Horsey’s take on Gaia…
Good morning, Netizens...
I love the way where occasionally David Horsey takes us down a side road, often with unpredictable results, and still makes his point. The Gaia Theory was first formulated in the 1960's by a research scientist who was working for NASA named James Lovelock, who wrote a technical journal which became a book called, Gaia: A new look a life on earth. If you go to here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis you can read a brisk overview of his theory, which may not bore you as much as you might think.
As if fate were guiding his feet, during morning walks Lovelock met and became involved with William Golding, who later rose to fame as the author of Lord of the Flies and many other award-winning writings.
Lovelock's theory defined Gaia as, “a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.” When you look at definition in all of its complexity, suddenly it becomes more robust but thus capable of technical scrutiny.
Even super-author Isaac Asimov has weighed in on theories about Gaia and Lovelock's original premise. Horror writer James Herbert and incredible novelist David Brin (http://www.davidbrin.com/) both have given contributions to the discussion, pro or con, about the existence and relevance of Gaia. Like the fountainhead it sometimes can be, the science fiction genre is full to overflowing with various insights into how writers think Gaia applies to life on Earth and/or that earth has a life of its own.
David Horsey's cartoon this morning suggests that he believes Gaia is a life force we know as the planet earth. We should all thank him for taking us down this road of concepts and ideas.
I wish I had more time to explore this controversial and utterly-fascinating set of theories and opinions, but perhaps one of you can expound further upon the theories thus far exposed, perhaps even rebut the theories that some of the world's greatest authors have, thus far, submitted for consideration.
Dave