**** Jimmy enters the chat ****
<chechen> hi
<Jimmy> Hi,
<Jimmy> it had been so long since I explained my theory, I will
try to explain it easy
<Jimmy>
<chechen> ok
<Jimmy> I am a marine biologist who was not working in my island
(Puerto Rico) and moved to US to try it out.
<Jimmy> so, wich is your area of knowledge?
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> education?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> i am a mechanical enginner and i am doin my master now...
<Jimmy> ooofffff,
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> well, engineers and ecologists do not get along pretty well,
hahaha
<Jimmy>
<chechen> why...:)
<chechen> they have common interests...
<Jimmy> different points of view. see world from a different
perspective.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hey not all engineers are obsessed with mass production...
<Jimmy> same interests, different solutions. well, you
are a mechanical type, we can work it out.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> your theory?
<Jimmy> lets go with my theory, well it is not a theory but an addition
to the theory of natural selection.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm...
<Jimmy> lets first put open the premises that made me follow this
line of thinking
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> 1. Humans have not evolved in the past 10,000 years or more
<Jimmy>
<chechen> ....
<Jimmy> 2. When put understress nature changes drastically.
<Jimmy> 3. When nature changes, many species are left behind with
the so called natural selection mechanism.
<Jimmy> 4. Homo sapien had altered the environment enough already
starting a massive response from nature.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm
<Jimmy> well, if, 1. is true and 2 is true, then Homo sapiens is
doomed to extinction by our own hand.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> well, my theory of ad on to the theory
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy>
<chechen> But may it not be other species to go extinct and humans
still carry on?
<Jimmy> no, there is no way that H. sapiens survive in an environment
changed by nature. What are we going to eat, breath or drink?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm
<Jimmy> nature will not perish, it will change and there is my ad
on
<Jimmy>
<chechen> May be if that terraforming of Mars works out...
<Jimmy> there you go.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> and if we survive long enough to see that...
<Jimmy> to see what?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> that terraforming
<chechen> Then we can possibly migrate there or even to some other
systems
<chechen> or better we can improve our situation here...Because
it looks that
<Jimmy> well, that is an expensive and elite way of looking at it.
Guess the yanumamis in the amazon and the pigmies in Africa wont be able
to go there.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> humans set the rules of evolution...
<chechen> They can adapt to new challenges...
<chechen> May be we can also change our bodies making us less dependent
on the rsources we use now...
<chechen> May be we can use photosynthesis one day?
<Jimmy> Hold on, humans do not set the rules, humans is the stress
factor who is causing nature to change.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm
<Jimmy> well do you know what is an anthropocentrical point of view?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> i have a vague idea...Could u explain?
<Jimmy> ok, it is when man centers itself in the middle of everything.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> this means that he thinks the universe go around him.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> but it looks like that man is supreme as compared to other
organisms isnt it?
<Jimmy> in other words, that everything functions in terms of humanity.
well, that is not true.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> I am with u at that point but...
<chechen> knowledge of man is encreaing at an enormous speed...
<chechen> for today we just can reach Mars...
<Jimmy> humans evolved in this environment thanks to nature.
nature made the planet suitable for terrestrial living.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> I think that one day we may be able to change whole galaxies
(of course if we survive that long...)
<chechen> It seems to me that it is a matter of timing...
<Jimmy> if we do not go by natures ritm we will have to develop
not only photosynthesis but everything else.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> time is what we do not have. nature is changing now.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm
<chechen> Of course if tome is runnung out faster then we can catch
up with ...
<chechen> then we will go extinct...
<chechen> But I am not so terrified about the idea of getting extinct...
<Jimmy> we need energy we need food, we need air, we need water,
we need life cicle, we need nature.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> Other life forms will emerge and may be a better species
will develop
<chechen> I dont think that human beings are some sort of indipensible...
<chechen> indispensible
<Jimmy> ok, now we are talking. you said and I quote "Other
life forms will emerge
<Jimmy> "
<Jimmy>
<chechen> ...
<Jimmy> in that point you are defenitelly right.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> but, are those new life forms usable by humans?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> I mean humans are gone at that time...
<chechen> Are we talking about some unchangeable direction of nature?
<Jimmy> let me put something else in the table, nature had
been here billions of years, it had change many times, what
I am saying had happened before.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> what havent changed is H. sapiens.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm
<Jimmy> humans have live here for only 10,000 years
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy>
<chechen> and?
<Jimmy> H. sapiens evolved in a different way. instead of
changing genetically, they evolved their environment. let me
explain it
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> humans did not evolved to grow a fur like the bear,
we made coats and built houses
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> we develop a different way of adaptation that took us apart
from nature.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> we grow food with
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> exactly. we made our own different line of evolution.
well, we came apart from nature's natural trend of development.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> now, if nature changes, we will not be able to notice
it untill is too late.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> but can nature's natural trends evolve an organism like
human?
<chechen> like the ones we are today?
<Jimmy> no, humans are unique. the possibility is always
there. but, could take another couple of million years.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hmm...Then is there a way out?
<Jimmy> to tell you the truth, I do not know if there is a
way out.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> I think that if dont get extinct before passing the critical
technological barrier, we'll make it...
<chechen> that barrier is to able able to change our feeding (or
letz say energy providing) system
<Jimmy> Nature is changing now and I do not now at what level of
change it is at this moment. It will be a pitty to make so much effort
in growing plants by artificial means when we have that technology here
with us now. Why make a bee when nature did it already for us?
<Jimmy>
<chechen> But u say that we will not notice untill it os too late...
<Jimmy> why make an artificial environment in mars when nature conditioned
earth environment for us.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> so letz be prepared...
<Jimmy> Too late? I am guessing.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy>
<chechen> but of course not by neglecting our environment
<Jimmy> there are two possible solutions.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> there is not one reason to stop searching for new technology.
that could be a contingency plan.
<Jimmy>
<chechen>
<Jimmy> now, what i try to do, as a biologist, is tell people
to interact more with nature, understanding its stress signals, knowing
that the only way to preserve the caracteristics that made life on earth
possible is to learn how to stop the big change or to reverse the possible
change that had started already.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> lately I watched a documentary that was saying that we
are in the 6th big extinction phase in world history...
<Jimmy> 6th that we know of.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> nature had changed many times
<Jimmy>
<chechen> It is pretty hard to say hungry people stopping exploitation
of nature...
<Jimmy> it is true. I do not think the hungry people is cousing
the change. acid rain, nuclear waste, green house effect and
ozone layer destruction is not being caused by hungry people.
<Jimmy>
<Jimmy> ironically, the ones causing the change are the ones who
would probably pay their trip to mars.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> Yes, thatz the point. But in some program they give the
impression that only the Africans are to blame for wildlife...
<chechen> fo rexample
<chechen> The so called "civilized" nations are innocent
<Jimmy> we are in the same sheet of music now.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> I am not optimistic about the earth saving issue...
<Jimmy> I will tell you something. if there is a group of
people who will survive the changes in nature, is the ones eating from
nature.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> the "primitive" people u say?
<Jimmy> A friend of mine from Brazil told me that US had not the
moral strengh to tell them not to destroy the Amazon forest because US
destroyed all its forests long time ago. and that is true.
one uses the other as an excuse.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> yes
<Jimmy> to end this for now, I have to go, we are in
a ship that is sinking. one group of people is trying to fix the
ship, the other group is building a new one to take us to safe. well,
you are in one group and I am in the other. I believe that both things
have to be done.
<Jimmy>
<chechen> hey jimmy...
<chechen> may i use this dialog in my homepage?
<chechen> I am building a section about these subjects
<Jimmy> ok, will be my pleasure. please give me the address.
<Jimmy>