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From: mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.bio,sci.psychology,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: The Bandwidth of the Brain
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.190256.2741@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 91 19:02:56 GMT
References: <1990Dec24.202254.2832@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <22398@well.sf.ca.us> <AT5I02@taronga.hackercorp.com>
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Lines: 34

In article <AT5I02@taronga.hackercorp.com> peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <22398@well.sf.ca.us>, moritz@well.sf.ca.us (Elan Moritz) writes:
>>                Homo trans-sapiens is the [postulated] next step in
>>           evolution of homo sapiens.
>
>This is the same school of pseudo-scientific gibberish that gives us
>creationism.  There is no "next step" in evolution. It's not a directed
>process, but simply a byproduct of selective pressure. And right now the
>selective pressure on the human species is not in the direction of
>greater intelligence. Quite the opposite, if anything...
>
>>           There is no reason to expect or
>>           require that Homo sapiens will not undergo further
>>           evolution.
>
>And there is no reason to believe that such evolution will be anything
>desirable from the point of view of neophilic C20 computer nerds like us.
>-- 
>               (peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com)
>   `-_-'
>    'U`

The satirical "Evolutionists' Hymn" by C. S. Lewis is appropriate here.
"Lead us, Evolution, lead us
  Up the future's endless stair,
 Push us, shape us, mold us, weed us,
  Leading on nobody knows where..."

  It ends with something like...
    "Far from pleasant, by our present,
      Standards thoug they well may be!"

Evolution is a fine theory of biology but makes a rotten religion.
It just doesn't have enough grounds for optimism!