Eric Vilmer
11/15/20
Professor Simpson
Earth and Google Earth
Based off of what I got from this long reading, it seems to be discussing how our perceptions have
changed of earth throughout time and how we can navigate many parts of earth without even leaving
our home. There is a lot more to this essay though. This essay goes into what sentience is. “One of
them argues, “sentience or intelligence isn’t a thing, you can’t find it in, or analyze it out from, the cells
of a brain. It’s a function of the connected cells. It is, in a sense, the connection: the connectedness’ “
(118). Osden sums up his experience of this utterly alien form of intelligence by characterizing it as “
‘sentience without senses. Blind, deaf, nerveless, moveless. Some irritability, response to touch.
Response to sun, to light, to water, to chemicals in the earth around the roots. Nothing comprehensible
to an animal mind. Presence without mind. Awareness of being, without object or subject. Nirvana’ “
(118).” (Heise, 18) This book goes into great details about how people live in the world and what
accounts for us feeling, such as the interconnectedness of cells for example. How each of us
understands reality really has to do with the makeup of our bodies just as how we view earth. After
reading this essay I have thought a lot about each others role in life and how we all are sort of trapped in
our own realities and we live by a code or system because of the inner bodily development which
creates what we are and therefore allows for a system to thrive such as ours.
Hi Eric, It looks like you jumped ahead and read Ursule Heise's article about representations of Nature in the era of globalization. You have singled out a great quote though. Her focus on connections at the cellular level permits a new understanding about the relationship between the human and non-human. Would be interesting to compare this argument to Elizabeth Costello.
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