I found this statement by Joseph Jenkins fascinating:
"There is a disturbing theory about the human species that has begun to take on an alarming level of reality. It seems that the behaviour of the human race is displaying uncanny parallels to the behaviour of pathogenic, or disease-causing,organisms.
When viewed at the next quantum level of perspective, from which the Earth is seen as an organism and humans are seen as micro-organisms, the human species looks like a menace to the planet. In fact, the human race is looking a lot like a disease — comprised of organisms excessively multiplying, mindlessly consuming, and generating waste with little regard for the health and well-being of its host — planet Earth."
When viewed at the next quantum level of perspective, from which the Earth is seen as an organism and humans are seen as micro-organisms, the human species looks like a menace to the planet. In fact, the human race is looking a lot like a disease — comprised of organisms excessively multiplying, mindlessly consuming, and generating waste with little regard for the health and well-being of its host — planet Earth.
Pathogenic organisms are a nasty quirk of nature, although they do have their constructive purposes, namely killing off the weak and infirm and ensuring the survival only of the fittest. They do this by overwhelming their host, by sucking the vitality out of it and leaving poison in their wake. Pathogens don’t give a damn about their own source of life — their host — and they often kill it outright. This may seem like a silly way for a species to maintain its
own existence; afterall, if you kill the host upon which your life depends, then you must also die. But pathogens have developed a special survival tactic that allows them to carry on their existence even after their host has died. They simply travel to a new host, sending out envoys to seek out and infect another organism even as their own population dies en mass e along with the original host.A man dying of tuberculosis coughs on his deathbed, an act
instigated by the infecting pathogen, ensuring that the disease has a chance to spread to others. A child defecates on the dirt outside her home, unwittingly satisfying the needs of the parasites inhabiting her intestines, which require time in the soil as part of their life cycle. A person stricken with cholera defecates in an outhouse which leaches tainted water into the ground, contaminating the village well-water and allowing the disease to spread to other unsuspecting villagers.
In the case of pathogenic organisms that kill their host, the behaviour is predictable: multiply without regard for any limits to growth, consume senselessly and excrete levels of waste that grievously harm the host. When this is translated into human terms, it rings with a disquieting familiarity, especially when we equate human success with growth, consumption and material wealth.
Suppose we humans are, as a species, exhibiting disease behaviour: we’re multiplying with no regard for limits, consuming natural resources as if there will be no future generations, and producing waste products that are distressing the planet upon which our very survival depends. There are two factors which we, as a species, are not taking into consideration. First is the survival tactic of pathogens, which requires additional hosts to infect. We do not have the luxury of that option, at least not yet. If we are successful at continuing our dangerous behaviour, then we will also succeed in marching
straight toward our own demise. In the process, we can also drag many other species down with us, a dreadful syndrome that is already under way. This is evident by the threat of extinction that hangs, like the sword of Damocles, over an alarming number of the Earth’s species.
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