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Old 06-07-2008, 02:08 PM   #177
Flint
Snowflake
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
Man hasn't thrived due to being stronger or fatser than our competitors; our strength is adaptability.

We've been able to adapt to vastly diverse settings, crafting unique skills for each set of challenges.

These people have their own set of adaptations. There's no guarantee that we can introduce any adaptations to them that will be useful to their environment. What we will introduce them to is a new set of things to adapt to.

I can think of alot of examples where the things that a people had to adapt to overwhelmed them; and even the new skills we showed them only served to undermine their existing adaptations to their environment, making them less able to survive.

Our adaptations aren't what they need to survive where they are. They've got that part figured out. All we can do is show them how to be more like us. The unexamined assumption that bothers me is that the more like us you are, the better off you are.
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There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there
it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your
expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever
gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio
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