---
title: 'Nature''s Operating System: A Call to Compute Together'
slug: 'natures-operating-system'
date: 2026-05-13
type: 'essay'
status: 'published'
tags: ['enviroai', 'ai', 'information-theory', 'thermodynamics', 'paper']
abstract: 'Reframes nature itself as a computational substrate that has been processing information at planetary scale for billions of years, and proposes a ''Compute Together'' architecture where engineered AI joins—rather than opposes—nature''s own algorithms.'
license: 'CC-BY-4.0'
author: 'Jed Anderson'
co_authors: []
canonical_url: 'https://jedanderson.org/essays/natures-operating-system'
original_date: 2025-08-22
pdf: '/pdfs/natures-operating-system.pdf'
hero_image: '/images/natures-operating-system-hero.jpg'
hero_image_alt: 'Cover page of Nature''s Operating System: A Call to Compute Together'
supporting_files: []
---

Reframes nature itself as a computational substrate that has been processing information at planetary scale for billions of years, and proposes a 'Compute Together' architecture where engineered AI joins—rather than opposes—nature's own algorithms.

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