Re: Catchup voting results

Glen wrote

> John in desperate backlash :P wrote:
> >I would argue that at the moment we are bound to it. Try existing
> >without taking another lung full of air? It was produced for you by
> >photosynthesising trees. We are a part of a biosphere and we cannot
> >exist independently of it.
>
> We were once bound by the sea but now we have evolved past it by

bringing a

> piece of it with us. Next time, start listening to your moist bowels

and

> tell me when you hear the ocean. Eating a couple of burritos will

help in

> the task. Anyways, point is, we are already escaping the biosphere

with Mir

> and the like. We can classify ourselves already as amphibian but our

next

> big "evolution" is to bring a piece of Earth with us to the outer

regions of

> space.

Hmm.. We are still bound by the sea. Every drop of water in your body
comes from an ocean, and not so long ago either. Checkout "Hypersea:
Life on Land" by Mark McMenamin and Dianna McMenamin. It asks "why is
life on land so spectacularly successful? Because 450 million years
ago life created hypersea - a vast new ocean of interconnected tissue.
We are part of that ocean and cannot escape from it.

> By the way, if you're under house arrest, does the house suddenly

come

> alive?

No, but you are alive becuae you are part of Gaia's (the Living
Earth's) Body, See the book of the same name by Thomas Volk.

> >This won't happen for another 5 billion years. Since the average
> >mammal species only survives about 2 million years, any species which
> >leaves Earth (carrying the biosphere with it) will have long since
> >ceased to be human.
>
> Hell, just a thousand years and no one will know what human ever was

after

> the geneticists have their fun. We can now determine our own

evolution.

> Other mammals can't. We'll be around for another billion years yet in

some

> form or another - diversity is the key.

That's what I like to see, an optimist! Given the fact that the
ecological footprint of the human species is equal to conuming six
biospheres at the moment and we have only one, and given that 40% of
the photosynthetic potential of the planet is being used for human
purposes, and it is doubling every 28 years (i.e. 28 years ago it was
20%, 28 years before that 10%), it doesn't give us much time to get our
house in order. Hopefully we can reduce our planetary impact below the
170 species per day that are currently becoming exitinct - to something
that is sustainable for the periods of time you talk about Glen.

And where does language fit into this picture?

Regards

John