Civilization chronicles: ego as system engine—a philosophical reinterpretation of human history
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications April 1, 2026 Dion Satrio Nugroho
Egoic dynamics—patterns of self-maintenance, control, and boundary-formation—have shaped human cognition, social structures, and technology for tens of thousands of years, yet their historical continuity is theoretically underdeveloped. This paper reconstructs a genealogy of egoic development from early survival logics to contemporary algorithmic forms. Drawing on active inference, developmental psychology, socio-cultural theory, and philosophy of technology, it argues that the ego functions as a systemic engine rather than merely an individual psychological property. The analysis traces egoic dynamics from metabolic self-preservation through psychological coherence to crystallization in social institutions and digital infrastructures.