Posted on 04/02/2006 2:57:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
What would happen if a world-renowned scientist and evolutionary ecologist told hundreds of his colleagues that 90 percent of the human race needed to be wiped out by exposure to ebola or some other deadly virus?
Apparently, according to a scientist who claims to have witnessed such a remarkable event one month ago, the fiend would get a standing ovation and an award.
Forrest Mims III |
That's the story being told by Forrest Mims III, a member of the Texas Academy of Science, chairman of its environmental science section and editor of the Citizen Scientist.
The speech Mims heard was delivered by Eric R. Pianka, a lizard expert from the University of Texas. It is recounted in detail in the latest issue of the Citizen Scientist.
"We're no better than bacteria," Mims quoted Pianka as saying in his condemnation of the human race, which, he claimed, is overpopulating the Earth.
The only way to save the planet for the rest of the species is to reduce the human population to 10 percent of its current number.
Eric R. Pianka |
"He then showed solutions for reducing the world's population in the form of a slide depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," writes Mims. "War and famine would not do, he explained. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. Pianka then displayed a slide showing rows of human skulls, one of which had red lights flashing from its eye sockets. AIDS is not an efficient killer, he explained, because it is too slow. His favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. However, Professor Pianka did not mention that Ebola victims die a slow and torturous death as the virus initiates a cascade of biological calamities inside the victim that eventually liquefy the internal organs."
Mims notes that when Pianka finished his remarks, the audience of fellow scientists and students burst out in sustained applause.
During a question-and-answer sessions, the audience laughed approvingly when Pianka offered the bird flu as another vehicle toward achieving his goal. They also chuckled when he suggested it was time to sterilize everyone on Earth.
"What kind of reception have you received as you have presented these ideas to other audiences that are not representative of us?" asked one member of the audience.
"I speak to the converted!" Pianka replied.
Mims said he spoke glowingly of the police state in China that enforces a one-child policy.
"Smarter people have fewer kids," Mims quoted Pianka as saying.
Following the question-and-answer session, Mims says "almost every scientist, professor and college student present stood to their feet and vigorously applauded the man who had enthusiastically endorsed the elimination of 90 percent of the human population. Some even cheered. Dozens then mobbed the professor at the lectern to extend greetings and ask questions."
Mims notes five hours later, the Texas Academy of Science presented Pianka with a plaque in recognition of his being named 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.
"When the banquet hall filled with more than 400 people responded with enthusiastic applause, I walked out in protest," he writes.
Mims, an electronics author, has written some 60 books that have sold 7.5 million copies.
Am I misunderstanding your point that you wish to die as a mass muderer/suicide?
Probably.
So9
Geez, when you educate an idiot, you get an educated idiot with a degree.
Shake-your-head-in-disbelief PING
They must be working for Bin Laden, he funds such people for murderous purposes.
Ops4 God Bless America!
Dr. Weston in Perelandra could do no better.
"...but a planet with only 1 billion people, like it was in 1900 would be a lot more comfortable."
The only reason life was 'more comfortable' in 1900 was due largely to ignorance. We were not aware of daily events around the world, foreign despots, etc. I agree that areas are getting somewhat crowded, but I think nature will take care of it should it become a problem. (Bird flu comes to mind)
What is the basis for the assertion that mankind is more than just a biological process?
Cordially,
The fact that mankind creates higher culture and is not entirely subject to natural conditions. Mankind is able to incorporate lessons from the past in order to live better in the present. Animals react in an instinctive manner rather than an intelligent one and their abilities to adapt are quite limited.
Just listening to Mozart is sufficient proof of a higher nature within mankind. Abstract thought is also evidence of a spiritual nature.
True.
Insane.
My point exactly. Thanks for the link.
Maybe we could start with the people who applauded the presentation and then wait and see.
LOL!!
Mims is one of the fathers of personal computing.
He was co-founder of MITS, which produced the Altair 8800 -- the first personal computer on the market, back in 1975.
Interesting sidenote: Bill Gates got his start by writing his BASIC interpreter for the Altair. So, if not for Mims, there would quite likely not have been a Microsoft!
Forest Mims is a very well-known, very credible individual. (I remember reading his stuff Way Back When, in the '60s, when I was a budding young electronics hobbyist.)
Thanks. I like your tagline.
Like all liberals, he means for the 90% to be everybody else, not him of course.
Of course, Mims left MITS before the Altair was invented; Mims sold his interest for $100.00. Mims should get little credit for Gates use of Basic as Mims wasn't part of the company at that time. pdf link Mims left in 1971, the Altair was introduced in 1975.
I'd say that the statements from the guy's students are pretty damning evidence of what he's been preaching.
It would still be nice to have some other confirmation. Mims only gave his paraphrase of what this guy said. Single-source paraphrases are about as accurat as a single movie review.
After he left he maintained ties with the company (i.e., he wrote tech docs for them).
Of course, Mims left MITS before the Altair was invented; Mims sold his interest for $100.00. Mims should get little credit for Gates use of Basic as Mims wasn't part of the company at that time. pdf link Mims left in 1971, the Altair was introduced in 1975.
As to the legacy leading to Gates, my point was that without Mims, there'd not likely have been a MITS; without MITS, there'd have been no Altair 8800. Without the Altair 8800, Gates would have avoided the college drop-out route and become a successful student. :)
To cut Mims out of that sequence would be like cutting G. Washington out of the history of the USA, asserting that he has no claim to the greatness that the nation manifested over the next couple of hundred years, because, "he was long dead when most of that stuff happened." :)
(I said that he was a "father" of the PC, not the "guardian" -- in the same sense that GW is referred to as the "father of the nation.")
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