clark (clark@netsites.net)
Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:14:24 +0100
Martin, Dave, Diana, and the Squad,
Thanks for your helpful comments and thanks for pointing out my sloppy
thinking in the use of MOQ, although it may be that a case could be made
for the idea that the MOQ has existed for the life of the universe and
Pirsig just identified and explained it to us of late.
When Diana posted her principles today on the squad net I gave them
another close reading and began to see where my thinking had become
confused.
For a long time now I have thought that Lovelock had a good idea with his
concept of Gaia and I have habitually thought in those terms for years. In
fact, when I first joined the squad and got admitted to the net I seem to
remember proposing that the inorganic level was in the wrong position and
should be higher-perhaps even above the intellectual level.
Diana's clear presentation of the principle ideas showed me that my
objections were answered in the principles from Static Awareness down
through Dependency. I still have some doubts about the Static Awareness
principle where it states that it is only possible to evaluate phenomena
within each level but it may be that further thought and study will
eliminate that objection. Also, I dislike the Static Morality principle in
that it holds that higher stages of evolution are more moral than lower
stages. I think you might be able to see where from Lovelock's viewpoint
this may not be so when speaking in terms of the human race unsless we hold
that Gaia is a higher stage of evolution than humanity. This, I think, is
one area where sentient and pre-sentient values may collide.
I am not a tree hugging environmentalist. I see where we will have to
sacrifice some of the larger forms of life such as the Elephant and the
large carnivores because we cannot allow them the room that they require.
There are probably many other life forms that Gaia could do without and
still not disrupt her life functions. The area where I see problems looming
ahead is in the area of forest destruction, overpopulation and albedo or
heat load. The Earth is already greatly overpopulated in the sense that if
we raise the level of consumption of all of the people of the Earth to the
level that is taken for granted in the US now we will probably see a great
increase in the heat load that must be accomodated. It looks to me as if
the Asian continent is poised to begin a rapid climb to that level now and
rightly so. Good luck to them.
Further, the current flow of the oceans is largely responsible for the
climate distribution around the world. We may be on a path that could alter
that current flow. There is a tongue of ice in Anarctica that is
instrumental in directing the gulf stream in its current path which is now
melting rapidly. If the Gulf Stream were allowed to flow toward Africa no
one knows what the worldwide climactic result would be.
The rapid destruction of the rainforest in South America could also have
a profound effect on world climate. We may be seeing some of that result in
the severe El Nino this year.
In any case, to return to our original discussion, I think that mindset
is what has been troubling me about the MOQ and it's seeming disregard for
Gaia questions. It is true that the dependency principle takes notice of
this and should solve the problem.
The problem I am having is that when I apply these ideas to the MOQ it
appears to me that the social and intellectual levels are highly immoral
with regard to Gaia. I think that these problems will sort themselves out
in the natural course of things but it would be so much better of it could
be done in a reasoned manner instead of waiting for the local catastrophes
to hit. It is past my bedtime so I will quit and await your comments.
Martin, when I used the term virtual I intended it to mean the same
function that Dynamic Quality performs. It still seems to me that we live
in a circle of Dynamic Quality, Static Quality, SPOVs, Dynamic Quality,
etc. all embedded in Pirsig's sea of awareness from which we take bits
depending on our personal histories and whatever else that influences us
moment by moment. As I see it what we are taking from the sea of awareness
is not very moral with regard to Gaia at the moment. Ken
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