Ontological Emergence in the New Enlightenment: To Enrich our Creativity by Balancing Stochasticity.

This paper examines key personal and cultural impacts of the New Enlightenment. [1,2] We show how collectives comprising persons and automata can give rise to emergent ontological outcomes, which may enrich the actors, subject to balancing agents’ liberties and equality, and embracing appropriate levels of stochasticity.

We generalise Malafouris’ book People Are STRANGE [3] to consider ecosystems with collectives of automata, thereby transcending common ontological limitations to unlock new possibilities.

We conclude by noting that in New Enlightenment:-

• New types of ‘spaces’ must be considered that are analogous to an inter-personal space, but involve interactions with - and between - autonomous agents.
• New forms of ‘becoming’ arise, for humans interacting with automata, and also for collectives of interacting autonomous agents.
• Three classes of cultural considerations should be addressed in the Language of Values [4].

[1] Galwas, P.A. (2025). “The New Enlightenment." Zenodo.
[2] Galwas, P. A. (2024). “The New Enlightenment: Beyond the Age of Science towards a magical world view in the face of Artificial Intelligence.” Zenodo. 
[3] Malafouris, Lambros. (2026). “People Are STRANGE. Material Engagement and the Creation of Self-Consciousness.” The MIT Press.
[4] Galwas, P. A. (2026b). “Virtue in the New Enlightenment: Towards a language of virtue.” Zenodo.