At this stage I think all in the debate on that an another thread, including JKlint, Consul and Count Lucanor agree that life and, thus, humanity is part of the Earth, being tightly interwoven with its existing systems and creating many others.
Humans are not actually destroying the planet, as such, not as per your preferred definition of treating geology as paramount (as opposed to potentially foundational). The deepest hole ever dug was 11kms in Russia before the drill melted so we appear to be no threat to the mantle and core, 99% of the planet by mass.Jklint wrote: ↑December 28th, 2018, 6:56 pmWe logically can't be separated from the umbilical cord of the planet, at least not at this time and perhaps never. The planet, however can certainly be separated from us; it doesn't need humans to be on it especially so as we exist as virtual destroyers of it.Greta wrote: ↑December 28th, 2018, 6:26 pmYeah, I'd say the Earth itself is intelligent, sure. Just that, unlike most, I don't see it as this great mystical thing. Rather, it's just obvious because we can't logically be separated from the planet. Your bones can't be said to be intelligent but the whole of you can be.
Also, while it's true that bones like rocks aren't intelligent, the "whole of me" may be only because there's a single organ which provides the means to be so. The question is what contains the intelligence of the planet. Where is the brain responsible for supervising its processes?
What we are doing is simplifying natural systems and using the resources to create compressed, information-intensive human systems. The biosphere is reforming, as always, and continuing to become smarter. In geological timeframes not long ago the smartest beings on Earth would have been T-Rex, raptors and proto-birds. Later on it might have been other great apes, dolphins or canids. Now it's complex oddities like us. Intelligence appeared and it's proved to be effective in stable conditions.
We'll surely be outshone too and I think most people know who/what by. The Earth might be rendered too inhospitable for humans by humans in the medium-term or the Sun's heating will sterilise the surface in the long term, so above surface biology can only last so long. Intelligent machines, on the other hand, will presumably be less sensitive to environmental conditions. Hopefully by then the machines will have been imbued with enough nous to resettle elsewhere rather than maximising paperclips on a dormant planet for non existent customers - a scenario imagined in spirit by the writers of Red Dwarf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psidz_-s00c
Ok, I've rambled - there's no point being made here as things turn out, just perspectives and possibilities which people may or may not agree with.