Re: virus: Are we the gods of Nature?

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Wed, 10 Feb 1999 09:24:10 -0800

Bob G. wrote:

>Are we the gods of Nature?

Yes, if there are any. ;-)

>A question:
>
>It seems like Brodie (in his book "Virus of the Mind") and Bloom (in
>the book "the Lucifer Principle") are saying that Mother Nature and
>her son Natural Selection are stupid and going senile…and it is up to
>us humans to take over their job of evolution…and become the
>Masters of the Universe if you will.

"Masters of Ourselves" is more correct, I suspect.

>This seems strange to me.
>
>I mean…why not just let evolution and Natural selection do their
>work?

Ask a stegasaurus why.

>Why try to interfere with it by proposing the concept of "selfish-
>genes" and ‘selfish-memes"?
>
>I mean…if genes and memes are selfish…so what? Why should that
>disturb us? After all its "just the way things are"…the natural course
>of evolution.

So is the extinction of species.

>Why try to fight it?

Enlightened self-interest.

-Prof. Tim