Some Notes on the Design of “World Machines”

We offer the idea of world machines as a new archetype for systems that draw together computational powers to connect, sense and infer with a social agenda of cross-world collaboration. This archetype builds on existing socio-technical systems with global reach, to raise the profile of tools that maintain a collaborative agenda and resist a tendency towards networks as giant surveillance and marketing devices. We use the case study of designing a bio-acoustic observatory to consider key characteristics and challenges for this thought experiment. We highlight systems to empower better human nature in line with the conference theme of being human. The paper asks how technical tools can be both ecological and enchanting, to present a positive model of development and prompt transformation towards lived understanding of custodianship, cooperation and co-created resilience. In doing so, we consider a way that technology can support the future of resource-management, counter-balancing its own resource-hungry nature.