[Ian to DMB]
The passing of the library or museum and (most of) it's contents into
the reality of oblivion, but also it's own mythology, has a bigger
benefit to future cultures than if the preserved contents (books and
artefacts) are simply assimilated into the libraries of future cultures.
[Arlo]
Hi, Ian. Yes, from a larger view I agree. Evolution requires seismic
events. The Reign of Mammals was possible only because of the event
that precipitated the extinction of the dinosaurs. The problem is
that its entirely possible that from a smaller viewpoint, where "we"
are may indeed be at a lesser quality point than had (in this
example) the knowledge in the LoA been preserved. For example,
Western arrogance and hegemony derives from (among other things) the
view that non-Western (and pre-Western) cultures are inferior, a
belief stemming from the idea that ALL modern knowledge was
"discovered" or "invented" by Enlightened White Men. We are only now
rediscovering that "ancient" cultures possessed knowledge that
pre-dated Europe's "discoveries", for example understanding
precession and engineering. In any case, maybe someday intelligent
hydrogen clouds will be talking about the asteroid that ended the
Mammalian Era, and the loss of the LoA will be as forgotten as the
day the last T-Rex died.
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