Would you give up your individual freedom to become a "cell" in a biologically greater being?

[Guaranteed]

I wonder about our evolution. Millions (over a billion?) of years ago bacteria got together and became multicellular organisms. Those organisms started out simple, but became more sophisticated over time, creating "roads" throughout themselves to transport "goods" created by one cell, but needed by another. The cells themselves became highly differentiated from each other, specialized, to that end. Nerves- like telephone lines, the Internet- were created to deliver messages from one part of the organism's body to another...and brains developed to send those messages. All those cells, once independent, began working together toward a common cause- the organism itself.

Do you ever see our society evolving in that way?

It would never happen even in thousands of years, probably, but would you ever become a "cell," like that, and give up your freedom to spend your entire life directly attached to a number of other "cells" in nearly the same situation, doing the same job, day in and day out...but, "knowing" that you were all working toward a common cause? We could call the being Homo Superious. :P

I'd have to say that we're probably doing something much like that already, but without the physical restraints that cells have.

Anyway, would you be willing? Or would you break away and go off on your own?

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Man, they told you not to eat the brown acid.

Actually, interesting poll question. I think I'd need to know the specifics before making that call.

Also, another interesting thought - did the cells which became multi-celled organisms "decide" to join together? Or how did that work?

Perhaps if this was going to happen, we wouldn't have a choice, or perhaps, as you allude to in the OP, something like that is already going on. Another question (I actually had a talk about this with my wife a couple weeks ago, weirdly enough) is, how do we know that different levels of intelligence or consciousness or cognizance or awareness would even be able to recognize each other? For instance, the cells in your body may still think (as much as cells "think") that they're each acting purely in their own best interest...

Hmmm.

[Guaranteed]

2. Alright, your last line creeped me the fuck out....

LOL!

Nicely done. :)

[Vexatious Ape]

7. If this is what's on your mind,

I recommend a book for you: "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom. According to Bloom, we are all part of a super-organism.

[Guaranteed]

9. Why'd he call it "The Lucifer Principle"? nt

[Vexatious Ape]

13. It's about our biological make up that drives us to do

horrible things. "Evil" being a by-product of natures strategies for creation. The book mixes biology with history--a great read.

[Marie26]

22. Eek!

Or maybe all the huge suns & galaxys in the universe are all just little cells that really form part of a larger entity? Cool. This thread needs some pot, IMO.

[petronius]

3. As long as I'm part of something cool, like an eye cell, and not part of the sphincter

I'd consider it. More seriously, no - I like being part of a team and working with others for common goals, but at the end of the day I want to be my own autonomous non-Borg entity...

[Guaranteed]

4. It sounds kind of like a cult, doesn't it?

With a bunch of people all smashed together, legs and arms flailing around.

Yeah, I think I'd have to agree with you guys. I'm a pretty weird guy.

[Warren DeMontague]

Oh, dude, we know exactly who all is gonna make for a great sphincter...

Just arrange them all in a nice little ring.

[Guaranteed]

8. ROFL!!!

"Back to work, Hannity!"

[NGC_6822]

12. Nobody wants to do the dirty work.

This is the problem in our society; no one wants to make sacrifices for the greater good.

To answer the poll, though, put me down for a solid "yes" if the homo superious is Borak, the latest triumph of our species. Who says evolution hasn't been proved?

[soothsayer]

14. Well, you could become cancerous and kill the super organism

if you got bored!

[petronius]

17. Good point: "I've got a pre-metastatic cellular abnormality, and I'm not

afraid to use it! That's right, Super-organism - the sphincter is in charge now!"

[LittleClarkie]

5. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

I am not a number! I am a free man!

[don954]

6. Let me guess; you've been playing too much Alpha Centauri?

:evilgrin:

[man4allcats]

10. If I did that, the offspring of that being might say something like

"The best part of me ran down my father's leg," and assuming I were a sperm cell, I could conceivably be that part that ran down Dad's leg, so no, I would not do it. A cell is just a cell. A being is an organismal whole. I would rather be a being than a cell, although I am a being composed of many cells the type of which you speak. Rather paradoxical, don't you think? Pass the brown acid, please. Populations evolve. Cells adapt. Interesting post though. :thumbsup:

[ConsAreLiars]

11. We all already cells in a larger organsim.

The proper term is proles, and the organism is Monopoly Capitalism. But we retain our freedom, even in this oppressive "organism." The challenge is to create a new society in which the greater good, the common good, and survival itself can be possible. Your assumption that building or participating in such a world requires abandoning personal freedom is bogus. Indeed, building and and participating in a society that serves the common good would be the purest form of personal freedom.

[kiki]

15. An excellent story on this subject...

...is a short story by Clive Barker entitled "In the Hills, the Cities". It draws parallels with the kind of thing you're talking about, and the mindset found in totalitarian and particularly communist regimes.

The story is about two villages in Eastern Europe who have a ten-yearly tradition in which the entire population of each town forms itself into a giant, living model of a human being. The people are strapped together with a complex system of harnesses, complete with tubes to carry waste; those with the best sight reside in the eyes, the strongest individuals make up the joints, and so on. The two giant figures, each over 100ft tall, then walk out into the hills and enact a choreographed historical "battle".

At the end of the story, a Western holidaymaker comes across one of the "giants" and is transfixed... the giant is such a monumental sight, such an awesome achievement of human ingenuity, that he is compelled to climb up onto it and strap himself into the harness, casting aside one of the dead "cells" (ie, villagers) in order to make space. He feels that he would rather live a couple of days as a single cell in this awe-inspiring "body of the state" than a whole lifetime as an isolated, aimless individual.

[The2ndWheel]

16. Dude, you're weird

But I like that.

We're already there. The physical restraints are there though. Cells move around within the organism too.

[Marie26]

18. Best poll question ever.

Too weird. I think we're basically already "cells" in the larger society.

[opihimoimoi]

19. You are far ahead of the rest of the pack in terms of observation and analysis

The THREAD OF THE YEAR....

Keep those thought juices going...write something...a book perhaps...a movie even...."series"

[Guaranteed]

20. LOL I don't think I'm the first to have made this analogy...

Even ImpeachDubya above was talking about it with his wife a couple weeks ago.

Thanks for the kind words, though. :P

[Kelly Rupert]

24. Nah, you're not the first at all,

society as organism (and vice versa) is a pretty common one. Still, fun topic.

[opihimoimoi]

26. Yes, not the first in Concept....nevertheless...use it as a backdrop in SCI FI

Focusing in on the Effects of Positivity and how we could all be a part of Mega System based on Symbism....use it to the farthest reaches of Humanity can Imagine...

Like way beyond this Universe....into clouds of universes.....and so on....

This can only happen to organisms that are proactive in surviving long term...like a really really long time....

What systems must be in place for all of this to work???

IM me if you wish to pursue beyond the Edge....

Opi

[Conan_The_Barbarian]

21. Have you ever read Radical Evolution?

trust me your not the first to think about the possibility. A lot think of it is an inevitability, and if you follow Moores law all the way out the chances of it happening could be in a few hundred years. Not saying I believe it will happen, but if everything goes as a lot of the worlds top engineers think it will go in the next 50 years oh baby is the future going to be one fucking weird place.

[porphyrian]

23. How do you know this isn't already the case?

How much freedom do we really have? On a universal scale, we are very physically restrained.

[uppityperson]

25. good morning, good question

How much of us is individual, how much is already part of the larger Whatever? I think of homo sapiens being part of the whole world thing, Gaea perhaps (not meaning 1 continent but the whole planet). People get confused in that we think we are separate bits, independent, and miss the whole connection thing. Will humans go extinct? Probably. Heinlein aside, I do not see people colonizing other planets, just messing about here and then eventually evolving or going extinct. Evolution is not always in a subjectively better direction also.

As mitochondria became part of our cells, I think of us being a part of a whole already. For society,indeed also.