Thanks for this. We seem to agree on quite a lot.
However, I seek to persuade people in my books that the extinction of the human species would ultimately lead to the extinction of all life on Earth, rather than a new era of evolution (although my view is compatible with a very short new era followed by total extinction). I should point out that my claim that the human species is the pinacle of the evolutionary progression of life on Earth has to do with its position in the evolutionary process rather than to do with "unique characteristics". All species have unique characteristics and there might be species of non-human Earthly life which are more intelligent than humans. Best Neil http://neilpaulcummins.blogspot.co.uk/ http://www.cranmorepublications.co.uk/73 On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 7:25 PM, Brian West <adventurew...@gmail.com> wrote: > I will respond to both posts, but given that I have not read Mr. Cummings' > book. We, as a species, > are intricately involved in a series of selective evolutionary events that > have culminated to result in > the biodiversity that we see today. We, as well as all extant life on > planet, stand on the shoulders > of millions of species that have come and gone that paved the way for our > current biosphere. The > planet did do just fine without the presence of Homo sapiens sapiens for > the last 3.8 billion years, > but now that we are here, we do play an important part in it--for better > or worse. Would life go on > without us? Of course. But if we went, in theory, so would many species > that have coevolved with > us. Dave, we are intricately involved in our biosphere and it is > intricately involved with us. We are > a cog in the machinery of our current biosphere. We are important in the > current picture of our > biodiversity and biosphere. We are but a still-shot in the whole reel of > the film we call life, but our > still-shot is still important. We are a keystone species. The loss of > Homo sapiens as a species > could cause a cascading extinction event. But, Dr. Cummings, we must not > make the mistake of > near-sightedness in this situation. > > Life on the planet would be affected by our disappearance, but it would > not end by no means, but > pave way for a new era in evolution (i.e. The Age of Reptiles paved the > way for The Age of > Mammals). I reject the notion that we are superior to all other species. > We do have unique > characteristics that allows for us to stand apart, but so do many other > species. For one example in > a sea of others, the polyextremophile Deinococcus radiodurans is a > biological "superman" that has > many characteristics that make it "superior" to Homo sapiens. I mention > this not to perpetuate the > idea of superior or inferior, but to caution in using the words and ideas > behind superior or inferior. > We are the ones who rank and order and categorize and value, which is to > some extent why we > treat the planet the way we do. Dr. Cummings, we must move away from the > anthrocentric > worldview that our forefathers perpetuated, which led to the abuse and > destruction of so many > aspects of our biosphere. >
