[lbo-talk] Bonobo you don't

[ravi]

On 1 May, 2007, at 10:42 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Jerry Monaco wrote:
>>
>> What in the world are you saying?   What does this have to do with  
>> the
>> question?  Why are you saying this?  The question was, questions  
>> that you
>> have not answered:
>
> The question James is answering in the affirmative is "Can the human
> species thrive while 6 billion of them drive luxury automobiles?" You
> are contemptuous of human possibility for suggesting a negative  
> answer.

Me too (contemptuous). The track record seems convincing enough,  
without need for projections. Also, I am interested in more than just  
the human species thriving.

I want to say one other thing, which should come as no surprise to  
those of you who have read my previous posts: when Jerry writes "we  
don't know XYZ" based on a reductionist framework (mirror neurons and  
such), he is echoing a fairly common phrase employed by scientists  
(e.g: Dawkins, deGrasse Tyson) and semi-scientists (Chomsky) which  
includes the subtle claim that the only way for us to "know"  
something is through these reductions. This to me is not a convincing  
argument -- all they are saying is that *they* do not know.

	--ravi