From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 22:16:49 +0800
To: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Subject: [NOISE] Re: [NOISE] Re: Eggs at Customs (fwd)
Message-ID: <199601170613.WAA08844@ix5.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 09:02 PM 1/15/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Morality has nothing to do with it. It's the speed of the evolution. If
>you walk across the straits, the system has the time to react and restore
>a dynamic equilibrium. If you immediately release a new species with no
>natural predators, the system is shattered, and it might not survive. 
>This is not to say that ecosystems and societies are static -- they evolve
>constantly, displaying unpredictable punctuated equilibrium (Steven J.
>Gould was right, Edmund Burke and Karl Marx were wrong).

This appears to have happened in North America about 12000 years ago;
a highly competitive omnivorous predator/scavenger species appeared,
and either out-competed or killed off a number of other large predator
species, as well as some of the large grazing species.
Seen any dire-wolves looking through your windows lately?

>Politically and morally, I'm a follower of the realist school (Morgenthau
>et al). It is right for the US to dominate the world because it has the
>most power. 

Please don't abuse words like "right" for that sort of thing; it's as
tacky as abusing "one-time pad", and there are other words that will
do perfectly well, such as "unsurprising"....
#--
#				Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281
#
# "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" used to mean us watching
# the government, not the other way around....