Do we as species constitute a Gaian nervous system and a brain which can consciously anticipate environmental changes ? Whether we like it or not, we are alredy beginning to function this way. As Lovelock said, our technical inventiveness and increasingly subtle communications network has vastly increased the earth´s range of perception. Through us, it is now awake and aware of itself, it has seen the reflection of it´s face in the eyes of astronauts and the TV cameras of orbiting satellites.

Our emotional reptile brain

In Ridley Scott´s Bladerunner, the eponymous replicant hunter sorts out men from the toys by asking a series of questions designed to elicit an automatic response. He in effect relies on the fact that all humans prtray involuntary physical responses not just to real world events, but to images, sound, memories or smells. We call them emotions and they are an inheritance of our reptile brain, evolved 250 million years ago. That brain, known as the Limbic system or brain stem, perches atop, and is connected to, our spinal cord an thence to our peripheral and internal sense receptors. Sitting on top of this is the bit of brain we´re most proud of, the centimetre-thick cortex responsible for our ´higher´ or rational thinking. Our emotional reptile brain may be wrapped up out of sight, but as we know, it doesn´t keep it´s mouth shut much of the time.

( mediamatic vol 6#1 )