Metacrisis Awareness represents the cultivation of capacity to perceive interconnected global crises — ecological, social, technological, and existential — as symptoms of deeper systemic imbalances rather than isolated problems to be solved independently. This domain invites transformation at the level of worldview, recognizing that addressing civilizational risks requires understanding their common generative dynamics and developing the wisdom to navigate unprecedented complexity.
The term "polycrisis" was coined in Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern's 1999 book Homeland Earth, describing the simultaneous occurrence and interaction of multiple interconnected crises creating a complex web of challenges. "Metacrisis" emerged more recently through the sensemaking community — notably through Tristan Harris, Terry Patten, Jonathan Rowson, Daniel Schmachtenberger, and Zak Stein — to address not just the systems dynamics but the social and psychological experience of navigating existential risk. The core proposition is that humanity cannot achieve a resilient civilization without understanding and addressing the underlying drivers that generate global crises in the first place.
Key thinkers like Daniel Schmachtenberger (The Consilience Project) and Nate Hagens (Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future) piece together the biophysical, technological, and social dynamics heading toward and beyond planetary boundaries. They examine how artificial intelligence both adds to existential risks and accelerates the entire metacrisis dynamic, exploring the role of intelligence versus wisdom on our current global pathway. If humanity survives, it will be because a world system emerges capable of navigating the metacrisis through changing deep-seated social dynamics generative of catastrophic risk.