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A group of researchers have posed a fascinating —
and downright mind bending — thought experiment: If a planet like Earth can be
"alive," can it also have a mind of its own?
The team published a paper exploring this question
in the International Journal of Astrobiology. In it, they present the idea of
“planetary intelligence," which describes the collective knowledge and
cognition of an entire planet.
Though it seems like something ripped off the screen
of a Marvel movie, they believe that the concept might actually help us deal
with global issues such as climate change, or even help us discover
extraterrestrial life.
The researchers point to evidence that underground
networks of fungi can communicate to suggest that large-scale networks of life
could form a vast invisible intelligence that profoundly alters the condition
of the entire planet.
One of the primary species driving that change at
the moment, they point out, are humans — and currently, from the climate to the
plastic crisis, we may well be irrevocably changing the environmental balance.
"We don’t yet have the ability to communally
respond in the best interests of the planet," Adam Frank, professor of
physics at the University of Rochester and coauthor of the paper, said in a
press release about the paper.
The researchers believe that such thought
experiments can help humans to understand their impact on the Earth and serve
as a guide on how to better it. Interestingly, they also believe that it could
aid in the search for aliens too.
"We're saying the only technological
civilizations we may ever see — the ones we should expect to see — are the ones
that didn't kill themselves, meaning they must have reached the stage of a true
planetary intelligence," Frank said.
"That's the power of this line of
inquiry," he added. "It unites what we need to know to survive the
climate crisis with what might happen on any planet where life and intelligence
evolve."