Re: Re: Re: humans are not the most valuable organisms on the planet
Posted by maxmccauley on 12-31-2007 in Are humans the most valuable organisms on the planet?Why should humans deign to compare themselves to the other organisms on this planet? Ok, phytoplankton provide half of this planet's oxygen. It is probably more valuable to THIS planet right now. Its potential also ends there.
As humans we have the potential to one day leave this planet and explore many others (I would argue that the question of our space exploration is when, not if). Phytoplankton, as well as every other organism on earth, is not going to do this unless humans take them along. The future will consist of humans affecting many, many more planets and perhaps entire solar systems--possibly the whole universe. The possibilites for the human race overshadow those of every other on this planet and that is why we are much more valuable than they are.
I like what a poster before me said: humans can stop an asteroid from completely destroying the earth, no other species can do that. I think this is just one example of what we can do as a race. If we colonize new planets that contain their own species similar to our animals, we could stop asteroids from hitting and destroying them. Maybe one day we'll lead peace negotiations between two intelligent species in their intergalactic war--literally anything you can imagine has the potential to happen. Are humans the most valuable to THIS planet at THIS instant? No. Could we, in the long run, be the most valuable to this and many more planets? Only time can tell, but we are the only ones with potential to do so.
In response to: Re: Re: humans are not the most valuable organisms on the planet
Probably the most consideration in evaluating any organism is its relationships with other organisms. If you ignore that aspect of things this question is meaningless. Sure, humans are valuable from the perspective of humans. A serial killer might be valuable from the perspective of that serial killer. But I don't see why we should dismiss the evaluations of say, the families victimized by that killer.
Salal is valuable from the perspective of salal, salmon are important from the perspective of salmon, etc. So even if you choose not to compare these species against one another (which turns the question into an absurdity) these species are still of equal value to human beings.
Whereas if we adopt a comparative perspective, something like phytoplankton (which provides half of the planet's oxygen) is immensely valuable to the planet and its inhabitants.