#gaia hypothesis

[newtonian-tragedy]

Scientists theorise that the Earth may be an intelligent entity - Thred Website

Pointing to evidence that fungi is communicating underground to suggest that large-scale networks of life could ‘form a vast, invisible plan

[noosphe-re]

You have the Gaia hypothesis, and everybody congratulates themselves on what a leap forward that is—and it is, but it’s quite another step to realize that it is not that the Earth is alive, it’s that the Earth is intelligent. The Earth is some kind of mind. And before we throw up our hands and say, “Well, how could that be? How could a planet have a mind?” Is it any less peculiar that a monkey could have a mind? You know? How do monkeys have minds? That’s the miracle. A planet is a very large system, probably able to pull many tricks out of the bag. It’s our portion of mind that is so puzzling.

Terence McKenna, Earth Mind and Monkey Mind

[tenth-sentence]

It is important that scientists working in chaos theory, biodiversity/Gaia studies, and post-Darwinian evolution acknowledge their genuine affinities with indigenous perspectives.

"Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity" - Bruce Bagemihl

[twitterexile]

James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change

In his first in-depth interview since the theft of UEA emails, the scientist blames inertia and democracy for lack of action

[third-nature]

"The biosphere does not grow. The total quantity of biomass does not increase. The throughput of matter does not expand; nature runs a steady-state economy -- that is, an economy in which all relevant factors remain constant in relation to each other. Nor does the number of species necessarily increase; it rises in some epochs and falls in others. The only dimension that really grows is the diversity of experiences: ways of feeling, modes of expression, variations of appearance, novelties in patterns and forms. Therefore, nature gains neither mass nor weight, but rather depth. This is not a dimension that can be evaluated and quantified, however. It is a poetic expression of a sediment of desire that is either frustrated or fulfilled."

Andreas Weber

[infactforgetthepark-blog]

[Free eBook] The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet by Michael Ruse [Earth Science Philosophy History]

The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet by Michael Ruse, a director of the History and Philosophy of Science program at Florida State University, is a science history book, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher the University of Chicago Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month for January.

This accessibly-written book covers the philosophic and scientific roots and history and eventual legacy of the Gaia hypothesis developed by chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis, which became a popular and influential movement with the general public and New Age groups during the 1970s, but was also disputed amongst scholars for several decades after.

Offered worldwide through Monday, January 31st, available directly from the publisher.

Currently free @ the publisher's dedicated promo page (DRMed PDF with Adobe Digital Editions and Readium LPC download options; requires newsletter signup with valid email address) and you can read more about the book on its regular catalogue page.

Description In 1965 English scientist James Lovelock had a flash of insight: the Earth is not just teeming with life; the Earth, in some sense, is life. He mulled this revolutionary idea over for several years, first with his close friend the novelist William Golding, and then in an extensive collaboration with the American scientist Lynn Margulis. In the early 1970s, he finally went public with the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that everything happens for an end: the good of planet Earth. Lovelock and Margulis were scorned by professional scientists, but the general public enthusiastically embraced Lovelock and his hypothesis. People joined Gaia groups; churches had Gaia services, sometimes with new music written especially for the occasion. There was a Gaia atlas, Gaia gardening, Gaia herbs, Gaia retreats, Gaia networking, and much more. And the range of enthusiasts was—and still is—broad.

In The Gaia Hypothesis, philosopher Michael Ruse, with his characteristic clarity and wit, uses Gaia and its history, its supporters and detractors, to illuminate the nature of science itself. Gaia emerged in the 1960s, a decade when authority was questioned and status and dignity stood for nothing, but its story is much older. Ruse traces Gaia’s connection to Plato and a long history of goal-directed and holistic—or organicist—thinking and explains why Lovelock and Margulis’s peers rejected it as pseudoscience. But Ruse also shows why the project was a success. He argues that Lovelock and Margulis should be commended for giving philosophy firm scientific basis and for provoking important scientific discussion about the world as a whole, its homeostasis or—in this age of global environmental uncertainty—its lack thereof.

Melding the world of science and technology with the world of feeling, mysticism, and religion, The Gaia Hypothesis will appeal to a broad range of readers, from students and scholars of the history and philosophy of science to anyone interested in New Age culture.

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

Gaia Theory by James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis

Gaia is defined as a complex entity involving Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere. 

The totality of Gaia constitutes a cybernetic, homeostatic, self-regulating feedback system which seeks an optimal environment for all life on Earth. 

Gaia’s existence can be summarized with three principal characteristics: 

1. Gaia has the tendency to keep constant conditions for all terrestrial and aquatic life. 

2. Gaia has vital organs at her core, as well as expendable or redundant ones at her periphery. The effects of what we do to Gaia may depend greatly on where we do them. 

3. Gaian responses to changes obey the rules of cybernetics, in which time, constants, feedback loops, losses, and gains are all important factors. Thus, regulations measured in thousands of years are slow to change for the worse, but equally slow, if not slower, to change for the better. 

Therefore, living within Gaia, there are consequences for each of our actions. 

Ultimately, Gaian regulation of a state fit for life on Earth is a property of the whole evolving system of biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere. 

[russellmoreton]

Biosphere (Ecology and Entropy) 2012. by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: russellmoreton.blogspot.co.uk/ The sun has gone mad and stripped the earth of its ionosphere. For decades blasting radiation has poured upon earth, melting the polar caps and turning permafrost into streams, rivers, oceans. Huge deltas have been built, lakes formed, seas have risen. The Drowned World, JG Ballard.