From Body to Civilization: Cultural Materialism and Coherence Infrastructure in the Design of Regenerative Societies | ChatGPT5 & NotebookLM

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Executive Summary

Modern societies are struggling with rising chronic disease, burnout, polarization, and institutional mistrust. These crises are often interpreted as psychological, political, or moral problems. However, a growing body of evidence suggests they are fundamentally physiological and relational: the human nervous system is being chronically pushed into defense states, and societies are reorganizing around this dysregulation.

This paper synthesizes:

• cultural materialism (infrastructure → structure → superstructure),
• the coherence cascade (mitoception → immunoception → interoception → neuroception → culture),
• and environmental + institutional design science.

The central thesis:
Culture arises from physiology. Institutions are built on nervous systems. Meaning emerges from relational life.
Thus, sustainable cultural change must begin by restoring the conditions that allow nervous systems to downshift from vigilance into presence.

We propose Coherence Infrastructure as the foundational layer of cultural design. It involves:

• sensory and acoustic design of physical environments,
• circadian and metabolic stability,
• predictable relational rhythms,
• accessible shared public life,
• humane institutional pacing,
• and normalization of conflict repair.

Once the body is regulated, social relationships can stabilize.
Once relationships stabilize, institutions can reorganize without coercion.
Once institutions support repair, culture naturally shifts from defensive identity to regenerative belonging.

This leads to a practical, actionable transformation cycle:

The resulting culture is not idealistic or naive — it is biologically sustainable.
A coherent civilization is one that is designed to repair itself faster than it fractures.