Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 10:33:00 +0100 (BST) From: Stephen Roome <steve@visint.co.uk> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FTC regulating use of registrations Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970729102042.9021A-100000@dylan.visint.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4928.870128238@time.cdrom.com>
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On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > But are these areas really failures or areas where we haven't come as far > > as quickly. > > I never called them failures, simply evidence of what I consider to be > basic, indelible human behavior. To put it another way: > > > Is it really a failure then, or just somewhere that hasn't progressed as > > fast as the cosy cotton-wool environments most of the rest of us live in? > > That assumes that you credit the cosy cotton-wool environments with > being true signs of progress rather than simple temporary anomalies, > created through the exertion of trememdeous amounts of energy and > balanced on a knife-edge. What else is there that could be credited as a sign of progress, the basic nature of (wo)man hasn't changed. We are like tamed animals, and it wouldn't take us long to revert to our neanderthal tendencies. If you disregard our pampered lifestyle (I'm sure the LA lifestyle is pampered) then there really is nothing to distinguish us from cavemen. Is there? > How long, for example, do you think your > rosy civilization in the UK would last if electric power generation > abilities were lost and fresh water stopped flowing into your citadels > of civilization, and do you know how fragile that infrastructure truly > is? :) If "we all pulled together" it could carry on, we could make a difference. But I'm not sure if humanity has reached a point where it could continue effectively. If we couldn't recover then within a hours we'd be a third world economy (I think the UK probably already is actually), and within a decade we'd be back to pre-victorian times. After a few generations it would be the dark/middle ages again. Assuming we couldn't recover that is, but I'm not one to beleive we are that precariously balanced. Anyway, civilizations have fallen before and have fallen harder than that, It got too easy for the Romans, the Greeks the Egyptians and Babylonians and they were conquered by human greed not failure of some system. [ (Good enough reason to throw Bill Gates to the Lions? =) ] Steve. __ Steve Roome - Vision Interactive Ltd. Tel:+44(0)117 9730597 Home:+44(0)976 241342 WWW: http://dylan.visint.co.uk/
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