The Ocean Is a Networked Community
How proximity within community keeps organisms and humans alive
by Anne Marie Vivienne
Naturalist David George Haskell illuminates how organisms in the natural world are always in communication with other organisms, plants, insects, wildlife, and even with us humans. In his book, The Song of the Trees, Haskell explains
“A single drop of seawater contains from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of microbial cells…
Each microbial species in the ocean specializes in a particular task––gathering sunlight or reworking organic molecules––and abandons most other tasks to the community...This “streamlining,” whereby individual species lose genes for essential tasks and come to depend on the community, is possible only because the microbes float in proximity to one another, letting chemicals move from one cell to another with ease. Some cells exchange not just foodstuffs but information. Molecules signal need and identity, allowing specificity of exchange among cells, even in the ocean’s turbulence. If separated from their community, many cells die. Their DNA cannot meet basic needs.
The smallest viable genetic unit of microbial life in the ocean is therefore the networked community. This arrangement is efficient, allowing each part of the network to focus on what it does best, but it is vulnerable to disruptions in communication. If relationships among cells are broken by oil spills, synthetic chemicals, or changed ocean acidity, the microbial community transforms, with consequences that reach beyond mircrobes…
We do not know how changes to the ocean are disrupting the exchange of information among cells...Some of these chemicals disturb or break communication among cells in human bodies.
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Proximity Is Crucial to Human Longevity
As individuals, we each have something of value to offer all the communities we interact with and live among––especially the people we are within our proximity. Without each other, like the microbes in the ocean, we die. Yes, we’re all going to die someday, but we can keep that day at a far distance if we acknowledge that our social health is crucial and is a priority when it comes to longevity and happiness.
What if you identified the different communities in your life and the proximity of people you interact with throughout your day. Who and how do you need people, and how do they need you? At work, you need colleagues to perform tasks to amplify your own work––if you or your co-workers cease to perform their tasks you or the job will fail, right? So death is a metaphor here––you wouldn’t die if your colleagues stopped showing up.
However, recent research in the past decade can point to isolation and loneliness as a cause of death. It sounds crazy that this is a possibility as, in so many ways, we can live on our own. There are no tigers to run from, many of us have easy access to food, we have medical care, etc. In a study published in 2015, researchers found that loneliness was predictive of death. As much as we want to crawl into a cave when relationships get weird, hurtful, or stressful, the payoff is long life and happiness. The people closest to you matter. They support you and fill the gaps of loneliness as well as simply bring you joy in moments of reward and ease.
