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85 Comments
- dafragsta, on 07/01/2009, -1/+47Single cell organisms saw on the news today that there are new multicell super-organisms.
Multicell organisms saw on the news today that planets could possibly be super-organisms.
I think that dovetails nicely into this old Bill Hicks chestnut...
Today a young man on acid realised that all matter is just energy condensed to a slow vabration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves. - bigterguy, on 06/30/2009, -1/+23Very misleading title. Shigenori is merely postulating that plates sink deep into the planet before being returned to the surface. Not very different from what others have believed except perhaps for the depth he thinks they reach.
- DaNuKaSAN, on 07/01/2009, -2/+21In before Gaia theory.
- ToadLeg, on 07/01/2009, -1/+16Provocative Title Fail
- TsuruchiBrian, on 07/01/2009, -5/+20"A superorganism is an organism consisting of many individuals working together as a single functional or social unit."
That doesn't appear to describe anything happening on our planet. - hoodedrobin, on 07/01/2009, -1/+16Here's Tom with the weather.
- hydroplane, on 06/30/2009, -4/+19Ab-so-lute-ly
- joshmoney, on 07/01/2009, -3/+13Only if you hold an anthropocentric view of the universe. In order to understand if something is functional you have to have knowledge of it's intended purpose. Keep in mind that "our planet" may not have us in mind at all (figuratively speaking). I've often wondered if every single one of our endeavors is nothing more than an act driven by an evolutionary instinct instilled within us for some ulterior "purpose" of which we are unaware. If our so called purpose is indeed to "survive as a species" by "being fruitful and multiplying", then I think the next logical question should be, why? To what end? When you look at the larger picture, I think it's possible that our entire civilization is nothing more than one giant attempt at connecting ourselves to each other, to the point that the entire human race lives and breathes somewhat like a single organism. (Could the internet be one of the last formulas to this algorithm?) Perhaps it is instead the earth, that is "trying" to connect with other planets and we are simply the molecular forces that will accomplish this task...
/time for bed. - vorda, on 07/01/2009, -0/+9I'd dig your 2 comments 50000 times if I could. It's actually like that. If someone (not this article) was to tell us that the Earth is in fact a living organism we would probably go "nice..." and then switch the channel to whatever.
RIP
Bill Hicks - MrColdheart, on 07/01/2009, -0/+8A "Living Super-Organism" with a chemical imbalance?
- vorda, on 07/01/2009, -0/+7It perfectly describes any Ecosystem including the whole planet. It only depends how much You lift up/down Your perception of things around You.
- jamdogg, on 07/01/2009, -1/+8It describes your own body made up of individual cells each a living organism in its own right.
Ants too. - jamdogg, on 07/01/2009, -0/+6Without an observer, nothing exists.
- Yage2006, on 07/01/2009, -0/+6What people in the media misquoting science ?
/S - e1evene1even, on 07/01/2009, -0/+5If planets are "Living Super-Organisms", what does that make the Sun?
- novenator, on 07/01/2009, -4/+9There is a scientific term that already denotes the matter in the universe that is 'alive' on a planet: the "biosphere"
- inactive, on 07/01/2009, -0/+4Dugg for Bill Hicks, and the fact that I, too, have experienced that.
- SPNKrPunk, on 07/01/2009, -3/+7 Yes, there is a higher order at work on the earth. And its answer is 42.
- Mujokan, on 07/01/2009, -0/+4If Daily Galaxy ever gets anything RIGHT I will be shocked.
- Jektal, on 07/01/2009, -1/+5How do you know they can't?
If you define a life-supporting planet such as Earth as an organism, and a barren celestial body such as the moon or Venus (so far as we know) as not being an organism, then would not the Earth have reproduced if we are ever able to setup a self-sustainable and growing settlement on a previously barren planet?
Like the theories that suggest life started on Earth by a meteorite collision which contained basic life forms (bacteria)? Perhaps we have to wait for the Earth to be "impregnated" by a giant asteroid which will knock some of Earth's matter (and bacteria with it) off into space, to travel through the cosmos until it reaches another suitable "mate" planet. - shifty50fs, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3As below, so above...and beyond, I imagine.
- kaosethema, on 07/02/2009, -0/+3i always thought so...
and we're a form of super-cancer. - jasvll, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3Proofread:
# read for errors; "I should proofread my manuscripts"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
# Proof-reading traditionally means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. Modern proofreading often requires reading copy at earlier stages as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofread
# To check a written text for errors in spelling and grammar
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proofread
# proofreader - someone who reads proof in order to find errors and mark corrections
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+proofread - askantik, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3I read the first 3 or 4 paragraphs, then glazed over the rest-- but I never really saw anything remotely related to the idea of the Gaia hypothesis, though that is exactly what the title implies...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis - curtisag, on 07/01/2009, -2/+5No.
- BabaRamDass, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3Earth is just another level of intelligent organization. Sort of like how each cell in your body is an entity unto their own, completely unaware of the greater organism they compose.
In our bodies exist whole societies, and we ourselves compose higher societies. High doses of psychedelics help reinforce this "varying degrees of magnification and organization" concept. You truly gain an appreciation of composition. - meninostongue, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3A mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace
- pinchduck, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3Wouldn't it help if we defined life first?
- inactive, on 07/01/2009, -0/+3that could possibly be the best explanation for the meaning of life I've ever seen without being on drugs.
- siwasher, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2The object in question can have both animate and inanimate components, A snail's shell isn't living, but that doesn't mean the snail isn't. The biosphere is as much a part of earth as the rocks.
- TsuruchiBrian, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2Except that in an ecosystem some of the animals eat other animals. I would not consider any system that has a major predation component to be "working together".
All (or nearly all) the cells in the human body are friends with each other. Friends don't eat each other unless they are already dead. - pw378, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2That would imply that people are NOT part of the system, but they are...
Unless you believe people were put here by a higher power... - DDION, on 07/01/2009, -1/+3Mexican
- SaladCactusKing, on 07/01/2009, -1/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_the_Living_Planet
/nerd. - Evazan21, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2Thats a very interesting concept.
- inactive, on 07/01/2009, -1/+3This is one of those questions tha has been burning my mind for such a long time!
- Mujokan, on 07/01/2009, -2/+4I hate the Daily Galaxy. I think it is run by some troll who just wants to generate irritating Digg pages.
- pw378, on 07/01/2009, -2/+4it totally like.. Gaia dude... mother earth and *****. Whoa, I am soooo high. Pass that over here.
- otterp, on 07/01/2009, -1/+3Buried for not even mentioning Lovelock or the Gaia Hypothesis. If Shigenori is extending the work of Lovelock, it should at least be mentioned.
- otterp, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2Let-me-google-that-for-you might solve all of earths problems by educating the masses about the important life skill of looking things up. Plus it was invented by a crazy friend of mine.
- InfinitySnatch, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2People like you are a burden to the progression of humanity. If you're going to humor this theory, then you should see that humans are the most important part of earth, reproductive organs of the planet. The earth can't reach out beyond itself, so it creates a species with the drive to go out and explore other rocks and mold them after the parents. As a consequence for fueling our exploration, some damage is done to the earth, like how a spider usually dies after laying its eggs. But the end result is a star system modeled after the "genes" and characteristics of the original earth.
- nwoantibody, on 06/30/2009, -2/+4As Above So Below, said Poimandres to Hermes Three Times Great.
- thizzlebot, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2The planet could easily be a cell in a being far too big for us to even comprehend. We could just be that giant beings cancer, eating away his cell with our pollution.
- vorda, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2I think it's simple. As I understand the question comes down to is Earth a rock or is it alive and kicking.
Answer:
Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes ("alive," "living"), from those which do not—either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate."
Wikipedia. - chrisduser, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2What is the purpose of life in this universe? Stars, planets, moons, and pebbles can exist without life. I just don't see how life can have a profound affect on the universe.
- vorda, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2God?
- charlietuna, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2The author either did no research or intended to suggest that this was something new. Both signs of poor work.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=planet+as+organism&l=1 - charlietuna, on 07/01/2009, -0/+2How much here is simply rediscovered as new !? Very "green" story, insofar as it is recycled news.
- Paranor01, on 07/01/2009, -1/+2I concur with you 100% on this joshmoney. I am convinced of it actually through my own thoughts & revelations brought out from those thoughts.
- DurandalIX, on 07/01/2009, -1/+2"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."
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