Anthropocene: Does the New Geological Age push towards a Metamorphosis of the World

The Anthropocene has created a new cartography. Various disciplines and discourses overlap each other. Two fields of knowledge: geology and anthropology are unified in one single concept. The Axial Age separated everyday practices from an unbiased and objective view of the world. Romanticism, in the nineteenth century, challenged the separation between the natural sciences and the sciences of the spirit. Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer had two distinct parts; a first establishes "a period of time" the second an "epistemic tool". This paper is intended to illustrate the epistemological dimension of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene defines the present geological epoch as dominated by humans. Eduard Suess, Antonio Stopani, Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Vernadsky etc., a century ago, anticipated the concept of Anthropocene. "Noösphere" is a term from the "world of thought". The hypothesis of an earth as a living organism, which is inspired by J.W. Goethe's "Naturwissenschaft", allows two disciplines to be inte-grated into one term: geology and anthropology. We have atmospheric phenomena that are in-compressible without presupposing life. The Anthropocene modifies the foundations of our vi-sion of the world. In the Gaia Hypothesis we find the same roots as in the Anthropocene concept: Goethe, Vernadky, etc. The concepts of symbiogenesis, homeostasis, etc., allow us to formulate new questions. This paper analyzes the reconfiguration of relations between the earth and all its inhabitants. It is, for the social sciences, a challenge: a metamorphosis of our vision of the world is taking place.

GAIANIZING DARWIN: NATURAL SELECTION IMPAIRS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PLANETARY TEMPERATURE SELF-REGULATION

Many neo-Darwinists have rejected the Gaia hypothesis, arguing that organisms cannot reach a common good by natural selection and that natural selection cannot act on the whole planet. In response, Watson and Lovelock put forward a model they called Daisyworld (Dw), a hypothetical planet which can regulate its temperature over a wide range of solar luminosities. This is accomplished by ordinary physical processes rather than by natural selection. As Daisyworld refuted the objections, the critics have responded by developing Darwinian Daisyworlds (DDw) involving natural selection in terms of adaptation, competition, cheating and selfishness. Here we show that the more Darwinian characteristics are added to Dw, the less planetary temperature regulation is attained. Rather, to explain the generation of habitable dynamics on Earth, we propose to Gaianize Darwin by: i) showing that symbiotic coordination of daisies is at stake in the planetary temperature regulation, ii) introducing more efffectively self-regulation Worlds without natural selection, such as Butterflyworld (Bw) and Pandoworld (Pw), iii) intoducing a simple altruistic-like Gaia constraint on daisies that results in a much more effective temperature regulation than the original Dw.

Earth’s Complexity Is Non-Computable: The Limits of Scaling Laws, Nonlinearity and Chaos

Current physics commonly qualifies the Earth system as ‘complex’ because it includes numerous different processes operating over a large range of spatial scales, often modelled as exhibiting non-linear chaotic response dynamics and power scaling laws. This characterization is based on the fundamental assumption that the Earth’s complexity could, in principle, be modeled by (surrogated by) a numerical algorithm if enough computing power were granted. Yet, similar numerical algorithms also surrogate different systems having the same processes and dynamics, such as Mars or Jupiter, although being qualitatively different from the Earth system. Here, I argue that understanding the Earth as a complex system requires a consideration of the Gaia hypothesis: the Earth is a complex system because it instantiates life—and therefore an autopoietic, metabolic-repair (M,R) organization—at a planetary scale. This implies that the Earth’s complexity has formal equivalence to a self-referential system that inherently is non-algorithmic and, therefore, cannot be surrogated and simulated in a Turing machine. I discuss the consequences of this, with reference to in-silico climate models, tipping points, planetary boundaries, and planetary feedback loops as units of adaptive evolution and selection.

The Gaia Hypothesis in the Context of Global Challenges of Modernity

The essential break in the connection between a human and nature, crisis situations and terrible cataclysms, loneliness, awareness of fragility of one's own being, which an individual face in his everyday life, actualize the rethinking of a human's place in the world. Consequently, the interpretation of our planet as a universal living system that maintains balance and independently regulates processes, designed to provide the most optimal living conditions for all species, is gaining considerable popularity today. In addition to analyzing this issue, the purpose of the article is also to consider the processes of changing the human's consumerist attitude to nature. In the paper, the author uses a comparative-critical method, which made it possible to compare various approaches to the interpretation of Gaia and the processes that occur on our planet. The methodological basis of the article also includes general scientific methods, which allowed making an assumption that Gaia, controlling not only biological, but also mental processes, is able to spread certain ideas among living beings. In general, the article analyzes the sphere of the cultural industry, in which we are able to find artistic reflections of environmentally oriented sentiments and theories, aimed at interpreting the planet as a living organism. The results of scientific research that argue for the presence of consciousness and communication methods in living organisms (and not only human ones) are considered. In this context presented the analysis of the research, according to which a person cannot be recognized as an individual, closed, absolutely complete system. Instead, arguments are outlined in favor of defining human as a holobiont – a system of diverse organisms that constantly interact with each other.

Gaia the artist -- towards a unified higher-dimensional paradigm of life and beauty

<p><span>The Gaia hypothesis as an ecological hypothesis is proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Although successful within the current scientific paradigm the explanation of „planetary sentience, or sensitivity“ becomes extremely difficult. As Hegel said, pure truth about nature is only perceivable by a poetic method.</span></p><p><span>Therefor we are proclaiming Gaia, the Earth as a female artist -- as advocated by 16th century scholar Giordano Bruno. This would imply to include such nonscientific categories as beauty, creativity and cosmic consciousness. Hence a unified Gaia theory would require a new scientific paradigm.</span></p><p><span>Based on a previously proposed higher dimensional spacial model  (Gaia 5.0) as „pattern that connects“ that explains the Earth’ intrinsic dynamics we aim to extend<span>  </span>our concept to the question of cognition and planetary sentience, or sensitivity. </span></p><p><span>Hence we claim that  Gaia theory needs an extension of categories in order to understand the full scope of this spectacular place of livelihood and beauty. </span></p><p><span>Therefor we examine he prevalent relational biology that tries to overcome Newtonian point mechanics by relying on Aristotle’s „formal causes“ of the autopoietic organization and (M,R)-system as conceptualized by R. Rosen who refers to a mathematical structure, e.g. mapping of functions. Distinct to differential geometry we suggest as previously introduced higher dimensional geometrical framework (Gaia 5.0) a hyper-Euclidean geometry that allows to understand complex systems based on group theory providing all kinds of symmetries in nature based on a spacial continuum. </span></p><p><span>As a consequence we must not rely on thermodynamic premisses and life and tornados don’t belong to the same class of naturally complex systems. Instead we refer to Schrödinger’s description of a living cell as 4-dimensional entity. Based on complex number spaces we may seek<span>  </span>for further distinctions of processes and define ordered structures based on number theory.</span></p><p><span>Based on this we try to understand anticipatory systems by assigning Bayesian networks to (hyper-) complex number spaces. -- Hence Gaia is not playing dice but takes a <em>random walk in Monte Carlo</em>.</span></p>

Music Theory's Other Nature: Reflections on Gaia, Humans, and Music in the Anthropocene

The new historical paradigm ushered in by the Anthropocene offers a timely and urgent opportunity to rethink the relationship of humans and nature. Bruno Latour's take on the Gaia hypothesis, which rejects the traditional subject/object divide, shows how the human can be inscribed into the work of music theory. This turn toward Latour's Actor-Network Theory, which erases the categorical difference between human and nonhuman agents, now dressed up in cosmic garb under the banner of the Gaia hypothesis, appears to be distant from traditional music-theoretical concerns, but the connection is in fact less far-fetched than it seems. J. G. Kastner's music theory, taking its cue from the sound of the Aeolian harp, serves as a test case here: the Aeolian harp, played by wind directly, had long served as a Romantic image of the superhuman forces of nature, but Kastner argues that the Aeolian network only becomes complete in human ears. By unraveling the various instances and agencies of Kastner's theory, this article charts a novel approach to music and sound that sidesteps the conceptual problems in which the nineteenth-century mainstream habitually gets entangled. Kastner's work is based on a fundamental crisis in the conception of sound, after the invention of the mechanical siren (1819) tore down any certainties about the categorical distinction between noise and musical sound. Seeking to rebuild the understanding of sound from the ground up, Kastner leaves no stone unturned, from the obsolete Pythagorean tradition of musica mundana to travelers’ reports about curious sonic environmental phenomena from distant parts of the world. Where the old mechanistic paradigm was built on a “physical music” (and a static “sound of nature” based on the harmonic series), Kastner proposes a new “chemical music” that is based on the dynamic, ever-changing sonority of the Aeolian harp. This chemical music does not (yet) exist, but Kastner gives us some clues about its features, especially in his transcription/simulation of the sound of the Aeolian harp scored for double symphony orchestra. Kastner's “chemical music” finally closes the music-theoretical network that he builds around his new conception of the supernatural sound of the Aeolian harp and its human and nonhuman agents.

Future climates: Markov blankets and active inference in the biosphere

We formalize the Gaia hypothesis about the Earth climate system using advances in theoretical biology based on the minimization of variational free energy. This amounts to the claim that non-equilibrium steady-state dynamics—that underwrite our climate—depend on the Earth system possessing a Markov blanket. Our formalization rests on how the metabolic rates of the biosphere (understood as Markov blanket's internal states) change with respect to solar radiation at the Earth's surface (i.e. external states), through the changes in greenhouse and albedo effects (i.e. active states) and ocean-driven global temperature changes (i.e. sensory states). Describing the interaction between the metabolic rates and solar radiation as climatic states—in a Markov blanket—amounts to describing the dynamics of the internal states as actively inferring external states. This underwrites climatic non-equilibrium steady-state through free energy minimization and thus a form of planetary autopoiesis.

Gaia Theory: Between Autopoiesis and Sympoiesis

The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock in the 1970s and later elaborated in his collaboration with biologist Lynn Margulis. Margulis’s research in symbiogenesis and her interest in Maturana and Varela’s theory of autopoiesis helped to reshape the Gaia theory from a first-order systems theory to second-order systems theory. In contrast to the first-order systems theory, which is concerned with the processes of homeostasis, second-order systems incorporate emergence, complexity and contingency. In this respect Latour’s and Stengers’s takes on Gaia, even defining it as an “outlaw” or an anti-system, can be interpreted as specific kind of systems thinking. The article also discusses Haraway’s interpretation of Gaia in terms of sympoiesis and argues that it presents a major reconceptualization of systems theory.