for research notes on regeneration, digital technologies, social justice and beyond. This project briefly began as a Substack, but after one post I became overwhelmed by how much there was to explore and the interconnectedness of it all, so a digital garden that grew over time seemed like a more appropriate format. By forming connections between the different strands of research and ideas, I hope to uncover unique insights that have the potential to instigate or inform future activities. #### 2. Form relationships and partnerships in the space Right now the Diome project consists of just me ([[0.2 About Me]]), but I hope it will eventually grow into a larger community or form connections with other projects already working in the space. I am already putting my tentacles out and getting involved with projects I'm interested in (more on this to come). If you are interested in what I'm doing and want to get to know each other or just keep in touch, you can email me at [email protected] or connect on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/andrea_is_a). #### 3. Conduct creative experiments Explore small interventions could help build knowledge and uncover potential responses to the metacrisis. One of these projects might be a collection of design patters of regenerative digital spaces. Another might be a collective imagination workshop bringing to life pluralist regenerative futures. I might end up returning to the land and regenerating the earth with my own hands. Nothing is off the table. ### Project Name A biome is an area that hosts biological communities that depend on each other for survival, and the forces that act on them. The _diome_ is an expanded ecosystem of both physical and digital spaces, and the interconnected biological, mechanical and digital beings that inhabit it. I thought up this name a long time ago and thought it sounded awesome. Later on, I came across Philip Sheldrake's essay [Human identity: the number one challenge in computer science](https://generative-identity.org/human-identity-the-number-one-challenge-in-computer-science/)where he discusses the concept on the *internetome*: > *The suffix “-ome” is used to denote the object of a biological field of study (eg, genome, interactome, connectome, biome), and so “internetome” is a neologism taking the digital networking, mediation and augmentation of ourselves and our world as a biological field of study (Sheldrake 2021d)... In an internetome mindset, nobody starts with technological responses to immediate social, commercial, or bureaucratic goals. Rather, we first establish a common and deep understanding of life, of living processes, of human life and cognition and social mechanisms, of our inseparable interweave with other lifeforms and our physical environment, and conceive design challenges relating to the ecological system’s health, flourishing, generativity.* So it seems I wasn't the first to consider this concept. Great minds think alike, as they say. ## About this site The primary goal of this site is to collect, organize and link information at the meeting point between digital technologies, social justice and ecosystem regeneration. Information will be organized thematically and linked by contextual association. Notes and ideas will start small, with the intension of growing them over time. ### Research Areas In order to organize the madness that is my research so far, I've come up with 5 key pillars of research, which will become the starting point for the different branches of knowledge and ideas discussed here. As with everything here, it's possible these will change as the research progresses, but for now they are: - [[1.1 Infrastructure]] - [[1.2 Social Structure]] - [[1.3 Superstructure]] Currently they consist of a collection of my previous research notes and references, but they will become more coherent over time as the concepts discussed branch off into their own entries. ### Site Structure After studying and comparing the [[Information architecture of digital gardens]], I developed a structure based heavily on [Maggie Appleton's site](https://maggieappleton.com/). This will likely be adapted over time as the garden grows, but for now it offers a great starting point for organizing ideas. **Type** classifies the structure and intent of the entry. So far, I have implemented the following categories: - _Trunk_ 🌳  represents the core research areas, which will become the primary hubs for both internal and external links about the topic. - _Leaf_ 🌿 for entries that explain a particular concept related to one or more trunks. - _Flower_ 🌼  for ideas that have the potential to become future projects or products. - _Compost_ 🍂 are literature reviews, or summaries of something I've read, watched or listened to. - _Gardening Tool_ ⛏ is for entries about the process of digital gardening itself. **Stage** refers to how developed the entry is: - *Sprouting:* Just getting started. - *Budding*: In the process of being developed or worked on. - *Evergreen*: Fairly complete, unless new information or ideas arise. Additionally, I've included the dates I *first planted* and *last tended* the entry, to provide some context around its history.