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[sedesdraconis]

I'm starting to get back to reading a lot, what with all these library books. So i'll probably be posting lots in response to them.

Went to bed and decided not to take the Martin's Mammoths or Unwin's Pterosaurs as too likely to get me thinking/working as opposed to sleeping. So I took Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. As always, Quammen has

Comments

[banjomensch]

I've often wondered if our human self-perception as conscious is another in a long string of ways we think we are unique, but in fact are not.

[goonlord]

Ah, point I would like to raise. Back in the fall I believe a historian came to Santa Cruz to give a talk about several myths about Copernicus. I recall that he argued that Copernicus, by removing Earth from the center of the universe, rather than reducing its importance and stature, rather elevated it to the level of the celesetial objects. Apparently old Aristotelian Metaphysics dictated that all bad things fell to the center of the universe, and thus the earth was a collection of the worst of the universe, or something along those lines.

Hmm... that reminds me of the first episode of Torchwood...

[sedesdraconis]

by removing Earth from the center of the universe, rather than reducing its importance and stature, rather elevated it to the level of the celesetial objects.

whether it raised or lowered the metaphysical status of the Earth is largely irrelevant to what I would refer to as the Copernican principle. The message of the Copernican Revolution is "You are not unique". Not the best, not the worst, not the biggest, not the smallest. The universe was interesting before you arrived and will be interesting after you leave, and is currently interesting in all kinds of places you aren't at.