Humanity = parasitism: Philosophy Forums

Calendar

Quick Links open

New Posts Member List

Help

Philosophy Forums » General Philosophy » Humanity = parasitism » Humanity = parasitism

Humanity = parasitism
are we really nothing but parasites?

Page: 1 2

Humanity = parasitism

Cjwalker
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 28, 2008
Location: New Hampshire
Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 14

Posted 04/29/08 - 06:52 AM: Subject: Humanity = parasitism	#1
Parasitism: A symbiotic relationship in which one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. A symbiotic relationship in which humans, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the earth. We are all born idealistically into a form of commensal relations with our environment. Which means we benefit from the earth and the earth doesn't benefit or get harmed. However through the evolution of our technology and our greed, we have resorted to a parasitic form of relations with our environment instead. If you look at the big picture, humans have never benefited the earth in a way even close to how much we have harmed it. We benefit at the earths expense with our covenant transportation methods and our unnecessary waste products that we don't care to recycle. We put ourselves before anything else and don't care to change our ways if it means inconvenience. Thus Humanity has become nothing more to earth, then a leeching parasite? Will we lead to self-destruction?
_____________________ “I have reached inner tranquility now that I have developed introversion within myself. No matter were I end up in life, and no matter what the circumstance of my confine, I will always have an infinite mind to look upon for my own amusement”. --Me

keda
dumbo

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 25, 2005
Location: Finland
Total Topics: 21
Total Posts: 2259

Posted 04/29/08 - 07:25 AM:	#2
The earth is not a living creature, it is a rock, mostly molten. It is not harmed by the poisons we put out - we are. The poisons are killing living organisms, not the earth. That is some BS propaganda spewed out by politicians like Al Gore who care naught about the environment and just need an excuse to extract more money from the naive part of the population.
_____________________ Free Europe Now The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. -Benjamin Franklin If my sons did not want wars, there would be none - Gutle Rothschild It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes - Josef Stalin Sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace - Bob Dylan A prolonged peace favours the predominance of a mere commercial spirit, and with it a debasing self-interest, cowardice, and effeminacy, and tends to degrade the character of the nation. - Immanuel Kant

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 04/29/08 - 02:09 PM:	#3
On the contrary, I think this question of being a parasite is quite valid. Let's not split hairs and take the earth to mean this eco-sytem of a world we inhabit. As it is, we are indeed living like parasites with no care for the host. There is no reason why that symbioism cannot be a healthy one, both for the human bug and the host. Why not think about this alternative lifestyle?

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

Posted 04/29/08 - 02:36 PM:	#4
The concept of parasitism is not useful in talking about humans in general, it is only applicable to lower animals. There are aspects of our behaviour that look like parasitism, but we also at least try to adjust our behaviour when we see that we are going wrong. We are uniquely equipped to exploit other life forms, but we are also uniquely able to try to be as fair as possible about it. This is infinitely more complicated than the amoral, stereotypical relationship between an animal parasite and its host. Yiming, you are being far too sweeping when you say we have no care for the world. Things would be a lot worse if we had no care at all.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

keda
dumbo

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 25, 2005
Location: Finland
Total Topics: 21
Total Posts: 2259

Posted 04/29/08 - 03:49 PM:	#5
Well Monsanto is playing russian roulette with the ecosystem while power plants burning clean coal are banned for putting out CO2 while mercury and lead filled coal burning powerplants are not because mercury is good for your health Its all selective enforcement and monopoly game.
_____________________ Free Europe Now The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. -Benjamin Franklin If my sons did not want wars, there would be none - Gutle Rothschild It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes - Josef Stalin Sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace - Bob Dylan A prolonged peace favours the predominance of a mere commercial spirit, and with it a debasing self-interest, cowardice, and effeminacy, and tends to degrade the character of the nation. - Immanuel Kant

Cjwalker
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 28, 2008
Location: New Hampshire
Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 14

Posted 04/29/08 - 03:58 PM:	#6
I agree that as earth is not an organism, thus we cannot have a parasitic relationship with it. I do not think we as humans are parasites. But I do think we have chosen to live similar to the parasite way over the years. Some people care about the earth, some don't. Some want to care, unless it means that it will interfere with there conveniences. I think we are too evolved to be known as parasites, but we as humanity have to “adjust our behavior” and remember that we are not the most important thing on this earth. We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and conditions, it uses the same old basic principles over and over again. There is no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it. ~Albert Szent-Györgyi
_____________________ “I have reached inner tranquility now that I have developed introversion within myself. No matter were I end up in life, and no matter what the circumstance of my confine, I will always have an infinite mind to look upon for my own amusement”. --Me

LetoAtredies
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 29, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 1

Posted 04/29/08 - 07:50 PM:	#7
We are not necessarily parasitic, but may be in fact have a viral nature toward the planet. What other type of life form adapts its environment to suit itself instead of the reverse in order to insure its own survival? If its cold, we build shelter, if the nucleotide sequence is a bit off, it gets modified.

Louis
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jan 17, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 7

Posted 04/30/08 - 10:14 AM:	#8
If there is a supreme being, I suspect we appear as parasites, and/or microorganisms. but isn't the truth relative in the end?

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 04/30/08 - 01:01 PM:	#9
Louis wrote: If there is a supreme being, I suspect we appear as parasites, and/or microorganisms. but isn't the truth relative in the end? Typically arrogant, blinkered, anthropocentric concept of what a supreme being would be like. "Like us, but bigger". The truth is relative for you because you don't understand everything, you can't. But as a Supreme Being I understand everything, so for me the truth is absolute. Anyway, stop worrying, you don't look like parasites, you look ok. Although if I'm honest a lot of you don't look so good naked.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

Louis
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jan 17, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 7

Posted 04/30/08 - 01:48 PM:	#10
The Escapist wrote: Typically arrogant, blinkered, anthropocentric concept of what a supreme being would be like. "Like us, but bigger". The truth is relative for you because you don't understand everything, you can't. But as a Supreme Being I understand everything, so for me the truth is absolute. Anyway, stop worrying, you don't look like parasites, you look ok. Although if I'm honest a lot of you don't look so good naked. Supposing and pretending can be a great tool in discovery, but also in futility. I pretend that the truth is only valid in it's own relative window of time. Beauty is everything, including parasites, and yes, even you naked.

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

Posted 04/30/08 - 04:26 PM:	#11
Louis wrote: Beauty is everything, including parasites, and yes, even you naked. Don't be silly! Humans have got rid of some human parasites using modern medicine, are you going to tell me you want them back cos they were beautiful, man? As a Supreme Being I have no need for your kindly-intended reassurances about my appearance.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 04/30/08 - 05:28 PM:	#12
Escapist: Yiming, you are being far too sweeping when you say we have no care for the world. Things would be a lot worse if we had no care at all. Yiming: Who among us care? Greenpeace and tree huggers? Come to think of it, we are worse than parasites, we are like trash. We poison the earth. Why won't we live as part of nature, like monkeys and apes, like birds and bees? Animals have a true symbiosis with the earth. Man is also an animal but I wonder why we have to cause such a horrid imbalance in an otherwise wonderful scheme of things.

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

Posted 05/01/08 - 03:56 AM:	#13
yiming wrote: Yiming: Who among us care? I live in a really ordinary street, in England. In the last couple of years the council have provided us with first one then two new kinds of bin to be used to recycle waste. Newspapers, cans, plastic bottles in one bin, garden waste in another bin for recycling. There is no pressure on us to use the new bins, we could all just dump everything in one bin and save ourselves the trouble of separating the waste and putting the different bins out on different days. But when I look up and down my street on bin collection days, I see a full bin outside every house. Everybody in my street cares.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

Cjwalker
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 28, 2008
Location: New Hampshire
Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 14

Posted 05/01/08 - 10:35 AM:	#14
See recycling, really isn't the problem. My greatest concern is how fast our atmosphere is is heating up. We all see the warnings. Global climate changes, Ice caps melting, heat stoke becoming more common. And we have the technology to fix these things, i.e. hybrid cars, solar energy, hydrogen and water powered machines. But because of the initial cost for these advanced cleaner energy providers, we neglect them, and not nearly as much founding is going towards further research of these energy uses, because everyday consumers don't care to demand it. We can see summers getting unbearably hot, and animals dieing from this, i.e. polar bears. And there are a lot of people who do care concerning that matter. The awareness is there now, but I still do not see nearly as much change as there could be.
_____________________ “I have reached inner tranquility now that I have developed introversion within myself. No matter were I end up in life, and no matter what the circumstance of my confine, I will always have an infinite mind to look upon for my own amusement”. --Me

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 05/01/08 - 02:41 PM:	#15
Cjwalker uses technology to clean up the mess we create and Escapist collect our trash for recyling. The other apes in the jungle does neither and leave neither mess nor trash. Whose way of life is intelligent?

Cjwalker
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 28, 2008
Location: New Hampshire
Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 14

Posted 05/01/08 - 04:18 PM:	#16
That is a very good point. An apes way of living is much more simplistic then ours. Our way of living is much different, in that, humans do not adapt to there environment. We adapt our environment to certain livable standards. These adaptations we put forth, are necessary to our survival as an ever growing species. The main difference between these two ways of living is that apes do not adapt there environment to sustain there population, because they are not as evolved, and much less intelligent then humans. There population is kept in check from there environment. We as humans however have the same means to survive. But we also have the intelligence to see that living off a particular sustainable environment can't last with an on growing population. So because of our populations growth, we as humans have to move to new areas that wouldn't normally consist of livable conditions. And we have to “adapt” or change the new environment, to suit our needs for survival. These needs require a certain amount of energy that our current technology provides us with. This technology however just happens not to be exactly “earth friendly”. Thus our way of living, as humans, whether environmentally friendly or not, is a more intelligent means of survival, then that of apes. What we need to do, is research deeper into new “environmentally friendly ways” of producing and sustaining our energy.
_____________________ “I have reached inner tranquility now that I have developed introversion within myself. No matter were I end up in life, and no matter what the circumstance of my confine, I will always have an infinite mind to look upon for my own amusement”. --Me

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 05/01/08 - 08:22 PM:	#17
I think it has got to do with living pace. Each human ape is given a pair of legs for locomotion. But the human ape wants to move faster and hops on a horse. Even that is not fast enough and he makes a car; and even that is not fast enough. Now, we fly. This faster pace of living creates trash and pollution. So, the answer - if we really care - is not recycling or invent clean technology but to live naturally in the way humans are supposed to live. That is the only way to fit in the scheme of things and stop being a parasitic pollutant.

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

Posted 05/02/08 - 03:34 AM:	#18
yiming wrote: Cjwalker uses technology to clean up the mess we create and Escapist collect our trash for recyling. The other apes in the jungle does neither and leave neither mess nor trash. Whose way of life is intelligent? OK Yiming, off you go and live like an ape in the jungle. Send us a postcard. Oh, you won't be able to. Well, bye then.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

The Escapist
Supreme Being (retired)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 92

Posted 05/02/08 - 03:43 AM:	#19
Cjwalker wrote: See recycling, really isn't the problem. My greatest concern is how fast our atmosphere is is heating up. SNIP i.e. polar bears. I wasn't saying recycling is the solution to all the world's ills CJ, I was using the example of my own street to show that people care about this sort of thing. Personally I think global warming is not man-made, I think it's a normal fluctuation. This sort of thing is seized on with a quasi-religious fervour, which is not far below the surface in several posts in this thread. Guilt and redemption. And I never liked polar bears anyway.
_____________________ Putting someone else's smart arsed quote into your signature does not make you any smarter. - D.K

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 05/02/08 - 08:36 PM:	#20
Hey Escapist, don't give up on me. I won't be able to send post-card. But I want you to live like me. Think about it. Do you wan to live like me? It is not that bad. I just had a bottle of Bordeau, 2005, in New York City.

swstephe
Tenured Poster

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 20, 2006
Location: borneo island
Total Topics: 22
Total Posts: 1380

Posted 05/02/08 - 11:20 PM:	#21
I think the term "parasite" applies an unnecessary value judgment to valid biological system equilibrium. There is no parasite that is 100% destructive to its host, otherwise the parasite would lose its host and would destroy itself or need to quickly adapt to a new host. A parasite is always limited by the health and availability of hosts. Viruses and bacteria, for example, provide an ecological pressure to increase the health of the organisms it targets, (not consciously of course). The virus or bacteria is under evolutionary pressure to become less effective when it is killing off its hosts too rapidly. I remember some "joke" in evolutionary biology -- talking about how a group of deer evolve to run faster, (the slower ones get eaten and the faster ones live to reproduce), and the wolves that feed off those deer evolve to be faster to catch them until the deer and wolves are able to run at near light speeds. Of course, its a joke -- the wolves and deer have energy requirements that limit them much more, (which is why predators tend to sleep and eat more than herbivores). In a way, the wolves keep the deer healthy, but the wolves can't be too successful or they run out of deer. Humanity can't escape the evolutionary treadmill. Our brains just become an "artificial", temporary, advantage. We are just about at the end of a sudden growth phase, but we are limited by how much food and energy we can produce to survive. The organisms we displace during this phase aren't really gone -- they are just converted into our own biomass, temporarily. If we are parasites on "nature", (but what you really mean is "nature that is beneficial/attractive to humanity"), then we are under evolutionary pressure not to destroy our host. Once we destroy the host to the point where it can't support us, then we start dying off until the host recovers and equilibrium is restored. In a way, we are manipulated by being a part of the evolutionary process to benefit our "hosts" and our own "parasites". Imagine that mankind finally gets to the point of colonizing a planet like Mars. At that point, whatever we raise for food on Mars, plus all the bacteria and viruses we bring with us and our food, will have achieved planet colonization as hitchhikers -- and achieved an evolutionary goal of propagating to new locations. In nanotechnology, there is sometimes the talk about "grey goo" -- that is when a nanotech organism gets out of control and starts doing its thing in the environment, converting everything to more nanobots until everything is just one big grey goo. Of course, the fear is not realistic -- it is unrealistic for humans to create nanobots which replicate themselves from raw resources, (you can have multiple nanobots to take care of each phase). Biology does mix up the replication and resource management functions, so biology is already the potential for creating a "goo". As a joke, humanity is sometimes called the "pink goo", (in nanotech circles), because humanity seems intent on converting all biological matter into humans. Don't worry about a "solution". There is no solution, just a preferred level of balance. You can choose how much "good" you want, but understand that the "better" life is, (for humans), the more pressure there will be to become "worse". For example, it might be "good" to eliminate all disease, but then you will eventually grow to the point where there is not enough food to feed all the new people. If you stopped fighting all disease, and maybe introduce a few new ones, the survivors inherit a much more bountiful future -- until it swings back again.
_____________________ A software developer is someone who, when you tell them to "go to hell", they are more worried about the "goto".

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 05/04/08 - 09:26 PM:	#22
Right now, it looks like the human parasite is gobbling up the world.

WW_III_ANGRY
All knowing prick

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 06, 2008
Total Topics: 1
Total Posts: 68

Posted 05/06/08 - 07:55 PM:	#23
The earth isn't a species, nor are we harming it. Humans are not parasites nor do we partake in parasitism. Fetus' are not parasites either, for that matter.

yiming
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 25, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 61

Posted 05/06/08 - 09:30 PM:	#24
The fetus doesn't build atomic bombs in the womb in which it lives. Now, you are making me angrier than you. But we must talk things through like philosophers. Please state your case.

WW_III_ANGRY
All knowing prick

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 06, 2008
Total Topics: 1
Total Posts: 68

Posted 05/07/08 - 05:41 AM:	#25
yiming wrote: The fetus doesn't build atomic bombs in the womb in which it lives. Now, you are making me angrier than you. But we must talk things through like philosophers. Please state your case. Change the defintion of parasite and parasitism and maybe you'll have a case. Until then, the word means what was posted in the original post, which obviously wouldn't apply to earth. Its not a species, its not an organism, its not alive, its a planet, we aren't harming it we're only harming ourselves and other life by polluting. If we turned the earth into the atmosphere of Mars, we wouldn't have harmed it one bit, its a planet.

Page: 1 2

You don't have permission to post.

Please login or register.