RE: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

From: Ian Glendinning (ian@psybertron.org)
Date: Fri Jul 18 2003 - 22:41:10 BST

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    Platt (#2)

    Much more seriously ...

    He was in his early thirties ....
    I think anyone should be in "awe" of the power of genetic evolution and the
    complexity it has achieved in "life" (as in biological life that is). There
    is no way he considered it the "ultimate answer" to life (as in the universe
    and everything). He wrote his thoughts on that subject afterwards and
    genetics barely gets a look in.

    Is it not possible for a MoQite to consider science to be "awesome" and
    still believe there is more to the way the world works than science. I know
    I can.

    Science may not be the answer to everything, but it ain't all bad.
    (I guess that makes me a pragmatist ?)
    Ian

    -----Original Message-----
    From:
    [mailto: ]On Behalf Of Platt Holden
    Sent: 18 July 2003 15:34
    To:
    Subject: Re: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

    Hi Rick, Matt, Ian, other Douglas Adams fans,

    > Rick
    > Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Douglas Adams was the ultimate pragmatist, a man
    > who genuinely knew how to attack metaphysics without practicing it. The
    > Hitchhiker's Guide is a grand send-up of the absurdities that flow from
    > looking for a single, ultimate answer to life (the universe, and
    > everything).

    Since Adams claims there's no single, ultimate answer to everything I
    couldn't help but laugh when I read what he said in an interview:

    "Sometime around my early thirties I stumbled upon evolutionary biology,
    particularly in the form of Richard Dawkins's books The Selfish Gene and
    then The Blind Watchmaker and suddenly (on, I think the second reading of
    The Selfish Gene) it all fell into place. It was a concept of such
    stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite
    and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe
    that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly,
    silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of
    ignorance any day."

    His single, ultimate answer:science! How insightful. How original. How
    profound. Are you guys kidding or what?

    Platt

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