After reading Josh’s blog post about the Matrix and humans being viruses I began to really think about this concept. Then I read the comments made by others and found the idea of earth being a cell presented by Morgan even more intriguing and I asked myself why not. Why can’t the entire planet be classified as a cell or an organism that tries to maintain equilibrium in order to survive? An equilibrium that human influence is pushing out of balance. As humans constantly change portions of earth to work for us (turning trees into lumber, cotton into clothes, and generally changing elements into products) the human race can be compared to a virus. If earth is an organism then by humans constantly changing parts of earth an easy comparison can be made to a virus in a human using cells to further the production of the virus. Humans now have managed to find ways (medicine) to rid the body of these viruses; however, the viruses have evolved becoming resistant to certain medicines so new ones must be created. This same pattern can be seen with humans on Earth. Humans find ways to avoid dieing from “medicine” used by the Earth such as earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. Now that these “medicines” have been overcome the Earth must create new ones, an example of this could be global warming. If global warming reaches a certain point maybe it could rid the organism (Earth) from the virus that is humans. As global warming continues weather patterns are expected to become more unpredictable and deadly and maybe cause the end of the human race? Maybe the Earth is reaching its out limits of the equilibrium range and is trying to balance itself out.
In this case of humans being a virus on Earth then I would consider humans to be apart of nature and our modifying of nature is simply us increasing the intensity of the virus.
I agree with what you said about the whole planet being an organism trying to achieve equalibrium. This definately makes sense when you look around the planet and see all of its systems balancing each other out. If this werent the case then the earth wouldnt be contained with a stationary planet. I might consider equalibrium as an unmoved mover, which is driving forces that in turn drive the material conditions on the planet.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the earth as a single unit or organism in another larger, greater body has always intrigued me. What if every star in the sky is comparable to all the cells in our bodies, and these cells make up a being that is our entire universe, which may be a part of something more as well! It's especially fascinating to think of our cells and atoms as tiny cities and villages of "people" working together and getting things done. Could these things have "feelings" or "conversations" with one another?
ReplyDeleteAs for humans being a virus, I think it's possible. I believe we our trying to push the limits the earth has set for us, and in doing so, we may be getting punished by nature before we have the chance to destroy her completely.
I completely agree with the idea of our planet having its own natural equilibrium. I don't know if we mentioned it in class but how there are ideas about changing the weather is crazy. We are trying to fight this equilibrium thing earth is trying to even out. I feel its one more way humans are like a virus, trying to upset something stronger than us.
ReplyDeleteSamjohn, i like you idea of all the stars simply being different cells comprising something larger. Why not? Cells in a body use signals to communicate with each other and cause work to be done. Using the sun as an example, maybe the gravitation pull and the solar radiation that it enacts on all the surrounding planets are these signals. This would make since to me since scientists are finding more and more connections to explosions happening on the sun causing difference in radiation thus changing the weather on Earth. Could the sun simply be sending signals enacting different work on Earth to complete a task that we cannot see or understand?
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that the Earth is constantly trying to put itself in equilibrium. The fact that we are a virus is quite interesting. We as a species have abused our resources quite extensively. Whether this is the cause of global warming is debatable (Whether global warming exists is even more debatable, see this link for explanation of that:http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/453.html). I like the way you you think. There is a lot of change that needs to be made so as human beings do not appear as a virus and infringe on the destruction of other species.
ReplyDeleteWow, I could not agree with you more. The damage that the human race has inflicted onto this planet can easily be alluded to in such a way. Regardless of what the earth does to rid itself of our undesired infestation, we continue come back with a vengeance. Whether this is via our expanding population or exploratory pursuits that damage the environment, we will continue to infest the earth until we are ultimately all destroyed.
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