The Aesthetic of Ecology
Dune and the ecological vision
Frank Herbert, the author of Dune is often considered an important figure in the world of ecology. Although he didn't play a critical role in the development of any theory he was crucial in popularising the goals and methods of the field. His work helped to give ecology an aesthetic, distinct from the shiny spaceships, alchemical wizardry, and the super mutant creations of physics, chemistry & biology. And while he may not have been himself an extraordinary scientist he participated in the insights of many of those scientists.
In Dune, Herbert has Liet Kynes, the 'planetary ecologist', summarise: "Ecology is the study of consequences". Although this phrasing is somewhat mystical and aloof, for anyone familiar with the rudimentary ecological concepts it can make a lot of sense.
Many of us were introduced to ecology through the food chain. At my school we imagined a lake environment with various taxons connected by arrows usually showing the small being predated by the large. Algae in the water is eaten by freshwater snails which in turn are eaten by frogs, themselves in turn eaten by loons.
Once this system was setup we could then consider how it changed over time with various perturbations. For example, what would happen if a new invasive species of snail that could not be eaten by our frogs began to colonise the lake?
First, starved of prey, the frog population would die off, in turn as they run out of things to eat, you would see a similar reduction in the loon population. In the other direction, as the invasive snail population grew unchecked it would start to eat off all the algae that previously supported the entire chain leading to a malthusian crisis and a decline in its population1. In the end we would be left with a lake free of algae, the old snails, the invasive snails, frogs & loons ready for a new food chain to form.
Even in this very simple example we can see how a study of ecology can lead us from what appear at first to be quite minor changes in relatively simple systems to major consequences. As we study the systems of life around us we realise that they are filled with patterns like this. The smallest changes can have wide ranging and completely unexpected effects. What is uncovered is not a simple causal chain as is usually studied in the world of physics but an intertwinedness with second and third order cascading effects.
Wrapping our heads around such a system is hard. In general, we have been trained to think of the world in terms of simple causal systems. In an ecological world filled with emergent properties this kind of thinking can obscure as much as it can uncover.
This is part of why the world that Herbert describes in Dune is so helpful for grasping the topic. In Dune the characters and the plot lines are always tied up with connections and arrows that point from politics to ecology to religion and back again, seemingly mundane events are given a backdrop of vivid far-reaching consequences and paths that appear clearcut meander in ways that are totally unexpected.
As you read, the gestalt of this ecological vision of the world grows and you can start to see as an ecologist: "The entire landscape comes alive, filled with relationships and relationships within relationships."
