Nusantaraphilia

Benjamin Bratton's essay presents Nusantara, a term meaning "between islands" for the cultural consciousness of maritime Southeast Asia, as a model for a more decentralized, less anthropocentric planetary ethos. The author argues that the region, unlike the civilizational cores of America, Christendom or the Ummah, is shaped by many small fragments and an emphasis on the ocean. Singapore is described as a crossroads whose real context is Nusantara rather than the continental civilizations that border it, and the piece suggests the region offers inspiration for thinking about blockchains, AI, and climate change.