It's still debatable whether we've abandoned the evolutionary ladder.
Joel Send a noteboard - 19/08/2011 11:16:58 PM
Your logic here is compelling; educating and reforming self destructive species is a lot more reasonable and intelligent than genocide.
We're not self-destructive and nobody would need to 'teach us', just send a short signal. I really doubt 'self-destructive' can meaningfully describe any creature that clawed it's way up the evolutionary ladder anyway.
Our ability to adapt is still pretty impressive, but the last few hundred thousand years we've increasingly preferred to adapt our environment to us rather than the reverse. That's long been humanitys great strength, but it remains to be seen whether it "scales", as they say. From the perspective of the "adapt or die" axiom, refusing to adapt and demanding the environment do so is less than encouraging; it only works so long as one has the ability to adapt ones environment so it's survivable (at which humanity has generally excelled) without inadvertently changing it in a way that causes extinction. Meanwhile, the environment remains subject to uncontrollable changes from the outside while humanitys ability to adapt ourselves atrophies through disuse.
In terms of the evolutionary ladder itself, it's too soon to say whether homo sapiens is more than a curious anomaly; despite our accomplishments, a 200,000 year old species can't reasonably claim to be much more than freaks. In specific terms of our distinctive habit of surviving hostile environments by altering them rather than ourselves, our species has only been around 50,000 years. For evolution, on the level of geologic and biologic time, that's not a proven success, but a work in progress; if you want a testament to evolutionary strength and longevity, try the crocodiles that have been around 1000 times longer. It's an open secret human civilization in its current form is unsustainable; if we don't nuke ourselves, poison ourselves or unleash (or stumble upon) an extinction level pandemic, Peak Oil will radically alter our standard of living within a few decades. That's assuming, despite the growing mountain of evidence, that global warming is just a hoax cooked up by Neo-Luddites who just have some pathological hatred of technology (despite careers in highly technical disciplines) and it's not already too late to avoid the most catastrophic consequences. Frankly, I expect any day to start hearing that, yes, industry is finally accepting the factually supported view that man significantly contributes to global warming, just as it eventually admitted global warming is happening and eventually admitted that's doing significant harm. Then they'll just start telling us it's too late to do anything about it and we should all just sit back and enjoy the ride but, yes, that's a TAD self destructive.
Yes, our current standard operating procedure is self destructive, and the fact we haven't managed to annihilate ourselves in the 50 millennia since we developed it doesn't change that. If we want to ride the evolutionary train to success (or at least survival) we'll have to get back on it first. I've heard it said that even an animal knows not to crap where it eats; that may be the best argument that human beings are no longer truly animals. An extraterrestrial species advanced enough for interstellar travel would have every reason to see human beings as an infestation of Earth, something wasting and destroying renewable resources they could better and indefinitely exploit in our absence. Whether or not we ever encounter such a species, our own survival depends on abandoning an adversarial relationship with our ecosystem and rediscovering a mutualistic one before we're all living in and off of Soylent Green while we wait for the planet to die.
I'm not advocating Luddism, just perspective, the realization that bigger is no more INHERENTLY any better for commerce, industry or technology than for government.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
This message last edited by Joel on 19/08/2011 at 11:30:10 PM
If ever there was a reason to cut greenhouse gas emissions
19/08/2011 10:14:00 AM
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I've seen Start Trek, I know the real threat is you killing whales.
19/08/2011 10:34:08 AM
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I know
19/08/2011 10:36:22 AM
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You make a fair point
19/08/2011 11:22:53 AM
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There's so much wrong with that
19/08/2011 01:08:57 PM
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"They don't recycle; kill them all. "
19/08/2011 07:11:15 PM
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Very Space Hippy
19/08/2011 10:39:10 PM
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It's still debatable whether we've abandoned the evolutionary ladder.
19/08/2011 11:16:58 PM
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You'll welcome to debate that with a biologist, it's not my specialty or interest
20/08/2011 04:46:43 AM
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I've seen a lot of mainstream biologists suggest human evolution may be mostly mental now.
21/08/2011 11:32:48 AM
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Neither of us are biologists though and it's not really relveant anyway
21/08/2011 01:21:06 PM
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I'm not ignoring it, just wondering why over half the planet ignores it and lives in misery.
21/08/2011 01:55:53 PM
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If you have occassion to spend time in those places you'll know why
21/08/2011 02:38:44 PM
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How does literal mud huts as the norm respresent living standards rising "a lot".
22/08/2011 12:29:35 AM
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You seem to have cherry-picked what you wanted to hear out of my comments
22/08/2011 01:07:10 AM
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"It's a stability thing, not a Western greed thing" seemed to encapsulate your comments.
22/08/2011 03:10:17 PM
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Only if you really cherry pick them
23/08/2011 02:48:08 AM
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This seems to have descended into an insoluble partisan debate.
23/08/2011 07:43:07 PM
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*rudely butts in*
23/08/2011 04:38:33 AM
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American companies don't go to China SOLELY to screw the working class, no;that's largely incidental
25/08/2011 08:03:05 PM
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we should abdon the myth of the evolutionary ladder
20/08/2011 11:49:35 PM
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Probably; as discussed in Brams thread it should never be seen as predictive, let alone prophetic.
21/08/2011 11:55:09 AM
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Well, for this context I think the use is okay
21/08/2011 11:59:19 AM
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That's an interesting point about the NEED for fossil fuels as a stepping stone to advanced culture.
21/08/2011 12:33:59 PM
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Not a need, just an edge
21/08/2011 02:06:23 PM
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There's industrialization and then there's industrialization.
22/08/2011 12:53:35 AM
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If you were more familiar with engineering you'd not say something like that
22/08/2011 01:53:33 AM
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I dispute that industrialization is primarily about non-agricultural production.
22/08/2011 03:10:19 PM
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Well you can argue that with a dictionary I suppose
23/08/2011 03:50:52 AM
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I'm not above that, but the dictionary definitions I've found are disappointingly self-referential.
24/08/2011 02:25:21 AM
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That tends to be the case, it is a kinda vague term outside of specific context
24/08/2011 09:12:19 AM
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Tends to moot that part of the debate though.
26/08/2011 12:31:21 AM
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and we wonder why so many people ignore "scientist"
19/08/2011 01:17:38 PM
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Think it's better to ignore "reporters on a slow news day," to be honest *NM*
19/08/2011 02:38:23 PM
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Hypothetical aliens are perfectly wise
19/08/2011 06:24:13 PM
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You may be confusing aliens with God.
19/08/2011 07:08:01 PM
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