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From: kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Planet rights.
Message-ID: <3470@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Jan-84 12:25:08 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.3470
Posted: Mon Jan 16 12:25:08 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Jan-84 12:25:08 EST
References: <15327@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 37

*

   "Would you like to prolong man's survival at the expence (sic) of
disposible planets or would you like a responsible civilization
that can survive with what it has? I prefer the latter"

   What does mankind have? In your view, one body per person, and the rest
is all on loan.  Well, I'm afraid that we cannot survive on just that;
>by definition< Life cannot exist without "wasting" some things
(my definition, that's whose!). One such thing is energy; as living beings,
we are meta-stable regions of low entropy in a region of higher entropy,
maintaining a (local) violation of the laws of thermodynamics by 
consuming and excreting energy, among other things.  The source of that
energy is the sun, which is being destroyed on a massive scale just so that
we can maintain our wretched, cancerous civilazation (if you want to be
that anthropocentric; the insects of the world probably think the sun
burns mostly for >them<, and there are more of them than of us, so
who are we to argue?).  If the sun was a just-failed star, like Jupiter,
would you object to igniting it so that we could continue our fusion-driven
lives? Or would you join the "Save the Sun" lobby?  Of course, the question
doesn't arise, since the sun is already burning, so it's all right.
After all, if somebody's home is burning down there's nothing wrong
with going over and roasting some weiners in front of the fire, is there?
Or maybe there is? But if it's all right that the sun should burn,
then why shouldn't Jupiter?  Just because "mankind hasn't gotten his act 
together, and so doesn't deserve to be allowed out of his playpen"?
   A question: if some way was found to damp out the sun's fusion, would 
you push the button to turn the fires off, so that we could save the
pitifully few billion trillion tons of hydrogen and helium that are left?

   I'm sorry for puttiing words into your mouth, in this message,
but you seemed to be saying much the same in your own messages,
only in a less extreme form.  Extreme cases have their uses,
though, in exploring the limits of validity of arguments.

-Kieran A. Carroll
...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll