Subject: Re: post-literate change
From: tom abeles (tabeles@tmn.com)
Date: Sat 06 May 2000 - 03:27:39 MEST
Date: Fri, 05 May 2000 20:27:39 -0500 From: tom abeles <tabeles@tmn.com> Subject: Re: post-literate change
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Arun-Kumar Tripathi wrote:
> Adding some more thoughts of *Konrad Lorenz* to above, "Historians will
> have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of
> cultures in the same manner as it did that of species."
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The issue is not one of doubting evolution. It is how the evolution occurs and on
what time scale.
biological evolution, at one time, was intergenerational- one generation passed
"knowledge" in the form of genes to the next. Cultural evolution is not that
restrictive and might be termed Lamarkian. the culture "memes' can be passed on to
the same and even previous generations which may be the saving grace for the human
species
Now I am not quite sure what gene therapy means today or in the future where we
can insert genes which can change a species, cure a disease and maybe even change
what a present generation will bear as a result of a pregnancy
this, of course, is what the bruhaha is about with genetically modified
agricultural commodities. Natural selection was left to some sort of devine
intervention called "God or Nature" to determine the mix and resultant outcome.
And now we have elevated humans to the same status to not only determine what will
arise from combiantions, but also to determine what combines and even change the
game, in vitro during gestation- Thus what we learn between conception and birth
can be transmitted before birth and potentially after birth. who we start out to
be based on our genes may not be who we are when we pass from this earth
Who we are as freshman entering a university is not who we are when we emerge,
though biologically we may test the same- now if we do some biochemistry on the
freshman- a little mind altering drugs, for example, who we are and will be
biologically and culturally maybe forever changed- maybe the university of the
future will be a biochemistry laboratory- or an electrophsyiology
studio--speculative fiction- i think not since it is within the realm of
possibilities today- a moral issue it is, a social issue it is
IT, particularly education technology, to parapharase Eisenhauer's remarks about
the military, may be too important to leave to the engineering and computer
science departments.
thoughts?
tom abeles
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