The physical earth appears to have its own intelligence system that is capable of self-correcting behavior, as suggested in James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. Lovelock has compiled a great deal of evidence which would tend to indicate that the entire biosphere of earth, including its atmosphere, the oceans, and the soil, forms a self-regulating system that maintains those conditions within which life can flourish.¹⁴

Large physical systems such as the earth are basically constructed out of non-living matter; however, so is all living tissue. Our planet's surface is coated with a multitude of living organisms, including a great deal of plant life. One might argue that plants exist more as part of an extension of the earth's crust rather than as separate individual entities, somewhat similar to the way that the outer layer of cells forms skin tissue on living organisms. Plant life not only acts as a food source for most living organisms, but also restores oxygen to the atmosphere as part of earth's self-regulating mechanism.

All organisms which are presently in existence or have ever existed on earth are part of its intelligence system. By admitting that all of us are part of a larger local intelligence entity does not take away from our own individual importance or that of any other organism. Each of our bodies originated from the atoms and molecules comprising the earth's crust and they will eventually return to it, yet intelligence on earth will continue to evolve just as it always has.

As the universe continues to expand, many other physical systems (stars and planets) that presently manifest less variation and complexity than our earth will undergo a similar evolutionary process of becoming increasingly complex in information. The nature of the physical object and its proximity to other objects will in part determine its destiny based upon physical law. Nevertheless, all physical systems with sufficient energy will become more complex through an evolutionary process.

Not all large physical bodies are destined to maintain life as our earth is doing, but some will and indeed already must be doing so; and those living, evolving forms will have a great variety of different presentations, just as those of our own earth have had.

The spectrum or continuum of intelligence thus appears to extend even beyond the limitations for life forms as stated in a previous section. It ultimately seems to contribute to the destiny of all non-living matter as well. The question need not be asked as to whether intelligence made or invented the laws which allowed its evolution, since those laws are an inherent part of the universe just as is intelligence.

Even though the presence of intelligence in non-living matter has yet to be proven, the Integrated Theory of Intelligence predicts that it governs all inorganic material substance as a continuum.

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