What doyouthink?
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176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
"postulates that the physical and chemical condition of surface of the Earth, of the atmosphere, and of the oceans has been and is actively made fit and comfortable by the presence of life itself. This is in contrast to the conventional wisdom which held that life adapted to the planetary conditions as it and they evolved their separate ways."This last distinction is useful to keep in mind when reading the other chapters, which at first glance seem needlessly wonky. I also found the chapter on cybernetics a useful foundation for understanding Gaia. Lovelock defines cybernetics as "self-regulating systems of communication and control in living organisms and machines." Put this way, it does seem obvious that the planet should be understood as one massive web of interconnected systems.
René Dubos has powerfully expressed the concept of man as the steward to life on Earth, in symbiosis with it like some grand gardener for all the world. It is a hopeful, optimistic view and a liberal one. In contrast to Dubos, Garrett Hardin apparently sees man as acting out a great tragedy which may lead not only to his own destruction but to the that of the whole world. He suggests that our only means of escape is to renounce most of our technology, especially nuclear energy, but he seems to doubt whether we have free choice. "Lovelock, however, is more inclined in this work to decrease human exceptionalism, which would counter the grandeur of Dubos' view. People are just(?) another planetary entity. He is also more optimistic about technology than Hardin and would go on to defend nuclear energy in his later life (which has extended to 100 years as I write this review).