HUMP DAYYYYY!!! about Ecology from Science Fiction

Ecology, or the study of organisms and their environment, goes far beyond simple interaction between organisms and the environment. In “Seed Stock” and “Balanced Ecology,” Herbert and Schmitz see ecology from a much broader perspective of evolution. In any given niche, an organism doesn't just exist, it has an ecological purpose, a job to do in its environment; there is always a purpose that an organism serves, nothing simply exists for the sake of existing, every organism has a role to play in the biosphere, the collection of all ecosystems and biomes everywhere on Earth. In science fiction, however, this basic principle of ecology is often extrapolated onto other planets, such as in “Seed Stock,” where an entire planet is being terraformed into an Earth-like planet from a less-than-habitable state. “Seed Stock” and “Balanced Ecology” both discuss human interaction with the environment, but “Seed Stock” takes a different perspective than “Balanced Ecology” does. “Seed Stock” is focused more on the human power in the environment, that people are indeed powerful enough to change nature, but also discusses that nature can quite often change people, through the short-term process of technological innovation to keep up with environmental change, i.e., solar panels to limit global warming, and the longer term process of evolution. By terraforming the planet into an Earth-like state, the characters in “Seed Stock” demonstrate the ultimate in human environmental modification: building a habitable planet from an uninhabitable one, taking Columbus', the Vikings', and the Native Americans' discovery of the New World in 1492 C.E., 1000 C.E. and 13,000 B.C.E., respectively, a step further and actually building a habitat, rather than just using the one already there. In reality, this is possible, it would merely take about 800 years of constant CO2 emissions at the level of Earth's global warming on Mars to create a climate and atmosphere identical to Earth's, according the the issue of Popular Science in May of 2012, but, as one scientist in that article stated, it is much easier to use the current environment on a planet than to make one, exemplified by his statement: “Columbus traveled to North America in a boat. Imagine if he had to build the continent when he got there.” We're talking about building a planet, something that is not yet currently thought of as technologically and economically feasible, although it is possible and the technology does exist as of now. “Seed Stock” is promoting the idea that humans not only CAN do this to a planet, but they SHOULD, however, we must be aware of the consequences of any environmental modifications. This type of theme is very common in science fiction, “experiments gone wrong” are seen in the first-ever true science-fiction novel, the 1816 classic Frankenstein, and more recently in the two Japanese animation cartoons, “Elfen Lied” and “Pokemon,” where the deranged experimental monsters “Lucy” and “Mewtwo” go berserk and cause all manner of bloody, brutal, mind-numbing chaos until the main characters can calm the monsters. The issues raised in Elfen Lied, Pokemon: The Movie, and Frankenstein, as well as “Seed Stock” deal with the interactions between Man and Nature. “Nature” with a capital “n” is different than “nature” with a small “n;” “Nature” assumes that there are elements of the natural world that mankind is not meant to control, essentially, something that is considered sublime or subliminal, beyond human understanding. “Nature” with a lower-case “n” is just as ambiguous, but it generally refers to anything that is not touched by the taint of Mankind, at least in Voltaire's definition. The caution that humans should take when tampering with “Nature” is the topic of “Balanced Ecology.” It states that even during the Age of Industry, where humans can alter a planet or even manipulate their own evolution, human beings should not try to control “nature” in any form, but rather live alongside it, as the argument in the book states that humans, no matter how intelligent they are, are just another large mammal living on Earth.