What we appear to have is reality on a number of levels going through stages of development towards ever greater connectivity and connectedness. For now I won't speak about the possibility of metaphysical connections between entities that we are yet to codify, just the apparent state of play.Prothero wrote:Why stop with a "conscious earth"? Why not a "conscious universe"? Or why not attribute primitive forms of "mind" to every event and interaction (a form of panpsychism)? God then becomes the sum of all of the experience and sentience of the world, of all those interactions and relationships.
For a while I've been intrigued by the relative differences of organisation in organisms - from eusocial colonies like ants to sponges, which are like a cross between a colony and an organism, to simple organisms with nerve nets like echinoderms and jellyfish, to animals with full nervous systems, to colonies of animals. In an organism with a fully integrated nervous system, if one part is damaged then that affects the whole organism. So, if we humans cut off a digit like the top of the pinky, the rest of the body responds. By contrast, if a starfish loses an arm, that's basically the unlucky arm's problem (and it will regrow); the other arms just keep trucking on :)
It's pretty clear that the Earth doesn't have that level of organisation, connectivity and mutual interdependence that an organism does. If, say, I am killed tomorrow, that would make no difference at all to most of the Earth - zip :) Still, given the different ways that reality can be divided, it's not always easy to understand many of our own connections, let alone those of other entities. No doubt we all miss a lot of cause and effect that's going on, maybe some subtle connections intuited but not understood. Whatever, the notion of a conscious Gaia strikes me as at least being premature. Maybe eventually, if humans don't err too badly, the Earth will form an integrated brain of sorts, but that seems to be a long way off.
As for the universe, the situation is more difficult still because most galaxies are speeding away from each other at a great rate. This leaves each galaxy to essentially become a universe/world unto itself, each akin to a spore flung by their parent ferns to the wind. What might a "mature" galaxy be like if full of life that have been spacefaring for a billion years or more? Probabilities would seem to favour that eventually some life or its robotic emissaries somewhere in galaxies will conquer interstellar travel. This will open the way to increased integration as each instance of intelligent life painstakingly expands its sphere of contact and influence. Some civilisations won't make it, either due to untimely cosmic collisions or tragedies of the commons. Still, in the big picture life seems always to find a way.
-- Updated 15 Jun 2017, 02:26 to add the following --
On the other side of the coin, I once had a peak experience where I felt an extraordinary sense of unconditional love and understanding, pretty well just like reports by gurus, mystics and patients who survived clinical death. I can't help wondering where that comes from. At the time I certainly felt like a much larger consciousness than I have encountered in "real life" was there. Much smarter, more aware, understanding, etc, and I was filled with bliss (no doubt dopamine was in full swing at this stage). The "larger conciousness" felt less a part of me than I a very small, somewhat disconnected, part of it.
Obviously, as a result, I've wondered about "other side" - maybe it's the spirits of ancestors as the old tribal people believed? Or maybe they are part of a greater spiritual web? It would be great to think so but it might also just be dopamine opening up good things in people's psyches that are locked away in their usual mental states. I don't know, so I remain open to but not entirely unconvinced about all of the above.