Showing posts with label GAIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GAIA. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Global Climate Change How drought and hunger allow bears to hibernate less!
SOME GREAT IRONIES HERE! SEE COLORED TEXT!!!
My uncle died a while back, I think it was 1989. My sister, her baby and I, drove from Connecticutt to DC for the services drove back the same night.
On the return trip, I hit a deer in the NJ Turnpike. That's a long story all by itself, for another place and time.
My point here is, I had the Officers sign off on the fact that "The deer hit my car" and not the other way around!
There is a similar perspective within the words of this article: Bears are a "plague"!
Hungry bears plague US west after record drought
by Judith Crosson Sat Sep 15, 11:03 AM ET
DENVER, United States (AFP) - They hosed the black bear with water, threw things at it and yelled, but the stubborn animal refused to move from its perch in a tree above a quiet neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado.
Pushed from their homelands by a drought and pulled by the scent of human food, black bears across western US states are breaking into homes and tearing up garbage cans in a desperate search for nourishment ahead of hibernation.
Fires across the west also destroyed bear habitat, and the animals face the continuing peril of losing their living space to urban development.
The bear in the Boulder neighborhood finally came down from the tree and fled. The animal was lucky -- it wore an ear tag, meaning a previous run in with authorities.
Authorities would have killed the bear if they had caught it, said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
This year is on target for approaching the 2002 record of 404 bears killed or euthanized, Baskfield said. Colorado has a population of between 8,000 and 12,000 bears.
"We had a late freeze in June which killed the acorns and berry crop. We had a very dry mid-summer and grasses in the high country dried up. That pushed the bears down into the valleys where we have people," Baskfield said.
It is a similar story in much of the western United States.
"Just everybody is seeing bears everywhere. That's the unusual part of it -- in places where they haven't been seen before," said state of Idaho Fish and Game wildlife biologist Bret Stansberry.
"It's a fairly severe drought and that's essentially the root of the problem. There is very little natural food for them to eat. They're coming into orchards, getting into apple trees," Stansberry said.
Adult male black bears, which weigh between 68 and 160 kilos (150 and 350 pounds), usually eat for up to 20 hours a day just before hibernation in November.
State wildlife agencies are constantly urge residents to use bear-proof garbage cans and make sure no food is left outdoors, with mixed results.
Chris Healy, spokesman for the state of Nevada Department of Wildlife, said bears are posing increasing problems. "We had one up a tree today near the university," he said.
Any area that has trees and shrubs resembles a bear's natural habitat, and when the bear spots a human it usually flees up a tree, Healy said.
Nevada has a small population of black bears, mostly concentrated in the Lake Tahoe region near the California border.
"In Tahoe people are not taking care of their garbage. Once the bears start breaking into houses it's a danger to humans," Healy said.
Bear attacks on people are rare, although there was a fatal attack in July when a bear dragged an 11 year-old boy out of his tent during a camping trip in the state of Utah.
Bears are causing plenty of trouble in California, said the state's Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Jason Holley.
"They can blow the door off the hinges. This time of year we're having at least three break-ins a night around Lake Tahoe," Holley said.
Eating human food such as donuts, hamburgers, or ice cream fattens the bears up and allows them to have more cubs. "We're developing an alarming trend -- ten percent are not
hibernating," Holley said.
Black bears in California have not faced competition from their natural rival, the larger grizzly bear, for nearly a century. The last known grizzly in California was shot dead in 1922. California however still has a grizzly bear on its state flag.
There are about 30,000 black bears in California today, up from 12,500 bears 12 years ago, Holley said.
In Montana, a non-profit group has come up with an original way to chase bears away from camping areas.
The Wind River Bear Institute trains Karelian dogs, a species from northern Europe, to use their scent to detect bears, program biologist Russ Talmo said. "The dogs are barking, we're yelling at the bears, we use noisemakers," Talmo said. The dogs, which resemble huskies, are nimble and can herd a bear away from the area, although the dogs are always close to humans.
My uncle died a while back, I think it was 1989. My sister, her baby and I, drove from Connecticutt to DC for the services drove back the same night.
On the return trip, I hit a deer in the NJ Turnpike. That's a long story all by itself, for another place and time.
My point here is, I had the Officers sign off on the fact that "The deer hit my car" and not the other way around!
There is a similar perspective within the words of this article: Bears are a "plague"!
Hungry bears plague US west after record drought
by Judith Crosson Sat Sep 15, 11:03 AM ET
DENVER, United States (AFP) - They hosed the black bear with water, threw things at it and yelled, but the stubborn animal refused to move from its perch in a tree above a quiet neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado.
Pushed from their homelands by a drought and pulled by the scent of human food, black bears across western US states are breaking into homes and tearing up garbage cans in a desperate search for nourishment ahead of hibernation.
Fires across the west also destroyed bear habitat, and the animals face the continuing peril of losing their living space to urban development.
The bear in the Boulder neighborhood finally came down from the tree and fled. The animal was lucky -- it wore an ear tag, meaning a previous run in with authorities.
Authorities would have killed the bear if they had caught it, said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
This year is on target for approaching the 2002 record of 404 bears killed or euthanized, Baskfield said. Colorado has a population of between 8,000 and 12,000 bears.
"We had a late freeze in June which killed the acorns and berry crop. We had a very dry mid-summer and grasses in the high country dried up. That pushed the bears down into the valleys where we have people," Baskfield said.
It is a similar story in much of the western United States.
"Just everybody is seeing bears everywhere. That's the unusual part of it -- in places where they haven't been seen before," said state of Idaho Fish and Game wildlife biologist Bret Stansberry.
"It's a fairly severe drought and that's essentially the root of the problem. There is very little natural food for them to eat. They're coming into orchards, getting into apple trees," Stansberry said.
Adult male black bears, which weigh between 68 and 160 kilos (150 and 350 pounds), usually eat for up to 20 hours a day just before hibernation in November.
State wildlife agencies are constantly urge residents to use bear-proof garbage cans and make sure no food is left outdoors, with mixed results.
Chris Healy, spokesman for the state of Nevada Department of Wildlife, said bears are posing increasing problems. "We had one up a tree today near the university," he said.
Any area that has trees and shrubs resembles a bear's natural habitat, and when the bear spots a human it usually flees up a tree, Healy said.
Nevada has a small population of black bears, mostly concentrated in the Lake Tahoe region near the California border.
"In Tahoe people are not taking care of their garbage. Once the bears start breaking into houses it's a danger to humans," Healy said.
Bear attacks on people are rare, although there was a fatal attack in July when a bear dragged an 11 year-old boy out of his tent during a camping trip in the state of Utah.
Bears are causing plenty of trouble in California, said the state's Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Jason Holley.
"They can blow the door off the hinges. This time of year we're having at least three break-ins a night around Lake Tahoe," Holley said.
Eating human food such as donuts, hamburgers, or ice cream fattens the bears up and allows them to have more cubs. "We're developing an alarming trend -- ten percent are not
hibernating," Holley said.
Black bears in California have not faced competition from their natural rival, the larger grizzly bear, for nearly a century. The last known grizzly in California was shot dead in 1922. California however still has a grizzly bear on its state flag.
There are about 30,000 black bears in California today, up from 12,500 bears 12 years ago, Holley said.
In Montana, a non-profit group has come up with an original way to chase bears away from camping areas.
The Wind River Bear Institute trains Karelian dogs, a species from northern Europe, to use their scent to detect bears, program biologist Russ Talmo said. "The dogs are barking, we're yelling at the bears, we use noisemakers," Talmo said. The dogs, which resemble huskies, are nimble and can herd a bear away from the area, although the dogs are always close to humans.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
It is frightening how little reporters "get" Science
Okay, so, did the Reporter ask if the "radio frequencies" generated by whatever means cost as much as the potential energy of the hydrogen released?
I'll wager there is no perpetual energy system here, it costs to create enough energy to "weaken the bonds" of the water molecules at least as much as the hydrogen's energy can release.
There are HUGE inefficiencies here, converting electricity to radio waves and then releasing the heat of the hydrogen into water, a nice insulator, and a good conductor of heat energy too...still, if they can get 25-50 percent efficiency in creating electricity they'd be way short of enough (and they can't!). However, this is going to get some main stream media play until the truth comes out several years from now. This ain't no panacea!
Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tue, 11 Sep 2007, 11:41AM
ERIE, Pa. - An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.
John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.
The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.
Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations.
The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.
The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said.
"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills."
Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding.
The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery.
"We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge."
The potential for bogus is huge.
I'll wager there is no perpetual energy system here, it costs to create enough energy to "weaken the bonds" of the water molecules at least as much as the hydrogen's energy can release.
There are HUGE inefficiencies here, converting electricity to radio waves and then releasing the heat of the hydrogen into water, a nice insulator, and a good conductor of heat energy too...still, if they can get 25-50 percent efficiency in creating electricity they'd be way short of enough (and they can't!). However, this is going to get some main stream media play until the truth comes out several years from now. This ain't no panacea!
Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tue, 11 Sep 2007, 11:41AM
ERIE, Pa. - An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.
John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.
The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.
Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations.
The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.
The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said.
"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills."
Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding.
The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery.
"We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge."
The potential for bogus is huge.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Mommy, Daddy, where did I come from?
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/pdf/PLOS_paper.pdf
If you can decipher this paper, you will understand the history of human development, as told through our very genes.
I'm reading it, again, and it is mostly intelligible, although fog factor of 42 and Dense!
My data are part of this paper...happy to contribute!
If you can decipher this paper, you will understand the history of human development, as told through our very genes.
I'm reading it, again, and it is mostly intelligible, although fog factor of 42 and Dense!
My data are part of this paper...happy to contribute!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Good luck in October
Dear Ted: Saw your call to action. Very stimulating and I'm with you all the way (in spirit) since you understand the actual immensity and immediacy of THE PROBLEM. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080807N.shtml
I've been environmentally aware since I was 8 years old, in 1962, when I decided I'd never have children. Back then, there were "starving kids in China" (as mom's would warn those of us reluctant-to-eat-our-vegies). I figured if there were starving kids, anywhere, I wouldn't want to add any of my own...and so far I have not.
There are few organizations as concerned with population, and where it is heading, in the way the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is. Having children given all that you recognize in your article and a whole lot more (how about no fish in 2050?) is IMMORAL at best. Catrostrophe, apocalypse, disaster, die-off, whatever one wishes to call it, the number of actual people around at the time it will happen must be minimized.
Therefore, for the good of the rest of life on the planet, we choose not to have children.
http://www.vhemt.org/
Just an FYI and thanks for your service to humanity.
The likelihood of Congress standing up to oil/auto/coal/energy/whatever anytime in the next 10 years is zero. Too many special interests, too much money, too much money on the side of the status quo, which, as you so gently point out, is killing the very inhabitability of the planet. That is why my analysis below is somewhat gloomy, sorry, but I'm a scientist, optimist (salesman), and a realist. We cannot get out of our own way. Individually, humans are brilliant. In a group we cannot act with wisdom...
Here is my "secular prayer" : May we live long and die out.
You asked two questions: Can we do it? and... Is it too late?
Can we do it? Actually, we cannot, but we don't even recognize that yet. We've pushed the trolley so far off the rails that climate change will be careening out of control for many 100's of years, and NOTHING we can do in the short term can stop it at all! 300-400KM storms will strike, scrubbing everything down to the bedrock...trust me, the weather and nature don't care whether they are accomodating to human life or not...
Is it too late? Way too late to prevent a die off of humanity that will make the black plague look like the common cold.
--
Cheers,
Frish
I've been environmentally aware since I was 8 years old, in 1962, when I decided I'd never have children. Back then, there were "starving kids in China" (as mom's would warn those of us reluctant-to-eat-our-vegies). I figured if there were starving kids, anywhere, I wouldn't want to add any of my own...and so far I have not.
There are few organizations as concerned with population, and where it is heading, in the way the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is. Having children given all that you recognize in your article and a whole lot more (how about no fish in 2050?) is IMMORAL at best. Catrostrophe, apocalypse, disaster, die-off, whatever one wishes to call it, the number of actual people around at the time it will happen must be minimized.
Therefore, for the good of the rest of life on the planet, we choose not to have children.
http://www.vhemt.org/
Just an FYI and thanks for your service to humanity.
The likelihood of Congress standing up to oil/auto/coal/energy/whatever anytime in the next 10 years is zero. Too many special interests, too much money, too much money on the side of the status quo, which, as you so gently point out, is killing the very inhabitability of the planet. That is why my analysis below is somewhat gloomy, sorry, but I'm a scientist, optimist (salesman), and a realist. We cannot get out of our own way. Individually, humans are brilliant. In a group we cannot act with wisdom...
Here is my "secular prayer" : May we live long and die out.
You asked two questions: Can we do it? and... Is it too late?
Can we do it? Actually, we cannot, but we don't even recognize that yet. We've pushed the trolley so far off the rails that climate change will be careening out of control for many 100's of years, and NOTHING we can do in the short term can stop it at all! 300-400KM storms will strike, scrubbing everything down to the bedrock...trust me, the weather and nature don't care whether they are accomodating to human life or not...
Is it too late? Way too late to prevent a die off of humanity that will make the black plague look like the common cold.
--
Cheers,
Frish
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Is the Term "BRIGHT" that threatening?
http://nonshoppingchannel.blogspot.com/2007/07/christianity-cult-continues.html
If you have read the above mentioned post, then you will know that I sent the following into the LA Times Editorial page.
As a Bright, (everything stems from nature not superstition), I was heartened to read about home-church-goers sincere in their desire to live moral and law abiding lives. If that form of worship helps them do that, I say excellent, how ironic their detractorsconsider them "non-biblical".There are already several hundred Christian sects, this is how they all started, it is a grand tradition. .....Even after 2000 years, It seems it is difficult to know what is truth!
WELL HOW FASCINATING. THE EDITOR LEFT OUT THIS PART!!!
"As a Bright, (everything stems from nature not superstition),"
So, my little poignant humor on the end of the letter (It seems it is difficult to know what is truth!) doesn't make sense (without the Bright part up front) in my humble and ego-bruised opinion!
Fourth letter (I think) since 2003 that I have had published by the LA Times, and this was the first one they changed materially.
If you have read the above mentioned post, then you will know that I sent the following into the LA Times Editorial page.
As a Bright, (everything stems from nature not superstition), I was heartened to read about home-church-goers sincere in their desire to live moral and law abiding lives. If that form of worship helps them do that, I say excellent, how ironic their detractorsconsider them "non-biblical".There are already several hundred Christian sects, this is how they all started, it is a grand tradition. .....Even after 2000 years, It seems it is difficult to know what is truth!
WELL HOW FASCINATING. THE EDITOR LEFT OUT THIS PART!!!
"As a Bright, (everything stems from nature not superstition),"
So, my little poignant humor on the end of the letter (It seems it is difficult to know what is truth!) doesn't make sense (without the Bright part up front) in my humble and ego-bruised opinion!
Fourth letter (I think) since 2003 that I have had published by the LA Times, and this was the first one they changed materially.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
my post on a philosophy forum
[QUOTE=Respondent]Any time a race becomes "enlightened" and tries to be peacefull I'll pick on them too. Once I got bored I'd flush that galaxy and do the benevolence/observance thing. Once I get bored of that I'd pick on them again.[/QUOTE]
(((I have snipped a small portion of "Respondent"'s post responding to a question about what he would do if he were god, here is my response to this portion of his rant.)))
You have stated my theory precisely, and if I thought there were a god, he'd act exactly as you.
Intelligence evolves and the universe strikes it down.
That is why there are no "little green men" or radio signals or contrails between stars.
Space is really really big.
But we've seen no evidence of space faring intelligences in our galaxy .
Space is really really big, it cannot be overemphasized!
However, even given current technology humans could in the not too distant future find our way to multiple star systems or even the entire galaxy...does 10,000,000 years sound a long time?
I would maintain that even a very slow progression of human colonies could conceivably stretch across the galaxy in 10,000,000 years...that is a really long time...
Well, the universe has been around 1000 times that long and there are no little green men visiting us are there!
Evolution cannot tolerate intelligence.
Intelligence (and the technology (think language and all that accompanies our most basic "CULTURE" in the anthropological sense, all that is not biological about us, non-instinctual, nurture, fire, tools, perhaps even consciousness, sentience, etc.)) is SELECTED AGAINST by the universe.
We will be the victims of our own success. Our technology has unburdened us from the vagaries of mother nature, we call anywhere home thanks to technolgy, we have health care and vaccinations, we have agriculture, we have energy, for now...we also are totally out of control when it comes to population, and worse, our impacts on natural systems have damaged them severely.
Chaos is inevitable (if really drastic things aren't accomplished right away) given current trends, no less the trend in human population - 9 billion humans by 2050, 1.5X as many as on the planet today (2007).
We will attempt to have technology save us. It will only speed our demise, as it is the reason we're engineered to fail!
Technology is simply an extension of our human nature. As living beings, our DNA drive us to obtain energy from the environment, and reproduce. Technology allows us to obtain energy from environments we weren't evolved to survive. Without a lot of very delicate and necessary technology people couldn't exist on much of the planet.
Technology has now ((or has already) (or will soon)) disrupted every biozone on the planet. The delicate web of interconnections between and amongst the various species is disrupted.
The web of life is constantly in flux. It is never in equilibrium. However, mankind's disruption allows certain energy niches on the planet to be very much more readily available. So, algae grow in the oxygenated and fertilized ocean water, and then die and suck up the oxygen, creating a dead zone in the ocean for Christ's sake.
There will be massive efforts put human knowledge into cyber minds before the end, or there would be, except the end will be here way sooner than most predict!
We won't be here long
So no need to have children
So they won't suffer.
(((I have snipped a small portion of "Respondent"'s post responding to a question about what he would do if he were god, here is my response to this portion of his rant.)))
You have stated my theory precisely, and if I thought there were a god, he'd act exactly as you.
Intelligence evolves and the universe strikes it down.
That is why there are no "little green men" or radio signals or contrails between stars.
Space is really really big.
But we've seen no evidence of space faring intelligences in our galaxy .
Space is really really big, it cannot be overemphasized!
However, even given current technology humans could in the not too distant future find our way to multiple star systems or even the entire galaxy...does 10,000,000 years sound a long time?
I would maintain that even a very slow progression of human colonies could conceivably stretch across the galaxy in 10,000,000 years...that is a really long time...
Well, the universe has been around 1000 times that long and there are no little green men visiting us are there!
Evolution cannot tolerate intelligence.
Intelligence (and the technology (think language and all that accompanies our most basic "CULTURE" in the anthropological sense, all that is not biological about us, non-instinctual, nurture, fire, tools, perhaps even consciousness, sentience, etc.)) is SELECTED AGAINST by the universe.
We will be the victims of our own success. Our technology has unburdened us from the vagaries of mother nature, we call anywhere home thanks to technolgy, we have health care and vaccinations, we have agriculture, we have energy, for now...we also are totally out of control when it comes to population, and worse, our impacts on natural systems have damaged them severely.
Chaos is inevitable (if really drastic things aren't accomplished right away) given current trends, no less the trend in human population - 9 billion humans by 2050, 1.5X as many as on the planet today (2007).
We will attempt to have technology save us. It will only speed our demise, as it is the reason we're engineered to fail!
Technology is simply an extension of our human nature. As living beings, our DNA drive us to obtain energy from the environment, and reproduce. Technology allows us to obtain energy from environments we weren't evolved to survive. Without a lot of very delicate and necessary technology people couldn't exist on much of the planet.
Technology has now ((or has already) (or will soon)) disrupted every biozone on the planet. The delicate web of interconnections between and amongst the various species is disrupted.
The web of life is constantly in flux. It is never in equilibrium. However, mankind's disruption allows certain energy niches on the planet to be very much more readily available. So, algae grow in the oxygenated and fertilized ocean water, and then die and suck up the oxygen, creating a dead zone in the ocean for Christ's sake.
There will be massive efforts put human knowledge into cyber minds before the end, or there would be, except the end will be here way sooner than most predict!
We won't be here long
So no need to have children
So they won't suffer.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Human Culture - escaping mother nature's restrictions
The economic assumption of a continuously growing population is the basis for all government planning, and stockholder expectation, when it comes to business.
Life is a chemical process, whereby each species attempts to fill an "energy niche" in the ecosystem in which it finds itself.
Humans have used technology (for at least the last 100,000 years!) to thwart the natural boundaries our ancestors faced.
Technological innovation is simply the natural outcome for our species, as it allows human life to exist in more and varied ecological energy niches.
We use technology to overcome nature, which of course is the cause of the overpopulation and destruction of our environment.
Our CULTURE, which is technology plus behaviors plus language etc., is the real culprit, that removed Humans from natural governors on our compulsions.
From tops of mountains
shore to shore, desert, forest
Technology wins
Life is a chemical process, whereby each species attempts to fill an "energy niche" in the ecosystem in which it finds itself.
Humans have used technology (for at least the last 100,000 years!) to thwart the natural boundaries our ancestors faced.
Technological innovation is simply the natural outcome for our species, as it allows human life to exist in more and varied ecological energy niches.
We use technology to overcome nature, which of course is the cause of the overpopulation and destruction of our environment.
Our CULTURE, which is technology plus behaviors plus language etc., is the real culprit, that removed Humans from natural governors on our compulsions.
From tops of mountains
shore to shore, desert, forest
Technology wins
Sunday, June 17, 2007
That's Life
Life is a result of geology and chemical processes. The conditions necessary to form life, from a resource and energy standpoint, were extant when the solar system formed. While no one can yet say how molecules began to self replicate, somehow the chemicals bonded that made this happen...that’s life.
Life is simply chemistry, put together with the same care as crystals, and it's "purpose" is to exploit as much of the energy available to self replicate. Therefore, it "evolves" into niches of energy availability. Each species specializes in obtaining and utilizing energy and thereby replicating new forms that can take advantage of the niche.
We think of life as having a beginning and an end, since individuals have a beginning and an end. In reality, life is a continuation of a process that is now billions of years old. Each individual life form comes about and consumes stuff and converts it into more soil and dies. However, the chemistry behind the individual is simply a continuation of the chemistry that preceded it. There is an unbroken line of chemistry of our DNA back to the first self replicating molecule.
So, while life itself had a beginning, any individual is the representation of the self replication molecules at a given point in time. Until that individual passes on its genes to offspring, it is the latest in the long line of self-replicating molecules that manifest themselves in the myriad of forms we observe.
An individual life form lasts but a short time. We are the most fragile of minerals, and wear out very quickly (from a geologic standpoint). But, like industrious ants, our accumulation of knowledge and ability to pass on that knowledge is chipping away at what we don't know...
Life is simply chemistry, put together with the same care as crystals, and it's "purpose" is to exploit as much of the energy available to self replicate. Therefore, it "evolves" into niches of energy availability. Each species specializes in obtaining and utilizing energy and thereby replicating new forms that can take advantage of the niche.
We think of life as having a beginning and an end, since individuals have a beginning and an end. In reality, life is a continuation of a process that is now billions of years old. Each individual life form comes about and consumes stuff and converts it into more soil and dies. However, the chemistry behind the individual is simply a continuation of the chemistry that preceded it. There is an unbroken line of chemistry of our DNA back to the first self replicating molecule.
So, while life itself had a beginning, any individual is the representation of the self replication molecules at a given point in time. Until that individual passes on its genes to offspring, it is the latest in the long line of self-replicating molecules that manifest themselves in the myriad of forms we observe.
An individual life form lasts but a short time. We are the most fragile of minerals, and wear out very quickly (from a geologic standpoint). But, like industrious ants, our accumulation of knowledge and ability to pass on that knowledge is chipping away at what we don't know...
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