> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Dennis R Redmond
> Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 3:20 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Cybersilliness
>
>
> On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, Christopher Susi wrote:
>
> > planet). Should I care or not? On the one hand, you'd have to be a
> > "monster" to watch a 'feed-the-children' advertisement and not feel some
> > form of emotion at the images of children starving to death.
> On the other
> > hand, there is another part that says "This is life in it's
> rawest grittiest
> > form. This has happened for hundreds of millions of years, and
> will likely
> > continue to happen in one form or another for another hundred
> million years
> > or more." Who am I to change that process?
>
> "Will likely"? How do you know? There's nothing natural about starving
> kids, or watching images broadcast by feel-good, do-nothing charities in
> an effort to guilt-trip us, or even the revulsion we feel at being
> manipulated by such images in the media. Social history can *feel* like
> natural history, but it isn't.
It's just as natural as any other group that dies off due to lack of available resources to them. Why are humans exempt from the laws of nature that in times of scarcity the population thins or may become extinct. The only difference is that humans are probably the first species that is able to understand what is happeneing and to control their envioronment. So just because one group is now able to help redistribute resources from a , there is somehow a duty to do so? Why, other than to somehow appease my guilt or fear of being the one left behind.
Of course, humans may also be the ones hoarding the resources and causing the lack of resources to be available. Yet somehow you don't find this also to be natural? In nature, when Species A gains a competitive advantage (runs faster) and becomes Species A1, do you think Species A1 would ever share this new found ability to gather food with Species A. Of course not, the prior one (if unable to surivive) dies. This is life.
> As for cyborgs -- they're already here. Every 1st world citizen is a
> highly engineered product of nutritional science, medicine, education,
> technology, etc. And we already have intelligent AIs with powerful
> neural networks, voice-recognition capability and olfactory detection
> systems: just ask any dog-owner.
Damn striaght. I argue that 500,000 years ago when man used the first tool he set the process in motion.