Oh! I guess my reflexes are too good. Especially the one which jerks my knee;)
This is a very interesting thing you say, about organisms evolving beyond their environment. This rings true for humanity in it's current state.
One might even look at all land and air-based lifeforms on this planet as having evolved "above" the environment of the ocean. But naturally, all organisms still rely on the ocean for existence.
Humans seem to be the first creature from this planet that may just be able to completely sever the cord with our home ecosystem by creating artificial ones.
If it were up to me, I would find (or build) an earth-sized, earth-like planet and populate it with the current menagerie of genetic stock currently on this planet. I would call it, "museum earth" and this "ecosystem" would be maintained strictly to assure that a form of evolutionary stasis is maintained such that selective pressures are minimized, or eliminated thus assuring that no species goes extinct.
On classic earth, meanwhile, I would just let life continue on as always - complete with spaceborne and earthly extinction level events.
Though, I would still hold a debate as to whether or not we would be overstepping nature by averting an event which would result in the total destruction of our home planet.
I can easily replace "decimate indigenous life" with "aid indigenous life" and "multiply exponentially" with "respect nature" and suddenly we have nano-environmentalists.
Do we still have a problem if the goo is green?
Your concerns are valid in general, but this does not strike me as persuasive argument for this particular technological instance.
I sit here racking my brain for why the soldiers are wrong. I think to myself, "hmm, they just aren't used to it. they need to get us3ed to the new equipment."
But then I read that the tracking capabilities can lag up to a minute behind: I certainly couldn't play a first person shooter with a 60,000ms ping - how could this be any less of a problem in real life?
Despite my vehement tecnophillia, I too wonder if this gear is really a benefit.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh! I guess my reflexes are too good. Especially the one which jerks my knee ;)
This is a very interesting thing you say, about organisms evolving beyond their environment. This rings true for humanity in it's current state.
One might even look at all land and air-based lifeforms on this planet as having evolved "above" the environment of the ocean. But naturally, all organisms still rely on the ocean for existence.
Humans seem to be the first creature from this planet that may just be able to completely sever the cord with our home ecosystem by creating artificial ones.
If it were up to me, I would find (or build) an earth-sized, earth-like planet and populate it with the current menagerie of genetic stock currently on this planet. I would call it, "museum earth" and this "ecosystem" would be maintained strictly to assure that a form of evolutionary stasis is maintained such that selective pressures are minimized, or eliminated thus assuring that no species goes extinct.
On classic earth, meanwhile, I would just let life continue on as always - complete with spaceborne and earthly extinction level events.
Though, I would still hold a debate as to whether or not we would be overstepping nature by averting an event which would result in the total destruction of our home planet.
I can easily replace "decimate indigenous life" with "aid indigenous life" and "multiply exponentially" with "respect nature" and suddenly we have nano-environmentalists.
Do we still have a problem if the goo is green?
Your concerns are valid in general, but this does not strike me as persuasive argument for this particular technological instance.
I sit here racking my brain for why the soldiers are wrong. I think to myself, "hmm, they just aren't used to it. they need to get us3ed to the new equipment."
But then I read that the tracking capabilities can lag up to a minute behind: I certainly couldn't play a first person shooter with a 60,000ms ping - how could this be any less of a problem in real life?
Despite my vehement tecnophillia, I too wonder if this gear is really a benefit.
Since I block javascript by default, I must be deflating at least some traffic statistics.
I've read the wikipedia article and such, but I still don't see how lobbying is any different than bribery and extortion.
Is lobbying just a superset of both those things?