The Complexity of the Cosmic Commons

 We seek to understand the contemporary landscape of the human use of space by adopting a complexity perspective on what can be defined as (or including) what we’re calling the “Cosmic Commons,” that captures the extended domain of human activity beyond the physical limits of planet earth. In this context, the overarching goal of this workshop is to develop an understanding of human engagement with, and augmentation of, Space. 

Given the nascent domain of the future human uses of Space, along with its accompanying yet inevitable challenges and uncertainties, a workshop of this nature provides a unique opportunity for SFI to organize a forward-thinking cohort of scholars and practitioners on a topic of growing interest. In particular, our objectives include identifying what tools, models, theories, and data would be most useful for advancing our understanding of this emerging domain of social, political, and economic life beyond the limits of our atmosphere. Additionally, a central purpose of the workshop is to illuminate what gaps in theory or data remain unexplored within the current corpus of Space research, through a series of themed, semi-structured topic discussions.