Disturbing the Universe - Freeman Dyson - Part 8

Disturbing the Universe - Freeman Dyson - Part 8 Chapters 18,19,20, & 21 Page 201: If the generation time is twenty years, comparable with a human generation, then the automata do not change dramatically the conditions of human society. In this case they can multiply and produce new wealth only at about the same rate to which we are accustomed in our normal industrial growth. If the generation time is one year, the situation is different. A single machine then produces a progeny of a million in twenty years, a billion in thirty years, and the economic basis of society can be changed in one human generation. ....bacteria and protozoa, the simplest truly self-reproducing organisms, have generation times of a few hours or days. Page 207 "Founders of religions are not to be held responsible for the dogmas which their followers build upon their words. Page 216: Many biologists and chemists have concluded from inadequate evidence that the development of intelligent life should be a frequent occurence in our galaxy. Having examined their evidence and heard their arguments, I consider it just as likely that no intelligent species other than our own has ever existed. The question can only be answered by observation. Page 217: A reasonable long-range program of searching for evidence of intelligence in the universe is indistinguishable from a reasonable long-range program of general astronomical exploration. Page 220: "...one would expect, when an intelligent species evolves the use of language , that there would be only one language. one would expect that the first speaking animals would evolve a fixed structure of words and meanings, as immutable as the genetic code that evolved the billion years earlier. This is NOT a naive expectation. A convoluted Darwinian explanation does nothing to change the fact that diversity of language has slowed human co-existence and progress, and just as certainly and obviously has done nothing to speed up global co-operation. The divine explanation given in Genesis, as an indirect means to slow the perfidity of humans, is just as reasonable, if not more so, than one based on natural selection or any other fanciful Darwinian-based explanation. Page 221: All three fundamental 'inventions' mention by Freeman Dyson on page 221 death, sex, and speciation require a supreme, exongenous intelligence. The anthropomorphical description used by Dyson, itself, points to the need of an 'inventor'. Page 229: Long ago God invented the tree, a device for converting air, water and sunlight into fuel and other useful chemicals. A tree is more versatile and more economical than any device our gray technology has imagined. Page 233: So long as mankind remains confined to this planet, the ethic of human brotherhood must prevail over our desire for diversity. Page 237: "...in the long run, the sane will adapt and survive better than the insane....Sanity is, in its essence, nothing more than the ability to live in harmony with nature's laws.