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To: mcg404 who wrote (19153)	5/19/2002 9:46:30 AM
From: smolejv@gmx.net	Respond to of 74559

>>Isn’t it obvious the true answer is unknowable? << I dont want to argue about this rather negative "what's truth anyhow?" Pontius-Pilatus kind of rhetoric question. I question the action based on it. Let's say you are a castaway on some lonely island with a pile of spam cans. Here's alternatives: a) suicide - there's not enough of them to last b) happy-go-lucky - eat while it lasts c) starve - there's a ship coming in x months and d) learn to catch fish with spam Robinson Crusoe, the first technology freak of our era, made it on d): adjust to, domesticate and master the new environment. dj PS: of course some joker will for sure suggest f) suicide by gorging on spam etc, but Im nothere to make jokes.

To: mcg404 who wrote (19153)	5/20/2002 2:16:34 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

<<<we have the Resource Management Act here and it's costing a fortune and achieving nothing.>> //Can’t you at least say “achieving little”? Your obvious exaggeration// > John, initially I thought ooops, I have obviously exaggerated. But on reflection, I'm unaware of anything that it has achieved. Some people think delays are an achievement [because they don't like development and any delay is an improvement]. Lawyers and Council planners have made a lot of money from the process, but that's not really an achievement. I asked Google for Resource Management Act Achievements. It gave me this list of achievements. executive.govt.nz What a joke!~! For example, they call these achievements. Hahaahahah!! : <environmental legal assistance and resourcing for environment centres to remove barriers to public participation under the Resource Management Act (RMA) reducing compliance costs related to the RMA by working with local government to improve best practice progressing the Resource Management Act Amendment Bill through the select committee and convening a Ministerial group to coordinate a ‘whole of government’ approach > More muck here: mfe.govt.nz The tree protection extremists belong here: darwinawards.com That poor guy was killed trying to escape from a tree. A gang of trees got him. <But to suggest that business interests are not well represented, or they relinquish their interest in the face of public condemnation (as you did in your earlier post)….seems unlikely (to me). How can you suggest these un-informed, emotionally-driven, wild-eyed maniacs are so effective in thwarting the benevolent actions of the capitalists? > Easy. The general public is pig ignorant. If wacko environmentalists make some claim, it's dangerous for a company to oppose them. The wacko environmentalists call for a public boycott. The company only needs to lose 5% of their customers and they are in big trouble for no gain. So, they be quiet and add the silly costs of doing business to their prices. Governments are happy to put the burden on too because if a politician goes against the wackoes, they lose votes, but don't gain a compensating number of votes from people who disagree, because those who disagree don't care about what they see as a trivial issue and are worried about their own interests. No, the collective decision-making of society doesn't always correct itself. That's a false premise of believers in democracy. Facts and truth are not a matter of popular belief. Communities which persist in false beliefs are usurped by people who have better beliefs. It's a red in tooth and claw process called evolution. That's why we have big bumps over our eyebrows. The mistaken people didn't get to have their DNA represented in the gene pool. IQ has been selected because it works. <I can get 1000 analysts (opps, I mean scientist – same difference) to say the theory of global climate change is going to fry us. You can easily get 1000 to say it won’t. Among all those well-informed but widely divergent opinions, we should trust Mq to have picked the correct answer? Isn’t it obvious the true answer is unknowable? So how do we position our “porfolio” in the face of that uncertainty? (my guess: do what humans have always done. Live for the moment. Keep our fingers crossed about tomorrow.) > As I wrote, facts and truth are not a matter of voting. No, it's not obvious the true answer is unknowable. Actually, humans haven't always lived for the moment. Mostly we plan well ahead and those who are successful at doing that have been genetically selected. Animals don't plan far ahead - they don't have the brainpower. Humans have been selected for that ability. Don't believe the Just Do It slogan! It's just an advertisement which you believe at your peril. It's currently fashionable to say that things are unknowable. Even Jay says people can't predict the future. Well, I can. Other people believe they can too and don't really believe that things are unknowable. It's just another cliche which should be ignored. Sure, we can do the chaos theory fractal argument and adopt existential defeatism and lie on the ground like a beached jelly fish. But evolution takes care of people who get silly ideas like that in their heads. Staying alive and reproducing and having great great grandchildren is a demanding business, requiring keen intellect, good immune system, and a lot more besides. Sure, a spot of luck helps. But humans are made to make their own luck. Well, that's my rant for the day! I say kill the trees before they kill us. Kill the Great White sharks. We need more species extinction. Mosquitoes, fleas, malaria, smallpox [we got that one], polio, gorse, box thorn, leeches, hagfish - I wouldn't miss them. Mqurice