--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Now, humans have become a dominant force…" description: "\"Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary change and, thus, we may have entered an eon of post-biological evolution in which cognitive syst..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg" --- # Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary… ![“Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary change and, thus, we may have entered an eon of post-biological evolution in which cognitive systems have gained a powerful influence on the planet.” quote by David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg) > “Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary change and, thus, we may have entered an eon of post-biological evolution in which cognitive systems have gained a powerful influence on the planet.” [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human activity now reshapes planetary systems, heralding a new evolutionary era dominated by technology. **In simple terms:** Humans are a planetary force, entering a tech‑driven epoch. Key Takeaway Consider the long‑term impact of our innovations. Themes technology environment future ethics Mood thoughtful concerned Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - policy making - education - urban planning - climate research Key Concepts anthropocene post‑biological evolution Questions to Reflect On - What responsibilities arise from this planetary influence? - How can we guide technology toward sustainable evolution? A Different Perspective Future outcomes are uncertain and may be irreversible. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Biological evolution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biological-evolution/) [Biology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biology/) [Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/) [Cognitive Systems](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cognitive-systems-274405/) [Evolution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evolution/) [Evolution Cognitive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evolution-cognitive-274404/) [Influence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/influence/) [Influence Planet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/influence-planet-274406/) [Nature of man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-of-man/) [Planetary Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/planetary-change-274403/) [Powerful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/powerful/) ## Related quotes > [The future is in our hands. We are not hapless bystanders. We can influence whether we have a planet of peace, social justice, equity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-wolfensohn/the-future-is-in-our-hands-we-are-not-hapless-bystanders-we-can/) [James Wolfensohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-wolfensohn/) > [The Anthropocene essentially would be the time of human influence on the planet. That's controversial though, because geology is a retrospective discipline. The rocks…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenneth-lacovara/the-anthropocene-essentially-would-be-the-time-of-human-influence-on/) [Kenneth Lacovara](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenneth-lacovara/) > [The most devastating thing though that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-zindler/the-most-devastating-thing-though-that-biology-did-to-christianity/) [Frank Zindler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-zindler/) > [I am of course getting angry if biologists try to use the general concept 'chance' in order to explain phenomena which are so typical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-paul/i-am-of-course-getting-angry-if-biologists-try-to-use-the-general/) [Wolfgang Paul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-paul/) > [I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/i-seem-to-be-a-brief-light-that-flashes-but-once-in-all-the-aeons-of/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [Ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transitions than we had in Darwin's time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-m-raup/ironically-we-have-even-fewer-examples-of-evolutionary-transitions/) [David M. Raup](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-m-raup/) > [In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-j-futuyma/in-the-broadest-sense-evolution-is-merely-change-and-so-is-all/) [Douglas J. Futuyma](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-j-futuyma/) > [“To compare the rate of progress of the biological evolution of intelligence to that of technological evolution, consider that the most advanced mammals have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-kurzweil/to-compare-the-rate-of-progress-of-the-biological-evolution-of/) [Ray Kurzweil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-kurzweil/) > [“Evolution is largely a temporal phenomenon, Merrill. The environment changes, and populations in that environment change in turn, or they languish. Individual organisms don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-marusek/evolution-is-largely-a-temporal-phenomenon-merrill-the-environment/) [David Marusek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-marusek/) > [“There is a Divine Providence operating over and above the materialistic happenings of biological evolution.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-c-eccles/there-is-a-divine-providence-operating-over-and-above-the/) [John C. Eccles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-c-eccles/) > [We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/we-are-the-product-of-4-5-billion-years-of-fortuitous-slow-biological/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Evolution explains our biological evolution, but human beings are very unique creatures. As the Dobzhansky said, all animals are unique; humans are the uniquest.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-johanson/evolution-explains-our-biological-evolution-but-human-beings-are-very/) [Donald Johanson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-johanson/) > [My colleague Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erroneously suggested that I support the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. That…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-kennedy/my-colleague-sen-rick-santorum-pennsylvania-republican-erroneously/) [Edward Kennedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-kennedy/) > [The Singularity denotes an event that will take place in the material world, the inevitable next step in the evolutionary process that started with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-kurzweil/the-singularity-denotes-an-event-that-will-take-place-in-the-material/) [Ray Kurzweil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-kurzweil/) > [Evolution has just been dealt its death blow. After reading Origins of Life with my background in chemistry and physics, it is clear that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-smalley/evolution-has-just-been-dealt-its-death-blow-after-reading-origins-of/) [Richard Smalley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-smalley/) ## More by David Grinspoon > [I think the best SF writers are very aware of what we, in the scientific community, are doing, thinking, and discovering.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/i-think-the-best-sf-writers-are-very-aware-of-what-we-in-the/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [If we gutted NASA Earth Science, it wouldn't be NOAA or some other agency that would take the lead. It would be the Chinese…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/if-we-gutted-nasa-earth-science-it-wouldn-t-be-noaa-or-some-other/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [When you think about alien intelligences making art, you then have to think about what art is and how bound up it is in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/when-you-think-about-alien-intelligences-making-art-you-then-have-to/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [What if life is not carbon-based? Can life exist as a gas or a plasma? 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One of the quandaries of our field is that we are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/certainly-for-me-as-an-astrobiologist-science-fiction-has-played-an/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [Time and time again, our species has escaped existential threats by reinventing ourselves, finding new skills not coded in our genes to survive new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/time-and-time-again-our-species-has-escaped-existential-threats-by/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [I think that an advanced planetary civilization will modify their own planets to be more stable, to prevent asteroid impacts and dangerous climate fluctuations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/i-think-that-an-advanced-planetary-civilization-will-modify-their-own/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [Responsible global behaviour is ultimately an act of self-preservation of, by, and for the global beast that modern technological humanity has become.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/responsible-global-behaviour-is-ultimately-an-act-of-self/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) > [Venus and Mars are our next of kin: they are the two most Earth-like planets that we know about. They're the only two other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/venus-and-mars-are-our-next-of-kin-they-are-the-two-most-earth-like/) [David Grinspoon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) [Explore all 103 David Grinspoon quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/) ## More Biological evolution quotes > [The most devastating thing though that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-zindler/the-most-devastating-thing-though-that-biology-did-to-christianity/) [Frank Zindler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-zindler/) > [I am of course getting angry if biologists try to use the general concept 'chance' in order to explain phenomena which are so typical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-paul/i-am-of-course-getting-angry-if-biologists-try-to-use-the-general/) [Wolfgang Paul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-paul/) > [I seem to be a brief light that flashes but once in all the aeons of time a rare, complicated, and all-too-delicate organism on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-watts/i-seem-to-be-a-brief-light-that-flashes-but-once-in-all-the-aeons-of/) [Alan Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-watts/) > [The Singularity denotes an event that will take place in the material world, the inevitable next step in the evolutionary process that started with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-kurzweil/the-singularity-denotes-an-event-that-will-take-place-in-the-material/) [Ray Kurzweil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-kurzweil/) > [My colleague Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erroneously suggested that I support the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. That…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-kennedy/my-colleague-sen-rick-santorum-pennsylvania-republican-erroneously/) [Edward Kennedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-kennedy/) > [Evolution explains our biological evolution, but human beings are very unique creatures. As the Dobzhansky said, all animals are unique; humans are the uniquest.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-johanson/evolution-explains-our-biological-evolution-but-human-beings-are-very/) [Donald Johanson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-johanson/) > [We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/we-are-the-product-of-4-5-billion-years-of-fortuitous-slow-biological/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [“There is a Divine Providence operating over and above the materialistic happenings of biological evolution.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-c-eccles/there-is-a-divine-providence-operating-over-and-above-the/) [John C. Eccles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-c-eccles/) > [“Evolution is largely a temporal phenomenon, Merrill. The environment changes, and populations in that environment change in turn, or they languish. Individual organisms don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-marusek/evolution-is-largely-a-temporal-phenomenon-merrill-the-environment/) [David Marusek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-marusek/) > [“To compare the rate of progress of the biological evolution of intelligence to that of technological evolution, consider that the most advanced mammals have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-kurzweil/to-compare-the-rate-of-progress-of-the-biological-evolution-of/) [Ray Kurzweil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-kurzweil/) > [In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-j-futuyma/in-the-broadest-sense-evolution-is-merely-change-and-so-is-all/) [Douglas J. Futuyma](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-j-futuyma/) > [Ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transitions than we had in Darwin's time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-m-raup/ironically-we-have-even-fewer-examples-of-evolutionary-transitions/) [David M. Raup](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-m-raup/) > [Evolution has just been dealt its death blow. After reading Origins of Life with my background in chemistry and physics, it is clear that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-smalley/evolution-has-just-been-dealt-its-death-blow-after-reading-origins-of/) [Richard Smalley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-smalley/) > [It is essential for evolution to become the central core of any educational system, because it is evolution, in the broad sense, that links…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julian-huxley/it-is-essential-for-evolution-to-become-the-central-core-of-any/) [Julian Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julian-huxley/) > [“our primate ancestors was the development of a larger cerebral cortex as well as the development of increased volume of gray-matter tissue in certain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-kurzweil/our-primate-ancestors-was-the-development-of-a-larger-cerebral-cortex/) [Ray Kurzweil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-kurzweil/) [Browse all 32 Biological evolution quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biological-evolution/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary change and, thus, we may have entered an eon of post-biological evolution in which cognitive systems have gained a powerful influence on the planet.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Grinspoon" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force-of-planetary-change-and-thus/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Biological evolution" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force-of-planetary-change-and-thus/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/david-grinspoon-5141_biological-evolution_now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force_812431.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Now, humans have become a dominant force of planetary change and, thus, we may have entered an eon of…” — David Grinspoon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "David Grinspoon", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-grinspoon/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Now, humans have become a dominant...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force-of-planetary-change-and-thus/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-grinspoon/now-humans-have-become-a-dominant-force-of-planetary-change-and-thus/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```