I never sleep!
Posted on 04/14/2004 6:15:04 AM PDT by Momaw Nadon
One thing about an overreliance on natural selection to extrapolate the future of H. sapiens - we cheat. We change the environment, not the other way around, and we change ourselves too, both behaviorally (culture is, actually, an evolutionary ploy) and physically, from artificial limbs to genetic therapeutics. H. sapiens may at some point be as extince as H. neanderthalensis but humans may just go rolling right along.
They were pushed...and Bush knew!
Prove it.
Assuming for a moment that the proposition is true; does that mean that I, er... the atoms, I mean, er... the atoms that comprise 'me' mean, have any choice as to whether or not I, er... the atoms that comprise 'me' believe it? What if the atoms that comprise 'me' should happen to cause a different outcome in belief about consciousness residing in the hydrogen atoms than the atoms that comprise 'you'? How could either or any atoms possibly be considered by any conlgomeration of other hydrogen atoms to be "wrong", or 'incorrect'? How can pure physical forces that are nothing but the product of imperssonal evolutionary processes possibly produce anything that is wrong or incorrect?
Cordially,
Is that a necessary premise?
With rather tastefully-appointed tombs.
There is no mystery. The Neanderthals were killed off in war. Humans do not evolve slowly or naturally as other animals do. Most human evolution occurs during war. Darwin himself wrote about this however leftist academics reject that humans are natural born killers. It does not agree with their narcissistic view of themselves or their view of the world.
The logic behind the "longer life spans" argument seems particularly strong, given that susceptibility does go up with age.
It's always something.
It isn't likely to avail in the long run. We are highly specialized vertibrates, with a boatload of maintenance problems. Earthworms or cockroaches are about the highest form of life that are likely to last as long as the sun shines.
Amongst other things, we are slow-breeding large social predators. Deprive us of natural selection in the form of wolves and bears and snakes and routine starvation-which is another description of "cheating"--and our genome will spread in every direction, regardless of the maladaption resulting. This does not augure well for the long term survival of our offspring.
A species survives because it is good at something at the genetic level. The more you substitute your brains for your genes, the less the genes adapt. Unless you can somehow assure that the adaptions of your brain remain useful for millenia, more technological intervention with natural selection will mean more drastic consequences whenever the bubble goes up, and your technological prowess fails you.
In other words, survival to the point of overwhelming the environment as a factor in your own survival, by brainpower, or any other means, contains the seeds of it's own distruction. Analogies to this case can be observed in almost any petri-dish, or runaway refrigerator experiment every performed.
It isn't likely to avail in the long run. We are highly specialized vertibrates, with a boatload of maintenance problems. Earthworms or cockroaches are about the highest form of life that are likely to last as long as the sun shines.
Amongst other things, we are slow-breeding large social predators. Deprive us of natural selection in the form of wolves and bears and snakes and routine starvation-which is another description of "cheating"--and our genome will spread in every direction, regardless of the maladaption resulting. This does not augure well for the long term survival of our offspring.
A species survives because it is good at something at the genetic level. The more you substitute your brains for your genes, the less the genes adapt. Unless you can somehow assure that the adaptions of your brain remain useful for millenia, more technological intervention with natural selection will mean more drastic consequences whenever the bubble goes up, and your technological prowess fails you.
In other words, survival to the point of overwhelming the environment as a factor in your own survival, by brainpower, or any other means, contains the seeds of it's own distruction. Analogies to this case can be observed in almost any petri-dish, or runaway refrigerator experiment ever performed.
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