planets, as living beings
The extraordinary notion that an entire planet might be alive or even conscious
has been explored in fiction, philosophy and science. One of the first stories
based on this theme was Conan Doyle's "When
the Earth Screamed" (1929) in which a deep shaft is drilled through the
crust to expose the planet's supposed living flesh. According to the controversial
Gaia hypothesis, the biosphere of the
Earth can be considered to act as a single integrated life-form. Among those
to develop fictionally the idea of intelligent and conscious worlds are
Olaf Stapledon in Star
Maker, Stanislaw Lem in Solaris,
and David Brin in Earth (1990). In Piers Anthony's novel Chthon
(1967), a geologically complex prison planet is described as a "mineral
intellect;" it communicates with other planets across the galaxy, hates
humans, and plays a central role in the plot.
[Thanks
to Kevin Ryan for additional information]
Related
categories
• ALTERNATIVE
FORMS OF LIFE
• ASTROBIOLOGY
• SYSTEMS
THEORY
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of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
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