From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 06:44:03 +0800
To: Jim Choate <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: FCPUNX:The Sovereign Individual - ignorant authors
Message-ID: <199710102228.PAA19277@proxy4.ba.best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 11:12 PM 10/9/97 -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
> This chapter deals with various aspects of social issues (eg rise of
> national languages) and how they led to the growth of nationalism in
> general. Toward the end of the chapter (pp. 265 in the hardback) these
> idiots (don't know a better term) actualy have the audactity to claim that
> Stephen Jay Gould is a neo-creationist,

This appears to me to be an accurate depiction of Stephen Jay Gould's
views.  He claims that humans are fundamentally different from other
animals in this regard, and has frequently been ridiculed on this account.

I have read some of his writings, for which he was ridiculed, and the
ridicule and contempt appears justified to me.

> The author of this section has apparently never read a word that Gould has
> written. Gould is known as a leading supporter of Punctuated Equilibria and
> its various spawn,

I have read a fair bit of Gould.  His work on the evolution of non humans is 
perfectly plausible though controversial.

His work on humans is shear crap and is not regarded by the relevant experts
in the relevant fields as legitimate science.  

In his field, he is a innovator.

Outside his field, he is a crackpot, similar to the flat earthers and the
people who claim that Socrates was black, demonstrating that even trained
scientists can degenerate into nuttery when they go beyond their area of
expertise.
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