Lynn Margulis (and perhaps a co-author) wrote somewhere (I will find the citation) something to the effect of “Life did not conquer the Earth by combat, but by networking”. Margulis contributed the endosymbiont theory of evolution and also is co-founder of Gaia theory. She is an advocate of respect for microbes. She also co-authored a coffee table book, “What is Life?” This is my favorite question. Dr. Margulis is one of my heroes.
Networking as a verb in Margulis’ comment is essentially cooperation. I see her work to support my view that cooperation is equally as important as competition in the original and fundamental nature of life. If cooperation is such a fundamental essence of life, then we will need to understand it, use it, model it to understand the origin of life, the evolution and development of life over past historical time, and the evolution and development of life going forward into the future.
I saw a mission statement once on a NASA Astrobiology (or related) website that said their group mission was “To understand life from origin to destiny”. Then later that mission statement disappeared from webspace. Well…it is back…because that is my mission.
Dan
October 10, 2009 at 9:37 am |
I am grateful for your post on cooperation and networking. I came here as I was looking for comments/reviews of Ulanowicz’s Book Third Window. Thanks!