Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>We should push ahead as much as possible. Fears of the passing of the
>human race are IMHO rather premature and naive. You forget that even
>today, there are humans living a near stone age existence, and we have
>not exterminated the other ape species either.
I'm confused by what you mean by this statement.
Do you mean that the existence of those populations, even after all the transformations that have taken place so far under the Reign of Modern Man, implies that any future transfomations will also be by necessity incomplete or reversible?
Or did you mean that those still existing primative humans and apes are a sort of "backup" in case we manage to destroy our civilization, or even our entire race, by some accident of (nano)technology?
Neither of these would seem particularly rational beliefs, given the nigh omnipotent reach and power of the technologies we are discussing, nor of our previous track record. I would just point out that most anthropaleontolgists would agree that the current fossil record implies that many hominid and primate species may have been supplanted and extincted by genus homo - before we ever had anything better than sharp sticks and stones. [And we are pretty much close enough to causing the extinction as will soon make no difference to the Mountain Gorillas. The Orangutangs and the Bonobos aren't doing so hot under the Reign of Modern Man either.]
I think it is clear that even at our current level of technology, we are capable of wasting/destroying all primate life on the planet. Caution, when entering the age of a potentially more powerful technology than any we have discovered before, would seem to be the rational and wise choice.
| Jeffrey Fabijanic, Designer The Future exists, | Primordial Software first in Imagination, | "Software of the First Order" then in Will, | Boston, MA * (617) 983-1369 and finally in Reality.