X-Message-Number: 15068 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: Whale hugging ?? and clearing old churches Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 12:26:01 -0000 It would seem to me for the answer to the problem of the biodiversity on Earth is to continue with progress with the ultimate aim of terraforming Mars and Venus which are either lifeless or have very limited life on them. Earth can then be abandoned to do its thing and humans can live on these other two worlds. Earth could be one vast natural park. Humans can import examples of the cuddly animals and let them breed on the new worlds and leave all the nasty ones behind! Incidentally, it is commonly believed that if all the insects were exterminated plants would die. A recent tv programme on the Andes suggested that there was a region there where there are no or few insects and plant pollination is performed by other means. Biodiversity must have been produced by some natural process, so even if it was damaged or destroyed it will recover. In time spans of millions of years, the solar system is not a safe place - there are super volcanoes, impacts and so on which press the re-set switch. Intuition tells individuals that it is safe and calm, because their lifespans are so short. Also, if Biodiversity can be produced naturally it could also be produced artificially. Either by the use of technology to speed up evolution, or the use of cryopreservation to slow down the time perception of individuals (set up your planet with conditions that encourage life to start, and then go into a few million years of cryopreservation.) With regards to blowing up churches as symbols of coercion, unfortunately this has been tried too often before and does not work. In fact religion thrives on persecution. The only way that might eradicate religion is increasing affluence and a wide choice of things for people to do with their disposable time. Such activities might seem more interesting that endlessly repeating something they must know in their heart of hearts not to be true. Also other sources of fellowship similar to that offered by the church but without the coercion and authority structure would help. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt http://www.autopsychoice.com - should you be able to chose autopsy? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15068