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Well, we have traipsed rather far a field here thanks to my mention of The Molecular Biology of the Gene. Kagen, I appreciate your attempt to romanticize biochemistry, but I very much doubt if my old molecular genetics prof would have given you a passing grade. The Gaia hypothesis is a most interesting one, and you might want to read Teilhard de Chardin (another author I read on a snow day – that was a bad winter) if you haven’t already done so.
Yes, the human species is a biological, naturally evolved species. Does this mean that all is right with the universe and things are exactly as they are “supposed” to be?
I suggest you add the works of imminent ecologists such as Macarthur and Huffaker to your snow day reading list before you attempt to defend such a hypothesis. Pay special attention to their experiments and theories on carrying capacity, ecosystem diversity, and gap dynamics and throw in some reading on population genetics just for the hell of it.
What you will discover is that any species which outstrips the resources of its ecosystem is doomed to have a rather significant population crash, and may even face extinction, depending upon any number of factors. We need not go ask the stars for answers, the answer can be found right here in that trilobite fossil you just over turned on your afternoon walk through the new suburb they’re constructing right outside of town.
We can view the earth as rejecting or accepting us, but biology remains indifferent to our romantic notions of it. I imagine that we can continue to artificially extend the earth’s carrying capacity of our species for a while, but, frankly, I’m glad I won’t be around for the end-game which is inevitable and will NOT be pretty. Read Jared Diamond if you want a sneak preview.
I am neither proud nor ashamed to be an individual member of the species Homo sapiens. I am pragmatic, nothing more. Species come and species go. I wouldn’t attach much significance to that fact.
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