James Lovelock is a very interesting man who views the world in an entirely different way from anyone else that I know. His view (the GAIA hypothesis) that the earth is a self regulating superorganism is very interesting to think to about. The hypothesis says that the earth is adjusting itself and that humans are helping to prepare the earth for a new dominant species that is not us.
I found that last point to be very interesting; espiecally when in class the idea was brought out that ants would be the next dominate species. It also struck me that according to Lovelock, if humans were so threating to the earth, then the earth could get rid of us ( like how a body gets rid of the viral infection). After all, it is not in the power of humans to determine the evolution of Gaia. Overall Lovelocks theory reminded me of a syfy idea that has been done in many stories or movies. The earth is not happy how the people have treated her and she rebels by wiping out humanity. For example, take a look at the story of Noah. God (who is also perhaps Gaia?) was displeased by humanity and wiped out everything except for those he felt lived morally right. In the movie 2012 earth goes crazy for no reason other than the fact that it was predicted by the Mayan civalization as the "end of times". Personally I wasn't very impressed with Lovelock's idea because at times I found it confusing and hard to follow. I much prefer Aldo Leopolds "think like a mountain".
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