78
what Leonardo transformed into his sfumato, Rembrandt an equally graded chiaroscuro, or words and numbers and their transcendence in mind, could be construed
out of seemingly inaccessible locations on the known surface of earth. Judith
Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands offers a telling case in point. As Schalansky
writes, “Geographical maps are abstract and concrete at the same time; for all the
objectivity of their measurements, they cannot represent reality, merely one interpretation of it. The lines on a map prove themselves the artists of transformation…
“.
26
This asymptotic condition of human mind grappling within the theatrum orbis
terrarium, the theater of the world,
27
cannot easily resolve some of the great island
riddles. For example, debate continues as to the meaning of the humanly uninhabited Semisopochnoi Island, part of the US Rat Islands, and other parts of the
Aleutians closest to the 180th meridian by longitude. This ensemble of a seabird
paradise is considered both the western-most and eastern-most point of North
America. Or how did it come to pass that Robinson Crusoe Island, among the Juan
Fernándes of Chile, should now be occupied by over 600 humans? On Russia’s
Lonely Island, the last word of the last human occupant’s hastily written note in the
resident logbook is “illegible,”
28
much like the impossible effort to grasp “biological
affinities” among the “Early Proterozoic fossils” that continue to defy morphological associations, or, in some cases, even the most fundamental assessment by those
studying primeval chemical evolution on earth.
29
If there is human probity, moral value, it is not the byproduct of ecological numbers but of something more. We articulate its feelings, its beauty, and the passion to
see so-called biological integrity retained at all costs. But our populations are easily
swept up into a matrix of ever-shifting moral targets, an analytical chaos of costs
and benefits, and self-referential Trees of Life that grant all manner of priority to our
own species’ wants, separate and alone, cut off from the vast majority of our biotic
peers amongst the endlessly debated domains—Eukaryota, Bacteria, Archaea—
and/or kingdoms of life: “Monera (bacteria), Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and
Animalia”.
30
26 See Atlas Of Remote Islands – Fifty Islands I have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, by Judith
Schalansky, Translated from the German by Christine Lo, Penguin Books, New York, 2010, p. 10.
27 ibid., p.23.
28 ibid., 26.
29 See Earth’s Earliest Biosphere – Its Origin And Evolution, Edited by J. William Schopf,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1983, Chapter 14, “Early Proterozoic
Microfossils,” by Hans J. Hofmann and J. William Schopf, pp.321–360.
30 See “UCMP Phylogeny Wing: The Phylogeny of Life,” by Ben Waggoner, http://www.ucmp.
berkeley.edu/alllife/threedomains.html, Accessed January 21, 2019. See also the six, seven and
eight kingdom of life theories, Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2006).”Rooting the tree of life by transition analyses”. Biology Direct. 1: 19. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6150-1-19. PMC 1586193.
PMID 16834776.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers
what Leonardo transformed into his sfumato, Rembrandt an equally graded chiaroscuro, or words and numbers and their transcendence in mind, could be construed
out of seemingly inaccessible locations on the known surface of earth. Judith
Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands offers a telling case in point. As Schalansky
writes, “Geographical maps are abstract and concrete at the same time; for all the
objectivity of their measurements, they cannot represent reality, merely one interpretation of it. The lines on a map prove themselves the artists of transformation…
“.
26
This asymptotic condition of human mind grappling within the theatrum orbis
terrarium, the theater of the world,
27
cannot easily resolve some of the great island
riddles. For example, debate continues as to the meaning of the humanly uninhabited Semisopochnoi Island, part of the US Rat Islands, and other parts of the
Aleutians closest to the 180th meridian by longitude. This ensemble of a seabird
paradise is considered both the western-most and eastern-most point of North
America. Or how did it come to pass that Robinson Crusoe Island, among the Juan
Fernándes of Chile, should now be occupied by over 600 humans? On Russia’s
Lonely Island, the last word of the last human occupant’s hastily written note in the
resident logbook is “illegible,”
28
much like the impossible effort to grasp “biological
affinities” among the “Early Proterozoic fossils” that continue to defy morphological associations, or, in some cases, even the most fundamental assessment by those
studying primeval chemical evolution on earth.
29
If there is human probity, moral value, it is not the byproduct of ecological numbers but of something more. We articulate its feelings, its beauty, and the passion to
see so-called biological integrity retained at all costs. But our populations are easily
swept up into a matrix of ever-shifting moral targets, an analytical chaos of costs
and benefits, and self-referential Trees of Life that grant all manner of priority to our
own species’ wants, separate and alone, cut off from the vast majority of our biotic
peers amongst the endlessly debated domains—Eukaryota, Bacteria, Archaea—
and/or kingdoms of life: “Monera (bacteria), Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and
Animalia”.
30
26 See Atlas Of Remote Islands – Fifty Islands I have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, by Judith
Schalansky, Translated from the German by Christine Lo, Penguin Books, New York, 2010, p. 10.
27 ibid., p.23.
28 ibid., 26.
29 See Earth’s Earliest Biosphere – Its Origin And Evolution, Edited by J. William Schopf,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1983, Chapter 14, “Early Proterozoic
Microfossils,” by Hans J. Hofmann and J. William Schopf, pp.321–360.
30 See “UCMP Phylogeny Wing: The Phylogeny of Life,” by Ben Waggoner, http://www.ucmp.
berkeley.edu/alllife/threedomains.html, Accessed January 21, 2019. See also the six, seven and
eight kingdom of life theories, Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2006).”Rooting the tree of life by transition analyses”. Biology Direct. 1: 19. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6150-1-19. PMC 1586193.
PMID 16834776.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers