Transforming the Landscape: Cyborg Earth Jonathan Wang '10 After
urbanization and warfare, the technology of food has probably
been one of the most significant examples of human manipulation
of the planet. Agriculture attempts to alter the surface of the
Earth to produce crops; irrigation, fertilization, and
landscaping all bring a certain plot of land closer to an ideal
for farming. Humans attempt to bring the Earth from its natural
state into one more conducive for their own survival, and
agriculture might be the most significant human effect on this
planet since it tries to change the way the Earth operates,
attempting to simulate the ideal biomes. Humans have attached
artificial veins and circulation systems in the Earth, rerouting
water, nutrients, and products from their places of abundance to
the places of deficiency. The normally semiarid land and
relatively nutrient poor soil in some parts of California, for
example, has been transformed into an agricultural wonderland
through extensive irrigation ne