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?

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