What happens between the production of specialist knowledge and the decisions that affect communities, landscapes, and futures?
In this episode of Epistemic Alchemy, I speak with Canadian geoscientist, author, and adjunct professor Brian Gregory about information ecology: an approach that treats information as more than data to be stored, managed, or passed upward to decision-makers. It asks how information is received, interpreted, integrated, and acted upon, and how coherence can be restored amid competing values, technical complexity, and uncertainty.
Brian explains his AMIE framework for adaptive management using information ecology, the distinction between multidisciplinary research, interdisciplinary synthesis, and transdisciplinary decision-making, and the promise and limits of AI in this work. We also discuss his recent book, Down to Earth: A Way of Being, which draws together Earth history, evolution, personal resilience, and the possibility of finding meaning without pretending that uncertainty can be eliminated.
Listen to the episode here: [Episode link]