Humans Have to Keep the World Going

Pelorat said, "You know what that reminds me of? -Pardon me, Bliss, for interrupting, but it so fits that I can't resist telling you right now before I forget. There's an old creation myth I once came across; a myth in which life was formed on a planet and consisted of only a limited assortment of species, just those useful to or pleasant for humanity. The first human beings then did something silly-never mind what, old fellow, because those old myths are usually symbolic and only confusing if they are taken literally-and the planet's soil was cursed. `Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,' is the way the curse was quoted though the passage sounds much better in the archaic Galactic in which it was written. The point is, though, was it really a curse? Things human beings don't like and don't want, such as thorns and thistles, may be needed to balance the ecology."

Bliss smiled. "It's really amazing, Pel, how everything reminds you of a legend, and how illuminating they are sometimes. Human beings, in terraforming a world, leave out the thorns and thistles, whatever they may be, and human beings then have to labor to keep the world going. It isn't a self-supporting organism as Gaia is. It is rather a miscellaneous collection of Isolates and the collection isn't miscellaneous enough to allow the ecological balance to persist indefinitely. If humanity disappears, and if its guiding hands are removed, the world's pattern of life inevitably begins to fall apart. The planet unterraforms itself."

Notes:

After they remove the natural components they dislike but that also kept the natural system in balance.

Folksonomies: gaia gaia hypothesis environmental

Taxonomies:
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/art and entertainment/movies and tv/movies (0.576987)
/society (0.399551)

Keywords:
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Entities:
Pelorat:Person (0.771880 (positive:0.332345)), Bliss:Person (0.756560 (positive:0.581746))

Concepts:
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Human evolution (0.908821): dbpedia | freebase
Human (0.784473): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Ecology (0.757986): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Earth (0.754630): dbpedia | freebase
English-language films (0.695133): dbpedia
Universe (0.680040): dbpedia | freebase
Humans (0.679519): dbpedia

 Foundation and Earth
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Asimov, Isaac (2004-08-31), Foundation and Earth, Spectra, Retrieved on 2011-05-28
Folksonomies: science fiction gaia