Gaia spore
Encyclopedia
Gaia spore is a subset of the Gaia hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...

, the concept that Earth's ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s can be treated as a single unified organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...

. The Gaia spore concept states that Gaia
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 can reproduce via space colonization
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...

. Despite the ecological damage caused by the emergence of human technology within Gaia, their emergence is seen as an essential part of Gaia's reproduction via spreading of earth's ecosystems to other planets. The Gaia spore concept is an explanation of the purpose of human industry within the broader Gaia-ecological
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

 value perspective. A typical Gaia spore would be a spaceship containing humans and other organisms travelling to another habitable location far away from Earth.

History

The Gaia spore concept was first formulated in 1998 as a framework to help the moral interpretation for the inherent conflict between the emergent ecological value systems and predominant techno-economic value systems.

Theories

The Gaia spore concept is largely a moral tool to interpret the value of human technology within a moral system which places significant value on helping to preserve and protect Earth's ecological systems. Such a Gaia-centric moral system is antagonistic of human progress because of the increased ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...

 and strain on Earth's ecosystems caused by increases in human population
World population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be  billion by the United States Census Bureau...

 and technological development.

The Gaia spore theory was formed to provide a context to answer the question "what is the value of human progress" from an ecological perspective.

Interpretation

The Gaia Spore concept can be interpreted on a number of different levels: technological, humanistic and moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...

.

From a technological perspective, the Gaia spore concept represents a number of engineering and scientific challenges. These challenges are largely being addressed by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 in exploring other planets, searching for habitable planets beyond our solar system, spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research. However, most spacecraft today are propelled by forcing a gas from the...

 and human spaceflight
Human spaceflight
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....

. Specific technologies like life support system
Life support system
In human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space.US government space agency NASA,and private spaceflight companies...

s and antimatter propulsion may be required to successfully develop the Gaia spore vessel.

From a humanistic perspective, the Gaia spore concept represents a critical insurance for humanity's survival. Well known Physicist Professor Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...

 has warned that the human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the human species. (See Space and survival
Space and survival
Space and survival is the relationship between outer space and the long-term survival of the human species and civilization. Its investigation is justified by the fact that space colonization and space science could prevent many human extinction scenarios...

)

From a moral interpretation perspective, the Gaia spore concept has value in resolving the perceived conflict between ecological and humanistic value systems. Human activity which is necessary to sustain the economic wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...

 required for the development of the Gaia spore is seen as acceptable to Gaia as would be the physical hardship incurred in the process of reproduction by other living organisms. This framework provides a guideline for economic development but also environmental stewardship.

Technological Challenges

Because of the complexity and interdependence of Earth's life forms, and the considerable distance to other habitable planets, there are a number of challenges to space colonization
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...

.

Gaia Reproduction

Gaia is defined as a highly complex web of interactions between the five kingdoms of biology. Developing a biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...

 which is capable of sustained survival is challenging, as shown by the results of the Biosphere 2
Biosphere 2
Biosphere 2 is a structure originally built to be an artificial, materially-closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO...

 experiments which began in 1985 and had difficulty maintaining a balanced environment.

Potential Gaia Progeny

Gliese 581 c
Gliese 581 c
Gliese 581 c or Gl 581 c is a planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581. It is the second planet discovered in the system and the third in order from the star. With a mass at least 5.6 times that of the Earth, it is classified as a super-Earth...

 is a "super-earth
Super-Earth
A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's gas giants. The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability...

" extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...

 orbiting the red dwarf
Red dwarf
According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....

 star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 Gliese 581
Gliese 581
Gliese 581 is a red dwarf star with spectral type M3V, located 20.3 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra. Its estimated mass is about a third of that of the Sun, and it is the 89th closest known star system to the Sun. Observations suggest that the star has at least six planets:...

. It appears to be the first terrestrial extrasolar planet discovered in the hypothetical habitable zone
Habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, a habitable zone is an umbrella term for regions that are considered favourable to life. The concept is inferred from the empirical study of conditions favourable for Life on Earth...

 surrounding its star, where surface temperatures might maintain liquid water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 and therefore potentially be suitable for life as known on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

. This makes it a hypothetically habitable location to support an earthlike ecology. The planet is astronomically close, at 20.4 light year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...

s (193 trillion km or 119 trillion miles) from Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 in the direction of the constellation of Libra
Libra (constellation)
Libra is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for weighing scales, and its symbol is . It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east.-Notable features:]...

. Its star is identified as Gliese 581 by its number in the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars
Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars
The Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars is a frequently referenced, modern star catalogue of stars located within 25 parsecs of the Earth.-First edition and supplements:...

; with respect to Earth it is the 87th closest star system. Gliese 581 c is the first extrasolar planet believed to possibly have a surface temperature similar to that of Earth. It is the smallest extrasolar planet around a main sequence
Main sequence
The main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell...

 star discovered to date. The planet is about 50 percent larger and five times heavier than Earth.

Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

, the fourth planet in our solar system, is a terrestrial planet
Terrestrial planet
A terrestrial planet, telluric planet or rocky planet is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets are the inner planets closest to the Sun...

 which has a thin atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...

. Currently, however the atmospheric pressure and temperatures on Mars would not be able to support earth's ecology without significant terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...

.

Strategic Approach

Within the Gaia Hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...

, and within the further hypothesis that humans will be the mean by which Gaia reproduces, there are different strategic approaches to developing the technology and wealth required to allow space colonization
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...

.
Two examples these strategic approaches to space colonization are "the sprint" or "the marathon".

The "Sprint"

Humanity's current trajectory appears to be "the sprint" trajectory which involves a quick ecologically unsustainable build-up of wealth in order to allow the development of the gaia spore but in the end will lead to an exhaustion of Earth's resources and ultimately cause severe damage to Gaia. Gaia will no doubt recover from this abuse as it has in the past from the other extinctions, but humanity may not. This strategy has the advantage of reducing the Gaia's exposure time to the risk of major non-anthropogenic extinction events but is dangerous in that it risks humanity's own life support system
Life support system
In human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space.US government space agency NASA,and private spaceflight companies...

.

The "Marathon"

A "Marathon" trajectory may also be possible. This strategy is a low ecological impact method of space colonization
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...

 which is more ecologically sustainable and ultimately reaches a steady state which could allow multiple colonizations over time. This strategy would first involve reducing Humanity's impact on the Earth to a stable and sustainable level and then gradually developing the wealth required to build the Gaia spore. This strategy has the advantage of protecting Gaia's life support system
Life support system
In human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space.US government space agency NASA,and private spaceflight companies...

 but could put Gaia at a higher risk of non-anthropogenic extinction events
before reproduction.

See also

  • Gaia
  • Autopoiesis
  • Blue marble
  • Earth Science
    Earth science
    Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...

  • Environmentalism
    Environmentalism
    Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

  • Gaia (Foundation universe)
    Gaia (Foundation universe)
    Gaia is a fictional planet described in the book Foundation's Edge and referred to in Foundation and Earth , by Isaac Asimov. The name is derived from the Gaia hypothesis, which is itself eponymous to Gaia, the Earth Goddess....

  • Geophysiology
    Geophysiology
    Geophysiology is the study of interaction among living organisms on the Earth operating under the hypothesis that the Earth itself acts as a single living organism ....

  • James Kirchner
    James Kirchner
    James W. Kirchner is professor of Earth and Planetary Science at University of California, Berkeley. His current research spans the fields of geomorphology, hydrology, environmental geochemistry, evolutionary ecology, and paleobiology...

  • Noosphere
    Noosphere
    Noosphere , according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς + σφαῖρα , in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere". Introduced by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1922 in his Cosmogenesis"...

  • Permaculture
    Permaculture
    Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...

  • SimEarth
    SimEarth
    SimEarth: The Living Planet, the second life simulation computer game designed by Will Wright in which the player controls the development of a planet. The game was published in 1990 by Maxis...

  • Solaris
    Solaris (novel)
    Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....

  • Technogaianism
    Technogaianism
    Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment...


Further reading

  • Lovelock, James. The Independent. The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever, 16 January 2006.
  • Kleidon, Axel (2004). Beyond Gaia: Thermodynamics of Life and Earth system functioning. Climate Change, 66(3): 271-319.
  • Lovelock, James (1995). The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth ISBN 0-393-31239-9
  • Lovelock, James (2000). Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth ISBN 0-19-286218-9
  • Lovelock, James (2001). Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist ISBN 0-19-860429-7. The Revenge of Gaia
    The Revenge of Gaia
    The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How we Can Still Save Humanity is a book by James Lovelock.- External links :* The Revenge of Gaia * , edited extract from The Guardian, 24 March 2006...

  • Staley, M. (2004). Darwinian selection leads to Gaia. J. Theoretical Biol., 218(1): Staley abstract
  • Stephen H. Schneider, et al., (Eds) (2004), Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century ISBN 0-262-19498-8
  • Thomas, Lewis (1974) Lives of a Cell

External links

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