In an earlier thought, the universal definition of life was formulated . According to that, living systems are persistently stable dynamic ...
In an earlier thought, the universal definition of life was formulated. According to that, living systems are persistently stable dynamic structures existing in an entropic environment. Based on this definition, life can be described as a system in equilibrium, which adapts to its environment by evolution.
The living state is necessarily a complex system, and as such, it can diverge from its dynamic equilibrium state in many ways and by many effects. A state of a living system that is displaced from its persistently stable equilibrium is called sickness in ordinary terms.
Since a living system is a persistently stable structure, when a sickness occurs, processes are usually triggered in the system that restore the equilibrium state, which is not necessarily the same as before the illness. If the living system is unable to re-establish equilibrium, it will steadily move farther and farther away from equilibrium, and eventually the strongly interconnected complex system will break down and the system will disintegrate, the living system will die.
Illness can be caused by a wide variety of causes, which may be specific to a particular living system. The human body can become sick in a myriad of different ways. In such a case, the process of healing, or possibly cure, begins, in which the body uses its own restorative functions, or external healing activities or medications, to restore a stable state. The various diseases of biological life are the subject of dedicated disciplines.
However, a living state defined by the definition may not only be a biological life. A living state is also the biosphere, the complex structure of biological living systems that covers the surface of the Earth.
The biosphere can also be subject to a myriad of out-of-equilibrium impacts that cause sickness of the biosphere. Since any effect that displaces the living system - a persistently stable structure operating in an entropic environment - from its equilibrium position is a disease of the living system, by this specific definition, humans, the human species, are themselves a pathogenic disease of the living state of the Earth's biosphere.
Since the emergence of the human species, human activity has been in constant imbalance with the system of the biosphere that created humanity.
The Earth's biosphere is a complex system of living organisms created by biological evolution. In it, the functioning and existence of all biological species is regulated by biological evolution, and controlled by the environment, with the exception of humankind. The human race may have been formed by biological evolution, but humans have been given the intelligence, the ability of problem-solving thinking. It is this intelligence that has elevated humans above the rules and limitations of biological evolution and the environment.
Biological evolution affects life by establishing a balance between available resources and the operation of living organisms. If available resources decline, the activity of the living organism (individual, species, biosphere) decreases, if available resources increase, the activity of the living organism (individual, species, biosphere) increases.
The intelligent human species does not closely follow this rule. The human species, through the accumulation of knowledge enabled by intelligence, is able to continuously increase its activity even when the currently available resources are diminishing. Intelligent humans, with a few exceptions that are not determinant for the human race, have always found ways to use new, previously unused substances as resources to sustain their existence.
The human species, through its intelligence, is able to adapt much faster than biological evolution, and use materials in the environment as a resource in a non-equilibrium way. As the human species progresses (as its complexity increases), its activity continues to increase by using new resources in a way that evades equilibrium.
The human species is part of the biosphere, but it does not function in an equilibrium way. Throughout its existence, the human species has had and continues to have an unbalancing effect on the biosphere. The human race is a disease of the biosphere. By the very nature of how this disease works, mankind is a cancerous tumor of the biosphere.
Mankind has always functioned this way throughout the history of the human race. Finding new resources and expanding until the resource is exhausted, at which point the cycle will start again. Each such cycle also brings with it the threat of extinction. If intelligence is not able to apply new resources quickly enough to replace the depleted ones, the species may become extinct. Since the human race has an increasing potential as it progresses, after a certain point, which has already been reached by humans, the activity of humanity could, in extreme cases, threaten the very existence of the biosphere.
Humans can also react intelligently to this situation. One possible solution is to try to progress into a direction that allows humankind to interact with the biosphere in a balanced way. This option is the less likely because of the evolutionary inheritance of the human species from the animal kingdom.
Another, more likely possibility, is that if the human species is able to exist long enough, a new state in its operational nature of the biosphere, the human-sphere could emerge.
The human race is an intelligent, problem-solving disease of the Earth's biosphere. As such, it has the potential to create a new kind of biosphere, that operates alongside, or acts as a replacement for a bio-evolution-based biosphere, and function on the basis of the planned and designed, i.e. intelligent evolution.
If humanity can survive and rise above the state of disease of the biosphere, the creation of the human-sphere as a living organism is the most promising fate and future of humanity, which is the way and hope for humanity's survival.
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