[MD] Distinguishing Levels (Individual level)

[Platt Holden]

> [Platt]
> As you know, I agree with those who don't see a threat "we have 
> created" to the environment. 
 
> [Case]
> Interesting... But leaving aside questions of blame, do you think such a
> threat exists?

No. 

> [Case]
> > We would also have to develop the collective will to stop cuts in our
> > space program and join with other countries to conduct a thorough
> > search of the heavens of potential incoming threats. I am surprised at
> > you Platt. We are in 100 percent agreement about this.

> [Platt]
> Why surprised? You'll find me a lovable, little fuzzball with a heart of
> gold. :-)
 
> [Case]
> So in the spirit of new found harmony: how would you propose addressing
> this threat? How does, for example, a capitalist model apply to a
> situation that offers no obvious source of profit, or individual motive
> for proceeding?

What threat? Capitalism has already made the U.S. the cleanest nation 
in the world. Now if the environmentalists would just let us build 
atomic electric plants like in Europe we'd be cleaner still. :-) And we 
could sure use some more oil refineries.
 
> > [Case]
> > Big rocks from space are exactly the kind of thing that punctuates
> > equilibrium. Remember the T-Rex?

> [Platt]
> Not according to Wikipedia. But what does it know? 

> [Case]
> Gould is striving to maintain a theory that fits within the gradualist
> tradition. He is specifically saying the punctuations occur because
> segments of populations become isolated and local environmental pressure
> can cause rapid selective changes in the isolated population.
 
> The Wiki does say this is distinct from pre-Lyellian catastrophism, and
> the phenomenon of mass extinction. I have questions about how meaningful
> this distinction is, perhaps Gould is offering up and additional cause
> of abrupt changes in the fossil record. But I will be glad to call it
> mass extinction even though this sounds much more grim. 
> 
> Still the net result it the same.

Whatever. I think the theory is a cop out anyway. Evolutionists really 
can't explain sudden bursts of species formation any more than they can 
explain "Why evolve?" There are lots of holes in Darwinian theory.

> > [Case]
> > Why yes, I am talking about a scientific theory and so is Al Gore. And
> > when Popper talks about "falsifiability" he is talking about testing
> > the null hypothesis. That is we test to see if the idea is false.

How do you test to see if all crows are black?

> > If
> > it is not we get to test it until we find it to be false. Until then
> > we provisionally accept it as true. So when a Theory like Evolution
> > has been tested non-stop for more than a 100 years and has not been
> > found false it earns a capital T. All meaningful truth is provisional.
> > To say otherwise would be to call it Absolute Truth. It is then not
> > science. It is dogma. No amount of reason. No amount of testing. No
> > amount of evidence to the contrary can stand against Absolute Truth. I
> > find Absolute Truth to be of the lowest kind of Quality.
> 
> [Platt]
> You seem to have just put forth an  Absolute Truth.
> 
> [Case]
> No, I have described Absolute Truth. Do you have a different
> description?

Are you saying your description isn't absolutely true? Sounds to me 
like you are absolutely convinced. :-) But, I'll retract the question 
since we've been around this block so many times before. You say there 
are no absolutes, I say there are except in the highest realms of 
philosophical discourse, as Matt Kundert kindly pointed out to me some 
time ago. 

> [Snip long tirades about whose guy would win at Celebrity DeathMatch]
> 
> [Platt]
> I don't want to get into an argument about the virtues and vices of
> George Bush, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter. That's for another web site.
> Suffice to say we both have our reasons for thinking as we do about
> politics and those involved in it.
> 
> [Case]
> OMG, another point of agreement!
> 
> Maybe you really are "a lovable, little fuzzball with a heart of gold"!
> But you are scaring me, since I suspect the fuzzball conceals fangs,
> claws and a head of steel. ;-O

Nah. Just a head of cement.