Most of us think of sensitivity and cognition as traits of individual organisms, but the authors of a provocative new study suggest that intelligence actually exists on a planetary scale, and that all life on Earth acts as a unified conscious system.
The researchers, summarizing their theory in the International Journal of Astrobiology, say that humanity is currently incompatible with general planetary intelligence and that our future survival may depend on our ability to align our actions with the global mind.
Contrary to the classical view of evolution as a process of conflict and competition between individual species, the model proposed by the authors implies that life is in fact a singular, cooperative network. Therefore, each species emerges to play its role in maintaining the balance of the biosphere, rather than exist to compete with each other.
“Our approach recognizes that among researchers, the right scale for understanding fundamental aspects of life and evolution is planetary, as opposed to the traditional focus on individual species,” the researchers write.
The study of life from this perspective is called Earth systems science A discipline that seeks to illuminate how different species work together rather than against each other to help sustain planetary systems…
Examples include forest plants to communicate. and underground fungal networks that allow it to exchange nutrients and maintain the health of the overall ecosystem. Similarly, large populations of microbes work together to regulate critical biospheric feedbacks, providing stable atmospheric conditions conducive to life in general.
However, this seamless cooperation takes time to develop and species must evolve to integrate into this planetary consciousness. “Planets evolve through immature and mature stages, and planetary intelligence is indicative of when you reach a mature planet,” said Adam Frank, professor of physics at the University of Rochester and co-author of the paper.
Extending this point, researchers outline four stages of planetary evolution. The first is represented by an immature biosphere that contains the emergence of life forms that have not yet developed the ability to work together to organize planetary systems.
This is followed by the mature biosphere, where all species on a planet seamlessly cooperate to maintain perfect conditions for the proliferation of life. But then comes the immature technosphere, which is characterized by the development of technologies affecting the planet but not integrated with and ultimately working against the rest of the biosphere.
This is what the authors say is the stage humanity is currently in. Only by moving into a mature technosphere where our industrial activities begin to support the planet can we become part of planetary intelligence and secure our future as a species.
“We don’t yet have the ability to socially respond in the interests of the planet,” says Frank. we don’t know.”
The authors extend their theory to other planets, saying that the apparent scarcity of technologically advanced life elsewhere in the galaxy may reflect the fact that immature civilizations don’t tend to last very long. In other words, as Frank explains, “the only technological civilizations we can see – the ones we should expect to see – must have reached a stage of true planetary intelligence that didn’t kill themselves.”
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