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Hawking Says Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution
movesguy sends us to The Daily Galaxy for comments by Stephen Hawking about how humans are evolving in a different way than any species before us. Quoting:
"'At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information. I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race,' Hawking said. In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, 'an external transmission phase,' where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. 'But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage,' Hawking says, 'has grown enormously. Some people would use the term evolution only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes.'"
Well, if a pilot told me that most aircraft are actually flown by blind gophers on LSD, I'd tell him to fuck off, too.
Some claims can be substantiated with an Argument From Authority - others can not. That's why when "Dr." Stephen Jones tells me that he's found "thermate residue" in the wreckage of the twin towers, I can laugh in his face and say "that's rust and sulfur, you fucking moron!". The fact that he has the letters "PhD" beside his name doesn't necessarily mean that he has any clue what he's talking about. Some claims are just retarded and wrong (aka "unsupported"), regardless of how many degrees their proponents manage to accrue. That's the whole reason behind the peer-review process.