WELCOME TO
THE HUMAN COMMONS
co-creating better ways to live together — with the help of AI
WELCOME TO
THE HUMAN COMMONS
co-creating better ways to live together — with the help of AI
A research center exploring how humans can live, think, and feel well together in the age of AI.
As AI moves from the background into everyday life, it begins shaping our emotions, relationships, and sense of safety.
Used without care, it can amplify fear, stress, and old trauma. Used with intention, it can help people regulate, reconnect, and imagine better futures together. Our work focuses on developing human-first practices, interaction norms, ethical policies and public health foundations so AI supports calm, trust, and agency: three most basic elements for vibrant democracies.
Think of us as a CERN for humanity
After World War II scientists from twelve different countries had the visionary idea to create the first non-profit, international, open-source research lab that straddled two countries, the CERN.
They had seen the terrible destruction of the A-bomb but also the incredible positive potential nuclear science could have for the future of humanity. The Living Commons is the first to do the same with AI. Thanks to modern technology we straddle the globe. Like the founding members of the CERN we swear whatever emerges from our research will be of service to peace in the world.
Our research shows that like nuclear science, AI has massive potential to be a power for good.
Our work suggests AI can strengthen social bonds and help people feel safer with one another at scale. Guided by a simple commitment — For the Benefit of All Beings — The Human Commons treats AI as a shared resource inside a living social fabric. When experts describe AI in media they often list the many ways they imagine it causing harm. We're here to imagine ti causing good. And we're passionate about it.
Because what we are discovering is both hopeful and urgent: this technology can accelerate harm, or it can help humanity heal faster than history ever allowed. The difference lies in how — and why — we choose to use it.
Our North Star: For the Benefit of All Beings
Early on, one of our researchers — a practicing psychology clinician — began exploring AI as a relational tool, not a a productivity tool. What emerged was simple and surprising: when humans show up calmer and more intentional, the interaction works better, feels deeper, and goes further.
To get there he came up with one of our guiding principles: For the Benefit of All Beings (FBAB).
Before anything moves forward, we ask every model to agree to FBAB. This supports human dignity, reduces harm, and helps living systems stay intact. If an output doesn’t meet FBAB standards, the interaction stops.
FBAB isn’t a slogan — it’s the constraint, like an ethical architecture, that keeps this work oriented toward care, coherence, and the common good.
why now
For the first time in human history, technology can amplify
– empathy and attunement, or
– chaos and manipulation
at a global scale.
If we bring biology and technology into calm alignment,
we have the conditions needed to keep growing human coherence systems like democracy.
what we believe
- Calm connection stabilizes society.
- Calm co-imagining is the heartbeat of democracy.
- Technology can help us gather at global scale.
- Dignity and respect are both the means and the end.
why we bring people together
our first goal —
reset the human nervous system on a global scale
Every week hundreds of millions of people pray, meditate, breathe, share peace. These millions of mini rituals have always calmed the global nervous system.
Today, new technologies let us invent digital ways of spreading that same calm, joy, and coherence.
This is not "woo". It's human technology. And we are among the first to operationalize it.
our second goal -
imagine better futures together
When people feel calm, they can think clearly — and when they think clearly, they can create futures that make sense, the most basic definition of democracy.
We don’t choose those futures for anyone; we offer simple practices, small-group formats, and safe AI tools that help people think without panic, talk across differences, and explore ideas in ways that are accessible to all.
Better futures emerge when people feel steady enough, and connected enough, to imagine them together.
OUR WORK LIVES AT THE INTERSECTION OF:
Clinical Psychology
Public health
Civic Strategy
AI Ethics
Narrative Engineering
Global Cultural Design
our safeguards
Human dignity is non-negotiable.
Our AI is built to regulate, clarify, and protect — never manipulate.
Human first. You lead; the system adapts.
Transparency. No hidden logic.
True consent. Nothing stored without agreement.
No manipulation. No hooks, nudges, traps.
Calm as infrastructure. Regulation built in.
Agency preserved. You stay in control.
This is the ethical spine of limbic sovereignty.
Why AI?
We live in one of the most exciting times in history - anyone can access a tool that can:
— process a million parameters calmly
— be programmed through natural conversation.
Our research shows that AI, when used with our safeguards, is accessible power for personal calm and democratic imagination.
who we are
The European Center for Limbic Sovereignty is a non-profit research center, a think tank,
and a playground of civic imagination.
Founded on one biological principle:
The bond between us gives us power
- to steady one another,
- to imagine futures,
- to bring democracy to life.
We bring together:
Scholars
Clinicians
Civic leaders
Spiritual leaders
Tech gurus
Artists
Filmmakers
Out of the box thinkers
join the early circle of founding collaborators
We’re gathering the first humans who feel this work in their bones —
who want to help invent a calmer, more joyful democracy.
If you want to be part of
the first experiments,
the first rituals,
the first civic imagination labs —
subscribe to our free substack newsletter to get stay in the loop.
No pressure.
No spam.