[Khaled] What I meant here, is that while we had to expand energy to get food, now we can go to a supermarket and get a basketful of fatty goods that will do our body more harm than good. Technology made that possible. Technology is wonderful. I personally know that if it was not for modern dentistry all I would be having is apple sauce for dinner. [Krimel] I think this is a good example of why I think purpose is not a good concept to apply to evolution. In the good old days of hunting and gathering meals might be hard to come by and those who could efficiently store energy did not starve and passed their genes along. But today this ability results in obesity and poor health. Probably not poor enough to inhibit reproductive success but still enough to cause health problems.
Now we are supposed to rely on good sense to recognize that times have changed and the smart thing to do is eat sensibly and exercise. I don't think most people, even smart people have that kind of good sense. I mentioned Kurzweil yesterday. He is telling people to use good sense and hold out another 10 to 15 years and technology will be able to correct these problems. There is already a pill for rats that's lets the eat all they want and remain slim without risk of heart disease or diabetes. [Khaled] When Kamal Pasha wanted to bring Turkey in the modern world, he abolished the use of the Eastern alphabet ( mainly Arabic) to write Turkish words, and overnight turkey became illiterate. Scholars sat down and devised way for Turkey to keep speaking their language but write using the Latin alphabet. Well guess what is happening in neighboring countries these days? These changes are becoming about automatically as the younger generations is hooked on their cell phones and computer keyboards. [Krimel] Along the same lines there was an antitrust suit against IBM years ago that be the time it was settled IBM no longer had anything like a monopoly. I am reminded of the Guru Groucho Marx who said, "Time wounds all heels." [Khaled] My point exactly. So who gets to play god when a medical procedure is going to cast $250,000 dollars and the child will not live to see her 10th birthday. That kind of money can be used to provide preventative medicine for hundreds of kids. [Krimel] In the Kurzweil mode I would think if we hold out another 20 years maybe money won't be a factor anymore. Already capitalism is straining to enforce private property rights on ideas and intangibles. If what people are saying about the coming of nanotechnology is true there will be virtually no cost of production of anything. Think replicators from Star Trek. moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
