David, as I was reading your thoughtful post, I thought to myself that rather than get involved in any sort of rambling discussion in respect of our, in some degree, opposing points of view, I would simply post a two word response:- Soylent Green.
You beat me to it.
However, I don't really think it will come to that.
Earth is a living entity:- she looks after herself.
Mankind has only been around for five minutes, but as a group we do have the benefits of logic and reason, something that similar viruses do not possess.
I believe that the passing of time will demonstrate that we are a self-limiting virus. In fact, most viruses are self limiting, in that they either kill the host, or they manage themselves in such a way that the host suffers a persistent, but not life threatening condition.
I rather feel that Mankind will prove to be a member of this second group of viruses, and will persist to use Earth in a way that ensures survival of both Earth and Mankind. But of course this will require vastly different attitudes to the ones that we currently espouse.
The principles that govern all in existence are at their foundations, engineering principles, they are governed by numbers.
The management of any system governed by numbers must employ numbers to ensure effective management of that system.
Earth is both a Living Entity and a System:- She has no tolerance of failure.
Now the question must arise:- do we manage Earth, or is Earth managing us? Perhaps what we are looking towards is a system of integrated management. We do have the tools of Logic and Reason that could accomplish this. However, one thing seems to be certain, for such a system to function, the element of Emotion must be removed from the equation. Emotion is really only a part of Chaos Theory, and as we all know, that depends upon the initial conditions. If we retain that initial condition of Emotion, which links us to the Animal World, then like other animals before us, Mankind will fail.
Our Saviour is Logic, Reason, and Mathematics, all applied by way of a System of Management.
Does Soylent Green have a place in such a system?
Perhaps, but there are other ways, better ways, and if Mankind begins to use a little bit more logic, and considerably less emotion there is a possibility we may be able have our elephants and eat them too:- genetic engineering > mature tuskers in 5 years > pen farmed elephants > ivory in every supermarket > elephant foot umbrella stands on every porch. No different really to the farming of genetically engineered sheep or cattle.
Some people might not like this approach, but as David has so logically demonstrated:- limit Mankind or lose everything --- including our sanity.
So where do we start?
But all this sort of discussion is decidedly Off Topic, so I stop here, except for one parting remark:-
if a smart man sees a steamroller coming down the road, he steps to one side.
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