Releasers - Anne Kilmer couldn't possibly be more wrong!

[Bill Yule]

Hi philosophers.  My $.02.

        Rear and release is tinkering with the biota.  Tinkering with the
biota has unknown effects at any scale you might image; population, genetic,
individual, environmental, etc... Humans have always done this haven't they?
They will continue to do this won't they?
Sometimes we humans like the effects of the tinkering.  Sometimes we don't.
Sometimes the effects don't manifest until after our puny lifespan have
expired.

I don't see what logic has to do with this.
    Logic is, if anything, taking a sequence of "knowns" and exchanging the
"parts" to yield a new combination that doesn't contradict the original
knowns.
     Or the "other" logic where a statistical sequence of "knowns" is used
to predict the next probable event in the sequence.

Some logic based on the theme of Jurassic Park:
        Tinkering with the biota has unknown and often surprisingly
unforeseen consequences
         Sometimes the tinkering is well informed and sometimes it is not
well informed.
        Informed or not, our tinkering (rear and release, whatever) will
have surprising outcomes whether we're here to notice them or not. Some of
us will like those outcomes, others won't.

                                                   Happy days,
                                                         Bill Yule
----- Original Message -----
From: "Xi Wang" <xiwang at sprint.ca>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 5:06 AM
Subject: Re: Releasers - Anne Kilmer couldn't possibly be more wrong!


> Hi,
>
> >
> > If we know so little, how can a claim be made one way or another? It
would
> > be more accurate to say, "We don't know."
> >
>
> Well, I think the point Neil was trying to make is that since we know so
> little, we better play it safe.  Numerous past incidents prove that humans
are
> shortsighted and when we make decisions based on insufficient data, we
almost
> always end up screwing ourselves.
>
> >
> > As far as logic goes, well, it can be used to argue just about anything.
> > Since we start with different biases, use of logic does not mean we all
> > come to the same conclusions and certainly not one recommended course of
> > action.
> > How many times have you seen disagreements between scientists over what
the
> > science means?
> >
>
> Not true, logic always argues for what is correct.  If this weren't true,
there
> would be no consistency, and logic would be useless.  If we start out with
> different axioms (biases if you will), this doesn't mean you can use logic
to
> argue in favour of different results, because before you start making
deductive
> arguements, you should use logic to determine which set of axioms are
correct.
> For scientists who argue over what scientists mean, you're assuming that
all
> scientists are equal.  This is not valid as even amongst scientists there
is a
> range in logical analytical abilities.
>
> >
> > One last thought.... I had a discussion with a scientist who held that
> > biology is not a science because it cannot be reduced to numbers and
> > analyzed with mathematics. If I held that bias, then my logical
conclusion
> > would be we should never do anything with the environment because we
cannot
> > know anything about it to an absolute certainty. :-)
>
> Can we know anything with absolute uncertainty?  And who says biology
can't be
> reduced to numbers.  Of course it can, in terms of probabilities.
Moreover,
> isn't that what chemistry and physics is all about as well?  Even in these
> 'true sciences', Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says one can only
predict
> the outcome of an event as a probability for we can never know the exact
> position and momentum of any wave-particle.  All knowledge is stochastic
in
> nature.
>
> Cheers,
> Xi Wang
>
>
>
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