MICROSCOPIC WORLD

Currently, I'm watching videos about microscopic life and am amazed by the microorganism's world; how they live, eat, hunt, work, move and exist. Specifically, I am amazed that the microcosmos is made of many organisms that do not just occupy the same space but collaborate. Whether for protection, nutrition, or just some help getting around, these interactions may seem small, but their implications are enormous for all life on earth. Lynn Margulis' effort to understand symbiosis was a dedication to microbes and understanding what they could teach us about the world.

It is said that when we look at some cells in another cell, we're forced to ask if those cells are part of the organism or if they are simply cells of one species living in the cells of another. If that is the case, it's worth asking whether the mitochondria in you are you or if they are just another successful prokaryote species that are particularly reliant on its host cell, or if two species coexist and are dependent on each other. As we look deeper and deeper down, the line between organisms is harder and harder to find. To understand this more, we can look at the definition of autopoietic systems, which are "self-producing" autonomous units "with self-defined spatial or temporal boundaries that tend to be centrally controlled, homeostatic, and predictable." Symbiosis, however, makes trouble for autopoiesis, and symbiogenesis is an even bigger troublemaker for self-organizing individual units. Because it reacts against the "self-producing autonomous units." 

I think about these points regarding the individuality of human beings and the impossibility of "self-defined spatial or temporal boundaries that tend to be centrally controlled, homeostatic, and predictable." The human being, personality, or characteristics are never isolated from the outer world. So, the "outer world" starts to lose its meaning with the question of "whether the mitochondria in you are you at all, or if they are just another  successful species that coexist with the host cell." It is getting blurry what is inside and what is outside and who is the outsider and who is the "original" self. It is worth going after these fluid boundaries. My residents and species in my city will be that fluid; they will live side by side, inside of each other, together or separated.