Hi Harry, I'm just about to push off on a short holiday break and have just had sufficient time to read Ray's and your postings this morning.
I just want to make a brief point that has been prompted in my mind since writing to Ray yesterday regarding Megaliths. Your two self-evident truths are: 1. People's desires are unlimited 2. People seek to satisfy their desires with the least exertion What about adding a third? 3. People have a curiosity beyond present needs for survival It could be said that many animals also have a sense of curiosity in that they explore their environment rather widely in order to assess any future dangers. But then your two axioms could also reasonably be applied to animals and are therefore not exclusive to man. It could also be said that my third axiom is but a sub-set of your first. But some have a curiosity and need for explanation beyond any present desires that they can conceptualise. It could also be said that my third axiom lies beyond the field of Political Economy. But a sense of curiosity (and explanatory leaps of imagination therefrom) are also the cause of innovation. Many innovations are the result of your second axiom, but then many innovations come out of the blue. (A good example of this is Clarke's notion of geostationary satellites for which there was no possible use at the time he proposed it. If he had patented that idea then he would probably be by far the richest man in the world right now. [And this is why I am opposed to intellectual copyright and patent law -- it devalues the really big ideas of mankind.] ) Must go. Keith __________________________________________________________ “Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.” John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
