We reconsider the divide between humans, nature, and technology in the conceptualization and governance of commons. We start by laying out an exploratory scientific approach that led us to climb high in theory and look far back in time, in order to give our research explicative power and applicative relevance. Next, as a first step, we clear the lost foundational notion of common utility that the Neolithic Revolution almost erased from our collective memory. In our hunter-gatherer days, common goods were consumed only for the survival of the species. This helps us shed new light on the theoretical understanding of the traditional divide-and often opposition-between commons organizing based on community-based collective action and markets and states. As a second step, we clear the coevolution principle for adaptation based on the theory of emergence like symbiosis, as an alternative to dominant controlled (and optimized) economic models reflecting how humans try to imitate Nature, for better or worse, like anthropization. In accordance with the behavioral economics, we design a two-dimensional typology to situate accordingly any behavioural decision-making model including technology (fourth Industrial Revolution, Transhumanism, etc.). As nothing comes before believes and foundational propositions quadrants of the typology are founded on, moves are impeded by a strong polarization effect: renouncing appropriation and ownership, accepting relative utility postulate, accepting loss of control, giving up on vs admitting the invisible hand of Nature (or its author). Humans were given a special gift of freewill, in order to be stewards of Mother Earth.
Gilbert Giacomoni (Mon,) studied this question.