Value of Biosphere Earth, 2-A Self-Generating "Stack"
Earth's Life-support system is our most essential priority. Here's a 10-minute summary of the science on its architecture. Notes also include a system graph.
Biosphere Earth is the composition of life and living ecosystems that make human life possible. This series, "The Value of Biosphere Earth", seeks to connect people of all backgrounds to a greater relationship with that reality by sharing synopses of current science. In this episode, A Self-Generating "Stack", BioIntegrity founder/director Chris Searles explains his analogy that the architecture of our Life-support system is pretty similar to the architecture of our computers, but infinitely more advanced. For a complete list of the citations referenced in this post, check out this Google Doc.
The analogy: A “stack” is what software engineers call the layers of interacting technologies they build to make your phone work. Earth's Life-suport system is comprised of layers of interacting life, living ecosystems, biological structural elements, and non-living structural elements. See the life stack diagram below.
Graphics Biosphere Earth aproximately three billion years ago. Earth, a planet of only microbes, roughly three billion years ago. (NASA, 2017)
A diagram of Earth’s “life stack."Graphic by Chris Searles.
Biosphere Earth's rescue and ongoing integrity is our most urgent, essential, and powerful climate solution and economic priority. This series talks about why and how. Read the two paragraphs on the architecture of Earth's Life-support system here. This piece contains more than 60 academic citations. Read the essay version of this post.
Music The music heard at beginning of this podcast comes from "She Blinded Me With Science" by the great Thomas Dolby (obviously). Purchase that track here. Remix by SecondBeatSongs, grabbed from here.
