From: Jeffrey Fabijanic (jeff@primordialsoft.com)
Date: Sun May 02 1999 - 15:33:34 MDT
Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>We should push ahead as much as possible. Fears of the passing of the
>human race are IMHO rather premature and naive. You forget that even
>today, there are humans living a near stone age existence, and we have
>not exterminated the other ape species either.
I'm confused by what you mean by this statement.
Do you mean that the existence of those populations, even after all the
transformations that have taken place so far under the Reign of Modern Man,
implies that any future transfomations will also be by necessity incomplete
or reversible?
Or did you mean that those still existing primative humans and apes are a
sort of "backup" in case we manage to destroy our civilization, or even our
entire race, by some accident of (nano)technology?
Neither of these would seem particularly rational beliefs, given the nigh
omnipotent reach and power of the technologies we are discussing, nor of
our previous track record. I would just point out that most
anthropaleontolgists would agree that the current fossil record implies
that many hominid and primate species may have been supplanted and
extincted by genus homo - before we ever had anything better than sharp
sticks and stones. [And we are pretty much close enough to causing the
extinction as will soon make no difference to the Mountain Gorillas. The
Orangutangs and the Bonobos aren't doing so hot under the Reign of Modern
Man either.]
I think it is clear that even at our current level of technology, we are
capable of wasting/destroying all primate life on the planet. Caution, when
entering the age of a potentially more powerful technology than any we have
discovered before, would seem to be the rational and wise choice.
- jeff
| Jeffrey Fabijanic, Designer The Future exists,
| Primordial Software first in Imagination,
| "Software of the First Order" then in Will,
| Boston, MA * (617) 983-1369 and finally in Reality.
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