Whats your opinion about the Gaia hypothesis?

I agree that all things are inter-connected, and that our actions ripple in ways we can’t understand.

I prefer to refer to the whole system as akin to dharma. But yeah, I do largely agree with your Gaia hypothesis, though I in no way worship any sort of Earth Mother, which is often associated with the idea.

I’m not familiar with any following or hypothesis but I agree with what you’ve written except as far as religion goes. I don’t see why humans feel to worship something in order to respect it or feel connected to it.

In all honesty, I can’t contain that much complexity within my thought processes.

Certainly there is planet wide balance in regards to weather patterns, temperature, wind, water distribution, polar ice caps, and so on. Does that make it an organism? Does “organism” indicate “life”? Life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit certain biological processes such as chemical reactions or other events that results in a transformation. Living organisms are capable of growth and reproduction, some can communicate and many can adapt to their environment through changes originating internally. Source

I don’t think I personally would go so far as to classify the planet as an organism.

It has been elevated to the level of a theory (Wikipedia). And it sounds quite reasonable to me. At more local levels we can see for ourselves how the various parts of an ecosystem work together, so by extrapolation conclude that the whole biosphere is a very large system. Wasn’t there an anecdote about el Nino: it affected South American Pacific fishing and ultimately the price of wheat world wide? (I am sure I read it in a book by Adam Smith, pseudonym of George Goodman, Paper Money).

Yes, as long as it isn’t demoted to a live entity that is capable of rational thought, which many believe. I do accept that earth is one interconnective ecosystem.

I don’t think it makes sense to think of Gaia as an “organism.” However, I do think that the Earth’s systems (weather, gravity, temperature, etc, etc) are remarkably self-balancing. I don’t believe it was always this way, and we are lucky it has become this way, or we wouldn’t exist.

Tao, Gaia whatever. Yes but further it is an organism/ecosystem amongst billions of others in myriad galaxies all interdependent, however long the lag between events may appear.

I do believe in an interconnection, but given Syz’s definition, I don’t expect that we will see the Earth reproduce anytime soon.

I will have to look into this more. Perhaps you can post some links on the hypothesis. Sounds good to me so far.

It’s too metaphysical. Earth is an extremely complex nonlinear system. Nonlinar meaning that the whole can not be described by the sum of it’s parts.

Looked at from a biological/ecological standpoint, it’s like an insect colony. Colonies are not living things, but as they are built by them, they act as if they were.

That is mostly the basis behind the scientific pantheism religion I once considered. The earth I will admit is a balanced system, with many checks and balances that we have yet to begin to understand. Is it all interconnected? Seems so. But then, just because something seems to make sense, doesn’t mean it is the answer. Centuries ago, people assumed that folks with epilepsy, mental deficiency, etc were possessed by demons. It made sense to them that if someone acted in an evil way, they were being influenced by an evil entity. We now know that mental deficiencies and epilepsy are diseases, caused by genetic mutations and chemical imbalances. Only the uneducated would think that epileptic fits are caused by demonic possession. or perhaps the Catholic church

The Gaia theory is a nice theory, and seems to make sense on a certain level. Is it true, though? Well, I think the jury is still out on that. We simply do not have enough information to make that assumption.

If the Earth is one, enormous, symbiotic organism than humankind has, unfortunately, become a very virulent strain of cosmic herpes.

I see some great input, opposive and supportive.

I am not a great believer in this as a religious entity, but the theory appeals to me, and I want to explore it more.

I don’t think the word organism equates consciousness in any way. A bacterium is not conscious but still an organism. Fungus cells cooperate in what could be described as conscious behavior, but is it?

Are we as humans one single organism? The human body cannot live if it doesn’t have 1 – 1.5 kg of some 500 different bacteria in the intestines, 200 gr of them on the skin, 20 gr in the lung and the vagina respectively and a gram in the eyes. The skin is covered with natural fungus. Is the sum of these organism to be considered as one or separate?

Could a ant colony be seen a single organism? It has a collective will. Do we humans show a collective will?

An interesting observation from a Gaia perspective is that the space probes would indicate that the Gaia organism is getting matured enough to seed.

you could take it a step farther, what if the universe was just another organism? and thusly just another part in an even greater organism. what if certain particals that make up an atom are whole universes in their own right?

The Earth is a living organism, in the same sense that our own bodies are living organisms. We are made up of millions of individual cells, with thousands of parasites living all over our body, even inside it. Even when we are not sick, a variety of germs calls us “home” and every time we scratch, we kill a few hundred. So yes, the Earth is like that too. And we are just one species of parasite. A pretty unhealthy one too.

@Blondesjon I would say that we are more of a pest species and we should be thankful that the Hartz Corporation doesn’t make a Flea and Tick collar in the Earths’ size.

I like the notion of Earth’s thermostat. Unfortunately, it’s very slow so we can’t use it as an excuse not to be concerned about global warming and climate change.