Why Are We Here (Or: Amazon Gets Wierdly Philosophical)

So, I've been thinking...

I must confess to a certain amount of nervousness about this, but anyway...

"Why Are We Here?"


I have this sort of jumbled bunch of thoughts in my head. Thoughts about Gaia - as in Earth as a single, enormous organism - and the human ability to invent fiction[1].

What was it... Eudaimonaea? (I've probably spelled that wrong - or used the wrong term entirely)... "The purpose of human beings is to be happy"? You know, that one. :-)


Anyway... see, I can't help thinking that (maybe I've been listening to Agent Smith too much here, who knows) - probably - there's a reason for various critters to evolve. At least if the whole Gaia thing is accurate (which I think it is), then there's a Planetorganism-ic reason for said critters to evolve to do what they do.

Birch trees have a phytochemical in them that helps things compost faster. And they are short-lived trees and drop branches the way Nanny Ogg drops double entendres. And they grow in scrub-land that's transitioning from meadow into forest.
Birch trees are *for* preparing the land to support the long-lived trees of a forest (which, obviously, eventually support themselves, but something's gotta be there for them to get their start, right?)

Anyway.

So, I figure if *every* organism within the planetorganism of Gaia has some sort of purpose... I wonder what ours is.
As humans.

And I (get very full of myself, as a human) and start thinking, "Well, we've got these great big brains..."
See, I figure... we're either the worst (or most effective?) malthusian check known to Malthus, or we're for something else (and probably screwing it up).


See, back in 2006, I wrote my first Nano novel. (No, really, this is related). And I wrote a story about a human who becomes the host for the spirit of the land - that being the land in and around what's known as "Ottawa"[2]. This particular spirit required a human host because a human can go "I am" (I am the dark behind my eyes -- to paraphrase Terry Pratchett) and be self-aware over a period of time that is longer than "now"[3].


Anyway, what I'm getting at is that maybe humans are supposed to provide Gaia with some sense of self-awareness.


Which is, I realize, potentially a very, very stupid idea indeed. Or maybe we're not the only creature that does this (although that would beg the question "Why Are We Here?" all over again). Or maybe I just took "Genisis" a little too thoroughly to heart, or something...


But, anyway, that's the idea I'm playing with. :-)


Off to go read more Tamora Pierce. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)


[1] I suspect that crows and other corvids can invent fiction, too. But maybe that's just me. ;-) (They can't all be talking about the weather when they congregate in the hundred, now can they?)
[2] Don't ask me how that works. I abandoned the story some time last January because it had too many unsolvable plot holes.
[3] This, itself, may be another plot hole. I suspect we aren't the only creatures that do this. Elephants, for example, (and possibly cats) seem quite capable of doing so as well.