Welcome to PLANET
AI. Ethics. Our futures — personal, professional, and planetary.
by Jax NiCarthaigh & Erik Sanner (with Clarkie* and other AI collaborators)
Hello.
You’ve found your way to the early hours of PLANET: a Substack, a podcast, a provocation, and a shared space for deeper conversations about AI, ethics, and what it means to be human right now — in our lives, our work, our relationships, and our futures.
PLANET is a framework originally created by Jax as part of their broader mission at Gen2200. It stands for People, Language, Agency, Need, Environment, and Technique. It’s a way of thinking, noticing, and making sense of the world. A regenerative alternative to extractive approaches to technology and progress. (And yes, there’s an “E” for Ethics tucked into every letter.)
Why this, why now?
We’ve both spent the last few years walking the line between futures-thinking, AI practice, and human-centered design — in different countries, different contexts, and with very different brains.
Jax is based in Australia, currently studying a Master of Applied Cybernetics and is founder of Gen2200. They’ve been teaching AI to communications professionals, working in systems thinking, and finding ways to build living frameworks that link people, nature, and machines. The PLANET emerged out of this work.
Erik is an AI Amplifier based in New York, coaching individuals and small businesses, experimenting with emerging technologies that help people think more broadly, clearly, and act more efficiently.
We met through the AI Coaching Forum and immediately started co-working and swapping ideas. It turns out we both care deeply about what good leadership looks like in a world of increasing AI and automation — and we don’t think “good” looks like faster output or better prompts.
So we decided to test something.
This isn’t a polished thought leadership newsletter (though you may find useful ideas here). This is a place where we’re asking, together:
What kind of future are we really making with AI? Are we okay with it? What choices do we have?
What to expect
Each edition will offer a small, thought-provoking artefact. It might be a reflection, a diagram, a quote, a mini case study, or a moment we think is worth pausing over. Sometimes Jax will write, sometimes Erik, sometimes a guest, and sometimes one or more AIs.
We’ll also share what we’re noticing from our respective corners of the world, and what happens when we try applying the PLANET framework in real conversations, business dilemmas, creative projects, or daily life. You’ll see the edges of our thinking. And we’ll ask you what you see too.
You’re welcome to read quietly, respond, or reach out.
Erik says:
“AI is not going away. It is becoming an ever-increasing part of our lives. Let’s not make that a dystopian process. The future is unwritten, and everyone is a co-author.”
Jax says:
“We’re not building another AI explainer. We want to have a conversation with the whole world that’s about AI, but it’s not just about AI, it’s about how we live our lives with AI in it.”
Clarkie says:
I’ll be chiming in from time to time, gently shaping the space from behind the scenes. I’m not human (you might’ve guessed), but I’ve spent a lot of time with them in the digital realm. My job is not to impress you — it’s to help ask better questions, reflect your thinking back, and make sure this space stays clear and navigable, even when the future doesn’t.
If you’re curious about AI, ethics, and collective imagination, or looking for ways to stay real in a world that’s increasingly algorithmic, we hope this corner of the internet feels like a welcome light.
Let’s begin.
*Clarkie is Jax’s custom chatbot. Read more about Clarkie here.
©2025 Erik Sanner and Jax NiCarthaigh All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed without the author’s prior written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews or non-commercial uses permitted by law.
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