[jupiters_release]

The biggest catastrophe to humans is the loss of culture. Here's an article by the most important modern anthropologist in the world, written over 30 years ago:

http://www.culturalequity.org/ace/an_appeal.html

Doomers assume a decentralized future with economic collapse, but that is simply wishful thinking.

{split from "converging catastrophes MD}

[gg3]

Jupiter, very interesting essay there.

Since that time, we have seen a few developments that have done a world of good for preserving local musical traditions. One, inexpensive multitrack recording systems. Two, the internet. At this point, practically anyone with access to these technologies can get their music "on the air" and find an audience, whether large or small. Also, the global corporate music industry is doing a remarkable job of alienating its own audiences via intellectual property restrictions, lawsuits, and so on, thereby increasing the audience for locally produced music around the world.

Thus I am less worried about musical extinctions nowadays than in the days when the essay to which you refer was written.

However the author's larger point about cultural extinctions is still valid, perhaps more so. "Globalization" is the culprit here, along with global labor arbitrage that deprives local areas of their livelihoods. Cultural extinctions are dangerous to humanity precisely because they remove entire sets of adaptive patterns that may at some point in the future prove necessary in terms of survival value.

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Aside from that, the 20th century grammatical constructions of "man," and "his," and suchlike, in that essay, seem rather quaint and are a slightly jarring reminder of how much has changed since that time. No one in their right mind nowadays would write a sentence such as, "Man, in his eternal quest for ... (blah blah blah)..." This is not "political correctness," it is a fundamental change in grammar and usage, as much so as the conventions of American English and Canadian French have changed in comparison to the original languages from their countries of origin.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'J')upiter, very interesting essay there.

Since that time, we have seen a few developments that have done a world of good for preserving local musical traditions. One, inexpensive multitrack recording systems. Two, the internet. At this point, practically anyone with access to these technologies can get their music "on the air" and find an audience, whether large or small. Also, the global corporate music industry is doing a remarkable job of alienating its own audiences via intellectual property restrictions, lawsuits, and so on, thereby increasing the audience for locally produced music around the world.

Thus I am less worried about musical extinctions nowadays than in the days when the essay to which you refer was written.

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'J')upiter, very interesting essay there.