The biologist Edward O.Wilson has spent his life studying the curiously ordered worlds of several species of invertebrates, ants and termites. It seems that rather more than 100 million years ago, these creatures roamed around as individuals, or in small groups. Coexisting withthem were the flying invertebrates, the ancestors ofhornets, wasps and bees of all kinds, large and small, also mostly as individuals. As time passed, most of these formed nested communities, some of them so well organized that the nest itself appeared to have an independent physiology. Thus bees’ nests in Canada have been shown to maintain an internal environment at 35°C when the outside was well below 0°C. (查看原文)
The pioneer and would-be spacefarer Elon Musk has said he would like to die on Mars, though not on impact. Martian conditions suggest death on impact might be preferable.
Perhaps Mars could provide hermit cells for the ultra-rich who might spend half their fortunes on voluntarily travelling there. Whatever cash was left could be spent on building and maintaining a tiny capsule of life from which escape would be impossible. It would actually be far less cruel to allow them to build their prison cells on the ice cap of Antarctica. At least the air is breathable. (查看原文)
#Future-minded. The book defines the age we are at right now as Anthropocene—the age in which humans acquired planetary-scale technologies—is, coming to an end. A new age—the Novacene, when solar energy is transformed into information—has already begu...
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0 有用 少侠 2022-01-15 15:51:31
盖亚论其实是很有意思的,但这本书所有逻辑论断都七零八落,似乎什么都没有讲清楚。。。
0 有用 遇见奥拉的一天 2023-02-15 23:33:35 上海
很震撼,正好最近看完了剧版《三体》又遇上ChatGPT引发人们对人工智能的好奇和恐惧。也许我们还没有真正对自身,生命,海洋,和我们所在的星球有充分的了解,外星人的存在也就失去了意义。
1 有用 头秃马拉拉尔 2022-08-23 16:27:29 四川
本来是期望着看老爷子如何痛骂并预言全球变暖的灾难后果,以及期待一种科学世界末日以及末日中的希望的描述。结果Jim只是怀抱下来自毁倾向,告诉我,没关系,如果我们是宇宙诞生出来自我理解的生物,那么我们已经到了该谢幕的时候,赛博格会照顾好盖娅的,可能真的得活100多岁的老神仙才这么乐观和希望吧
0 有用 鱼啦啦啦啦啦 2023-05-20 09:42:00 福建
“也许我们希冀,在智慧和认知从地球向外扩散遍及宇宙时,我们曾经的贡献不会被完全遗忘”
1 有用 林雨@Cymbalta 2022-01-15 20:24:30
比起盖娅理论,新星世并没有什么特别的惊世骇俗,是对巴贝奇以来赛博世界思想的一个整体捏合。但对于一个百岁老人来说,这样的逻辑结构和知识和信息积淀还是令人敬佩的(但也不免凌乱)。科学的极限之处确实需要那么一点直觉与“类宗教”。以Lovelock这样一个非典型科学家提出一个标称“新星世”再合适不过了。