Actual Freedom – Selected Correspondence by Topic

RESPONDENT: Before we have discussed more about it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actualfreedom/message/7083. What the error behind Mr. Gaede’s theory? (quoted from http://www.youstupidrelativist.com/08Ext/00SumExt.html)

RICHARD: Quite simply, Mr. Bill Gaede bases his hypothesis on the premise that, because palaeontological evidence – fossilised remains – demonstrates how more than 90% of all species ever living are now extinct, the human species will likewise be soon to die out.

He says [quote] ‘all living organisms are born to die, individually and collectively’ [endquote] yet fails to take into account how the vast majority of those extinct species are either single- or simple-celled organisms, which were quite obviously barely sentient, or that even the higher-order creatures lacked self-consciousness (the capacity to be aware of sentience) and, thus, agency (the self-referential, self-serving ability) let alone the self-reflective facility called intelligence and its concomitant capability of language (rather than just the incoherent way of basic animal communication).

In other words, a flawed premise is bound to result in a flawed (erroneous) conclusion.

By way of illustration: in a famine or drought animals, just like plants (unless hardy), languish and die whereas humans, with their unique ability to observe, recall, compare/ consider and implement beneficial action do not only survive but can also prosper as well.

The survival of the fittest does not necessarily mean, as more than a few take it to be, the survival of the most muscular but clearly speaks of the survival of the most fitted (adapted) to the environment living long enough to pass on their genes; and the human animal, with its exceptional capabilities, is not only well-fitted (adapted) to the environment but can also fit (adapt) the environment for beneficial outcomes. (As in tool-making, animal husbandry, agriculture, food-stocks, water-supply, horticulture, aquaculture, mining, industry, cold-storage, hygiene, medicines, vaccinations, and so on and so on).

Although I am in accord with his take on theoretical physicists and had the odd chuckle at his expressive phraseology – his doom and gloom scenario left me decidedly unimpressed. Yet another doomsday merchant.

RESPONDENT: He also put the blame in our Human Condition because it created and allow this artificial economy fated to a global collapse (we can live without God, computers, sex and even without virtual or actual freedom, but never without edible FOOD, the actual money in a natural economy).

RICHARD: An internet search quickly showed he has hopped aboard the latest bandwagon to arrive in town: he has been peddling his scaremongering online for quite a few years and back in 2001, for instance, he was predicting the human race had less than 500 years left to live due to an inversion of the population pyramid. Viz.:

• [Mr. Bill Gaede]: ‘The population pyramid for EVERY country in the world without exception is inverting! (...) Octogenarians don’t typically have babies, so more than likely they will not perpetuate the human race. (...) If nature has its way again, the last of the hominids will walk the Earth in less than 500 years. We are not the eternal gods we have so arrogantly allowed ourselves to believe for so long, but just another mortal animal in Eden’. (04/10/2001) (psyclops.com/hawking/forum/printmsg.cgi?period=&msg=36991)

Now, fast-forward to the world-wide monetary situation of 2007 and, all-of-a-sudden, the end is nigh now! (And all because of a global financial situation which, although some say it is a global credit crisis/a global liquidity crisis, is more a monetary crisis brought about by an unprecedented level of both private and public debt per favour an inherently inflationary fractional banking system and non-governmental control of its nation’s fiat currency).

The man is clearly a doomsday opportunist; wait a few years and he will be haranguing a gullible crowd from yet another one of his scaremongering barrows.

RESPONDENT: Maybe something like an imminent menace to humanity can awake our potential altruism.

RICHARD: Ha ... the only imminent menace to humanity (to use your term) is gullibility.