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Biosphere Quotes

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Biosphere Quotes

“It necessarily follows that chance alone is at the source of every innovation, and of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution: this central concept of modern biology is no longer one among many other possible or even conceivable hypotheses. It is today the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one that squares with observed and tested fact. And nothing warrants the supposition - or the hope - that on this score our position is ever likely to be revised. There is no scientific concept, in any of the sciences, more destructive of anthropocentrism than this one.”

FactsScienceHopeChanceEvidenceTestsInnovationObservationBiologyHypothesisFactBiosphereAnthropocentrismCentral Concept
Book:Chance and necessity: an essay on the natural philosophy of modern biology
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“NASA astronauts have only managed to live continuously on the International Space Station (ISS) for a year and Biosphere 2 on Earth failed at two years of uninterrupted human habitation. Both cases required extracting the sickened people from the toxic environments. At this point it is ludicrous to talk about a permanent manned base on Mars.”

PeopleEarthSpaceCasesHumanInternationalPermanentLiveToxicMarsTalkNasaYearBiosphereFailedPointStationAstronautsSickenedInternational Space StationBothEnvironmentsRequiredBaseIssLudicrousMannedManagedContinuouslyHabitationExtractingUninterrupted
Author:Steven Magee
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“We were mothered out of the substance of this planet. Her elements, her periodicities, her gravitational embrace, her subtle vibrations still mingle in our nature, worked a billion years down into the textures of life and mind. Logically, the individual human being is a living organic system that exists as part of the larger living organic system that we call the biosphere, or Earth.”

PhilosophyWisdomEarthSpiritualityNatureConsciousnessUnityEcologyInterconnectednessBiosphere
Book:Green Psychology: Transforming our Relationship to the Earth
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“[Religious belief is] outmoded and ridiculous. [Belief in gods was a] worn out but once useful crutch in mankind's journey towards truth. We consider the time has come for that crutch to be abandoned. It is a vacuous answer... To say that 'God made the world' is simply a more or less sophisticated way of saying that we don't understand how the universe originated. A god, in so far as it is anything, is an admission of ignorance. Religion utterly failed to provide an explanation of the biosphere other than that 'God made it all'. Then Darwin thundered over the horizon and in a few decades of observation and thought . . . arrived at an answer. I regard teaching religion as purveying lies. I came here today to de-corrupt you all.”

ScienceAnswersPowerAtheismLiesAtheistComprehensionDarwinBiosphereCharles DarwinVacuous
Author:P.W. Atkins
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“The beauty in the genome is of course that it's so small. The human genome is only on the order of a gigabyte of data...which is a tiny little database. If you take the entire living biosphere, that's the assemblage of 20 million species or so that constitute all the living creatures on the planet, and you have a genome for every species the total is still about one petabyte, that's a million gigabytes - that's still very small compared with Google or the Wikipedia and it's a database that you can easily put in a small room, easily transmit from one place to another. And somehow mother nature manages to create this incredible biosphere, to create this incredibly rich environment of animals and plants with this amazingly small amount of data.”

NatureWonderInformationDataBiologyAnimalsDnaPlantsBiodiversityGenomeBiosphereSequencingDna Sequencing
Author:Freeman Dyson
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“My simple explanation of why we human beings, the most advanced species on earth, cannot find happiness, is this: as we evolve up the ladder of being, we find three things: the first, that the tension between the range of opposites in our lives and society widens dramatically and often painfully as we evolve; the second, that the better informed and more intelligent we are, the more humble we have to become about our ability to live meaningful lives and to change anything, even ourselves; and consequently, thirdly, that the cost of gaining the simplicity the other side of complexity can rise very steeply if we do not align ourselves and our lives well.”

InspirationalHumanityHeavenDifficultHellSelf HelpEvolutionSpeciesWell BeingParadiseUnhappinessGood LifeWomen EmpowermentHuman ConditionSelf KnowledgeEconomistAdaptationFinding HappinessHomo SapiensHuman DevelopmentOpposites AttractComplexBiosphereThrivingSelf CreationGood Life ExamplesKen WilberAnthropacyAutognosisAutonomiesAutopolesisBritish AuthorEarths FutureFinding Well BeingFuture HumanityHolarchyImperfect AdaptationIntegral PhilosopherMen EmpowermentPost Modern Philosopher
Author:Dr Robin Lincoln Wood
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“Cancer is not something confined to human beings. It's found in all multi cellular organisms where the adult cells proliferate, so it's widespread in the biosphere. It's a phenomenon that is deeply related to the history of life itself, so by studying cancer I think we can illuminate the history of life itself and vice versa.”

ThinkingHumansFoundHuman BeingsStudyAdultsCancerVicesCellsRelatedPhenomenonOrganismsConfinedVice VersaBiosphereCellularHistory Of Life
Author:Paul Davies
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“The ability of human beings to be creative depends fundamentally on the health and well-being of our biosphere, the few kilometres of air, water, and soil that surround our planet like the skin of an apple. Quite simply, they are the physical and spiritual bases of our lives, and the only source of materials and tools.”

HumansWellsEarthSpiritualWaterHuman BeingsAbilityCreativeOur LivesAirPlanetsMaterialsSourceDependsToolsSkinsBasesWell BeingApplesSoilSurroundBe CreativeOur PlanetBiosphere
Author:Freeman Patterson
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“The underlying reason for convergence seems to be that all organisms are under constant scrutiny of natural selection and are also subject to the constraints of the physical and chemical factors that severely limit the action of all inhabitants of the biosphere. Put simply, convergence shows that in a real world not all things are possible.”

WorldRealReasonShowsSeemsActionNaturalSubjectsLimitsAll ThingsConstantFactorsChemicalsReal WorldOrganismsSelectionConstraintsNatural SelectionScrutinyConvergenceBiosphere
Author:Simon Conway Morris
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“Yet what is more awesome: to believe that God created everything in six days, or to believe that the biosphere came into being on its own, with no creator, and partially lawlessly? I find the latter proposition so stunning, so worthy of awe and respect, that I am happy to accept this natural creativity in the universe as a reinvention of 'God.'”

BelieveUniverseNaturalAcceptingCreativitySixCreatorWorthyAweLatterPropositionsStunningReinventionBiosphere
Author:Stuart Kauffman
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“There are some things in the world we can't change- gravity, entropy, the speed of light, and our biological nature that requires clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy and biodiversity for our health and well-being. Protecting the biosphere should be our highest priority or else we sicken and die. Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable and we can change them. It makes no sense to elevate economics above the biosphere.”

WorldShouldWellsLightDiesEnergyForceWaterEconomyAirHighestCapitalismEconomicsCleanSpeedPrioritiesWell BeingSoilEnterpriseGravityCurrencyCan't ChangeEnvironmentalistFree EnterpriseBiodiversityEntropyForces Of NatureClean EnergyClean WaterSpeed Of LightBiosphereClean Air
Author:David Suzuki
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“Well, years and years ago, I started to ask myself three very simple questions, which dominated my life for many years. One of them was, "Why are organizations everywhere, whether commercial, social, or religious, increasingly unable to manage their affairs?" The second question was, "Why are individuals throughout the world increasingly in conflict with and alienated from the organizations of which they're a part?" And the third was, "Why are society and the biosphere increasingly in disarray?"”

WorldYearsWellsThreeAsksIndividualSocialReligiousSimpleBusinessConflictYears AgoOrganizationThirdsAffairManageBiosphereYear OneDisarray
Author:Dee Hock
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“Above all, we should question the consumer ethic, which uses up non-renewable resources, creates inequality and injustice, generates pollution, destroys other species and upsets the balance of nature. The consumer ethic not only defiles the environment by creating undesirable change in the biosphere but also corrupts the mind and body by defining pleasure in terms of ownership and absorption. Waste itself is a human concept; everything in nature is eventually used. If human beings carry on in their present ways, they will one day be recycled along with the dinosaurs.”

IfsWayShouldMindHumansUseBodyUsedTermHuman BeingsPleasureInspiringEnvironmentBalanceOne DayWasteCreatingEthicsConceptsResourcesSpeciesInjusticeInequalityConsumersUpsetPollutionOwnershipDefiningMind And BodyDinosaursAbsorptionUndesirableRecycledBiosphereRenewable Resources
Author:Peter Marshall
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“Like most problems with technology, pollution is a problem of scale. The biosphere might have been able to tolerate our dirty old friends coal and oil if we burned them gradually, but how long can it withstand a blaze of consumption so frenzied that the dark size of this planet glows like a fanned ember in the night of space.”

IfsLongHas BeensProblemMightAbleNightDarkSpaceTechnologyPlanetsEnvironmentalSizeOilScalesDirtyPollutionTolerateBurnedConsumptionCoalMight Have BeenOld FriendsEmbersBiosphere
Book:A Short History Of Progress
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“The theory that the biosphere was created without evolution, a few thousand years ago, is ruled out by overwhelming scientific evidence. To claim that there are 'alternative (always better) Biblical explanations of the same data', which make creationism a reasonable alternative to our best theories of biology and physics, is appalling intellectual dishonesty.”

YearsTheoryEvolutionThousandIntellectualEvidenceYears AgoClaimsPhysicsDataAlternativesExplanationReasonableBiologyOverwhelmingBiblicalThousand YearsDishonestyCreationismBiosphereScientific EvidenceIntellectual Dishonesty
Author:David Deutsch
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“I firmly believe that contemporary spiritual use of entheogenic drugs is one of humankind's brightest hopes for overcoming the ecological crisis from which we threaten the biosphere and jeopardize our own survival, for Homo sapiens is close to the head of the list of endangered species.”

BelieveUseSpiritualDrugSurvivalOvercomingCrisisSpeciesListsContemporaryHumankindHomo SapiensEcologicalBiosphereEndangered SpeciesJeopardizeEcological Crisis
Author:Jonathan Ott
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“These proven positive consequences of elevated CO2 are infinitely more important than the unsubstantiated predictions of apocalypse that are hypothesized to result from global warming, which itself, may not be occurring from rising atmospheric CO2 levels. The aerial fertilization effect of atmospheric CO2 enrichment is the only aspect of global environmental change about which we can be certain; and to restrict CO2 emissions is to assuredly deny the biosphere the many benefits that accrue from this phenomenon.”

MayImportantCertainLevelsResultsEffectsBenefitsConsequenceAspectEnvironmentalDenyRisingGlobal WarmingPhenomenonProvenPredictionsApocalypseEmissionsCo2EnrichmentBiosphereEnvironmental ChangeFertilizationCo2 Emissions
Author:Keith E. Idso
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“Biology is a science of three dimensions. The first is the study of each species across all levels of biological organization, molecule to cell to organism to population to ecosystem. The second dimension is the diversity of all species in the biosphere. The third dimension is the history of each species in turn, comprising both its genetic evolution and the environmental change that drove the evolution. Biology, by growing in all three dimensions, is progressing toward unification and will continue to do so.”

FirstsScienceTurnsThreeLevelsStudyGrowingProgressEvolutionDiversityOrganizationThirdsSpeciesEnvironmentalPopulationCellsDimensionsBiologyOrganismsMoleculesEcosystemsUnificationBiosphereThree DimensionsEnvironmental Change
Author:E. O. Wilson
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“Evolution in the biosphere is therefore a necessarily irreversible process defining a direction in time; a direction which is the same as that enjoined by the law of increasing entropy, that is to say, the second law of thermodynamics. This is far more than a mere comparison: the second law is founded upon considerations identical to those which establish the irreversibility of evolution. Indeed, it is legitimate to view the irreversibility of evolution as an expression of the second law in the biosphere.”

LawScienceProcessViewsExpressionEvolutionMereConsiderationComparisonDefiningIdenticalEntropyIrreversibleThermodynamicsBiosphere
Book:Chance and necessity: an essay on the natural philosophy of modern biology
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“Even today a good many distinguished minds seem unable to accept or even to understand that from a source of noise natural selection alone and unaided could have drawn all the music of the biosphere. In effect natural selection operates upon the products of chance and can feed nowhere else; but it operates in a domain of very demanding conditions, and from this domain chance is barred. It is not to chance but to these conditions that eveloution owes its generally progressive cource, its successive conquests, and the impresssion it gives of a smooth and steady unfolding.”

GivingMindSeemsTodayScienceUnderstandingNaturalChanceAcceptingConditionsEffectsAcceptanceProductsSourceNoiseGood ManProgressiveSteadySmoothConquestSelectionDomainDistinguishedChances AreUnfoldingNatural SelectionBiosphere
Author:Jacques Monod
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“Today the network of relationships linking the human race to itself and to the rest of the biosphere is so complex that all aspects affect all others to an extraordinary degree. Someone should be studying the whole system, however crudely that has to be done, because no gluing together of partial studies of a complex nonlinear system can give a good idea of the behavior of the whole.”

GivingShouldHumansIdeasDoneWholeTodayTogetherRaceKnowledgeStudyDegreesBehaviorAspectGardenComplexesExtraordinaryHuman RaceGood IdeasInterconnectionComplex SystemsBiosphereNonlinear
Author:Murray Gell-Mann
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“When some portion of the biosphere is rather unpopular with the human race-a crocodile, a dandelion, a stony valley, a snowstorm, an odd-shaped flint-there are three sorts of human being who are particularly likely still to see point in it and befriend it. They are poets, scientists and children. Inside each of us, I suggest, representatives of all these groups can be found.”

HumansChildrenStillsScienceThreeFoundHuman BeingsRaceGroupsPoetScientistOddHuman RaceValleysPortionsRepresentativesCrocodilesDandelionsBiosphereSnowstorms
Author:Mary Midgley
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“What makes the IoT a disruptive technology in the way we organize economic life is that it helps humanity reintegrate itself into the complex choreography of the biosphere, and by doing so, dramatically increases productivity without compromising the ecological relationships that govern the planet.”

WayHelpingLife IsHumanityTechnologyEconomyEconomicPlanetsIncreaseComplexesProductivityCompromiseOrganizeEcologicalChoreographyDisruptiveBiosphere
Book:The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism
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