Ah, the joys of anthropocentrism.
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Oh my!
>
> Each will want what the other does not have. Eternal life, exquisite
animal
> needs, some of both but no mastery of either. Therefore, as I commanded
[by
> Your command], we should strive for extending the life of the flesh and
keep
> death, build eternal machines, and provide interfaces for both. It should
be
> possible to upload the mind of the animal to the machine, and download the
> mind of the machine to the animal, and then we [child of Adam, child of
Eve,
> child of both] will be mobile. That is, a life as long as we choose, and
> death when we need it [given, or freely chosen].
Ah, but religion does not aprove of suicide, and if one has life that can
only be terminated by free-will, then all death will be suicide. Then
again, the process of uploading memmories from a man to a machine will
probably be opposed by most churches... you know all those arguments about
souls and all.
> But that's way on the horizon, and doesn't even bear thinking about.
Actually, one part of that doesn't seem reachable to me at all. I
seriously doubt that the technology to download memmories from a machine to
a man will *ever* be possible. Even if we can reach the point were we can
map human memmories to a machine (God forbid... there goes any sense of
privacy), I doubt the technology to re-wire nuerons in the brain will ever
be developed.
> Green houses in places of the sun, where otherwise useless.
> Roads in every climate.
> Keep the Amazon river basin chaste, but build roads there anyway.
> Roads around the mountains, lakes, are the alternate, though less
efficient
> means of land access. We build the cable ferries for speed.
> Trains are outdated technology, analogous to wired phone systems.
> Satellites work as well in moon orbit and are less intrusive than when in
> Earth orbit. We should strive to keep pollution at a minimum.
> The moon is our desert; that's why we have Australia.
> I think there's a purpose for having desert areas on our Earth, go figure
it
> out.
Ah yes, the human utopia. Not a good idea. It is a terrible idea to have
the whole of human existance dependant on technology. Without the earth
having a sustainable ecosystem, should the technology needed to fill up the
holes we punched in the ecosystem fail, then it would mean the certain
destruction of humanity and any other species that depends on similar needs.
Roads, roads, roads... technology, technology, technology. If these things
are so great, then why do people go to see nature on vacation. I know,
strange to hear from someone who works in technology. Not my first choice
of careers, but it pays the bills (usually anyway, but not recently though).
We need to stop human expansion into pristine areas of nature, and start
reversing some of the damage we have already done, not go do more damage.
To those with religious furvor who say "God will save us." I have a parable
(I do not remember the source):
A man was sitting in his house watching the television, suddenly an
emergency report comes on the TV warning of a bad storm and a likely flood.
The person on the television advised all people to evacuate. The man said
calmly to himself "I believe in God, He will save me".
The flood came, and as water rose to the level of his knee he decided
to climb up on the roof of his house. He began to pray for God to save him.
Later, when the floodwaters were 6 feet deep, a rescue boat went by.
The person piloting the boat said "Come on, get in the boat." The man
looked at the boat pilot and said, "I do not need rescuing. I believe in
God, He will save me." He continued to pray.
Later, the floodwaters were then starting over the edge of the roof. A
rescue helicoptor flew above the house. A rescue operator from within the
helicoptor lowered a ladder shouted to the man, "Climb the ladder, you have
to get out of here now!" The man calmly replied "I don't need rescuing, I
believe in God, and He will save me." He again continued to pray.
As the floodwaters swept above the rooftops, the man was carried away
by the water and he drowned. As the man approached God in the afterlife he
asked God, "Lord, I prayed for you to save me from the floodwaters, but the
floodwaters came and took me anyway. Why didn't you save me?" God replied,
"I tried to save you, three times, but each time I did, you turned the help
away."
Even in the bible, God has always spoken through people, Moses, Elijah, all
the other prophets, and Jesus. Those who think that God is going to save
us, how do you know that He isn't already trying to save us through the
people telling us we have to stop damaging the earth?
Those arrogant enough to think we can continue to damage the earth and save
ourselves, I have one question: If we are unable to repair the damage we
have done so far, even with all our technology, how will we fix even more
damage later?
Things to think about. I am now stepping down from my environmentalist
soap-box. I hope I don't have to step up to it again any time soon... such
discussions sometimes get quite heated.
Michael Harney
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
