This post is reproduced from my blog "The Proud Holobionts" where I explore how the new concept of "Holobiont" can find applications not only in biology, but in many fields dealing with complex systems, including the human economy, memetics, and ecosystems
The short movie abov, Vikaari, has recently appeared on the "Dust" site and I think has several interesting features, relevant to the concept of holobionts.
It
is very well done as a movie, although it is deeply contradictory in
many aspects. For one thing, it is a narrative disaster. First, the
movie tells you that the "Vikaari", children born without a visible iris
in the eyes, are good people, while being the target of Nazi-like bad guys.
Then, we see the Vikaari killing their pursuers using their
psychokinetic powers in bloody and cruel ways, apparently without any
regret. Needless to say, this completely destroys the narrative tension
of the movie and leaves you totally baffled about what the filmmakers
wanted to say.
Indeed,
I think the filmmakers were badly confused on several planes. First of
all, in their decision of presenting this "new race" of children as
something that will replace current human beings, engaged in destroying
their own planet. Is this a hope or a fear? Difficult to say, but surely
evolution doesn't work in that way.
And
then, why the choice of iris-less eyes as a defining mark? It is rare that people
consciously perceive the characteristics of the irises of their
fellow human beings. But the shape of the iris tells us much of the
genetic inheritance of a person. On this point, the film-makers got it
right, although in reverse. A human being without a visible iris is not
a modern human.
And
then, there are limbal rings. The dark ring that surrounds the iris.
Also a typical epigamic signal, they are likely to be a feature of the
modern main organism of the human holobionts. Here you see the eyes of
Sarah Brightman, a modern human specimen. Note the light green
color and well detectable limbal rings. As epigamic signals go, Ms.
Brightman is surely beaming them out loud and clear!
Note the difference from other mammalian eyes. Most animals, even our close relatives, the apes, have dark eyes, no limbal rings, and not even a large and well detectable sclera. You see it in the image: this (probably) female bonobo doesn't look at all like Sarah Brightman, although she also surely sends powerful epigamic signals to the males of her species.
The
existence of these films shows our limited understanding, and also
limited tolerance, of what makes humans human. A small difference in the
extent of the sclera or in the color of the iris is sufficient to turn
otherwise fully human creatures into enemies, at least in these fiction
pieces. But we all know very well that it happens also in the real world
for other, no more important genetic traits, such as skin color.
There
is a thin line that separates the horrible from the attractive: nobody
would be killed for having green eyes, but the white-eyed Vikaari could
be if they existed for real. But that's the way evolution works.
Sometimes gradually, sometimes in bumps. The human holobiont of the
future will not be the same as it is now and it was in the past. It is
the giant holobiont that we call the ecosphere that changes all the
time. Onward, fellow holobionts!
Finally, for your curiosity, the "Statue of a Standing Nude Goddess,"
presently at the Louvre Museum and coming from excavations in the
Middle East. Note the eyes without irises. It is not clear if that was a
bug or a feature: once they had decided to use rubies for the eyes of
this statuette, there was no way they could have shown irises and pupils.
But maybe it was intentional: this figure may have been supposed to be
somewhat otherworldly or even threatening. Note the horns on her head, a
typical attribute of the Moon Goddess. Already at the time when it was
made, probably the 2nd century CE, goddesses were rather unpopular and
suspicious, not unlike our modern witches.
