review of The Vanishing of a Species
Roger Bagula
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1897093829/ref=cm_rdp_product_img
The Vanishing of a Species? A Look at Modern Man's Predicament by a
Geologist (Hardcover)
~ Peter Gretener (Author), Nick Gretener (Editor)
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Follow geologist Peter Gretener as he explores the past evolution,
present predicament, and possible future extinction of a particular
species on planet Earth. The species is Homo sapiens. The threat to
the species is Homo sapiens.
Gretener starts his exploration by putting man in context, both in
terms of space and time. We find that in either case, man is not as
pre-eminent as he may believe. While man is the most accomplished
toolmaker this planet has ever seen, his technical progress is
overpowering his social progress--an imbalance that sets the stage for
his vanishing act, absent quick, corrective action.
A Human Revolution is called for, where man changes fundamental
attitudes towards his fellow man and the planet he inhabits. Recent
economic turmoil around the globe, and increasing evidence of the
serious strain placed on the earth by the demands of humankind, make
the observations and recommendations raised within Vanishing deserving
of the sober attention of all Homo sapiens interested in the survival
and prosperity of their species.
From the Publisher
Vanishing should appeal to all audiences interested in better
understanding how humankind fits into the larger scheme of life and
what our prospects and choices are for the future. The author suggests
that our future is very much dependent on the decisions we make over
the next few years.
Mankind represents an incredible achievement of nature and possibly
other creative forces. The technological accomplishments of Homo
sapiens are dazzling. However, the species social/humanitarion
development has not kept pace. This inequality or imbalance in
development is threatening our future. Putting very powerful "toys" in
the hands of an overly aggressive species is not a formula for future
success.
Read Vanishing and reassess how you look at our species and its
prospects. You won't be disappointed. If not an awakening, it will be
educational and certainly not lost time. In the age of reality shows,
video games, and so forth, it behooves us all to take some time to
grapple with the greater issues of the day. As the author takes pains
to point out, these issues affect all of us and can only be solved by
all of us. Attempts by a minority to "direct" or impose change will
not succeed.
the three commandments, November 4, 2009
By R. Bagula "Roger L. Bagula"
Some would say it is easy to take pot shots at the mess of modern
society, but
this book concentrates on bull eyes.When you buy a can of fruit and
get it open
and find they put in more than just the fruit? The book has a chapter
on that:
"On the lack of integrity and competence". The problem with the legal
system
has a chapter too. Mostly he talks about that if we don't do something
pretty soon
we are faced with a "collapse" worse than just a Wall Street market
collapse.
The western countries are wealthy but just very wasteful, so that more
resources go into
big trash holes than are actually found at the same time. Other
futurists talk of people
mining trash dumps in the future. His major points are that modern man
is:
1) behaving stupidly
2) doesn't care about playing fair ( lacks honor)
3) wastes what he does have
With huge corporations hiring firms to say global warming is a lie,
we see that 1) and 2) is covered so that 3) can continue.
Per Bak says that periodic systematic collapses as being like sand
pile,
drive the self-organization evolutionary processes. An
Paleoanthropologist
tells us the human brain is evolutionary over kill;
that we only use a very small part of it.
Dealing with modern society one is tempted to say:'Let them die'.
A system that runs on greed and cares very little for children
and old people fails mostly on playing fair with the weakest.
Since the book takes a very preachy attitude and sees all the wrong
very clearly,
it tends to ignore that there are some individuals and organizations
that follow his three commandments and more?
Does Peter Gretener think he is Moses or Akhenaten?
In any case he would like the human race to survive,
but finds it very unlikely if current trends continue.
He talks about fire and agriculture, but the use of rocks for tools
goes back to before men were men. Unless we learn to use our tools
more constructively and quickly, the next race to be using them may
not be
our kind of human at all, but a transhumanity that has a conscience
about how the earth and people interact. Collapses of the biological
type have caused evolution to move forward always in the past.
Man has to start using his overabundance of brain at the individual
level,
or he will be replaced by who ever inherits
what disgrace he has left of the earth.
Respectfully, Roger L. Bagula
11759 Waterhill Road, Lakeside,Ca 92040-2905,tel: 619-5610814 :
http://www.google.com/profiles/Roger.Bagula
alternative email: roger....@gmail.com
Roger Bagula
left him, so it lacks reference to some of the modern
global warming data, but he really gets some stuff right.
Here are some of my ideas ( from email correspondence) on the subject.
The system we have is deeply flawed
and I doubt that it can be reformed enough before
these forces of nature catch up with it.
My own experience is that people don't want to hear
that we are headed for a collapse.
There is too much wealth here
and too much of going on living life as usual...
They are just going to say he is another "doom and gloom"
author, no matter how well thought out the book is.
.
I have been studying the Roman Empire
and what Christianity meant to it.
A new religion that revived the morality of
Christianity might be a good idea in practical terms.
Since he uses "revolution" and "commandments",
some are going to attack him as "subversive".
"Uncle Tom's cabin" had a deep
impact in the 1850's,
so one book can have a difference.
With Al Gore getting a Nobel Prize at least
some recognition for the "doom and gloom" school
of thought.
Geologists seem to be one of the sciences that take
systems theory, fractals and chaos theory seriously
as they have "geological" time scales in their text books.
And earthquakes as an ordinary problem...
The idea that we can engineer the future, just as Obama
did the financial market collapse is not a new one.
Issac Asimov made it part of his sci fi time-line
after the Foundation trilogy: called it psychohistory.
The idea that by understanding the mathematical historical trends
we can "help" the future by applying forces where needed.
We need more Martin Luther King's and fewer George Bush's, ha, ha...
Your father put his finger on a lot of our cultural decay.
When Donald Trump is held up as a figure to emulate,
you know something is really wrong.
How can his father's three commandments be socially engineered?
In physical systems there are "tipping" points:
socially there are also places where a little help causes a lot of
difference.
The ideas implanted in children before the age of ten
are probably the most effective way to change the future.
If we could implant in young people:
1) thrift ( anti-waste)
2) honor (or giving others a fair shake )
3) problem solving ( using you head)
That would go a long way toward making you father's ideas come to
life.
Organizations like Sunday schools, and the boy scouts have in the past
helped generations of young people.
The way that you can most effectively change the future
is to change the attitudes of those people who will
live in the future.
Morality has been pretty much enforced in the past by religion,
but that religion is not necessary to morality is important.
One of the human problem even in religious regulated
societies has been that only about 50% ever take
the morality they are supposed to behave in to heart.
At present with the abject decline in religion
the culture is in near full decline toward
some less advanced level of society.
Some philosopher or historian said if there wasn't a God
that it might be necessary to invent him
so that society would have a moral compass?
As scientists one might think
that a return religious myths would be a step backward,
but the suggestion of a culture in moral decline
due a lapse in faith may be a worse result?
I suggest that maybe a new mythology of some sort will naturally
replace
the old as Christianity replaced the Greco-Roman Pantheon of gods?
Per Bak suggests that we ( as a race of human beings)
are being shaped by self-organizational
forces of nature. I think your father would have like Per Bak's ideas.
Nature doesn't have a concept of honor, good or thrift,
but does do very well at problem solving by "experiments"
in species.
If a transhuman species does come out of a collapse
that we idealists have failed to prevent,
then they will probably eliminate
what anatomically modern humans/ Homo Sapiens remain?
Just as the Neanderthals were eliminated before,
after the last big ice age. Humans didn't give Neanderthals a "fair
shake".
Since humans seem to be responsible for the dying out of cave bears,
mammoths
giant sloths and several species in this time period,
they were not "thrifty" about their environment or hunting.
They killed whole herds just to get enough meat for one tribe for one
winter.
So evolution has only one of your father's commandments built in:
"use your head" or solve problems that involve survival.
One of my friends in the mathematics community
who is Russian ( has emigrated from that country)
has pretty much given up on Homo Sapiens :
thinks their days are numbered.
Thinks maybe the future would be better off without them...
Since he is a Russian Jew,
I guess he has a point.
European Jews in general don't see mankind as a hopeful
thing after generations of prejudice and persecution.
I think if we don't manage to wipe us all out,
those that survive and thrive won't be the current sort of human.
Another engineer -programmer see the population -resource problem as
impossible
even if we get fusion powerplants going in time,
because we have wasted so much and damaged the
atmosphere so badly.
The sci fi futurist point of view is that we should get fusion powered
space ships
and start searching for
planets in near by solar systems that can be reached by generation
ships, while the earth still has resources left.
In several generations we will be limited to coal powered
technology as oil is getting near pumped out.
Start colonies on the Moon and Mars as fast as humanly possible...
I personally try to work toward reforming our current system
so that our culture can survive the global warming collapse
that seems to be looming very fast.