Ecosystems are really not such a new concept. Montaigne, in the 1500s, writes how “students of natural law hold that the birth, nourishment, and growth of each thing is the alteration and corruption of another.” And to add authority to his point, he quotes the Roman philosopher, Lucretius:
Whenever anything is changed and leaves its bounds, Instantly this brings death to that which was before.
In all fairness to ecosystems, it is just as often the “alteration and corruption of another” and the “death of that which was before” which invites creatures to be qualiadelic – to transcend their familiar and selfish landmarks and pathways. That is, death brings life to that which wasn’t there before.
A fallen Douglas Fir opens a sunlit clearing and completely changes the landscape, bringing to life individuals who (and species which) have evolved to wait patiently for just such an opportunity. The newly revealed qualia awakens them from their hibernetic meditation — some of them reach for the sun, others burrow into the fallen tree.
Different species can co-exist because the qualia they notice leads them to different matter. Qualia leads individuals of the same species to this matter, while it leads individuals of different species to that matter. Beetles, carpenter ants, and termites bore into the trunk of the fallen Doug Fir, allowing microbes and animals inside, while varieties of vegetation add their roots to the symphony of decomposition. There is enough matter to go around.
The title of Montaigne’s essay was “One man’s profit is another man’s harm.” If we are all chasing after the same matter, as do members of the same species (ie people), this is true. This is competition, and it leads to natural selection in within landscapes — individual differences, to be sure, but selfish.
Cooperation, on the other hand, does not so much occur within members of the same species, but between species, and it leads to qualiadelic selection within ecosystems. Human individuals can take a clue from specietion: if we chase qualia instead of matter — if every one of us turn his or her inner landscape into an ecosystem — then it would lead us to contentment in infinite ways. We can make a qualiadelic economy.
Technology need not be inspired by material reward but simply by the spread of contentment which is the true route to happiness. But beware, technology I do not mean convenience; I mean, rather, a science of timeliness and balance which reveals the proper human niche. Cooperative technology!
Perhaps each of us may become, not just a unique and qualiadelic individual, but a unique species, with a niche of one’s own. Homo qualiens might co-exist together in ecosystems, and we might transcend the limits of landscapes. Matter could be shared instead of competed for, and one man’s profit would not be another man’s harm, it would be another man’s profit, too.