We are the product of 3 billion years of mollycoddling by a Heisenberg phenomena. Gaia is pure Chaos math. For me Gaia isn't a belief system, Its a theory, part of the Darwinist world and entirely as strange as the world the Pope lives in.
The system can't be beat. It's been 3 billion years growing and It has survived by maintaining water, somewhere on the planet, in a liquid state, for all of that time. (Liquid H2O is a prerequisite for carbon-based life). Its probability index is infinitesimally small. It shouldn't exist, but gods do play dice and we do exist. If you're not too busy chasing about for "happiness", stop and look up at the night sky - You know what those little sparks are, and why the clouds are covering them, you are a unique life form in having that ability. Possibly unique through all of Known Space.
The number of Earth-sized planets orbiting at circa 1 AU around boring old G2s would have to be myriad.
How many of these have Moon-sized moons? Still an unknowable plenty. So, cutting to the chase, look at the likelihood of any system maintaining liquid H2O through endless geologic epochs - vanishing few. Asimov, in his non-fiction essay "The Tragedy of the Moon" makes the point that our unusually large satellite, unlike Venus, has stripped away most of our atmosphere.
It's this phenomena that allows water (solid, liquid and vapor) to moderate the resultant climate. This balance is the main component of what I think of as the Gaian mechanism. It's as much about the physics of the Earth-Moon tidal dynamics as it is about the water in which organic components chaotically thrive.
From the beginning, as soon as the environment was right, common organic molecules chaosed themselves into dividing. They developed into the protective shroud of green slime around the tidal fringes, releasing oxygen to rust the iron in the ocean water. Pilburra Iron. By exhaling O2, simple biota terraformed the planet and drastically altered the chemistry of the oceans. Now, any attempt by organic structures to interfere with the process will result in an imbalance likely to cause top-down (FILO) biocide. So, as the biota alter the conditions, all organics, both malign and beneficent, begin retreating until a Gaian balance is reestablished.
The organics in the system effect the way water controls the global climate, this will feed back into the choices organisms are offered for sustainability in a Gaian (closed) system. Gaia is a fractal equation, part of chaos. Observable but not predictable, your place on the set is continually reiterated. This is a warning for god lovers - we are not Gaia's chosen species.
This was Darwin's cryptic message.
we are no longer part of the machine - like an earlobe overlocked with stainless steel trinkets, we're beginning to function outside of the regulated zone. The biota must be compatible with, or isolated from, the mainstream, lest the mainstream reconfigures and some functional gene pools are lost. Darwin, more or less, but Gaia's rules maintain the dynamic, you are only tolerated if you don't upset the harmony. All the cunning biocides are wrapped in fragile tissue, it doesn't take long before you stomp your way through the right combination, then Zippo! Your carbon is liberated. The dynamic moves on. No Heaven here.
If you look up now and then, Gaia's mechanics are easy to demonstrate. Its bones are shown every night on the television, every time Global Warming is yapped about, or when some bunghole drags out a "Computer Model". These models try to emulate the global climate under various conditions (usually greenhouse and CO2). We use powerful server farms and way complex 5GL compilers to emulate Gaia -
a synergy that's been hardwired by supernovas. To emulate anything, you first have to study it. This codifying of the bones is beginning to expose the beast and, as fractal sets go, it's complexity belies it's fundamental simplicity. Nevertheless, it inexorably exposes and eliminates all unstable elements - It cleans up where Darwinian Evolution is confounded. If you have the intelligence to understand this, you are already extra-Darwin and Gaia is probably on your case . . .
Our science is thorough, accurate and wholly (1GL) serial-top-down topography. With a hippy's intuitive generalist overview, however, it's tempting to think that Gaia is not a freak of nature, rather, it is the freak called nature. Gaia is an improbable congruence of physical imperatives, and life as we know it has survived under Its mantle long enough to invent qwerty keyboards and write this observation down.
Jimmie Lovelock's announcement that Gaia is doomed was a tad premature. Gaia's physical structure is quite capable of recreating Its biological automata from scratch.
We should act
Now, before It cranks it's awesome array of trial-and-error antibiotics and pops out an effective anti-human vaccine.
We must act
Now, because we're hard to kill and we're prepared to sacrifice the entire ecosystem attempting to live forever.
Now, because the carbon in the biosphere (and us) is merely recycled supernova dust and it may not pile up like this again.
Ever.
