Gaia and Dystopia

Abstract

The proposition that earth and universe are kept in balance by the interaction of forces we only barely recognize has been much derided. Yet, regardless of whether there is substance to the Gaia theory in general, there is a question on whether nature would ‘correct’ for a massive change of balance such as achieving earthly immortality. In the past when nature has corrected, in cases like the Black Death as a consequence as denser and denser human settlement, the Spanish flu as a consequence of amassing young, strong men at close quarters in garrisons and at the front, HIV/AIDS as a result of radically changed sexual mores, ultimately humankind has overcome the challenge. Immortality is, however, a change of far more fundamental nature, and hence it can be discussed whether humans will have the same possibility to resist the resistance by nature to such a change. Ultimately nature’s resistance may be residing in the human mind, rather than in human physiology. Perhaps humans are intrinsically orientated towards death. Thus stopping aging might be one thing, ability to live forever another.