Richard Schifman in Undark Magazine: Peter Godfrey-Smith does not use the word miracle in the title of his ambitious new book, “Living on Earth: Forest, Corals, Consciousness and the Making of the World,” but there is scarcely a page that does not recount one. His subject is the astounding creativity of life, not just to evolve ever-new forms, but to continually remake the planet that hosts it.
Godfrey-Smith, a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, moves dizzyingly from the latest developments in neurology to the nature of human language and of consciousness itself. The core story traces life’s epic journey from cyanobacteria, which were amongst the first photosynthesizing plants, to increasingly complex multicellular plants, which contributed to creating an oxygen-rich atmosphere, which in turn paved the way for the evolution of oxygen breathing animals like ourselves.
It is “a history of organisms as causes, rather than evolutionary products,” he writes, presenting “a dynamic picture of the Earth, a picture of an Earth continually changing because of what living things do.”
Homo sapiens, relative latecomers to life’s party, are only the latest in a long line of species that have cleverly engineered the environment to meet their own needs. Think coral-building polyps, photosynthesizing plants, and soil-stabilizing trees. The ratios of gases in the atmosphere, global weather patterns, the very forms of the landscapes that surround us, are all transformed by life and transform life in a never-ending cycle.
Moreover, thanks to photosynthesizing plants, “the sheer amount of energy present on a living planet is greater than on a dead one, as energy has been converted and held,” he writes. “This feeds not only living activity, but geological cycles and processes as well. Life starts storing the sun and everything is affected.”
Godfrey-Smith tells us that this energy is both a blessing and a curse. Thanks to the propulsive power of the accumulated dead bodies of ancient plants and animals in the form of fossil fuels, the life that Earth spawned now ventures into outer space. But the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that results from burning of fossil fuels is altering our climate and threatening Earth’s ecology.
For these profound changes in the biosphere, we have consciousness to thank. “Minds are agents of transformation,” according to Godfrey-Smith. What sets humans apart from other species (who are also sentient and capable of “felt experience”) is that we have used consciousness to master advanced technologies, elaborate languages, and complex cultures, which enable us to be active designers of our own futures and the future of the planet.
