Humans are a disease

1. 2016-04-19 at 2:44 AM UTC

   #21
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   not necessarily; plants are susceptible to parasitic conditions, bacteria, insects etc. and they have no desire or directive beyond just living.

   
   Isn't a "directive to live" enough though? Plants to appear to have an interest in their continued survival, we see them employ an impressive range of strategies to preserve themselves (even if they do so in the absence of any real desire or consciousness) and things are only parasitic to them insofar as they hinder a plant's survival/functioning. I used the term interest as something intentionally broader than conscious desires or psychological imperatives specifically to include lower organisms that we consider to be capable of being subject to parasites.
   
   

   many people see the world as a single living 'collective' and I'd hazard to say humans are generally not a positive force on it.

   
   Sure, and I'm even sympathetic to ideas of meta-organisms or super-organismal agency/interests (although I'd argue we'd be hard pressed to consider such things as being alive) but to consider humans a parasite on any such thing we'd have to be able to conceive of that thing (the "connected world" or whatever) as being definitionally separate from humans (e.x. our immune system might harm us but so long as it's part of us it can't really be considered a parasite).
2. 2016-04-19 at 9:52 AM UTC

   #22
   Abbott Yung Blood
   More Harm Than Good As soon as the human brain developed reason and critical thinking, we rose to the top of the food chain and invented agriculture. This toppled the equilibrium that the planet had existed in for millions of years. People began living longer and we could support more people for longer. We began to expand and exploit more and more of the earths resources. There are seven BILLION people on earth now. All of them want to be fed. The only way to do that? Take even more from mother nature, use machines that poison the air, ground ,and water to continue our way of life. There may still be hope of turning it around and taking steps to limit our influence and to find balance again, but right now, Gaea is dying.
3. 2016-04-19 at 11:40 AM UTC

   #23
   The Self Taught Man Black Hole

   speak for yourself
   
   niggers are the disease. white people are the cure

   
   Cures can be dangerous. Certain treatments are just as risky as the diseases they're meant to fight. Sometimes even more risky in the short-term.
4. 2016-04-19 at 3 PM UTC

   #24
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   More Harm Than Good As soon as the human brain developed reason and critical thinking, we rose to the top of the food chain and invented agriculture. This toppled the equilibrium that the planet had existed in for millions of years. People began living longer and we could support more people for longer. We began to expand and exploit more and more of the earths resources. There are seven BILLION people on earth now. All of them want to be fed. The only way to do that? Take even more from mother nature, use machines that poison the air, ground ,and water to continue our way of life. There may still be hope of turning it around and taking steps to limit our influence and to find balance again, but right now, Gaea is dying.

   
   
   Aww, someone read their first Daniel Quinn book. How cute.
5. 2016-04-21 at 4:22 PM UTC

   #25
   

   Obbe Alan What? [annoy my right-angled speediness]

   Well that's kinda my point. Parasitism or disease implies that a host has interests and they are being violated by the parasite/disease somehow. We wouldn't call moss on a rock parasitic because rocks don't have interests. To call humans a disease is to imply there's something upon which we are a disease and I can find no suitable thing possessing the necessary structure to have interests to be undermined by us in a disease-like way.

   
   You are right in that to literally call humans a disease is incorrect, I agree with you there. But I think it's pretty clear the OP was speaking metaphorically, and I doubt you can honestly deny there are some metaphorical similarities between humans and something like a mold or a parasite. An apple has no "directive to live", it doesn't care if mold devours it, and there are are definitely metaphorical similarities between a mold growing on an apple and humans growing on Earth. A rock doesn't care if some plant grows all over it and slowly crushes it into dust, that plant isn't literally a parasite or a disease to the rock, but there is clearly a metaphorical similarity there, and likewise with humans.