Читать книгу Mutual Aid - Pablo Servigne - Страница 21

For 3.8 billion years, living creatures have developed a thousand and one ways to associate, to cooperate, to be together or to completely merge. These relations between identical, similar or totally different beings can take many forms: compulsory or optional, temporary or permanent, asymmetric or symmetrical, embedded or in parallel, timid or fusional, conscious or unconscious, momentary or lasting, new or ancestral, surprising or routine.

From mutualisms (diffuse associations between species) to symbioses (compulsory associations), from occasional collective action to fusional coevolution, favours are done and returned in all directions: protection in exchange for food, transport for protection, food for care, information or removal of parasites, and so on. We discover with wonder what is called symbiodiversity.

The living world is teeming with all these interactions, which have been constantly created, invented, transformed, reinforced, broken down and erased ever since life has existed, in a sort of infinite ballet. A vision emerges: that of a changing and multicoloured web of life, woven by some threads that have a shade of competition, predation or parasitism, and by other, very numerous threads that adopt the colours of mutual benefit. It is the diversity of hues and textures that ensures the resilience and longevity of this canvas.

For now, we will note from this quick overview of non-human beings that (1) mutual aid exists, (2) it is ubiquitous and (3) it potentially involves all living creatures, including humans.