From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>I can relate to your concerns about ecological
>devolution, Jay, if you wish to speak of a "day
>of reckoning". But a "final exam" is something
>certain persons in positions of social power impose
>on certain other persons who lack the social power to
>block the imposition. I am firmly convinced
Think of it as "Mother Nature's Final Exam". If we don't get it right, Mom
will kill us -- literally.
>I'm not Eva, and I haven't known many scientists, but the few I have
>known have struck me in varying ways as having "split" (<--that
>word again) their experience. They live a shared dialogical life as
This is a really good, first-hand account of the irrational human mind. The
mind is a billion-year accumulation of innovations through countless
animals, and through countless environments for specific reactions to
specific situations. The point is, that we need to find those who CAN think
scientifically, and then apply their talents to social issues. In other
words, Wilson's "consilience".
>> "Science, to put its warrant as concisely as possible, is the organized
>> systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge about the world and
condenses
>> the knowledge into testable laws and
>> principles. Its defining traits are first, the confirmation of
discoveries
>
>OK, Jay, how do you measure an idea? "The cat is on the mat (actually,
One formulates an "idea" in a way that can be falsified -- hypothesis -- and
then tries to falsify it. If you can't do that, then your idea is not
scientific (e.g., how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.)
If our Titanic weren't sinking, then it wouldn't matter. We all could run
naked through the forest drinking wine and chasing moonbeams for the rest of
our lives.
But our Titanic IS sinking -- it's the Sixth Great Extinction. And if she
goes down, NOTHING we say or do will matter.
The only memory of Mozart will be ancient radio waves racing away from Earth
into blackness of space.
Jay
