Biospheric Imperialists

Every religion needs a closely related but diametrically opposed 'other' religion. Think of the Jews and the Christians, the Sunnis and the Shiites, or the Catholics and the Protestants. For many individuals within the each of these religions, their differences from the 'other' religion give them a large part of their identify. So I invented two religions; Biospheric Communion and Biospheric Imperialism. They both believe that our destiny is to launch the expansion of the biosphere that spawned us, the Earth's biosphere, into space. They both believe that once we have done so, humanity will become small players in a biosphere dominated by species far better adapted to life in space than us. They both believe that long after our pivotal role is nearly forgotten by these almost alien descendants of our creations, our biosphere will encounter other biospheres, some still planet-bound, others expanding like our own.

However, the small-minded Biospheric Imperialists believe that our biosphere will have only two choices when it encounters these other biospheres; possibly it will encircle and limit them, invading each in turn and overwriting them with its own species, leaving only fossil traces of them; alternatively, it could be encircled and invaded by one of them becoming a series of fossil layers itself.

The Biospheric Communionists have a grander vision. They see another trend in the evolution of the biosphere that the imperialists have missed; the influence of Michael Dowd is key here. His description of evolution as the progressive nesting of holons showed the communionists the error of their earlier beliefs as imperialists.

To understand this reformation of the imperialist vision into the communionist vision, one must first understand the story of the biosphere in terms of nested holons. The biosphere began as some sort of soup of sophisticated chemicals; these chemicals found it advantageous to form into complex groups of interlocking molecules; each molecule contributed to the self reproductive function of the complex and gained, from the complex, the advantage of being copied along with it through the effort of the complex as a whole. Each molecule that took part in the complex was a holon and the complex itself was another holon. The molecules were 'child' holons nested inside the complex which was the 'parent' holon. Nested is a word used to describe Russian dolls and other things that fit one inside the other. As Evolution proceeded, more and more and larger and larger holons were added to the outside. The complexes, like ribosomes (which are made out of two different proteins and associated RNA fragments) and chromosomes (which are made out of histone proteins bound to threads of DNA and associated enzymes and RNA strands) became bound together in cells: a third holon. Inside modern 'eukaryotic' cells are many structures that appear to be descended from smaller cells absorbed by the larger ones; cell nuclei, mitochondria, and chloroplasts. Each of these gains from the larger cell, in the form of protection and specialisation. And each contributes to the larger cell according to its specialisation. Eukaryotic cells are the fourth holon and they follow the pattern of all holons; the 'parent' holon protects its smaller child holons and the smaller child holons contribute to the parent holon.

Our world is made up of many layers of holon: molecules in complexes, in cells, in eukaryotic cells, in multicellular tissues, in organs, in somatic systems, in organisms (such as, for example, you and I), in communities, in societies, in federations of societies, in species, in forms of interspecific co-operation, in communities of species, in ecosystems and finally in the biosphere.

What the Biospheric Communionists see is that the next level of holon will involve multiple biospheres coming together to co-operate in ways that we can not yet imagine. The Biospheric Imperialists are blind to this idea and for that we can only thank them. For they remind us that the Biospheric Communionist way is not the final great vision but only another step along a longer path. There will be many more great insights to come and we must not be like the Biospheric Imperialists; we must be open to these new insights; we must evaluate them critically and change our vision to adapt to them.