How do we move from vast, fragmented bodies of information to wiser collective action? In this episode, geoscientist and author Brian Gregory introduces information ecology: a way of understanding information not simply as data or a technical resource, but as a living process shaped by perception, interpretation, values, and context.

We discuss entropy and coherence in public knowledge, his AMIE framework for adaptive environmental management, and why an intermediate integrative layer is essential between specialist research and real-world decisions. Brian also reflects on holons, transdisciplinarity, AI’s emerging role in synthesis, and the ethical importance of making assumptions and information pathways explicit.

The conversation then turns to his book, Down to Earth: A Way of Being, written in the wake of a lung transplant and triple-bypass surgery. Drawing on Earth history, evolution, and philosophy, Brian offers an accessible account of how uncertainty, interconnection, and our own life narratives can become sources of meaning.

Resources:

• Nardi, B. A., & O'Day, V. (2000). Information ecologies: Using technology with heart. Mit Press.
• Eddy, B. G., Hearn, B., Luther, J. E., van Zyll de Jong, M., Bowers, W., Parsons, R., ... & Wheeler, B. (2014). An information ecology approach to science–policy integration in adaptive management of social-ecological systems. Ecology and society, 19(3).

• Gregory, B. (2025). Down to Earth: A way of being.

• Koestler, A. (1968). The ghost in the machine.
• Raei, M. (2026). The Five Dimensions (5D) Metatheory: An Uncommitted Analytical Framework Introduction. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22934728