Gaian Headquarters

[Maniac]

Wow! Must take a lot of work.

[Illuminatus]

Actual problem is when from twenty screen captures only one looks good. And the fact that screen grabbing makes my SMAX freeze .

[Illuminatus]

Look what you get if you type Gaians into Google. Occurs in almost all encyclopedias.

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A Gaian is a radical Green who views the ecology of the Earth's biosphere not only as the basis of human moral examples, but of all cognition and even sentience. Advocates of this view claim that since we live as part of one planet's photosynthesis chain and trapped within its gravity well, we are effectively components of one large body—that being the global ecology of Earth itself.

Another name for this value theory is "radical values environmentalism"—individuals and societies are ways to create such a thriving ecosystem, but cannot be considered as being ends in themselves.

An early advocate of this view was Buckminster Fuller who developed the Dymaxion Map of the world, the first world projection to show the continents on a flat surface without visible distortion—and the earth as being essentially one island in one ocean. In Critical Path, 1981, he claimed to prove that "gravity is love". Critics say this view makes humans "slaves of the Earth" and argue that human destiny is to spread out to find or form many living worlds. Gaians by contrast see such colonists as locusts or a disease, and may see all human beings as elements of a single Earth-wide ecology, if not organism. They are often hard to differentiate from members of the New Age movement, with which they share the goal of deep spiritual integration.

Political Gaians are a relatively recent offshoot of the ecology movement—and get their name from the Gaia hypothesis, a scientific theory first developed by James Lovelock.

This holds that the biosphere tends to homeorhetic balance or even homeostasis with the implication that human beings should be working toward such balances or states. Or, in more radical terms, as part of an Earth immune system—a view of humanity that any non-Gaian would be likely to see as quite limited.

Activist Gaians are sometimes described as terrists although this label is controversial—and designed to encourage and evoke such controversy. There is no obvious or certain connection between the Gaian philosophy and the action of terrists—or terrorists. New Age Gaians in particular seem to resent this label, as their goals are spiritual not material.

See also: Gaia theory (science)



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In the computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the Gaians are one of the seven factions the player can choose to control. Their philosophy in the game is similar to that described in this article.

This game is good, and faction is even better.

[GeoModder]

The bold text appears in Google? Wonderfull...

[Illuminatus]

You have completely missed the point here.

[GeneralTacticus]

So... IOW, Gaians believe that humans a "locust"-like "disease", which should never have left Earth, and instead should have died with everything else? Would certainly explain a few things.

[Illuminatus]

No. We our beliefs are different in some details from the result I got in encyclopedias, typing Gaian. We should never have left Earth because we should have preserved it (but Earth was utterly destroyed and left dead), but now, we must prove that we can live in symbiosis with Planet and never allow to destroy the ecosystem as well. Humans who can`t understand this principles should have died on Earth with the rest of life. We can eventually spread through the stars, but only if we are prepared to respect All of Nature`s creation.

Try typing Morgan Industries in Google. Result is quite funny .

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by obstructor
You have completely missed the point here.

Huh?!

You sure you simply don't try to get back at my air defense pun?

On the other faction: Molding machines err.

[Snowflake]

Originally posted by obstructor
BTW I am glad you like our pics HongHu.

Yes they are very much enjoyable. Though I would hope you don't take too many pictures of an agnized CEO Chaunk. It is too much for my eyes.

[Ouro_827]

What do you use for screen capturing, Obs? All my screen captures come out in 16 colors, even though I'm running true color...

[Hydro]

The Gaian Hypothesis

Extreme Gaians are those who engage in New Age-like inarticulate babbling about ‘oneness with Mother Earth’ and promote things like the use of psychotropic drugs and power crystals to forge links with the Universe and the World Mind. These muddle headed types will accept just about anything; their already limited capacity for critical thinking is, apparently, further muted by the same psychotropic drugs they such advocates of.

James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaian hypothesis, was more pragmatic and less fuzzy minded (he worked for NASA on the Viking Mars lander, for instance). He observed that the Earth, in many ways, behaves like a single organism, and he presented several powerful arguments that shows that the Earth’s organisms have adapted to keep the ecosphere stable even though there has been a 25% increase in heat from sun since life originated, the atmosphere is an unstable mix that somehow continues to be favorable to life, and that atmospheric gasses maintain a near steady greenhouse effect that has not run away (yet!) like our sister planet Venus. Note that this does not imply consciousness, or direction, only that life on Earth acts and responds to stimuli as a whole to maintain its environment.

There are detractors, of course, that point out that the whole-organism Gaian hypothesis is rubbish since it implies altruism, foresight and planning, and has no mechanism within the Darwanistic natural selection (Believers! Are you listening!!). Lovelock’s counter argument was simple and persuasive: he set up a very simple computer model called “Daisyworld” with light and dark daisies. Light daisies thrive when it is ‘hot’ and reflect light back into space, and dark daisies thrive when ‘cool’ and absorb light. When the light input to this model is changed the relative ratios of dark to cool daisies shifts, but “Daisyworld” remains stable. The point is that there is no need for altruism, foresight, planning, or a Higher Being – Earth’s dynamic ecosystem will respond to maintain its own environment.

Ultimately, Lovelock viewed humanity as peripheral to a Gaian Earth, but a distinct threat to it. Humanity can destroy the Earth or upset its balance. But, in the end, it is supreme hubris for humanity to think of themselves as ‘stewards’ (especially since we can have no meaningful influence on what drives much of the Earth’s ecology –microorganisms) of Gaia. The real question is how we wish to be part of the Gaian system of Earth. Do we want to drive countless species to extinction? Or force the global warming trend such that it degrades the carrying capacity of Earth for complex organisms and our ability to prosper? The Earth, undoubtedly, will survive; it just won’t be a very friendly place for humanity any more if we answer this question incorrectly.

So, muddle headed Gaians can put away their LSD and deep-six their power crystals. The Gaian hypothesis is about the interconnectedness of the Earth’s ecology (and not about ‘cosmic consciousness’), and how it works as a system to maintain its own complex environment. Rational Gaians understand this, and will work to define how and in what way humanity will relate to the system in which it lives.

Hydro

P.S. – I always like my ‘poop in the sandbox’ analogy. Earth a semi-closed system (we get sunlight and some particles from ‘outside’), thought of for this purpose as a sandbox. As humans, we move around the sand to suit our needs. We also poop in the sand (eg – generate waste and general destruction as we move the sand around). The sandbox can stand an almost infinite amount of poop, but at a certain point it won’t be very pleasant for humanity anymore in their poop-filled sandbox. Gaians define the acceptable level of poop as pretty low and will work hard to define what is ‘sustainable’. Morganites don’t worry about the poop and create ‘creative’ theories on market forces to justify their behavior; their ‘market forces’ really mean that they force the lower classes to live in ‘poopy’ areas. Problem solved!

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Ouro_827
What do you use for screen capturing, Obs? All my screen captures come out in 16 colors, even though I'm running true color...

HyperSnap

[Googlie]

Darsnan and Hydro et al (who've not already done so):

You might want to post your affiliation here so that Tass can update his Player list

G.

[Illuminatus]

BinTravkin, you too, as well as Cosmic. How come you forgotten Bin Travkin Googlie?

[Googlie]

Here's Dansz

Originally posted by Dansz
I may consider trying the Gaians. I had thought about Spartans but I'm getting less and less keen on that idea.

And I don't know how I missed BinTravkin. I scrolled through around 60 pages yesterday getting the names from the rollcall and individual faction sign-up sheets.

It bugs me that I missed one

G.