From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Sun Dec 19 1999 - 19:42:25 MST
In a message dated 12/19/99 11:40:36 AM Central Standard Time,
bradbury@www.aeiveos.com writes:
> If you think about this and put good nutrition for your child up against
> monarch butterflies, I'm going to bet the butterfly loses.
As I pointed out in another post, practicing law for a long time may well
have made me into a "professional worrier", which in its most extreme form is
probably inconsistent with "rational optimism" - thus perhaps my regular
homilies on the subject of the latter. The point of my unremitting harping
on the threats posed by the Greens is the one I made this morning: I do not
believe there is any predestined path of history, and there ARE examples of
societies turning their backs on important scientific and technological
breakthroughs. Western quasi-capitalist societies are probably the least
likely to do so, but there IS a battle for "hearts and minds" shaping up.
The cultural forces that will be arrayed against transhumanism are formidable
and insidious: Just look at the discussion of the pro-death, pro-limits theme
of "Bicentennial Man" we've had here the last couple of days.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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