Spiritual?

There are hundreds and hundreds of religions on planet Earth. Most of these adhere to a belief system that includes some form of spiritual entities, living spiritual beings. Some religions glorify many "gods", some worship one god with many angels, and so on. As there is no hard, scientific evidence for spiritual beings of any kind, these religions must include an article of faith. Faith is required because there is no proof – no hard evidence that ghosts do actually exist. Spiritual beings watching over us and our planet could explain how the level of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is regulated, as well as Earth's orbit around the Sun in the "Goldilocks Zone".

Corporeal?

It is also possible that the beings who look after planet Earth are corporeal, like us, except that they are much more longer-lived than we are and are at a much higher level of technology. Why is it then that we have yet to meet them? or even to see them? I think the answer is obvious... they don't want to be seen, they don't want to meet us, and their technology is advanced enough to help them stay out of our crosshairs! Those who have "seen UFOs"? For the rest of us it's just hearsay evidence and not allowed in the courtrooms of our minds. However, as I've said before, I refuse to believe that human beings are the highest form of life in the Universe.

AI?

Haven't heard about this one? Neither have I. Imagine a crew of highly advanced Datas from Star Trek, TNG (androids, I guess) watching over planet Earth. By present standards they are not "alive" and yet are very highly advanced beings who were created long ago by an advanced corporeal civilization who are perhaps now extinct. Those living beings who created the androids could have lived here on Earth long ago, so long ago that there is no longer anything left to tell us that they were here. Or they could have lived on another planet in a "nearby" star system. Those androids, which live essentially forever, are caring for our planet, caring for us, and studying us.

I would hazard a guess that they're very curious about our rudimentary efforts to develop AI of our own. If I were them, I would study us closely and perhaps learn things about their origins, their beginnings, that they could only learn by watching our fascinating inventions based upon our present levels of science and technology. It may very well be that this crew of highly advanced "robots" or "androids" are presently responsible for the regulation of the oxygen level in Earth's atmosphere?

Combo

WP's cyborgs article tells us that they are beings with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, a combo of the above two possibilities. Yes, I know, it's beginning to read like Asimov or Roddenberry now, isn't it. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's any more far out than the widespread human beliefs about spirituality, do you?

Simulation?

Little is known about this one, and I find it difficult to accept as true. Someone of unknown origin has suggested that the double-slit experiment^{[Note 2][Note 3]} is the greatest proof that we only exist in a very advanced form of computer simulation. And so I postulate that such an advanced computer simulation is another possible reason that the oxygen level in Earth's atmosphere is maintained at about 21%. It's programmed that way? Where's my aspirin? No, not for a headache – I'm talkin' where's my low dose 81mg aspirin that helps to keep my heart going? Talk about your palpitations!

I've been thinking some more about this. If the fact that we can find no acceptable reason that light somehow changes from a wave to a particle just because we place a sensing device near one of the slits in the double-slit experiment, then maybe the fact that none of us know what life really is joins the double-slit experiment as further evidence for our existing within a simulation? Nobody knows what we (living things) have within us that makes us different from a rock or a dead person. Nobody can explain it with hard evidence for their explanation. Put that together with all the many other mysteries we still haven't unraveled. I suppose all that gives greater strength to this hypothesis. I want to know more!

Other?

If I think of any others I'll be sure to include them here.

Here's one:

Seems I sometimes hear about certain mysterious cabals that "rule the world" anonymously {secret society(ies)?}. If they do exist, then it's possible that they have the technology to regulate the oxygen level in the atmosphere.

Here's another:

Maybe there is no one "out there" at all? It's entirely possible that our planet is somehow able to regulate the gases in its atmosphere by some natural mechanism, about which I know nothing. So maybe there really is no sentient warden who uses high technology to protect this prison planet? I sincerely hope that isn't the case.

And another:

This seems to be tied closely to the previous entry. Perhaps plants are more sentient and aware than we "sapient" beings have deemed possible? Somehow they "know" just how much O₂ to release into Earth's atmosphere?

Not enough?

If skepticism persists, then how about this? For billions of years our Earth has gone around the Sun. And it has been doing so in a narrow pathway that some astronomers call the "Goldilocks zone". It's called that because of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In that children's story, Goldilocks had to have everything "just right". It's the same for planet Earth going around the Sun. We humans are mostly made of water. If Earth were a little closer to our hot Sun, then all – not just some, ALL – the water (to include us) would evaporate. If Earth were a little farther away from the Sun, then all – not just some, ALL – the liquid water would turn to solid ice. So Earth's path around the Sun is "just right" for water to exist in liquid form. If that isn't convincing enough that someone with advanced technology is out there regulating things, then nothing is – nothing would or could overturn that level of skepticism. My own skepticism has been shredded by these realizations! So color me gullible or even stupid if you like. "Stupid is as stupid does!‍" (How stupid is it to refuse to accept humanity as the highest form of life in this vast, mysterious Universe?)

Mystery of Life

Main un-article: Mystery/Life by P. Ellsworth

Still... Just Not Enough

When we talk about Fear of Death and Fear of the Unknown, it's just not enough to talk about what may or may not come after. Another big part of our Fear of Death is to stress about the particular moment, or perhaps several moments, leading up to our very final breath on Earth. What will it be like? Will I be able to smile back at Death? or will I screech and scream in violent, vulgar PAIN of skyscraper proportions? or will I behave somewhere in between those two extremes? Will I be able to shuffle off this mortal coil with some modicum of pure dignity? or will I violate and embarrass myself by outwardly acting out my fears? How do YOU want your loved ones to remember you?

Only one thing's sure: no matter how much we say we will do something, we can never know until the moment comes just what we actually will do. I sincerely wish you only the best moments and that your life will be high quality right up until the very end! Oh! thoughts like this do keep my entrails entrailing! Peace piece.

What would it take?

To precisely regulate the level of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, we first would have to know precisely how much oxygen is consumed for a given period of time. We would also have to know exactly how much oxygen that plants emit into the air for that same period of time. Plants use sunlight to make the nutrients they need, and oxygen emission is just a byproduct of that process. We would need some sort of machine that can both create oxygen and deplete it when necessary. If the plants of Earth don't produce enough oxygen, then our machine would compensate for the insufficiency. If the plants emit too much oxygen, then our machine would then consume just enough oxygen to maintain the 20.95% figure.

Or... if we had the technology we could simply monitor the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, and our CDM (create/deplete machine) would operate from that measurement. Much less complicated. Frankly, I don't think this technological capability exists yet on Earth, although I could be wrong.

Take a breath

Each of our lives is really something! It is a series of races. You probably don't remember that first race you won. I certainly don't remember my first race. At some point in time before I was born, my father generated many, many sperm cells, of which I was one (and each sperm cell with slight genetic differences). At nearly that same point in time my mother generated one of many, many egg cells, of which I was one (and each egg cell with slight genetic differences). And then the sperm cell that was me swam and swam, and beat all those other sperm cells to Mom's egg cell, pierced the outer membrane of the winning egg cell that was me, and then began to complete the human being that I would become.^{[Note 1]} Even with all the controversy over "When exactly does a human life begin?", we can safely say that before all that happened, I was not alive. Before our daddys' sperm cells came to be, before our mommys' egg cells made it to their uteri and were pierced by our dads' sperm cells, we were not alive.

As a sapient species we traditionally think of the beginning of life as "officially" taking place when one of us plops out of the womb into someone's arms, at the exact time of our birth, that is, about the time when we take our first breath. When I was born I was zero years old. A year later my age was one year old, and so on. One way we measure our age is by the "year", and "year" is an abbreviation for "the time it takes Earth to travel one full circuit around the Sun". I myself am in great awe when I think of how many of those years took place before I was born, how many happened while I was not yet alive. I'm humbled by that. And something else humbles me. At some point in time I am going to die. And I'm humbled when I think of how many of those years will pass after I myself have passed, after I am no longer a living, breathing human being.

Fear

It always seems to be with us to some extent or another. I certainly don't fear those many years that went by before I was conceived and born, so it makes no sense for me to fear those many years that will go by after my heart stops beating and I stop breathing, after I am dead and gone, past carin'. We each get one little period of time under the Sun, during which we are physically, materially and biologically "alive", so we should make the most of it, which just means, "Live your life with love and gratitude, not with fear!‍" The rest of my life I will do my best to "practice what I preach".

The last question

I think this question can be answered – not by me, I have not yet found the answer. This is by the way an intentional nod to Asimov's "The Last Question", an incredibly awesome short story.^{[Note 2]} Here comes the last question on this subject: if all of the green leaves that have fallen from all the trees and all the bushes, all the plants in the entire world, were still able to emit oxygen into the air, but were to just suddenly disappear, how low would the atmospheric oxygen level drop? In other words, how significant is the effect on the atmospheric oxygen of all those leaves that have separated from their branches and yet still generate free oxygen for us to breathe?

{ Weird, right? }

Thank you for reading!

^< * more to come * ^>

Un-article see also

on my Philosophy – 3rd

Notes

Refs

Welcome to one of my many pages, and thank you for coming! Just so you know, I'm not an administrator on Wikipedia – I'd like to be, but I'm not. Many of my subpages are what I call "think pages", because I like to write about things that help me keep my mind sharp. And as I continue to age that seems to become more and more important. Thank you for being here and for reading if you want. I sincerely hope what you see isn't too much of a yawn. Best of everything to you and yours! – P.I. Ellsworth  ed.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.