Welcome to my home page!

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I am a researcher at the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Brussels, Belgium), and a member of Human Energy, an organization aiming to introduce the Noosphere as a source of meaning for future generations in our globalizing world. I am also a member of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group, affiliated with the Global Brain Institute, the Center Leo Apostel, and the Department of Philosophy. In 2022-2023 I was a visiting researcher at the Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California Berkeley.

I’m also a public speaker and love to speak about big questions. Note in French: Tous les détails sur mon activité de conférencier se trouvent sur la page "speaker".

You can read more about my research interests below, explore my biography, my publications, or learn more about my book.

Research Interests

The main focus of my research is the origin of the Universe and the far-future of intelligence, which my book is about. I co-founded a research community with John Smart exploring the idea of an Evolutionary Developmental (Evo Devo) Universe. I use the worldview concept as a framework for integrating insights from different disciplines.

In my current research:

  • In astrobiology, I aim to help organize and develop the field of technosignature research. I aim to test whether binary star systems may be advanced extraterretrial beings -stellivores- and whether extraterrestrials use or have engineered the pulsar positioning system of our galaxy. (see also high energy astrobiology).

  • I aim to better understand, foresee and facilitate the evolution towards ever-stronger interconnection between humans, software and machines. This emergence of a globally distributed intelligence is best conceptualized as a Global Brain, or Noosphere and can be argued to be a major evolutionary transition we are witnessing. For more, see the Global Brain Institute and the Human Energy Project.

  • I aim to explore the ethical, practical and spiritual implications of the emergence of the noosphere, the epic of evolution, and big history.