David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: Jed, I think Mark is just pointing out that nature has the power to veto > anything that we do in a moment. If one of the super volcanoes erupt, many > of us will be toast. One large asteroid and ... >
Super volcanoes are unlikely. The largest asteroid imaginable can probably be detected ahead of time and deflected. It might take a space elevator, trillions of dollars, and the efforts of 100 million people, but I am certain we could do it, if only we have enough time, and the will to act. A space elevator on that scale would soon pay back far more spectacularly than the Transcontinental Railroad did. We have the power to stop nearly every catastrophe than can occur, from asteroids to another outbreak of bird influenza (like the 1918 pandemic). We have reduced pollution by a large margin already -- by a factor of 10 or more in many industries. Factories that used to produce tons of pollution per day now produce a few kilograms. There is no technical reason to think we cannot eventually reduce it by a factor of a thousand. Or that we cannot root out and destroy every invasive species, and fix every eroded stream and river. The physical power that we will soon command in robots will exceed the combined muscle power of humans, animals and insects on earth. As Francis Bacon said, knowledge is power: "Man as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable of more. . . . Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect. For nature is only subdued by submission . . ." What J.F.K. said with regard to the cold war and the nuclear arms race applies equally well to global warming, pollution, and other problems caused by our technology: "First examine our attitude towards peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable, and we believe they can do it again." If you doubt that, you have learned nothing from history, and you have no imagination. Newton, Darwin, Faraday, Fleischmann and a handful of other scientists handed us the keys to unimaginable wealth and control over nature. Try to be worthy of this gift. At least *try* to use it to solve our problems, instead of passively watching while cities flood and people die for no reason. Because of simple technical problems that we should have fixed decades ago. - Jed
