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Planet,
I'd say "no," as an answer to your statement, but I don't particularly like evolutionary-deterministic models. While the model of the "selfish gene" provides an interesting intellectual sketch of the motivations behind behavior, it's feasibility/provability is already stretched to its limits.
The hypothetical drive to pass on genetic material works for individuals, not for species-groups...ecologically, an individual of a species experiences more niche-resource competition from its species-mates than from other species. Evolutionary adaptations, arguably, are physiological changes to adapt to changing ecological conditions so as to better survive. In the strict, scientifically-conservative scope of things, there is thus no absolute destiny or direction for our species, only the likelihood that over time we will change or die.
To subvert/invert the question, I'd say if humans continue to progress toward saturation and resource depletion, we'll end up in more of an adapt-or-die scenario. Either the extincton will trim the human population down to a more homeostatic level, or certain groups will, over time, by their occupation of a specialized niche, begin to further diverge from the gene pool, until such time as they are no longer entirely compatible with the human gene pool.
Perhaps there will be the movement out from the planet: perhaps not even a biological adaptation, but a technological one. Then again, perhaps we'll first adapt/move toward the sea, which is a lot of space we don't occupy. Also sub-surface.
You'd probably enjoy "The World Jones Made," by the way.
"Gaia Hypothesis" I know nothing about, so I can't really discuss it intelligibly. Does the model postulate the planet as organism or as sentient?
I find it interesting that the cyclicality of ecological/astrophysical structures is being used as an argument for the "organismal-ity" of these phenomenon. The whole model could be inverted to a Platonic schema: our patterns are shoddy reflections of cosmic ones; theirs eternal, ours limited and entropic.
By the way, the latest in physics theory says the universe is going to disperse infinitely, not contract and bang again. I prefer to think they're wrong. |
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