i like the idea, gargoyle, i think you're onto something. i had a related, though fairly dissimilar, idea some time ago. reality depends on the detail you observe it from. so for us, we see humans as being separate from everything else, but another intelligence might look at earth and see only one animal. in fact, an even more greatly detached intelligence might look at our universe as one system with no significant internal structure. i think it all really depends on how far you can blur your perception. i definitely think that earth might be like an organism. but then why should it divide? cells can die, too. maybe that's where we're headed. if we don't reproduce first.