November 1

Gaia probably isn’t a thing.

Link to the post that gave the prompt: http://mikefarmer.edublogs.org/2016/10/24/gaia-yes-or-no-12-18-yrs/

My boring and long response:

So, Gaia, the Greek representation of Earth and mother of the Greek gods. Could it be that all beings are linked together, every disaster, global warming or cooling, happens because it was meant to be, because this “singular life form” controls all and makes everything according to plan. This theory by James Lovelock seems quite improbable. Even though an accomplished scientist, this is just a theory, and a far fetched one too. This theory implies everything is meant to happen, so that means that all those negative things that humans do, all those things that scientists say could cause the end of the Earth, are intentional. Humans are also relatives of the first living organism, yet unlike all others, we have advanced to a point where we are planning on sending people to other planets, is this meant to be? If I understood correctly, Gaia represents all life on Earth, so if humans were to live on another planet, would they still be part of Earth, would this mean that a part of Earth’s “life” is lost. All this seems quite improbable, so that is why I think that Gaia isn’t a thing.

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Posted November 1, 2016 by noahr20 in category My interests

4 thoughts on “Gaia probably isn’t a thing.

  1. remraf

    Noah
    One important point Gaia is not a theory, it’s a hypothesis. Scientist use a hypothesis when they have an idea but haven’t been proved. I suppose all theories start that way. Once there is experimental proof it becomes a theory. Newton’s laws of motion were linked to an idea that he had, he then went about experimenting to see if what he thought would happen, happened, only then did they become a theory.
    I like your thinking. My interpretation of his hypothesis is that things happen if Gaia (the living planet) is threatened. Humans are just a small part of life on this planet. There must be millions of different life forms from the largest whale to the smallest bacteria. In his earlier work Lovelock basically suggested that if things went on as they are now then the planet will become uninhabitable for human life but not for all species. He seemed to ‘water down’ this proposal in later books. As I might have said earlier I think it is linked to lots of feedback loops BUT that is a hypothesis
    Thanks for your thoughts.

    Mike.

    Reply
    1. noahr20 (Post author)

      Hello

      I did get confused on theory and hypothesis, but I really meant hypothesis, and the part about the humans, in my opinion, affects all life, since if the planet were to warm up too much or the seas were to become too polluted all life on earth would probably die. This is because of the fact that most vegetation would die and subsequently herbivores and carnivores.

      I’ll keep the hypothesis problem in mind though.

      Thanks for the feedback 🙂

      Reply

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