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InvisibleMoonshoe
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The Gaia Hypothesis, evolutionary morality and the next step
    #6178055 - 10/17/06 10:36 AM (17 years, 3 months ago)



Hey amigos.

So i dont know about you, but im a very curious person. Im curious about what my place in life is, what it means to be a human, what it means to be an earthling, where im going, where my species is going.

Thinking on these topics, i had a few ideas that helped shift my perspective on our current global situation.

One thing that always worried me as an adolescent was the way that humans have desecrated earth's natural biospheres and its supporting environment.

Humans are consuming 80% of all the world's resources and wiping out thousands of other beautifull species.

This used to bother me alot.

However, since then i have begun to study the Gaia hypothesis.

The gaia hypothesis is something i believe everyone should check out.

Basically, it goes like this: your own body, your human body, is composed of billions upon billions of single cellular organisms. All of these organisms function independently of one another. All of them strive to preserve their own individual homeostasis, and all of them have some extremely reduced form of individual awareness.

When thousands of like single celled organisms get together, they form tissues, and then organs. These tissues, despite being made of billions of disparate organisms, function as a unified whole.

Somehow, miraculously, at the very top of the line, you as a human being are able to have a single, unified, collective awareness. Despite being a multitude onto yourself, you have a greater awareness that is singular.

The gaia hypothesis arises from studying the intricate systems that sustain life on earth. When you study environmental science, you realize that the earth has a "cardiac system" that functions to distribute minerals and nutrients to various "tissues" on the planets surface. You realize it has a "respiratory system" that allows it to purify and recycle its oxygen. it has countless other systems that fufill more or less biological functions.

The idea is that the planet is in fact one super-massive organism and just as we somehow develop an "emergent conciousness" composed of the billions of tiny conciousnesses in our cells, so does earth or Gaia possess a massive, unifying and sentient planet conciousness composed of the trillions of life forms and life systems it contains.

This idea ties in somewhat with the idea that evolution is in some way a purposefull process.

I repeat: evolution is a purposefull process.

What i mean is that it seems clear to me that the natural tendency of non-life is to organize into life, and the natural tendency of life is to evolve into more complex forms.

When i was studying how life evolved on earth, i thought it was fascinating how all life stems from INORGANIC compounds.

Non living molecules of carbon and other materials began spontaneously self organizing, and over millions of years the first simple biotic creatures existed.

Think about that... something "not alive" SELF organized into something alive...

strange.

But it doesnt stop there. Once the evolutionary ball was set in motion, we see the symphony of life, the parade of life unfold. And of course we all know how the first squiggly jellies crawled out of the sea and as the parade rolls on we find the evolution of creatures such as dolphins, orangutangs, ultimatly people, with there culture, there music, there love, dancing and religion.



So what is my point? my point is that human kind could never have understood or predicted or created the processes that led to our arisal on this planet. Something, some mind vastly greater than ours is at work.

Now, consider the industrial revolution and the explosion of human population on earth. In the last few centuries, humankind has risen to dominate the biological sphere on earth.

At one point this seemed to me a huge problem. Now i realize this is just one more page in the book of life, one more directed change on the behalf of the overarching Gaia or God conciousness.

Bear with me. Consider for a moment the evolution of the human being.

Looking at fossil records, we can see a point in human evolution of massive significance, namely the first development of the frontal lobe, the part of the brain capable of personality, speech, all things we consider important and human.

When this anomalous brain structure first appeared in primates, it was very small. Almost instantly, the species underwent a massive change, and in a very short time the frontal lobe had swelled to many times it original size.

Why? because the underlying or overarching intelligence at work recognized in the frontal lobe something of massive importance.

Now, compare this to the explosion of humanity. If the planet is aware, then it is my belief that when humans arose, the planetary intelligence saw there something of massive import. Thus, it allowed massive stores of biomass and energy to be funneled into the proliferation and development of this new kind of life.

Just as early monkey's used most of their food and sugar energy to support the growth of this new and amazing frontal lobe and the conciousness it makes possible, so i believe Gaia or God mind has purposefully let humankind run rampant because it recognizes in human kind the next step in its long and purposefull plan, and its Gaia's way to let less complex biomass be consumed to support more complex biomass, showing once again Life's tendency towards increasing levels of organization.

:smile:

Anyways. The next thing i wanted to talk about was morality. Morality, roughly speaking, is a manner of conduct, a system of ideas pertaining to right and wrong, and generally the idea that right is desirable.

I have alot of problems with morality and the way it has evolved. But i do notice something significant.

In all of the animal kingdom, only a handfull of creatures display even the most basic forms of morality.

These animals are the dolphin, the orangutang, the chimp, the gorilla, the elephant and the human.

All of these animals display some form of morality, some form of altruism, some capacity to put the other before the self.

All of these animals also have the most developed brains on the planet.

This to me is a clear indicator that morality is an emergent property of evolution

this has staggering implications.

Firstly, it means that anyone who denies morality utterly, denies his evolutionary heritage and voluntary reduces himself to the level of the lower mammal, the reptile.

Secondly, it indicates that seen in its entirety (up to the present) the natural course of the universe is to go from

No life to simple life, from simple life to complex life, and from complex life to MORAL AND SPIRITUAL LIFE.

From these various pieces and parts a pattern emerges.

That the world is aware, that the universe is guided by a grand and progressive intelligence, that life is evolving towards a teleological goal, and that that goal is at least in part the development of first moral and  eventually spiritual conciousness.

This adds a new dimension to the traditional theistic idea that god created men as companions for him. It seems to me now that god created not only men but all life to EVENTUALLY EVOLVE TO A STATE IN WHICH KNOWLEDGE OF THE CREATOR WOULD BE POSSIBLE.

Amazingly, YOU know find yourself in such a state.

YOU stand at the pinnacle of this multi trillion year process.

for some reason Gaia wants humans  right now.

So now the ball is in our court. We are here to do something, to fufill some vital role in this cosmic process.

So let us all buckle down, figure out what we need to do as individuals and as a species, and get to work.

Love



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Everything I post is fiction.


Edited by Moonshoe (10/17/06 10:42 AM)


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InvisibleMoonshoe
Blue Mantis
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Posts: 27,202
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Re: The Gaia Hypothesis, evolutionary morality and the next step [Re: Icelander]
    #6182401 - 10/18/06 12:17 PM (17 years, 3 months ago)

When i talk about the evolution of morality, i see it beginning first with an actual recognition that whatever it is we value in the self is actually present in the other...

Basically im refering to a shift in conciousness from simple self-gratification to a state of being where one can actually "care" in some basic way about the other.

When i talked about monkeys, the example is simple. If one monkey drops something, another monkey that is closer will pick it up and hand it to the other monkey, simply to save it a few seconds and some effort. This action was neither nescesary for the survival of the community nor was it beneficial to the helping monkey individually.

it was simply a kind act. It demonstrates consideration for the other.

And to answer another posters question, yes i think this differs very significantly from the actions of a bee in blind service to the hive.

I think this is the first real emergence of the seeds of a true spiritual morality.

Of course i dont mean morality in its discriminative, divisive or repressive functions. I mean morality simply as recognition of the value of the other, even to the extent that one can put other before self.

"Could the earth be using us to form a more complex consciousness for herself?"

Ahhh... exactly what i was wondering

:smile:


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Everything I post is fiction.


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InvisibleMoonshoe
Blue Mantis
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Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
Re: The Gaia Hypothesis, evolutionary morality and the next step [Re: Moonshoe]
    #6186087 - 10/19/06 11:47 AM (17 years, 3 months ago)

hmm. we are like infants who grew up all alone in a cradle. We have finally reached adulthood. Now we need to clean up our piss and shit, and be on our way?


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Everything I post is fiction.


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InvisibleMoonshoe
Blue Mantis
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Registered: 05/28/04
Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
Re: The Gaia Hypothesis, evolutionary morality and the next step [Re: Icelander]
    #6186218 - 10/19/06 12:25 PM (17 years, 3 months ago)

good point. I think humanity as a whole and most of us individuals have a way yet to go.

I was just thinking that if my theory is correct, earth has expended massive stores of its natural resources and energy to get humanity to the point it's at, in terms of technology, culture, evolution etc. But now the next step has to involve rebalancing with nature. Thats my most optimistic viewpoint anyways.


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Everything I post is fiction.


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InvisibleMoonshoe
Blue Mantis
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Registered: 05/28/04
Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
Re: The Gaia Hypothesis, evolutionary morality and the next step [Re: BlueCoyote]
    #6191423 - 10/20/06 02:53 PM (17 years, 3 months ago)

"I see, as well, perhaps that what you meant, and that would be 'intention'."

absolutely, i think the element of choice or will is important.


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