Gaia Theory of Evolution
From Activating Evolution
[edit] Gaia Theory of Evolution
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological theory that considers living and nonliving parts of the Earth as a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. Named after the Greek Earth Goddess, this theory postulates that all living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment that promotes life overall. If indeed this is true, then it is possible that as the Earth becomes endangered, it develops "antibodies" to act in its defense. In this case, accelerated evolution would be due to the Earth creating antibodies to act in its defense. And, just as in the human body, the immune system of Gaia may at times be counter-productive. This would result in some newly evolved humans endangering the Earth.
Petroleum is the potential energy of the earth and Gold (and other precious metals as well as crystalline materials like diamonds) help to regulate the electrical conductivity of this planet. The earth's brain as well as the earth's life-force is being killed by industrialism. As we kill our planet by exhausting non-renewable and slow-to-develop resources - as discussed in this paragraph - Gaia fights back, on a global scale. So whether it is micro or macro evolution which is exponentially accelerating because of the living earth's survival instinct, we are in for some spectacular events to come, whereby those who feel they are in charge of the earth, will learn that the earth is in charge of them.
[edit] Critical analysis
Basis This theory is based on the simple idea that the biomass self-regulates the conditions on the planet to make its physical environment (in particular temperature and chemistry of the atmosphere) on the planet more hospitable to the species which constitute its "life". The Gaia Hypothesis proper defined this "hospitality" as a full homeostasis. A simple model that is often used to illustrate the original Gaia Hypothesis is the so-called Daisyworld simulation.
Recent scientific testing of homeostatic feedbacks involving plankton in Arctic and Antarctic waters, and the effects of rainforests in cloud formation suggest effective regulation of planetary albedo is being compromised by global warming and rainforest destruction.
Whether this sort of system is present on Earth is still open to debate. Some relatively simple homeostatic mechanisms are generally accepted. For example, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, the biomass of photosynthetic organisms increases and thus removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but the extent to which these mechanisms stabilize and modify the Earth's overall climate are not yet known. Less clear is the reason why such traits evolve in a system in order to produce such effects. Lovelock accepts a process of systemic Darwinian evolution for such mechanisms, creatures that evolve that improve their environment for their survival will do better than those which damage their environment. But many Darwinists have difficulty accepting such mechanisms can exist.
Criticism After initially being largely ignored by scientists, (from 1969 till 1977), thereafter for a period, the initial Gaia hypothesis was ridiculed by some scientists. On the basis of its name alone, the Gaia hypothesis was derided as some kind of neo-Pagan New Age religion. Many scientists in particular also criticised the approach taken in his popular book "Gaia, a New look at Life on Earth" for being teleological; a belief that all things have a predetermined purpose. Lovelock seems to have accepted this criticism of some of his statements, and has worked hard to remove the taint of teleological purpose from his theories, stating "Nowhere in our writings do we express the idea that planetary self-regulation is purposeful, or involves foresight or planning by the biota." (Lovelock, J. E. 1990).
In 1981, W. Ford Doolittle, in the CoEvolution Quarterly article "Is Nature Motherly" argued that there was nothing in the genome of individual organisms which could provide the feedback mechanisms Gaia theory proposed, and that therefore the Gaia hypothesis was an unscientific theory of a maternal type without any explanatory mechanism. In 1982 Richard Dawkins in his book The Blind Watchmaker argued that organisms could not act in concert as this would require foresight and planning from them. Like Doolittle he rejected the possibility that feedback loops could stabilize the system. Dawkins claimed "there was no way for evolution by natural selection to lead to altruism on a Global scale".
Stephen Jay Gould criticized Gaia as merely a metaphorical description of Earth processes. He wanted to know the actual mechanism by which self-regulating homeostasis was regulated. David Abram was to rebut Gould's claim by arguing that reductionistic science is itself based upon the metaphor of a clockwork machine. Darwinian evolution itself is based upon a "natural selection" analogous to the artificial selection of plant and animal breeders. Others have shown that as our machines become more cybernetic and microbiology discovers organic feedback systems the old organic-mechanical metaphorical split becomes less meaningful.
A final criticism leveled against the idea that Gaia is a "living" organism is the fact that the planet has not and is unable to reproduce. One of the criteria of the empirical definition of life is its ability to replicate and pass on their genetic information to succeeding generations. Other Gaians have proposed that Gaia is still too young to reproduce and this is not to say that it is conceptually impossible, as humankind may be the means by which Gaia will reproduce. Humanity's exploration of space, its interest in colonizing other planets, and the large body of sci-fi literature that describes terraforming, lends some plausibility to the idea that Gaia might in effect be able to reproduce. The astronomer Carl Sagan also remarked that from a cosmic viewpoint, the space probes since 1959 have the character of a planet preparing to go to seed.
| P.G., S98, T2, T.N., SW1, L.B. Wiki Monitoring Team |
