From: jbugden@smtplink.alis.ca
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:10:27 -0800 (PST)
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: RE: 'what cypherpunks is about'
Message-ID: <9610018468.AA846878187@smtplink.alis.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 1:30 AM -0600 11/1/96, snow wrote:
[Re: loans to third world countries]
>     I think it is a wasted effort, but it is better than nothing.
 
"Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net> wrote:
Yep, they are better off in a state of natural grace, eating grubs and with a
life expectancy of 35.
 
If seems to me that these discussions are revealing more information about the
message authors than about the topic under discussion.
 
Since we have referred to the supremacy of natural tendencies in many of these
messages, I find it somewhat ironic that we would not want to leave them with a
life expectancy of 35. Evolution and natural selection tends to work faster if
the population experiences rapid turnover. In this regard, extending the life of
individuals is a bad thing for the fitness of the population as a whole.

This seems to me to be yet another example of people's poor ability to estimate
probabilities in a rational and objective way.
 
Most animals sensate (grow old). This is necessary for natural selection to work
on the gene pool. If we manage to eliminate this feature of our existence, we
may become like one of the few species that do not sensate; lobsters for
example.
 
I live confident in the knowledge that my death is necessary to make way for
progress.
 
James
 
Chance
 
If chance be 
the father of all flesh
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear
 
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
 
It is but the sound of man
worshipping his maker.
 
Steve Turner