From the Stack to the Cosmos - Reimagining Commons Governance Beyond Borders
Benjamin Bratton + Ersilia Vaudo, with Giulia Foscari
Date: 07 May 2025
Image Courtesy of UNA/UNLESS © Marco Valmarana, 2025
What if the Blue Marble wasn’t just an extraordinary image, but a fast-forward film of Earth becoming self-aware — a mirror suddenly held up to our fragile home, a time-lapse revealing the deep arc from primordial oceans to planetary cognition? In this conversation between Benjamin Bratton and Ersilia Vaudo, moderated by Giulia Foscari, we trace the emergence of a distributed planetary exoskeleton: satellites in orbit, sensors in sky and sea, cables across the ocean floor—an artificial crust layered into the Global Commons. From the deep sea to Outer Space, we are terraforming Earth—reshaping climate and ecologies through extractive systems. Hosted in the Planetary Embassy of the Voice of Commons, this dialogue calls for geopolitical design beyond nation-states, grounded in planetary intelligence, both human and more-than-human—drawing also from the Moon, long regarded as a lens through which to reimagine life on Earth itself.
Benjamin Bratton is a leading thinker in the philosophy of technology, social and political theory, computational media, and speculative design. He serves as Director of the Antikythera program at the Berggruen Institute and is Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at the University of California, San Diego. Benjamin is the author of several influential books, including Accept All Cookies (Berggruen Press, 2025), The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (MIT Press, 2016), The Revenge of the Real (Verso, 2021), The Terraforming (Strelka Press, 2019), and Dispute Plan to Prevent Future Luxury Constitution (e-flux/Sternberg Press, 2015). He has held visiting professor roles at the European Graduate School, NYU Shanghai, and SCI-Arc, and previously directed research programs at the Strelka Institute. His current research develops a new philosophy of the “artificial” within climate change, planetary science, synthetic intelligence, and long-term planetary sustainability. Benjamin was born at 323 parts per million carbon dioxide in the Atmosphere.
Ersilia Vaudo is an astrophysicist with an Executive Certificate from Harvard's Kennedy School. With over thirty years at the European Space Agency (ESA), she has held senior roles in strategy and international relations, including serving as Deputy Head of the ESA office in Washington, D.C. (2002–2006). She co-founded the "Il Cielo Itinerante" Association to bring STEM education to underserved children and is Vice President of Eurisy, a non-profit connecting space and society. She was appointed co-chair of the “Scale-Up Europe” initiative to strengthen Europe’s tech ecosystem (2021). Her honors include Commander of the Order of the “Stella d’Italia,” the “Premio Tecnovisionarie 2020,” and inclusion in InspiringFifty’s “50 Most Influential Women in Science and Technology” (2021). She was named in FORTUNE ITALIA’s “50 Most Powerful Women” and received the 2024 “Premio Fondazione Carla Fendi.” Ersilia is the author of MIRABILIS and co-designer of Lune d’acqua and A Satellite Symphony. She was born at 323 parts per million carbon dioxide in the Atmosphere.
Ersilia Vaudo is an astrophysicist with an Executive Certificate from Harvard's Kennedy School. With over thirty years at the European Space Agency (ESA), she has held senior roles in strategy and international relations, including serving as Deputy Head of the ESA office in Washington, D.C. (2002–2006). She co-founded the "Il Cielo Itinerante" Association to bring STEM education to underserved children and is Vice President of Eurisy, a non-profit connecting space and society. She was appointed co-chair of the “Scale-Up Europe” initiative to strengthen Europe’s tech ecosystem (2021). Her honors include Commander of the Order of the “Stella d’Italia,” the “Premio Tecnovisionarie 2020,” and inclusion in InspiringFifty’s “50 Most Influential Women in Science and Technology” (2021). She was named in FORTUNE ITALIA’s “50 Most Powerful Women” and received the 2024 “Premio Fondazione Carla Fendi.” Ersilia is the author of MIRABILIS and co-designer of Lune d’acqua and A Satellite Symphony. She was born at 323 parts per million carbon dioxide in the Atmosphere.
Image Courtesy of UNA/UNLESS © Marco Valmarana, 2025