Whenever one of my patients dies prematurely, I get angry. I particularly get angry if it is someone who had great potential for a productive and creative life. I start muttering to myself: “Why did you do that, God? He or she was too young. You better do something pretty fast to make up for this one. If you don’t, I am going to fight to make you pay. This isn’t right.” I am well aware that evolution does not occur without death and time. I am also well aware that life is balanced by death. It doesn’t matter. Even though I am well aware that I have no control over the actions of God, the Laws of Chance or the Laws of Chaos, I am temporarily ready to do battle with that creature or that system, whomever it may be. It is up to me to tackle the system and set things right. That is, of course, a very strange attitude for puny little me to take – but it is also very human.
We certainly do look at our world and those parts of the universe that we comprehend with anthropomorphic eyes. We see everything in terms of what it means to us and how it can be manipulated the most to suit our advantage the most. Everything that is written, everything that is studied, everything that is planned, is done almost exclusively from the standpoint of what it means to the human species, many times to the detriment of other species or inanimate material. We even go so far as to conjecture why we are here in this universe, and puzzle over why it all began, where it is headed, and where we will wind up as a species. We conceive that there is some reason for us to be here that is part of a grand design for humanity, even though we do not know what that end destination is for our species. We do so even though the evidence so far is much to the contrary. Our present evidence is that we will eventually be wiped out as a species just as all other advanced life form species have been wiped out in the past. The evidence also is that our planet will be engulfed and destroyed by our dying sun, and that our solar system will die. Our view of our importance and our importance from the view of the universe seem to be two very separate entities.
We are, in a sense, not alone in our anthropomorphism. All species look at the world from their own perspective. Sheep look at the world with sheepish eyes, wolves look at the world with wolfish eyes, and bugs look at the world with bug eyes, etc. Each of those species, as all other species, do the same as we do: look at their world from the standpoint of how it can best be manipulated to their best advantage. We do so as a matter of survival as much as anything. If we did not look at the world as to how it can best be manipulated to our own advantage, we would not last very long. It is therefore a bit of a strange step to look at human life not from our view, but from the view of the universe. Looking at life and in particular the human species from this orientation provides an entirely different analysis of our value. And it isn’t very pretty.
From the point of view of our solar system, and from the point of view of our galaxy, life is an energy form that is out of control. We are a self-replicating energy system that tends to grow unchecked. Once we have established a beach-head somewhere, we start using the resources of that region to the fullest. Once those resources have been depleted or overcome, we advance to surrounding neighborhoods to take advantage of whatever resources they have to offer. Rather than manage the resources of any region wisely, we tend to not only deplete them rapidly but also pollute that entire area badly. Having become well established here, we are now venturing into space. We are now at the point of being so successful at colonizing our earth home that we are afraid this home may one day no longer be habitable. We are in danger of destroying that home which sustains us. We are afraid that we are following the pattern of Easter Island in a world-wide sense. We are for that reason talking about going to some other planet or moon so that human life can continue.
Of course, our earth home and universe have many natural disasters that keep life from replicating completely unchecked. Volcanoes erupt, meteors hit the earth, tectonic plates shift, solar flares occur, plagues, epidemics, hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, fires, natural pollution all occur frequently and take human lives. We kill ourselves off in stupid wars. These generalized and local earthly disasters sometimes wipe out whole species of life or otherwise limit the ability of life to progress. Life has for these reasons developed in a stuttering manner. It almost seems that our home planet is constantly trying to find ways to keep us in check and keep us from replicating wildly out of control It also seems as if our planet home is always trying to clean up after us and clear our pollution. We have, however progressed to the point that we are taking over unchecked, at least in our neck of the universal woods. Does this situation have any parallel in our experience? Maybe it does.
One of the interesting things we learned when organ transplantation became a normal part of the medical armamentarium is that each of us probably develops a cancer every 6 months or so. It doesn’t go any farther most of the time because our immune system responds and kills it off, unless that immune system is suppressed. We send out B lymphocytic cells that recognize this tumor as a malignancy; those B cells then send messages to the immune factories to develop anti-sera. Killer T cells are recruited to go to the site of the tumor and kill its cells. Phagocytic macrophages and neutrophils are sent to clean up the debris. Fibroblasts are sent to build a wall around the battle ground area. Most of the time the result is death of the cancer. Yet at some point in the life of many humans, the immune system is no longer able to control this self-replicating energy form. It then grows unchecked. It destroys the base where it exists and spreads to surrounding areas. It may metastasize to distant spots until it threatens to use up all the resources of its sustaining home base, and destroy at least one of its vital organs. It does so because it no longer follows the same governance that controls the rest of that organism. The result is that it kills the entire system that gives it sustenance.
The obvious parallels are sobering. At least in our little corner of the universe, there is not a whole lot of difference between the relationship of cancer to the human body, and the relationship of life to the rest of the inanimate universe. Maybe the universe has a little focal cancer. Maybe it is us. Now that is indeed a strange thought.