somasta

Somasta is a term used primarily in speculative fiction, worldbuilding circles, and certain academic blogs to describe an imagined socio-technical arrangement in which human agents, artifacts, and digital systems operate as an integrated whole. In this sense, somasta denotes a network of bodies, devices, and environments coordinated through embodied interaction and distributed cognition, enabling coordinated action without rigid central control. The concept is often invoked to explore questions of autonomy, agency, and the status of the body within technologically mediated systems.

Origins and usage: The term appears to have emerged in online communities in the 2010s and 2020s, without a single canonical etymology. Some writers derive it from soma (body) and a suffix implying stance or system; others treat it as a playful neologism. As a result, definitions vary from a design principle to a speculative social form.

In practice, somasta is used as a thought experiment or worldbuilding tool: as a framework for imagining governance, labor, or daily life in which computation is embedded within social and physical contexts. Critics argue that its utility depends on clear boundaries between human and machine agencies and emphasize that, to date, it remains largely theoretical rather than empirical.

In related discourse, somasta is discussed alongside embodied cognition, cybernetics, and human–computer interaction.