Oh, Bowser...
That was a stretch. As a conservative, Tom might be loathe to admit this, but what he's talking about is reminiscent of the Gaia Hypothesis, which describes all life on Earth as part of a planetary meta-organism, with humanity playing the part of its brain. If you look at it that way, we're supposed to be stewards of life on Earth, and we're developing technology as a way to protect it from large-scale hazards like asteroids.
We're also (supposed to be) developing technology to propogate life to other worlds. In other words, humans are Gaia's reproductive organs.
Some of us are further along that path than others...;-)
--Robert