From: "Dave Sill" <dsill@highland.net>
> Nan Madol is a series of nearly a hundred man-made islands and canals
with
> massive structures built from 30- to 50-ton basalt columns. Few people
know
> it exists. Nobody knows anything about the builders. The site has never
been
> rigorously surveyed or studied. It's currently a minor tourist
attraction.
> Much of it is still overgrown and unexplored. I find this
incomprehensible.
It's not that difficult to comprehend. It's overgrown because it's
unexplored, and it's unexplored because, being overgrown, it's hard to
explore. Everyone knows about Stonehenge because descendents of the people
who built this (comparatively) paltry edifice went on to discover science
and to colonize distant continents. Descendents of Nan Madol didn't. So,
evidently it doesn't matter what kind of ruins a civilization leaves
behind as much as it matters what Type of civilization a population
builds.
--J. R.
The genes harbor their own wisdom and their own inertia.
Evolution is a technological, mathematical, informational, and biological
process rolled into one. It could almost be said to be a law of physics, a
principle that reigns over all created multitudes, whether they have genes
or not.
--KK
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:18 MDT