Yes, everything is going high tech now, it seems. Intro of topic
For around half a century, the ‘Gaia’ hypothesis has provided a unique way of understanding how life has persisted on Earth.
It champions the idea that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings evolved together as a single, self-regulating system that has kept the planet habitable for life – despite threats such as a brightening Sun, volcanoes and meteorite strikes.
However, Professor Tim Lenton from the University of Exeter and famed French sociologist of science Professor Bruno Latour are now arguing that humans have the potential to ‘upgrade’ this planetary operating system to create “Gaia 2.0”.
They believe that the evolution of both humans and their technology could add a new level of “self-awareness” to Earth’s self-regulation, which is at the heart of the original Gaia theory.
As humans become more aware of the global consequences of their actions, including climate change, a new kind of deliberate self-regulation becomes possible where we limit our impacts on the planet.
Professors Lenton and Latour suggest that this “conscience choice” to self-regulate introduces a “fundamental new state of Gaia” – which could help us achieve greater global sustainability in the future.“Famous theory of the living Earth upgraded to ‘Gaia 2.0’” at University of Exeter
Of course, we could just clean up the mess and leave Gaia out of it but maybe that wouldn’t seem like as much fun.
See also: Gaia is back, and she has discovered Darwinism
and
Taking the Gaia hypothesis seriously at Nautilus