Monday, September 07, 2015

If We Are An Organ In Earth's Body

According to the Gaia theory, the earth is becoming a coherent individual, so I can't help wondering about humanity's function in earth's body.

Discover what we do best and you will discover which earth organ we are.

So what do we do best?

Collect together and talk.
                                     Connect.
                                                Send.
                                                     Receive.

We create community and we communicate.

That suggests that humans are the connecting, communicative organ in earth's body--earth's neural net.

Woman talks in mobile phone in Rural Andhra PradeshAccording to a Morgan Stanley survey 91% of mobile phone users keep their phones nearby at all times. We use them everywhere: alone or in a crowd, in bed or on the toilet. In fact, 75% of American mobile users used their phones in the bathroom.

Connectivity is addictive

Once we get it, few of us can let it go, even for a few hours.

Why?

Most of us have an unsatisfied hunger at the center of our being. Unsatisfied longing hurts. Connectivity combines two of the best ways to distract ourselves from pain: keep busy and consume.

But is there more to our love of connection?

We humans have only just filled our environment. What if this is the required tipping point in earth maturing into a coherent homeostatic individual? If so, we have only just crossed that line.

Then our NEED for connectivity is not just a desperate wall social isolates erect against loneliness, or a way business profiteers build global markets, or how all of us keep ourselves from feeling. Our connectivity addiction would be an inherent response to our nascent biologic role in homeostatic earth.

Then connectivity would be vital to every human, plugged-in or not.

Vital to all life, human and non-human.

            Vital to the earth.

*  *  *  *  *  *

2 comments:

  1. Hi Elena, Something just made me want to look you up and see what you're writing/doing these days. (You may or may not remember my husband Butch and me hanging out with you the day we were at the People's Climate March in NYC.) I'm just finishing up a book that I think you'd enjoy, related to the above topic of community and connection--Walk Out Walk On, A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now by Wheatley and Frieze. Check it out. All the best to you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for checking in Cheryl. The book sounds really interesting. Keep up the good fight. 😊

    ReplyDelete