Glove:
>
>We are saying the same thing, I think, in different words. The removal of
>the social level "protections" as you put it would tend to be a by-product,
>so to speak, of a catastrophic occurence such as a major impact event like
>the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Yes, social comforts
>have cut us off from biological evolution in the way we socially think of
>evolution. Nontheless, biological evolution is still occurring; it is simply
>not making "jumps" at this time, it's merely shifting at a 90 degreeness,
>which could be viewed as Darwinian natural selection.
>
We should also remember the time scale of biological evolution. I like
the analogy of homo sapiens not appearing until one minute to midnight
on a clock where 24 hours represents the whole of life on earth.
Social evolution seems to happen at an exponential rate. In my life time
there seems to have been much more change in social attitudes and mores
than in the previous 50 years.
There may not be many new species appearing, but there are certainly
plenty becoming extinct :(
A catastrophe may not need to be on the meteor strike scale to trigger
social evolution. Many historians see the First World War as initiating
a major shift in social values. A global thermonuclear war would
radically change the fitness parameters for survival of individuals and
society.
Regards
Pete
--+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: Peter@psfisher.demon.co.uk | | "Do not adjust your mind - there is a fault in the reality" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
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