From: Eleanor McHugh Date: 2009-04-12T04:44:41+09:00 Subject: Re: Goodbye Ruby - Hello Earth Robert, from where I'm sat the green movement desires to lock our ecosystem into some 'acceptable' state, effectively destroying the evolutionary pressures which give rise to new species and in the process defining boundaries within which human science, technology and culture should progress. I consider both goal and consequences to be immoral, driven by fear and ideology rather than any interest in the actual underlying dynamics of nature or the betterment of the human condition. They are also fundamentally naive and unrealistic, requiring that mankind achieve some virtuous enlightenment that has proven to be elusive throughout our history and then maintain it for an indefinite period of time. This is nothing more or less than the orthogonal application of the same inflexible mindset that's made our societies unjust since the beginning of recorded history, and as ever it's dressed up in clothes that suggest it's all for our own good. Does this mean we should all go out and waste resources willy nilly? Don't ask me. But regardless of which way we choose to go as individuals our choice is fundamentally natural because humans are buried as deeply in the feedback mechanisms of life as whales or tigers or mantis shrimp. Our nuclear power and biological weapons are natural, as are our arrogance, our tribalism and our need for power structures. Indeed what is the green movement if not a tribalism more or less loosely aligned with a desire for certain kinds of economic power structures and justified by the arrogant belief that two hundred years of industrial manufacturing are sufficient to put life at risk. That's the same life that emerged within a few million years of our molten ball of rock developing a solid crust and which has survived cataclysmic events on a cosmic scale. I apologise if this offends anyone, but it's my honest opinion and it's not been reached without many years of consideration. If I'm wrong, well big deal - most of us are about most things most of the time. Ellie Eleanor McHugh Games With Brains http://slides.games-with-brains.net ---- raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason