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From: [email protected] (Zeitgeyser)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Frankenstein (was Dystopia cont.)
Date: 8 Sep 1995 12:33:12 GMT
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.mpa wrote:
> Sourcerer ([email protected]) wrote:
>
> > But I do object to the "lost humanity" part. We can't be anything but
> > human; the germ plasm is the one hardly changing waypoint in a world of
> > change.

I'm with Sourcerer on this one. Where would you point to for our lost
humanity? The Neandethal? Perhaps we lost our innocence when some poor
hunter-gatherer decided that it might be a good idea to poke a few hole
in the ground and drop seeds in and save a little walking next season?





> But is "humanity" determined by biology or by how we describe ourselves.
> Its always seemed to me to be or of a cultural description than a
> physical one. Taking for granted that its a particular kind of biped's
> behavior in question.

Ever see a human outside a cultural context? Does our description of a
tree change the reality of the tree? I might be willing to stipulate
that our descriptions of ourselves may indeed change our culture but
those descriptions can never take place outside an already partially
defined cultural context.

**********************************************************************
Zeitgeyser - the Old Faithful of pop culture

"Unity is always at least two"
(Buckminster Fuller)

The trouble with anarchy is that it
ALWAYS degenerates into government (me, heehee)
**********************************************************************


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