About Symbiocene.
We are building intelligence that can understand the living world, connect what we know and help people make a living caring for it.
Our ambition is planetary ecological intelligence: a shared foundation for communities, industry, governments and AI systems. We bring environmental science, economic design and knowledge infrastructure together to explore how understanding nature can support its restoration.
Built across
disciplines.
Symbiocene’s three cofounders worked together on Gaia AI for 18 months, combining ecology, economic systems and knowledge infrastructure.
Samuel Barnes
Ecology, product and AI systems
Samuel works across environmental science, product strategy and hands-on AI engineering. He holds an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, and founded GAIA AI to build ecological intelligence and regenerative technology.
His background spans renewable energy, decentralized networks and bringing emerging technology into use, with previous roles as Head of Marketing at Daylight, Head of Community at Worldcoin and Community Manager at Forta. Through Symbai Studio and projects including Overshoot, he builds agents, data pipelines and interfaces that make evidence usable.
Education and previous work
Shawn Anderson
Economic modelling and token engineering
Shawn is a token engineer and researcher working across economics, machine learning and complex systems. His experience includes research engineering with BlockScience and leading technology and token engineering at Kwaxala, a network focused on protecting and regenerating living forests.
His public work spans financial visualization, multi-agent learning and regenerative knowledge infrastructure. With Regen AI, he works on the knowledge systems that make an ecosystem’s research, governance and practical experience accessible to people and AI agents.
Darren Zal
Bioregional knowledge and systems architecture
Darren builds the knowledge infrastructure connecting people, place and AI. He stewards Salish See, a living atlas and knowledge garden for the Salish Sea bioregion, and works as systems architect and technical partner liaison at Kwaxala.
His open-source work explores semantic knowledge graphs, natural-language interfaces and interoperable agents through GAIA and related tools. He is also part of Substrate Dynamics Lab, which studies how shared knowledge environments shape collective intelligence and coordination.
