Technologies of Peace

[greyl]

Address by Daniel Quinn at Student Pugwash "Technologies of Peace" Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, 1997

" I follow a strange rule that can be applied usefully to any subject whatever, whether it's social investment, health care, human resources, or the technologies of peace. Here it is: IF THEY GIVE YOU LINED PAPER, WRITE SIDEWAYS.

We are perpetually being presented with lined paper on which we are expected to write our thoughts, our lives, and indeed our futures. Nicholas Copernicus received a full sheaf of lined paper at the end of the fifteenth century, and some of those lines represented the physical arrangement of the universe as it was understood at that time. It was perfectly possible for him to be a respected astronomer so long as he did his work within the lines of the Ptolemaic system. But because he eventually saw that he had to write sideways against those lines, he knew that his most important work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543), could not be published until after his death. Albert Einstein similarly received a full set of lined paper as a young man, but his was a different sort of age. When he turned the paper sideways and began to work out his theory of relativity, this was very quickly recognized as an important contribution. Darwin, Freud, and Marx are other well known examples of people who took the lined paper they were given and turned it sideways to do important work that changed the world.

Let me give you an example of some of the lines found on the paper you've received so far--you, I--everyone who grows up in this culture. "Because we have a growing population, we must finds ways to increase food production. Increasing food production is essential and undoubtedly beneficial work." These are the lines on the paper we've been given. But when I turn the paper sideways and write, "Food production is the fuel of our population explosion, and the more we increase it, the more fuel we supply that explosion," everyone goes crazy. I'm not writing inside the lines!
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When humanity is scaled down to the size of the rest of the community, distinctions between "natural" and "unnatural" become very hazy indeed. For example, why exactly is the trail system of a white-tailed deer "natural" but an expressway system "unnatural"? Why is a bird's nest "natural" but this building we're in here "unnatural"?
An easy answer might be that the bird builds from "natural" materials and we don't. But then you might ask why wire, cotton, string, paper, fiberglass, and even cement are often found in birds' nests. Someone in Texas recently found a raven's nest constructed entirely of barbed wire. Workers in an office building in California once found a canyon wren's nest built entirely of office supplies--things like pins, thumbtacks, paper clips, rubber bands, and so on--not a shred of so-called natural materials.

The ancestors of birds didn't fly--and neither did ours. The creatures we call birds eventually FOUND a way to fly--as did we. It's not easy to explain why this transition was "natural" for birds but NOT natural for us. If we conceptually restore humanity to its place in the community of life, it becomes a little difficult to figure out how ANYTHING we do is "unnatural." In fact (I suggest), this distinction between natural and unnatural that we hear so often made--especially in reference to technology--is as little reality-based as the distinction between approved and unapproved recreational drugs."
http://www.ishmael.com/Education/Writings/technology_and_other_war.shtml

[SteppingRazor]

1. I particularly like that last bit...

My stash and I would like to thank Mr. Quinn :smoke:


The rest of it's good too, though. One must accept "facts," but one needn't ever accept "notions" or "hypotheses" or even "theories" -- until they're proven fact, of course.