[extropy-chat] Transhumanism: Teilhard de Chardin - Truth or Dare

[Damien Broderick]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha at objectent.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 2:20 PM

> This debunking by Gould and company rings a bit hollow when we
increasingly
> become able to direct our own evolution.   Arguments from "random mutation
> and natural selection" about the possible future of humanity are
increasingly
> irrelevant.

They were not talking about the future but about evolutionary history, as
was Teilhard in his bogus theories of `radial and tangential energies' etc.

>Lamarckism is the doctrine that learned skills and information
> are inherited by future generations.

Not at all. Lamarckism is the doctrine that learned skills and information
are inherited *genetically and immediately* by the next generation.

>Funny, that is precisely what today's
> world looks like

No it isn't.

>and will look like right down to the level of genetics very
> quickly now.

That's true .

>So why do we fall back on outmoded assumptions and
> dismissive arguments?

Indeed. Outmoded assumptions like Teilhard's.

Damien Broderick