Are humans inherently parasitic in relation to their surroundings?

[ZacharyFino]

i think that parasitism deals with the biological health of the host, and benefitting from their sources of food and habitat. if you think of it as harmful interaction between species, we are definitely harmful. the Earth is our host and so are the species that live here. if you want to play grammatical mathematics then yes, there are many ways to say humans arent parasitic, but we understand the definition of parasite more than a single paragraph can explain.

 

[DaveC426913]

There's really no question that we are harmful to Earth. I don't think any sane person can deny that.

And if the OP was not asking if we are literally parasites, then...

what is the point of this thread?

 

[Kronos5253]

What i ment by it is that most humans go to a place and leach of all the recources they can find and when they are all gone they go to a new place and restart the process leaving the area where they leached off to rot and die

That's more like a virus than a parasite.

See: "The Matrix".. Towards the end when Morpheus is handcuffed to the chair and the guy with the sunglasses is talking to him without his earpiece in.

 

[ZacharyFino]

agreed, much more like a virus (in that statement) unless linked to our interaction with other life forms, resources arent necessarily life-forms

 

[drankin]

Is being a metaphorical parasite the Earth being a figurative host a bad thing? If it is, is there a moral solution?

 

[ZacharyFino]

it is a morally bad thing because we hold values on life and consciousness. many life-forms capable of feeling emotions are negatively affected by us, and because us as humans at least pretend to include sympathy, importance of emotions, and empathy in our "moral code of standards", our parasitic actions towards Earth and the life on Earth are a bad thing. If you feel it is wrong to inflict pain on a conscious being for a reason other than survival, than our parasitic ways are most likely immoral in your belief.

 

[drankin]

If you feel it is wrong to inflict pain on a conscious being for a reason other than survival, than our parasitic ways are most likely immoral in your belief.

Can you expound on this? In general humans do not inflict pain on other "conscious" beings. What do you mean by parasitic ways of life?

 

[ZacharyFino]

as a species our actions affect "conscious" beings in numerous ways, with the major effects including pain. Deforestation, pollution in the air, exploitation of animals as a cash-"crop", wiping areas of habitat off the map to build a new mayfare or housing development, destruction of rainforests for cattle grazing land. as individuals we do not generally inflict pain but as a species our actions cause the pain of millions

 

[drankin]

as a species our actions affect "conscious" beings in numerous ways, with the major effects including pain. Deforestation, pollution in the air, exploitation of animals as a cash-"crop", wiping areas of habitat off the map to build a new mayfare or housing development, destruction of rainforests for cattle grazing land. as individuals we do not generally inflict pain but as a species our actions cause the pain of millions

Is this what you call parasitic? Is it not natural? Or do you consider mankinds actions unnatural? The fact is that we humans are simply animals of a particular species doing what an animal of a particular species naturally does. As shown in previous posts in this thread, technically our species is not parasitic. All species cause pain to other species in order to maintain their existence. To call this immoral is to call a predator immoral because it must kill to eat. From bacteria, insects, to mammals. They must dominate their niche to exist.

 

[junglebeast]

As loseyourname already pointed out, humans are certainly not parasites.

However, the word "parasitic" means "like a parasite," and this depends on your perspective / opinion. In English it is common practice to liken just about anything to anything else -- it's part of literary freedom.

 

[DaveC426913]

Both parasite and virus are straw men. Label humans one or the other and then attack them based on the metaphor. But the metaphor is not perfectly accurate, and it is loaded down with baggage. Why not just state your problem with the human race and attack that?

 

[Phrak]

How would a proper, non-parasitic human behave?

 

[ZacharyFino]

ITo call this immoral is to call a predator immoral because it must kill to eat.

human beings do not breed millions of cattle on grazing land cut from rainforests because those guys needed to survive, they did it purely for the money

 

[ZacharyFino]

Both parasite and virus are straw men. Label humans one or the other and then attack them based on the metaphor. But the metaphor is not perfectly accurate, and it is loaded down with baggage. Why not just state your problem with the human race and attack that?

Haha exactly!

 

[DaveC426913]

human beings do not breed millions of cattle on grazing land cut from rainforests because those guys needed to survive, they did it purely for the money

In a cooperative society, a farmer raises cows to sell to the carpenter to eat. The farmer can concenttrate on his cows because he's hired the carpenter to build his barn to keep his cows in.

Money does nothing but lubricate this process.

 

[DaveC426913]

Everything humans do is to ensure the success of themselves and/or their species - just like every other living thing on the face of the Earth.

The only crime humans commit is that they breed indiscriminately, blooming their population beyond the sustainability of their environment.

That's it.

 

[ZacharyFino]

agreed, humans have just advanced with too large a gap above other species.

 

[drankin]

agreed, humans have just advanced with too large a gap above other species.

I disagree. I'm trying to understand where you are coming from philosophically as well as practically. In order to feed our species, we need to create farmlands. Depending on where humans are geographically, this may be converting rainforests, deserts, and what have you to create them. Yes, it's about money because we need money to buy food. We need money for education, shelter, food, water, etc.

Other than an obvious dislike for your own species, I don't see a point philosophically or otherwise for your posts.

 

[Tibarn]

as a species our actions affect "conscious" beings in numerous ways, with the major effects including pain. Deforestation, pollution in the air, exploitation of animals as a cash-"crop", wiping areas of habitat off the map to build a new mayfare or housing development, destruction of rainforests for cattle grazing land. as individuals we do not generally inflict pain but as a species our actions cause the pain of millions

For any organism to survive to maturity means the death of countless others. Even if it's a plant that doesn't outright eat its neighbors, there's still competition for resources--good soil, good lighting, water, etc. "Harmony" is rather a matter of compulsion. Place any species in a place without natural predators and watch it run amok and screw the local ecosystem. Kill all the wolves, and the deer will multiply till they've eaten everything in sight, then die of starvation because there's nothing left to eat. If we had natural enemies, say a race of giants, we wouldn't be causing half the environmental problems we are now.

Come to think of it, humans are probably the only species that are actively trying to limit themselves before they exhaust their resources and die slowly and painfully. Oh, and by the way, ants have been known to wage war, enslave their enemies, raise other animals as livestock, and grow their own food. Our habits aren't as unique as we may think.

 

[tchitt]

I disagree. I'm trying to understand where you are coming from philosophically as well as practically. In order to feed our species, we need to create farmlands. Depending on where humans are geographically, this may be converting rainforests, deserts, and what have you to create them. Yes, it's about money because we need money to buy food. We need money for education, shelter, food, water, etc.

Other than an obvious dislike for your own species, I don't see a point philosophically or otherwise for your posts.

You don't agree that humanity, just by living the way we know how, is wreaking havoc on the planet's ecosystem? Since the discovery of fire humans have been clearing forests and extincting other species for things like education, shelter, food, water, etc. I think what the originally poster is saying is that parasites do the same thing. They NEED what they NEED to survive even if it means killing the "host".

I don't agree that the parasite analogy is the best one, though... because the planet is not an organism or a host. It's an ecosystem. I certainly don't dislike MY own species but the gap between homo sapiens and the rest of the species on this Earth is obviously there. Since 1900 the Earth's human population has risen from 1,000,000,000 to around 7,000,000,000.

Anyway, like I said I don't really believe that we're "parasites" either but you can draw a lot of parallels and I don't understand why you can't comprehend dude's point.

 

[ZacharyFino]

its not that i see it as particularly unnatural its just a bummer because look at how amazing our planet is, but it would be perfectly natural to exhaust our planet and move on further in space, in the end our species in a whole is trying to survive its just sad that we can't cooperate a little better as a civilization imagine what we could achieve if we weren't so separated.

 

[DaveC426913]

Come to think of it, humans are probably the only species that are actively trying to limit themselves before they exhaust their resources and die slowly and painfully.

Not quite. The majority of species are self-limiting before "painful death"; they will limit their breeding in the spring if food is not plentiful and/or hasn't been plentiful the season before.

 

[drankin]

its not that i see it as particularly unnatural its just a bummer because look at how amazing our planet is, but it would be perfectly natural to exhaust our planet and move on further in space, in the end our species in a whole is trying to survive its just sad that we can't cooperate a little better as a civilization imagine what we could achieve if we weren't so separated.

Well, no matter what we do, the Earth will contintue to thrive well beyond human existence. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will destroy this planet. We could nuke everything and life will thrive within a thousand if not a hundred years (example, the bikini islands). Anything we do as a species to control the ecosystem is futile. Ultimately it will control us. We are just another animal doing what animals do with their resources. You can accept it or hate it, it won't change anything. Many of hundreds of thousands of years has seen a much harsher Earth than we could ever recreate. Yet life continues on this planet. So you can liken your own species to a parasite, virus, or cancer, but in the end it doesn't matter.