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Dr Shari
Skeptic Friend
135 Posts |
 Posted - 09/20/2002 : 23:02:48
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I watched an old black and white Outer Limits program on Sci-Fi Channel today. The plot was that we had recreated a planet in an enclosed room with info about the atmosphere, light type and introduced the type of DNA they felt would be present in that type of enviorment and speeded up evolution. What happened was not only did the planet develope a violent history but what appeared to be a violent, non-human god-like soul of its own.
The Gaea philosophy that the earth itself is a living being and we just live on her is an old one but this old Outer Limit episode ended that the Earth had a soul ultimately of love and not evil and hate as the one they had created had.
I think the Earth is a piece of rock circling around a star with the proper temperature, light frequency, geographical history and luck that allowed life and life forms with a certain amount of intelligence to develope and grow on it. I don't think planets have souls or can react with vengence to the stupidity done to it by the thing living on it. But as I like bad Sci Fi it was a good thought none the less.
Death: The High Cost of Living
It is easier to get forgiveness then to get permission!
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2002 : 23:11:30 [Permalink]
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A good read along those lines was Powers That Be and Power Play ( I think this is actually a triology but I can't remember the other book title). These are by Anne McCafferey. The Planet Petabee is sentient.
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I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stuart (1791) |
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2002 : 00:01:03 [Permalink]
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A not so good read (but fun anyway) is the Arthur Conan Doyle novel The Day the Earth Screamed This is one of his Prof. Challenger stories. The cranky Prof gets the idea that planets are living creatures much like giant sea urchins. He invents a drill that can cut through the shell and take a sample of the meat underneath. It builds up to a surprise ending...well, it's a surprise if you didn't happen to read the title of the book.
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My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. ---Thomas Henry Huxley, 1860 |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2002 : 01:06:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
I watched an old black and white Outer Limits program on Sci-Fi Channel today. The plot was that we had recreated a planet in an enclosed room with info about the atmosphere, light type and introduced the type of DNA they felt would be present in that type of enviorment and speeded up evolution. What happened was not only did the planet develope a violent history but what appeared to be a violent, non-human god-like soul of its own.
The Gaea philosophy that the earth itself is a living being and we just live on her is an old one but this old Outer Limit episode ended that the Earth had a soul ultimately of love and not evil and hate as the one they had created had.
I think the Earth is a piece of rock circling around a star with the proper temperature, light frequency, geographical history and luck that allowed life and life forms with a certain amount of intelligence to develope and grow on it. I don't think planets have souls or can react with vengence to the stupidity done to it by the thing living on it. But as I like bad Sci Fi it was a good thought none the less.
The "Outer Limits" TV series was THE greatest TV show EVER. (I understand there's a newer version though, I don't mean that one) I wish to hell I had a recording machine back then. I know all those episodes well.
Each one was much more than a sci-fi story, they presented philosophical dilemmas. If I recall wasn't the problem on that one whether to destroy or not, that creation?
Damn, I'd give anything....except to pay for cable....to see those shows again, it's been ages!
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*Carabao forever
*SAN FERNANDO VALLEY SECESSION - YES
www.CuriousCreations.com
*All lives are movie settings, it's what channel you're on that counts. Zatikia
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2002 : 05:32:32 [Permalink]
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Well our planet sure is a very complex system that could be considered alive for some definition of the word. just because parts of it can be considered living organisms on their own does not mean that the whole ecosphere can't be one, too. Analogies of anthills and the human brain show that complex structures of simple components can sometimes be a whole lot more then the sum of their parts. That said I have seen evidence of our planet reacting with anything that would indicate sentinence. But I guess, it would be awfull hard to see from our perspective.
If you leave out talk of souls, good and evil, awareness, consciousness and moral, the idea of seeing our planet as a living being becomes more of a question of definitions, semantics and perspective.
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