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Holobionts: a new Paradigm to Understand the Role of Humankind in the Ecosystem

You are a holobiont, I am a holobiont, we are all holobionts. "Holobiont" means, literally, "whole living creature." It ...

Saturday, October 10, 2020

It is a Lion! It is a Goat! It is a Snake! No! It is a Holobiont!

 

Maybe 25 years ago, my friend Susan came from California to visit me in Florence. She saw the statuary piece of the Chimera of Arezzo and asked me what that was supposed to mean. I said, "I don't know for sure, but I'll find out." 

That involved much research, papers written, a blog created, and an entire book in Italian. And yet, I can tell you that I was yesterday night that understood what a Chimera really is. Just before falling asleep, I had this flash: here is it: A holobiont! So obvious!

And that's no mere definition: it opens up a whole new layer of interpretation of the chimera as a horizontal contamination of memes. Memes do replicate horizontally, just like bacteria do. Truly mind-blowing, I am still shocked by what I was thinking yesterday night. 

There will be more on this, but for the moment I just wanted to mention this discovery to you. Life is beautiful when you can think of such things!



1 comment:

  1. Hello Ugo This comment is off topic for this post but quite on topic for your other writings re Fall of Rome vs Fall of West. I see a lot of stuff about bunkers for the wealthy and IIRC you did a post about wealthy Roman citizens buying country villas that didn't work out well for them. And I thought that a bunker is the "anti life" solution to crisis. A recent example link Forbes to such a refuge in London caught my eye . Will attempt to link
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/clairecarponen/2020/10/06/129-million-pandemic-refuge-for-sale-social-distance-in-style-in-this-luxury-former-cold-war-bunker-in-london/#6a3c209e3745

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