Pollution: Two Case Studies

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• Pollution Two Case Studies
• The Thames, 1880-1980
• The Killer Smogs, 1950-1970

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Hormesis low doses of toxins may have a
beneficial effect.
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Our Glorious FutureBases for Rational Prediction

• 1. Nature is the enemy.
• The natural world is indifferent to human
  survival and to human aspirations. Therefore, we
  can expect to find comfort and security in the
  world only when we have brought nature under our
  control.

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Our Glorious FutureBases for Rational Prediction

• 2. Our Destiny lies among the stars.
• Earth is only our childhood home. Our
• inheritance is the galaxy and the galaxies
  beyond.
• By comparison, the Earth is just a dust mote.
  Why
• would we give up our destiny to preserve a speck
• of dust?

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Our Glorious FutureBases for Rational Prediction

• 3. The adequacy of reason
• We can understand and predict all the
• important features of complex systems and the
• effects our actions will have on them. The
  factors
• omitted by our theories are minor, and if, at
  some
• time in the future, these factors do produce
• unexpected results, we can modify our
  technologies
• to take these, too, into account.

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Our Glorious FutureBases for Rational Prediction

• 4. We are mind, not meat
• Our essential nature is thinking beings
• We can preserve this essential nature while
• becoming immortal machines, or disembodied
• programs running on computers.
• Biological life was just a starting point, which
  we
• will one day move beyond.