About

Antikythera is a think tank reorienting planetary computation as a philosophical, technological, and geopolitical force.

As Stanisław Lem described, some technologies are instrumental, providing new tools through which to change the world, others are existential, revealing aspects of the world previously unknowable and changing our fundamental capacity to know the world. Computation is both.

Antikythera takes its name from the first known computer ー the antikythera mechanism ー which was an instrument for planetary orientation, navigation, prediction, and planning. The name serves as inspiration for investigations of computational technologies that reveal and accelerate planetary intelligence.

Antikythera researches the past, present, and future of planetary computation, developing scenarios through interdisciplinary Studios, Salons and multimedia Publications. Contributors are vastly interdisciplinary and work across design, technology, philosophy, engineering, art, social sciences and the humanities.

Antikythera was founded in 2022 as a programme of the Berggruen Institute and is directed by philosopher of technology Benjamin Bratton. The think tank produces design research that advances the philosophy of technology through collaborations with foundations, think tanks, companies, and civil society organizations.

Philosophy of Planetary Computation.

A new journal coming Spring 2025.

The MIT Press

Antikythera: Philosophy of Planetary Computation is a new journal published with MIT Press that updates philosophy for the 21st Century. The journal pairs writers and designers working across computer science, philosophy, technology, and other disciplines. The journal publishes projects that unfold the trajectories of planetary computation, connecting the sciences and the humanities.

Projects will traverse genres and approaches. Some fiction, others nonfiction, others hybrid. Each project is open access, browser-based and transmedia, integrating text with moving and still images, graphic visualization, sonics, and code. Each project will be updatable through versions, enabling edits, aggregations, additions and comments at each release.

This site previews the official launch in Spring 2025. Subscribe below for updates.