Studying the human in a world being remade.

Most conversations about the future focus on the systems being transformed.

• The future of work.
• The future of education.
• The future of intelligence.
• The future of institutions.

The Emerging Human Lab begins with a different question:

What happens to the human being inside these transformations?

Humanity is experiencing simultaneous transformations in technology, work, identity, economics, education, institutions, relationships, and systems of meaning. Yet much of the public conversation focuses on how these systems are changing, rather than how human beings themselves must change.

The Lab investigates that neglected dimension: human adaptation, agency, possibility, resistance, transformation, and the conditions that make emergence possible or impossible. Its work is organized into five research domains.

The Lab investigates the cultural, behavioral, ethical, and structural dimensions of human emergence, developing frameworks and experimental approaches for understanding what change requires of individuals and societies. Its developing interdisciplinary approach draws on:

• Inquiry and hypothesis development
• Cultural and institutional analysis
• Scholarly research and synthesis
• Framework development
• Experimental instruments
• Strategic foresight
• Public scholarship and dialogue

The Lab is at an early stage. Where work is published, this site links to it. Where it is in development or proposed, this site says so.

The Lab's frameworks sit within a larger body of work. The Algorithmic Age describes the macro conditions reshaping human life. The Post-Notification Era traces the cultural shift from stimulation toward meaning. The Emerging Human Framework offers a model for understanding transition and becoming, and the Emerging Human Assessment is the first experiment to put that framework into an interactive form.