Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric
Agreed ... come to think of it, I think I'll start writing letters again. I'm off today to buy myself a new fountain pen.
Maybe it's time to start questioning "progress" ... not just the developing and refining of technology, but whether or not we are progressing as a species. I believe that one can marshall arguments that we haven't changed fudamentally, only in the superficials. Given that we are a curious, clever, and inventive animal, all the miracles of science and technology that we ooh and aah over are, when you come to think of it, inevitable. As Bernard of Chartres put it, we are dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants. Most of us, those in the first world anyway, smell better, live longer (although with 7 billion of us on the planet this might not be a good idea), and have better toys; but we are still intolerant, violent, warlike, and territorial. And I question whether developing the ability to make ourselves and millions of other species extinct, is "progress".
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Still have my Waterman fountain pen which I got for going into first year at Paddock house - my handwriting is so much better when i use it instead of a biro.
Interesting post the rest of what you've written Eric - demographic control is probably going to become the way forward at some point (controversial I know but it will become a necessity).
All this musing on progress, change and the past is making an idea for a new thread form in my mind - will have to keep musing and work out how to put it down. Watch out for it in the next day or so - will expect you to come up with an interesting answer!