Emoplux

When Ursula K. Le Guin published Vaster than Empires and More Slow in 1971, she imagined a form of consciousness that challenged fundamental human assumptions about intelligence, communication, and time. Her story of a planet-spanning forest-mind, operating simultaneously at microscopic and global scales, presaged contemporary discussions about neural networks, distributed intelligence, and the possibility of consciousness emerging from complex systems. The digital artwork Vaster than Empires commissioned by the Berggruen Institute in collaboration with the Ursula K. Le Guin estate, created by CROSSLUCID, translates this prescient vision into visual form through an innovative use of artificial intelligence. The project’s genesis speaks to a growing recognition that navigating our technological future requires not just scientific expertise but also the kind of imaginative and ethical thinking that Le Guin championed throughout her career.