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2013-2014
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1NC
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1
They read the resolution not the plan- must specify beyond legalize
Vote Neg
a. Makes the plan void for vagueness- undermines policy analysis
Kleiman and Saiger 90 lecturer public policy Harvard, consultant drug policy Rand, 1990, A SYMPOSIUM ON DRUG
DECRIMINALIZATION: DRUG LEGALIZATION: THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION, 18 Hofstra L.
Rev. 527
Defining Legalization Legalization, like prohibition, does not name a unique strategy. Perhaps the most prominent inadequacy of current legalization
arguments is their failure to specify what is meant by "legalization." Current drug policy provides an illustration of this diversity.
Heroin and marijuana are completely prohibited, 74 and cocaine can only be used in rigidly specified medical contexts, not including any
where the drug's psychoactive properties are exercised. 75 On the other hand, a wide range of pain-killers, sleep-inducers, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives can be
obtained with a doctor's prescription. 76 Alcohol is available for recreational use, but is subject to an array of controls including excise taxation,
77 limits on drinking ages, 78 limits on TV and radio advertising, 79 and retail licensing. 80 Nicotine is subject to age minimums, warning label requirements, 81 taxation, 82
and bans on smoking in some public places. 83 [*541] Drug legalization can therefore be thought of as moving drugs along a spectrum of regulated statuses in the direction of increased
availability. However, while legalization advocates do not deny that some sort of controls will be required, their proposals
is so appropriate, to describe how 'United States' usually is used by the government. And it has indeed imposed on us all a heavy burden ! With dogged
determination and perseverance, however, one can succeed in seeing through this meticulous and painstakingly contrived duplicity. For, fortunately, Congress must define all terms that it uses
in a particular and special way. For example, in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), chapter 79 Definitions, Section 7701 Definitions, it states: "(a) When used in this title, where not otherwise
distinctly expressed or manifestly incompatible with the intent thereof " It goes on, then, to define many terms of art. These definitions apply throughout the code, "where not otherwise
distinctly expressed" which will sometimes be done for a single chapter, section, subsection, or even sentence which, you will later see, can be very instructive. I fear that such analysis can be
tedious, and for this I apologize. I will try to be as pithy and compendious as possible, but I am not writing merely to express opinions; I am writing to prove the points I discuss. And I will
worry a question like a bull dog, until I am satisfied that I have presented enough hard data to conclusively establish my particular contention, especially in the eyes of those of a different
persuasion. For there are intelligent and respected researchers, for whom I have the greatest regard, who do not agree, for example, with my interpretation of the meaning of 'United States' in
Title 26, as well as in all the other titles. The history of the usage of United States , from the time of the American colonies to the present, is remarkably complex.
This is thoroughly investigated in an easy-reading yet scholarly book that I highly recommend, by Sebastian de Gracia, A Country With No Name, Pantheon, 1997. Herein, however, I will have
occasion to avail myself of virtually nothing from this wonderful tome. When I think of this, it astonishes even me. But my
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United States and which is not effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States, and (2) gross income which is effectively connected with the conduct of a
trade or business within the United States Add to this 26 USC 7701(b)(1)(B): An individual is a nonresident alien if such individual is neither a citizen of the United States nor a resident of the
United States and I think you will agree that the cardinal conundrum here indeed the very crux is the determination as to what is meant by the term "United States" and, above, nonresident
The United
States is an abstraction given substantiality when delegated duties began to be performed , and when 1:8:17 of the Constitution was implemented,
alien. For, under certain circumstances we see that the nonresident alien is not subject to any federal income tax if his relationship to the United States is of a certain nature.
which provided for land for the seat of government, as well as forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.
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2
The WTO and regulation are means of violent ordering of the world
Nayar 99 Jayan, Law@UWarwick, Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, "orders of inhumanity," 9 Transnat'l L. &
Contemp. Probs. 599 lexis
In my identification of what may be regarded as the technologies of ordering, I have consciously omitted sustained discussion of one--the regulation of regulation. Regulation,
as the
coercive agent of ordering, means to be "included," kicking and screaming, into the global market-place, to engage in "free-trade" and
be subject to the decisions of the WTO, to be persuaded of the necessary good of the Multilateral Agreement of Investment, to be
"assisted" by the prescriptions of the "experts" of the World Bank and the IMF, to be good "subject-citizens" and be willing (or
unwilling--it does not really matter) objects of "security"-related surveillance, to be modernized, trained, moved, developed. Regulation,
then, is for the "critic" an obvious focus of analysis. My omission of any further discussion of the violence of the regulation of regulation, therefore, is not because I consider it unimportant, but
rather, because this is the aspect of world (mis)ordering which has already been the subject of much sophisticated discussion. 39 For the purposes [*621] of the present discussion, I take it as a
given that we stand informed by the effective repudiations of much
Our alternative is to use this classroom space as a site of counter-education to challenge dominant
forms of thought
Bowers 11 (C.A. Bowers, University of Oregon. Ecologically and Culturally Informed Educational Reforms in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies.
Critical Education. Volume 2 Number 14 December 20, 2011 ISSN 1920-4125)
Classroom teachers and university professors do not have the political and economic power to challenge directly the global agenda of
the military/corporate/religious alliances that are aggressively promoting a consumer-dependent lifestyle and winning converts in
countries where political expediency dictates emulating the Western model of development. But teachers and professors can discuss
the political, economic, and technological developments with students in the hope that it will raise awareness and thus the need for
them to become more active in the political processone that seems now to be heavily tilted to the advantage of corporations in
exercising even more control over the federal and state governments. Given the slippery political slope we are now on, and the
increasing perils that await classroom teachers who deviate from the test-driven curriculum and the market liberal and libertarian
ideologies promoted by members of local school boards, it is still possible to introduce reforms that focus on educating students about the local alternatives
to a consumer-dependent lifestylewhich is, to reiterate a key point, the lifestyle that requires exploiting the earths natural systems and the economic
colonization of other cultures. It is also the lifestyle that is dependent upon an industrial culture that is being radically transformed by
information technologies. The Internet now enables corporations to ship jobs overseas to low-wage regions of the world, while
computer-driven automation enables corporations to replace workers with machines that can run twenty-four hours a day, and do not
require health insurance and other human costs. In effect, the consumer- dependent lifestyle that was based upon the assumption of
lifetime employment is now only a possibility for the people who are highly educated, and for people who will perform the lowpaying, low-status work that cannot be automated. The drive to further automate all levels of work, from the conceptual to the manual,
means that everybodys economic future is now insecure and dependent upon corporate policies for maximizing their profits.
Professors have a great many more opportunities to raise questions, to address the cultural roots of the ecological and cultural crises,
and to introduce students to alternative lifestyles that are less dependent upon consumerismif they chose to do so. But this may also
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3
Text: The United States should amend the Interstate Horseracing Act to prohibit online gambling
on horseracing and legalize all online gambling except gambling on dog fighting, cockfighting,
horseracing, dog racing, and bear baiting.
Online gambling should exclude activities that are cruel to non-human animals- thats unethical
KIRBY GARLITOS, April 2, 2012
PHILIPPINE AUTHORITIES NAB EIGHT KOREANS FOR RUNNING DOG-FIGHTING OPERATION,
http://calvinayre.com/2012/04/02/business/philippine-authorities-nab-eight-koreans-for-running-dog-fighting-operation/
As much as we enjoy the thrills of gambling, there are still some lines that we wouldnt dare cross. Dog fighting is one of them. We
bring this up because recently, eight South Koreans were arrested in the Philippines for running an illegal online dog-fighting operation in Calauan, Laguna. In addition
to the arrest, authorities also rescued 300 pit bulls that were being held captive in a dog farm in San Pablo City, Laguna.The eight Koreans that were arrested have been
identified to be Lee Gwi Woo, 21; Kim Young Hwan, 29; Jeong Yeon Hwal, 31; Lee Kyung Won, 31; Kim Do Kyung, 41; Hong Jeong Oh, 43; Noh Min Chul, 44; and
Hyun Ho Han, 45. What makes these incredulous story even more sickening is that according to Chief Inspector Renante Galang of the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group, this isnt the first time these Koreans have been caught for running this kind of oppressive operation. In fact, five of those arrested Noh Min Chul,
Lee Gwi Woo, Lee Kyung Won, Kim Young Hwan and Jeong Yeon Hwal have already been caught once organizing and hosting a similar dog fighting ring a few
months ago but they were released on bail. The problem is that in the Philippines, cruelty to animals is a bailable offense, which means that
offenders can walk out of their arrests if they have deep pockets. The stiffest penalty these people can face, at least according to the Philippine Animal
Welfare Act, is two years imprisonment. And even then, they could just as well be slapped on the wrist with just a P5,000 fine. You think Michael Vick could have
gotten away from his dog-fighting crimes for just a little over $100? The whole set-up of the operation also brings to light the utter shadiness of it all. Similar to
how
most underground dog-fighting operations go, a pair of pit bulls are made to fight one another to incapacitation from anywhere
between three to five minutes. The fights are then captured through the use of high-end cameras and streamed live on the Internet,
where bettors could place their wagers either through their credit cards or even Paypal. According to Galang, bets made on these fights could hit seven figures
in Korean won, making it a lucrative operation for those involved. Fortunately, Galang and his team received a tip that the group was up to their old tricks albeit in
another location and they managed to move in and perform the raid just before a fight was set to commence. We received information that while they were out on
bail they moved and set up another gaming facility in Laguna, the inspector said in a telephone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The arrested individuals
are now in custody at the at the CIDG national headquarters in Camp Caringal in Quezon City where they will eventually be charged with illegal gambling and
violation of the Animal Welfare Act. But when you compare them to the dogs, these idiots might get even get the longer end of the stick because most of the pit bulls
rescued from the farm were in far worse condition than anybody anticipated. Anna Cabrera, the executive director of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS),
said that the pit bulls were in such terrible shape that some of them had no chance of being saved and thus, were put to sleep. Like we said at
the top, there
are a lot of forms of gambling that we endorse. But anything that deals with animal torture is not one of them. There are
many other avenues of enjoying gambling without having to resort to putting two dogs against each other and watching the bloodthirsty spectacle unfold before your eyes. In addition to this whole thing being morally egregious, the whole spectacle of online dog
fighting will permeate through and cast a negative light on online gambling as a whole. For one, theres a pretty good chance that the
people behind this dog-fighting ring have been operating this whole thing without a license , which is another indelible stain that antionline forces can use in their fight against the industry. On top of that, using animal cruelty in an online gambling set-up is another
black eye that taints the entire industry as a whole. But the bottom line is that theres no place anywhere in this world for dog-fighting.
Gambling should be a fun and enjoyable way to spend your money. But doing so at the expense of two dogs viciously and forcibly
trying to mutilate each other? Thats not only stupid; its downright cruel.
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Case
Well concede the extinction impacts
A) Aliens
The best estimates put the number of Alien civilizations at 10,000
Drake, Astronomy and Astrophysics Professor University of California at Santa Cruz , 02
<July, Astrobiology Magazine, http://www.astrobio.net/news/article236.html>
The Earth's fossil record is quite clear in showing that the complexity of the central nervous system - particularly the capabilities of the brain - has steadily increased in the course of evolution.
Even the mass extinctions did not set back this steady increase in brain size. It can be argued that extinction events expedite the development of cognitive abilities, since those creatures with
superior brains are better able to save themselves from the sudden change in their environment. Thus smarter creatures are selected, and the growth of intelligence accelerates. We see this effect
produce one or more intelligent species. If we assume that Earths are common, and that usually there is enough time to evolve an intelligent species before nature tramples on the biota, then
the optimistic view is that new systems of intelligent, technology-using creatures appear about once per year. Based on an
extrapolation of our own experience, let's make a guess that a civilization's technology is detectable after 10,000 years. In that
case, there are at least 10,000 detectable civilizations out there. This is a heady result, and very encouraging to SETI people. On the other hand, taking into
account the number and distribution of stars in space, it implies that the nearest detectable civilizations are about 1,000 light years away, and only one in
ten million stars may have a detectable civilization. These last numbers create a daunting challenge to those who construct instruments and projects to search for
extraterrestrial intelligence. No actual observing program carried out so far has come anywhere close to meeting the requirement of detecting reasonable signals from a distance of 1,000 light
years, or of studying 10 million stars with high sensitivity. Donald Brownlee: But how often are animal-habitable planets located in the habitable zones of solar mass stars? Of the all
the stars that have now been shown to have planets, all either have Jupiter-mass planets interior to 5.5 AU or they have Jupiters on elliptical orbits. It is unlikely that any of these stars could
retain habitable zone planets on long-term stable orbits. On the other hand, many
of the stars that do not have currently detectable giant planets could
have habitable zone planets. But even when rocky planets are located in the right place, will they have the "right stuff" for the evolution and long term survival of animal-like
life? There are many "Rare Earth" factors (such as planet mass, abundance of water and carbon, plate tectonics, etc.) that may play important and even
critical roles in allowing the apparently difficult transition from slime to civilization. As is the case in the solar system, animal-like life is probably
uncommon in the cosmos. This might even be the case for microbes: how can scientists agree that microbial life is common in our celestial neighborhood when there is no data? Even the
simplest life is extraordinarily complicated and until we find solid evidence for life elsewhere, the frequency of life will unfortunately be guesswork. We can predict that some planetary bodies
will provide life-supporting conditions, but no one can predict that life will form. Frank Drake: Only about 5% of the stars that have been studied sufficiently have hot Jupiters or Jupiters
in elliptical orbits. The other 95% of the stars studied do not have hot Jupiters, and just what they have is still an open question. The latest discoveries, which depend on observations over a
decade or more, are finding solar system analogs. This suggests that
This
95% of the stars - for which the answers are not yet in - could be similar to our own system.
is reason for optimism among those who expect solar system analogs to be abundant.
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B) Framing
Utilitarianism Extends To Extraterrestrials and Gives Weight To Future Events
R.I. Sikora and Brian Berryrespectively: professor of philosophy @ University Of British Columbia; professor of Political Science
@ Chicago University1978 (Obligations To Future Generations; p. 101-2)
Utilitarianism impartiality is an absolutely essential element of utilitarian morality. It ensures that utilities are not weighted or
manipulated so as to favor individuals distinguished only by what (for the theory) are in themselves morally irrelevant
characteristics: sex, race, nationality, species, etc. Equal consideration is extended to all sentient creatures; this is, surly, one of the
grander ideas inherent in utilitarian ethics. Among characteristics of individuals which are morally irrelevant must be
included spatial and temporal location. If a person is (or will be) affected for better or worse by an action then that effect must be
reckoned in whether it is proximate or remote over space and/or time. It is, after all, equally real regardless of where and when it
occurs. This is the reason for the theorys insistence that the consequences of the future (as yet nonexistent) generations must be taken into account in deciding on population or resource policy.
It May Seem Immoral To Allow Human Extinction, But It Also Immoral To Destroy The
Universe Along With Countless Alien Civilizations. This Is Why We Must Use Utility In Our
Decisions.
Philip Pettitprofessor of Philosophy @ Australia National University1991 (A Companion to Ethics, ed. By Peter Singer; pg 234)
It is usually said against consequentialism that it would lead an agent to do horrendous deeds, so long as they promised the best
consequences. It would forbid nothing absolutely: not rape, not torture, not even murder. This charge is on target but it is relevant of course in
horrendous circumstances. Thus if someone of ordinary values condoned torture, that would only be in circumstances where there was
a great potential gainthe saving of innocent lives, the prevention of catastropheand where there were not the bad consequences involved, say, in state
authorities claiming the right to torture. Once it is clear the charge is only relevant only in horrendous circumstances, it ceases to be clearly
damaging. After all, the non-consequentialist will often have to defend an equally unattractive response in such circumstances. It may
be awful to think of torturing someone but it must be equally awful to think of not doing so and consequently allowing, say, a massive
bomb to go off in some public place.
C) Equality
Humanity must acknowledge the equality of alien life to prevent universal genocide.
Packer, Master in communication Wake Forest, 2007 <Joe, Alien Life in Search of Acknowledgment, pg 62-63>
Once we hold alien interests as equal to our own we can begin to revaluate areas previously believed to hold no relevance to
life beyond this planet. A diverse group of scholars including Richard Posner, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago, Nick Bostrom,
philosophy professor at Oxford University, John Leslie philosophy professor at Guelph University and Martin Rees, Britains Astronomer Royal, have written
on the emerging technologies that threaten life beyond the planet Earth. Particle accelerators labs are colliding matter together, reaching
energies that have not been seen since the Big Bang. These experiments threaten a phase transition that would create a bubble of altered space that would expand at
the speed of light killing all life in its path. Nanotechnology and other machines may soon reach the ability to self replicate. A mistake in design or
programming could unleash an endless quantity of machines converting all matter in the universe into copies of
themselves. Despite detailing the potential of these technologies to destroy the entire universe, Posner, Bostrom, Leslie, and
Rees only mention of alien life in their works is in reference to the threat aliens post to humanity. The rhetorical
construction of otherness only in terms of the threats it poses, but never in terms of the threat one poses to it, has been at the
center of humanitys history of genocide, colonization, and environmental destruction. Although humanity certainly has its own
interests in reducing the threat of these technologies evaluating them without taking into account the danger they pose to
alien life is neither appropriate nor just. It is not appropriate because framing the issue only in terms of human interests
will result in priorities designed to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits to humanity, not all life. Even if humanity
The disad outweighs the case: the ethical problems of annihilating all life on earth pales in
comparison to threatening destruction of the universe
Whole Earth Review, 92
<At the beginning of the twentieth century - computational biology Column Whole Earth Review, Fall, 1992 by Howard Rheingold,
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n76/ai_12635777__>
It looks as if something even more powerful than thermonuclear weaponry is emanating from that same, strangely fated corner of New
Mexico where nuclear physicists first knew sin. Those who follow the progress of artificial-life research know that the effects of
messing with the engines of evolution might lead to forces even more regrettable than the demons unleashed at Alamogordo. At least
nuclear weaponry and biocidal technologies only threaten life on Earth, and don't threaten to contaminate the rest of the
universe. That's the larger ethical problem of a-life. The technology of self-replicating machines that could emerge in future decades
from today's a-life research might escape from human or even terrestrial control, infest the solar system, and, given time, break out
into the galaxy. If there are other intelligent species out there, they might not react benevolently to evidence that humans have
dispersed interstellar strip-mining robots that breed, multiply, and evolve . If there are no other intelligent species in existence, maybe we will
end up creating God, or the Devil, depending on how our minds' children evolve a billion years from now. The entire story of life on earth thus far might be just the
wetware prologue to a longer, larger, drier tale, etched in silicon rather than carbon, and blasted to the stars -- purposive spores programmed to seek, grow, evolve,
expand. That's what a few people think they are on the verge of inventing. Scenarios like that make the potential for global thermonuclear war or
destruction of the biosphere look like a relatively local problem. Biocide of a few hundred thousand species (including ourselves is one
robots might lead to worse fates than mere annihilation. There's some question about whether it is ever possible to put knowledge back in the bottle,
but there is no question that we still have time to make sure that the self-reproducing increasingly intelligent, interstellar lifeforms that we are about to create are more
closely modeled on E.T. than on the Alien
D) Time Travel
Matter-Energy Concentrations Bend Time Allowing Time Travel
Michio KakuProf. Of Theoretical Physics @ NYU1994 (Hyperspace; pg 234)
Einsteins equations, we recall, state that the
curvature or bending of space and time is determined by the matter-energy content ntent of the
universe. It is, in fact, possible to find configurations of matter-energy powerful enough to force the bending of time and allow for time
travel. However, the concentrations of matter-energy necessary to bend time backwards are so vast that general relativity breaks down and quantum corrections begin
to dominate over relativity.
have proposed ways in which backward and forward time machines can be built that do not seem to violate any
known laws of physics. Remember that the laws of physics tell us what is possible, not what is practical for humans at this point in
time. The physics of time travel is still in its infancy. While all physicists today admit that time travel to the future is possible, many still believe time travel to the past
will never easily be attainable. Dont believe anyone who tells you that humans will never have efficient technology for backward and
forward time travel. Accurately predicting future technology is nearly impossible, and history is filled with underestimates of technology:
Time Travel Causes Infinite Repeating Loops That Destroy The Universe
Randallphysics student @ CalTech--No Date (Time Travel - the Possibilities and Consequences;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A398955)
This theory involves two types of temporal loops. One type is the loop mentioned in the last paragraph, the 'grandfather paradox'. For the rest of this paragraph, let's call it the 'infinite repeat'
loop, because it results in two different possibilities, infinitely repeating after one another. Another type of loop exists. It is the 'infinite possibilities' loop. In this loop, the loop changes every
single time that the loop repeats. Think of this: Imagine
that you ask your best friend to go back in time to before you were born and kill your
granddad. Also, you had enough forethought to tell him to, while he's back there, write a note to his future self to go back in
time and kill the man who would be your granddad. Everything's Okay, right? Maybe not. When your friend is given the instruction to go
and kill your granddad from you, he might do one thing. When he receives a note from his future self, he might do another.
And if he does another thing during the second repeat, he must do a different thing the third. And the forth. And the fifth. A change in
one iteration of the loop would result in a change in the note, which would result in a change in the next iteration. Eventually,
he'll do something that ends up breaking down the loop (ie, forgetting to write himself a note). This will result in a infinite repeat loop
starting. And as was already mentioned, infinite repeat loops may cause the universe to end.
E) Particle Accelerators
Humans Will Have Particle Accelerators Capable Of Reaching Disastrous Levels Before 2100
John Leslieemeriti professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph and a fellow @ the Royal Society of Canada1996 (End of
the World; pg 86)
High Level Particle Accelerators Would Disrupt The Stability Of Our Vacuum
John Leslieemeriti professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph and a fellow @ the Royal Society of Canada1996 (End of
the World; pg 86)
How could anything as empty as vacuum ever be threatened by particle accelerators or by anything? And if we did feel any fears on this score, how could they be reduced by studying cosmic
rays? For the present, at least, particle
accelerators are the physicists preferred means of reaching very high energies : ones which are locally
over very tiny regionsmuch above those produced by H-bombs. What guided Hut and Rees was that, among all the events in our existence we can be fairly confident, collisions
between cosmic rays, extremely fast particles which can have the kinetic energy of rifle bullets, are by far the most locally energetic. So long as cosmic
ray collision energies werent exceeded, nothing disastrous could be expected. Any higher energies, however, might pose a
threat to our vacuum. For a vacuum in modern physics, or empty space, neednt mean a region absolutely empty. It usually means one of two things instead:
The Destruction Of Our Vacuum Would Usher In A New, Ever-Expanding Vacuum That Would
Destroy All Life Forever
John Leslieemeriti professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph and a fellow @ the Royal Society of Canada1996 (End of
the World; pg 86-87)
the vacuum state we live in is not the absolute lowest one because on many physical theories a local minimum of the effective potential,
In this case we should find ourselves
in a false vacuum. Fields wouldnt be at their lowest energies, the ones to which they would like to fall. It would follow that our
vacuum statespace of the sort we live inmight suddenly disappear if a bubble of a real vacuum formed. The bubble would expand
at close to the speed of light, with enormous energy release, right through the galaxy and then onwards indefinitely . Might such an
unfortunate event be triggered by a new generation of particle accelerators? As has been pointed out by Coleman and De Luccia, this would be the ultimate ecological catastrophe.
Inside the ever expanding bubble, the new vacuum. There would be new constraints of nature. Not only is life as we know
it impossible, so is chemistry as we know it, since all protons would decay as soon as they were hit by the advancing bubble
wall. Worse still, there would be no hope that the new vacuum would in due course come to sustain if not life as we know it, at least some
As Hut and Rees commented, it may be that
which can be quite stable, can exist for certain parameter values. The universe, starting at high temperatures, might have supercooled in such a local minimum.
structures capable of knowing joy. For the space through which the bubble had expanded would suffer gravitational collapse in microseconds or less.
F) Artificial Intelligence
Humans Will Have AI Before 2030
Stephen WebbPhD in theoretical physics and professor at Open University-2002
243 )
Vernor Vinge, extrapolating the improvements in computer hardware and other technologies over the next few decades, argues [hu]mankind
will likely produce superhuman intelligence some time before 2030. He considers four slightly different ways in science might achieve this breakthrough. We might develop powerful computers
that wake up; computer networks like the Internet might wake up; human-computer interfaces might develop so users become super-humanly
intelligent; and biologists may develop ways of improving the human intellect. Such a super-intelligent entity might be [hu]mankinds last invention,
because the entity itself could design even better and more intelligent offspring. The doubling time of 18 months in Moores
law would steadily decrease, causing an intelligence explosion. A quicker-than-exponential runaway event might end the
human era in a few hours. Vinge calls such an event the Singularity.
G) Nanotechnology
Nanotech will be here by 2040
Gaudin in 9 (Sharon, 10/1/2009, writer computerworld, Nanotech could make humans immortal by 2040, futurists say,
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138726/Nanotech_could_make_humans_immortal_by_2040_futurist_says)
In 30 or 40 years, we'll have microscopic machines traveling through our bodies, repairing damaged cells and organs, effectively wiping out diseases.
The nanotechnology will also be used to back up our memories and personalities. In an interview with Computerworld, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil said that
anyone alive come 2040 or 2050 could be close to immortal. The quickening advance of nanotechnology means that the human condition
will shift into more of a collaboration of man and machine, as nanobots flow through human blood streams and eventually
even replace biological blood, he added. That may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but Kurzweil, a member of the Inventor's Hall of Fame and a
recipient of the National Medal of Technology, says that research well underway today is leading to a time when a combination of nanotechnology and biotechnology
will wipe out cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and diabetes.
Nanotech Would Travel The Galaxy Reducing All Life Into A Grey Goo, All The While SelfReplicating
Stephen WebbPhD in theoretical physics and professor at Open University-2002 (Where is Everybody: page 249 )
One of the elements of any future nanotechnology is likely to be the nanorobotor nanobot, for short. Although their development is a long way off,
theoretical studies suggest we could construct nanobots from one of several materialswith carbon-rich diamondoid materials perhaps forming the basis for many types of nanobot. Studies
also suggest that one
of the most useful types of nanobot will be a self-replicating machine. Alarm bells start to ring whenever selfreplication is mentioned. The danger inherent in producing a self-replicating nanobot in the laboratory is clear upon
answering the following question: What happens when a nanobot escapes into the outside world? In order to replicate, a
nanobot made of carbon-rich diamondoid material would need a source of carbon. And the best source of carbon would be the
Earths surface biosphere: plants, animals, humansliving things in general. The swarms of nanobots (for soon there would be many
copies of the original) would dismantle molecules in living material and use the carbon to produce more copies of themselves. The
surface biosphere would be converted from the rich, varied environment we see today into a sea of ravenous nanobots plus
waste sludge. This is the grey goo problem. As mentioned above in the discussion on overpopulation, exponential growth is a powerful thing. Freitas has shown that,
under ideal conditions, a population of nanobots growing exponentially could convert the surface biosphere in less than three hours! We
can add this, then, to the depressing list of ways in which the lifetime of a communicating phase of an ETC might be shorted: a laboratory accident, involving the escape of a nanobot, turns
their biosphere into sludge.
H) Isomer Bombs
The military is pursuing new Isomer bombs which will destroy the quantum vacuum and the
universe we dont even have to win development or use just that these weapons are
experimented or tested with.
Bekkum in 4 (Gary S., Founder Spacetime Threat Assessment Report Research, American Military is Pursuing New Types of
Exotic Weapons, Pravda, 8-30, http://www.starstreamresearch.com/dark_matters.htm)
Recently the British science news journal "New Scientist" revealed that the
"sub-quantum
atomic bomb", being whispered about in what he called the "dark halls" of defense research. Sub-quantum physics is a
controversial re-interpretation of quantum theory, based on so-called pilot wave theories, where an information field controls
quantum particles. The late Professor David Bohm showed that the predictions of ordinary quantum mechanics could be recast into a pilot wave information theory. Recently
Anthony Valentini of the Perimeter Institute has suggested that ordinary quantum theory may be a special case of pilot wave theories, leaving open the possibility of new and exotic nonquantum technologies. Some French, Serbian and Ukrainian physicists have been working on new theories of extended electrons and solitons, so perhaps a sub-quantum bomb is not entirely
out of the question. Even if the rumors of a sub-quantum bomb are pure fantasy, there
the wall between vacuum states was to be breached, calculations showed that an
unstoppable expanding bubble would continue to grow until it destroyed our entire universe ! Sakharov declared that "Such research
should be forbidden!" According to Okun, Sakharov feared that an experiment might accidentally trigger a vacuum phase transition.
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Nature has its own form of existence that will go on long after humanity has perished.
Lee 99 Keekok Lee, Visiting Chair in Philosophy at Lancaster University, 1999
[The Natural and the Artefactual p. 226-228]
We should not delude ourselves that the humanization of nature will stop at biotic nature or indeed be confined only to planet Earth. Other planets in our solar system,
too, may eventually be humanized; given the technological possibility of doing so, the temptation to do so appears difficult to resist on the part of those always on the
lookout for new challenges and new excitement. To resist the ontological elimination of nature as 'the Other,' environmental philosophy must not merely be earthbound
but, also, astronomically bounded (at least to the extent of our own solar system). We should bear in mind that while there may be little pristine nature left on Earth, this
does not mean that nature is not pristine elsewhere in other planets. We should also be mindful that while other planets may not have life on them, this does not
necessarily renderthem only of instrumental value to us. Above all, we should, therefore, bear in mind that nature, whether pristine or less than fully pristine,
biotic or abiotic,is ontologically independent and autonomous of humankind--natural forms and natural processes are capable ofundertaking
their own .trajectories of existence. We should also remind ourselves that we are the controllers of our science and our technology, and not allow the products
of our intellectual labor to dictate to us what we do to nature itself without pause or reflection. However, it is not the plea of this book that humankind should never
transform the natural to become the artefactual, or to deny that artefacticity is not a matter of differing degrees or levels, as such claims would be silly and indefensible.
Rather its remit is to argue that in systematically transforming the natural to become the artefactual through our science and our technology, we are at the same time
systematically engaged in ontological simplification. Ontological impoverishment in this context is wrong primarily because we have so far failed to
recognize that nature
embodies its own fundamental ontological value. In other words, it is not true, as modernity alleges, that nature is devoid of all
value and that values are simply humanly conferred or are the projections of human emotions or attitudes upon nature. Admittedly, it takes
our unique type of human consciousness to recognize that nature possesses ontological value; however, from this it would be fallacious to conclude that
human consciousness is at once the source of allvalues, or even the sole locus of axiologically-grounded intrinsic values. But most important of all, human
consciousness does not generate the primary ontological value of independence in nature; nature's forms and processes embodying this value exist whether
humankind is around or not.
A. Nuclear war would allow for rapid mutations and evolutions of life that survive. Assumes their
nuclear winter claims
Phillips 2k1 [alan, peace magazine, v17, n1,p13, nuclear winter revisited, http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v17n1p13.htm]
Altogether, nuclear winter would be an ecological disaster of the same sort of magnitude as the major extinctions of species that have
occurred in the past, the most famous one being 65 million years ago at the Cretaceous extinction. Of all the species living at the time,
about half became extinct. The theory is that a large meteor made a great crater in the Gulf of Mexico, putting a trillion tons of
rock debris into the atmosphere. That is a thousand times as much rock as is predicted for a nuclear war, but the soot from
fires blocks sunlight more effectively than rock debris. In nuclear winter there would also be radioactive contamination giving
worldwide background radiation doses many times larger than has ever happened during the three billion years of evolution. The
radiation would notably worsen things for existing species, though it might, by increasing mutations, allow quicker evolution of new
species (perhaps mainly insects and grasses) that could tolerate the post-war conditions. (I should just mention that there is no way the
radioactivity from a nuclear war would destroy "all life on earth." People must stop saying that. There will be evolution after a war,
but it may not include us).
While we are not interested in the discussion of the method of the global suicide of humanity per se,
The impact of the world's 6.3 billion people on the environment is unprecedented . Humans had a negligible effect
on the environment 3,000 years ago when fewer than 100 million people lived on Earth, but by the early 21st
century, we have altered more than one-third of Earth's ice-free surface and threatened the existence of many
plant and animal species. These changes also pose threats to our well-being. The burning of gas, coal, and oil, for
example, is increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, altering the global climate and affecting
human health. The number of people is just one factor driving environmental change. Other demographic factors also
cause change. Where people live and the rate of population growth increase the demand for natural resources such
as water and fossil fuels, adding pressure on environmental systems such as watersheds and rainforests . The
relative proportions of children, persons of working age, and elderly within a population have repercussions for
future population growth, health risks, and use of services such as public transportation. Other forces, such as
public policies, technological developments, and culture, can ease or worsen the pressures that these demographic
factors place on society and the environment. One example is the growth of cities throughout the world. This
urban growth brings changes in lifestyles, consumption patterns, infrastructure development, and waste
production.
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Each day, the population of the world increases. On average, the world population is increasing by 1.7% annually. With
more and more people, there are consequences that the Earth cannot handle. As the population of the world grows, more
and more buildings are required for people to live and work in. Buildings require land to be built on. This land comes at
the cost of the wildlife and wilderness areas of the U.S. Each day we encroach on more and more land that wildlife live
in. This land becomes smaller and smaller, and soon the animals and plants no longer have a place to live, instead
replaced by living space for humans. On top of this problem, we need material to build these buildings. In the U.S., the
most popular is the strong, sturdy, but flexible wood. We need to cut down more and more trees to build these structures.
We get these trees from the forests of the world. But since we are building so much so quickly, we are quickly exhausting
the tree supply of the world. This cutting of trees leads to a host of problems. First, we remove the habitat of many plants
and animals, which can and has lead to the extinction of many species. On top of this, cutting down all these trees
aggravates the problem of the greenhouse effect Last, the population growth means we must use more and more of our
world resources. This includes fossil fuels, food, etc. We use fossil fuels to heat our homes, to run our cars and machinery,
and for other purposes. However, we are using them so fast that if continue at our present rate of consumption, all the oil
in the world will be gone in within most of our lifetimes. (That would get rid of our problem of oil spills.) As for food, we
require more and more land to grow the food or to raise livestock. This also contributes to the problem of deforestation
and shrinking wilderness areas. For example, in Brazil, tropical rain forests are being cut down to create land to raise
cows for meat.
TAPE 48, B Chair Jenson Discusses management practices that have allowed progress. Gregory Stresses that salmon were at
historical lows, and they are improving and meet the minimum criteria for viability, but are not robust. Chair Jenson Notes
that overpopulation causes extinction, and questions whether it is true that the fewer the fish the higher the reproductivity.
Gregory Replies that the Viability Assessment shows the productivity increasing with low numbers, but shows that fish are
still at risk for extinction with such a low number of spawners.
We certainly have the most power. We have the power to destroy the planet or to help it return to a natural paradise. Our
choices have more impact than the choices of other animals, so in some ways, Homo sapiens is the most important
species on Earth. Another test of our importance is to ask how well Earth's biosphere would get along without us. The
higher a species is on the food chain, the less important it seems to be to the survival of that chain . Biodiversity is being
greatly diminished by the extinction of carnivorous predators, and their prey species are affected adversely, but the chain
is being shortened more than it is being broken. Likewise, humans have virtually left the food chain and will not create a
missing link when going extinct. Microscopic bacteria in the intestines of termites are critical to the continuity and
survival of Earth's web of life. As special as Homo sapiens may be, we seem to be an expendable species in this
biosphere. Extinction of the couple dozen species which live only on humans is tragic, but unavoidable. Although our
One conclusion is nearly certain: the all-too-easy extinction of human civilization would not be the end of life on Earth, nor even
perhaps the end of putative advanced intelligence on this planet. If civilization should perpetrate the ultimate denial of cosmic trust, then slowly and painfully again,
lesser life forms would emerge to carry the fire. As I walk along the streets of Washington, I observe squirrels with glazed looks scampering
If our species disappears, I am inclined to predict its replacement by anther intelligent species with perhaps greater powers than
we have, notably more wisdom. This species could be a direct Homo offshoot, or it could arise through a separate pathway from
some other animal species. Life on Earth has the time to recapitulate one thousand times the emergence of the human species from its last common ancestor
with chimpanzees, and some twenty times the whole history of mammals. Many wonderful things can still happen in the next five billion years, and no doubt will.
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2NC Overview
Humans are inevitably going to cause the destruction of the universe That puts countless alien
lifeforms at risk This will always outweigh in utilitarian calculus Theres no justifiable reason
to exclude intelligent alien beings from calculation If we win existence of aliens and one
extinction scenario, pull the trigger on wipeout
Long timeframe and huge magnitude mean we should examine the impacts
Posner, Senior Lecturer in Law University of Chicago, 04
<Richard, Catastrophe: Risk and Response, pg 246>
The general tendency, however, is to ignore the catastrophic risks, both individually and in the aggregate . Economic, political, and
cultural factors, including the religious beliefs prevalent in the United States, reinforce the effects of cognitive factors (including information
costs) in inducing neglect of such risks. The neglect is misguided. The expected costs of even very-low-probability events can be
huge if the adverse consequences should the probability materialize are huge , or if the interval over which the probability is estimated is
enlarged; the risk of a catastrophic collision with an asteroid is slight in the time span of a year, but not so slight in the time span of a hundred years.
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Austerity
Bans would never gain support even if they did it would drive research underground.
Hughes, Public Policy Studies Program Trinity, 01
<J., Relinquishment or Regulation: Dealing with Apocalyptic Technological Threats
November 14, 2001, http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/RelReg.pdf>
Relinquishment is impossible because the benefits of the technology will create enormous corporate, citizen and patient
constituencies for their development. The Third World will never agree to ban technologies, which promise to economic
development. Attempts to ban beneficial research will therefore drive research underground, making it more difficult to
regulate. The labs that conduct genetics, nanotech and robotics/AI research can be small and easily hidden. To the extent that the bans
were successful, they would actually endanger more than they protected. Advances in these technologies are required to prepare prophylaxis and counter-measures for
the eventual release of dangerous genetic, nano or robotic/AI technology.
The
biotechnology, molecular engineering, robotics and information technology economies are too large and diverse to imagine
that more than a handful of scientists would ever voluntarily heed Joys Oppenheimeresque call. I am all in favor of every
person examining their consciences when they go to work, and quitting if they believe they may be risking the future of the
human race. I am even in favor of professional bodies piously adopting codes of ethics that forbid their members from doing
unethical work. But appeals for individual moral courage belong in books of bedside meditations, not in deliberations of public policy. Many nuclear scientists
As an aside, let me also dismiss Joys call for a scientific Hippocratic oath, as a personal ethical complement to his proposed global ban on research.
found it easy to morally rationalize weapons research (mutual assured destruction, stopping Communism, etc.); how much easier will it be to rationalize the treatment of
disease or the creation of nanoreplicators that can make anything?
Even if all the world's scientific academies agreed that a specific type of research had a specially disquieting net 'downside' and all countries,
in unison, imposed a ban, what is the chance that it could be enforced effectively enough? In view of the failure to control drug
smuggling or homicides, it is unrealistic to expect that, when the genie is out of the bottle, we can ever be fully secure against
the misuse of science. And in our ever more interconnected world, commercial pressure are harder to control and regulate. The challenges and
difficulties of 'controlling' science in this century will indeed be daunting. Cynics would go further, and say that anything that is scientifically and
technically possible will be done somewhere, sometime despite ethical and prudential objections, and whatever the
regulatory regime.
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physicists Piet But and Martin J. Reas, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, have dreamed up a beauty. They have a
new particle accelerators may create subatomic collisions intense enough to trigger a chain reaction and thus vaporize
the entire universe! Such a macro worry is exquisite. While we stand by, physicists are planning giant accelerators. A scientist in a white
smock will soon throw that switch. And for thousands of people the last thought, before the cosmos wink out, is sure to be,
Darn, why didnt I start a petition?
By contrast,
notion that
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Nanotech EXTN
Extend our Gaudin in 9 card that indicates that nanotech will be here by 2040, also it indicates
that we may become cyborgs eventually. Extend our Webb in 2 card that indicates this nanotech
will travel throughout the universe turning everything into a grey goo. This happens, because
nanotech regulations lack in enforcement and implementation, the unchecked nanotech will get
out of hand and turn everything into what they were designed to make.
Nanotech weapons could be used to create superior bots which would kill all life
Drexler in 86 ( Eric K.Ph.D. in Molecular Nanotechnology and Chairman of the Foresight Institute, Engines of Creation,
www.foresight.org/EOC/EOC_Chapter_11.html)
threat has become known as the gray goo problem. Though masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be
able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They
might be superior in an evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable. We have evolved to love a world rich in living things, ideas, and
diversity, so there is no reason to value gray goo merely because it could spread. Indeed, if we prevent it we will thereby prove our evolutionary
superiority. The gray goo threat makes one thing perfectly clear: we cannot afford certain kinds of accidents with replicating assemblers .
gray or gooey, the term gray goo emphasizes those replicators
The first two weeks after the first assembler is built will cause an explosion of nanotech, using
current designs
Kaehler in 96 (Ted, Alan Kays Research Institute, In-Vivo nanoscope and the two week Revolution, Nanotechnology: Molecular
speculations on global abundance)
flourishing of new nanotech machines would followas fast as we could design them. But there is a technological bottleneck before we can build the first assembler.
We have been accumulating plans for pieces of nanomachines, starting with the first bearing designs presented in 1987, but we remain unable to build them. It may
be decades before we can actually build the first working assembler. In that time, we will accumulate many levels of designs,
leading to a spectrum of useful nanomahcines. When the first assembler works, a stampede of working machines could follow .
All we have to do is dust off the designs and tell the newly created assemblers to go to work. This sudden surge of working nanomachines has been
called the two-week revolution. In the first two weeks after the assembler breakthrough, the world may change radically.
For some, this is not a metaphor but a prediction of great change in a matter of days. Entire new systems of fully functional technology will emerge, ready to transform
the world.
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At least two large aerospace companies and one U.S. Defense Dept. agency are betting that zero point energy could be the next
breakthrough in aerospace vehicle propulsion, and are backing those bets with seed money for ZPE research. If their efforts pay off,
ZPE-driven powerplants might enable Mach 4 fighters, quiet 1,200-seat hypersonic airliners that fly at 100-mi. altitudes as far as
12,000 mi. in about 70 min., and 12.6-hr. trips to the Moon. ONE OF THOSE companies, BAE Systems, launched Project
Greenglow in 1986 to provide a focus for research into novel propulsion systems and the means to power them, said R.A. Evans,
the project leader, in a technical paper last year. Although funding levels have been modest, Greenglow is exploring ZPE as
one element of the programs project-directed research, according to John E. Allen, a consultant to BAE Systems. At least
one large U.S. aerospace company is embarking on ZPE research in response to a Defense Dept. request, but the company and
its customer cannot be identified yet. National laboratories, the military services and other companies either now have or have
had low-level ZPE-related efforts underway.
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1NR
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of what
makes humans seem to be on a different intellectual plane from other species on Earth , including our sophisticated language and advanced
technology is of recent origin and not due to an increase in raw brain capacity over the past few tens of thousands of years. Stripped of modern
conveniences and our native tongue, we wouldnt appear to outshine one of our fellow terrestrials by quite such a wide margin . Many
creatures, while not intellectual rivals of Homo sapiens, are not as far behind us as we sometimes suppose. The expression bird
brain, for example, is inappropriate for describe rug any avian, but especially parrots and members of the Corvid family, which
includes crows and ravens. Gavin Hunt, of Masses University in New Zealand, found that New Caledonian crows , living on a group of
islands 1,400 kilometers northeast of Australia, use two distinct types of tools to forage for in vertebrates such as insects, centipedes and larvae.
Specialization in tool-making is something we tend to think is uniquely human. Yet Hunt saw the crows use a hooked tool made by
plucking and stripping a barbed twig. He also observed the use of what he called a stepped cut tool with serrated edges, and found
leaves from which crows had started to fashion these implements. Ravens, larger cousins of the crow, excel at another talent we pride ourselves on
spontaneous problem solving. Bernd Heinrich of the University of Vermont raised five ravens under conditions that allowed him to
know what learning experiences theyd been exposed to. He then tested their abilities to deal with a new situation by using pieces of
meat hung by strings from perches. These strings were too long to let the birds reach down to grab the meat, and the birds were unable
to capture the prize in mid-air by flying up to it, as the meat was too well secured. After many failed attempts, the birds began to
ignore the food until, six hours into the experiment, one raven hit upon a solution. It reached down, pulled up as much string as it
could, and trapped that length of string under its claws. Then it reached down again to grab some more and repeated the process until
it had hauled the food up to its perch. Interestingly, there was no period of trialanderror in this; the raven seemed to formulate a
mental plan and carry it through successfully at the first attempt. Several days later, a second raven solved the problem using a
completely different method. In the end, four of the five birds independently arrived at different solutions. Only one failedthe same
bird that also never learned that flying away with the tied-down meat in its beak always led to an unpleasant jerk when the food
reached the end of its tether. Evidently, as with our species, some ravens are more birdbrained than others. Irene Pepperberg, at the
University of Arizona, has shown how adroit African gray parrots can be at using human language . Her star pupil, Alex, employs more
than 100 English words to refer to all the objects in his lab environment that play a role in his life, including his 15 special foods, his
gym and shower, and the experimenters shoulder. At times he refuses to cooperate (No!) and may tell the experimenter what to do
(Go away, Go pick up the cup, Come here.) He also requests particular information (Whats this? What color? You tell
me.) After Alex had learned to use the numbers one through six and had grasped that a triangle is three- cornered and a square
fourcornered, he spontaneously and creatively called a pentagon fivecornered. In formal, tightly controlled experiments, Alex
is shown many objects in various combinations, and answers correctly an astonishing number of questions regarding these objects,
such as What object is red? What shape is [the object which is] wood? How many [are] wood? And, What color is the key?
Our closest living relatives, the great apes, have shown an even greater proficiency with human language , and are clearly highly intelligent in
other ways. The female low-land gorilla, Koko, for example, understands about 2,000 spoken English words, has a working vocabulary of over 1,000 signs (in
American sign language) and is able to hold meaningful and interesting conversations with people. Dolphins and other toothed whales also display
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Even if they win humans are good, any non intelligent life is still worth saving
Hyde, University Distinguished Professor of Communication Ethics at Wake Forest University, 06
<Michael, The Life 284
Acknowledgment is recognition evolving into a more receptive and morally attuned state of consciousness. According
aspect of having a highly articulated set of internal representations that evolved for an evolutionary purpose why it has this extra
aspect of subjectivity is just something that our mind can't grasp simply because the mind itself is a product of natural selection , just as
some of the questions about morality make your brain hurt at a certain point and you run out of resources in which to think about alternatives or to take a high enough
bird's eye view in which to say something sensible about why it's that way as opposed to some other way. My own gut feeling is that the question of why
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In the interim, I
shall content myself with the hope (or illusion) that there is a natural ethic which mankind might decipher at some
time in the future. Regretfully, I do not know how to formulate such an ethic I only know that it cannot be based on the
assumption that human beings should become the custodians of Nature. Men would achieve nothing together if everyone
were to adopt the belief that I can save the Earth (296). When men take this attitude it is principally for themselves that they
are concerned rather than for Nature. And, this is the very kind of anthropocentric disposition that concerned White (33), it
merely represents another example of mans effort to place himself above non-human Nature, instead of facing the more
difficult task of determining his place within the natural environment.
The Affirmative is just trying to engage in the humanist thinking that the Neg tries to break away
from. They just try to solve another problem, but this humanist thinking always ends in failure.
Albert Camus (Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) 1947
Source: The Plague, written by: Albert Camus, page 37.
Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves . In
this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in
pestilences. A pestilence isnt a thing made to mans measure: therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the
mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesnt always pass away, and the humanists dream to another, it is men who
pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they havent taken their precautions. Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that
was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that pestilences were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have given a
thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied
themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.
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surface of the Earth (not underwater), that we have eyes, and that the development of agriculture is linked to the seasonal positions of
celestial objects. Intelligent alien creatures living in an oceanic abyss might develop sophisticated hydrodynamics but fail to study the motion of heavenly bodies,
investigate electromagnetic radiation, or build radio telescopes. Even if extraterrestrials are surface dwellers, their biological endowment will
determine what they are able to sense, their ecological niche, what aspects of nature they exploit to satisfy their needs, their cultural
heritage, which questions about nature they find interesting to ask. Rescher acknowledges the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials who possess the
ability to develop science and technology. He does not dispute the scientists repeated claims (1) that there is a single scientifically knowable physical reality and (2)
that aliens are not simply other humans inhabiting a different planet. After adopting these claims, he demolishes the idea of a universal science that serves as a common
language in the universe. Rescher maintains that wherever science exists in the universe, it will be localized. It will be the science of the creatures
who have fashioned it. They will act according to their special physical constitution, environment, history, and needs. Hence, science diverges in the universe. It does
not converge on the theories, concepts, and topics that happen to interest terrestrial researchers at this point in the history of the human intellect.
This is just anthropomorphizing alien life they are likely completely different
Goldstien, Shell-Economist Prize winner molecular biologist, theoretician in the field of nanobiotechnology, 06
<Alan, I, Nanobot, March 9, http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2006/03/09/nanobiobot/index_np.html>
This simplistic view of nanobiotechnology is very much like humanity's current strategy in the search for extraterrestrial life. In a chemically diverse universe we insist
on a perversely self-congratulatory strategy. Water and organic molecules, such as methane, are the identified spoor on this trail. We look for these signs because the
biology-centric assumption is that aliens will be just like us, only very, very different -- little green people with acid for blood,
sentient jellyfish with a taste for cheeseburgers , or insects that have evolved with a sense of humor. Even search strategies that
use "universal mathematical constants" ignore the possibility , proposed by some postmodern philosophers of science, that
formal modern mathematics is a function of cognitive structure unique to humans, or less specifically to a narrow range of beings similar to
humans, for example, hominids. The point is that technology analysts who can only see life as some variation on biology will see the BTM interface as a way for "us" to
plug into "it." Within this paradigm there are no consequences for the definition of life, only new enhancements for the one true life form: biology. We hold up the
mirror of humanity and see our own image reflected in the universe .
Most dictionaries define biology as "the science of living things." But the
(correctly) limitless nature of that definition is truncated when plants and animals are immediately used as the prime examples. NASA, an agency that should know
better, has saturated the media for decades with hypnotic invocations of water and organics as the true signs of extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, Hollywood and
pop culture endlessly anthropomorphize aliens. Robots get the blues. Silicon sentience springs directly from human mythology.
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The union rule for independent events allows us to compute the probability that there is at least one other planet outside Earth with life
on it. Lets start by making some reasonable and minimal (that is, least favorable to our conclusion) assumptions about the basic probabilities of
the existence of life on a planet orbiting any one star other than the Sun. Lets take the estimate of the number of stars with planets, f from Drakes
equation, as = 0.5. Then, from the fact that out of nine extrasolar planets thus discovered, one is in the habitable zone, and the fact that this is
confirmed in our own solar system (Earth being in the habitable zone, the other eight planets possibly not), we will use Y9 for that parameter. Now we come to the hard
part, getting a lower bound for the actual probability of life: What is the probability that DNA develops and is sustained in life-forms on a planet that is within its stars
habitable zone? Lets entertain the notion that DNA is an extremely complex molecule with a very small chance of occurring on its own
and that life is precarious because the universe is a dangerous place. Let us therefore assume that the probability of life occurring on
any single planet that is already within its stars habitable zone is extremely, extremely remote: one in a trillion . By multiplication of
this extremely small number by the previous factors of 0.5 and /9, we get the assumption that the probability of life around any one given
star is 0.00000000000005.Our galaxy has about 300 billion stars (although some estimates are lower), and lets assume there are 100 billion
galaxies in the universe. We will now use all these estimates and plug them into the rule for the union of independent events: P (life in orbit around at least one
other star in the known universe) = 1 (0.99999999999995)30000000000000000000000000 The answer is a number that is indistinguishable from 1.00 at
any level of decimal accuracy reported by the computer. The answer is, for all practical purposes, equal to 1.00or 100 percent. Even if we assume that there
are only 10 billion stars in our own galaxy and that there are only a billion galaxies, the answer still comes out to be a number
indistinguishable from 1.00 for the probability of life elsewhere in the universe. This shows that the result is overwhelmingthe probability that life exists
outside Earth does not depend very strongly on the actual number of stars in the universe, as long as that number is very largeas we well know it to be from
everything astronomy has taught us. New results from the Hubble Space Telescope about the existence of so many billions of galaxies in the universe serve the point
that there are so many possible places for life to develop. There is also no dependence in the model on the assumptions about the percentage of stars with planets and
the percentage of these planets within the habitable zone. While we used the best scientific estimates, even lower values still lead to the same answer, a number close to
1.00. The probability is a virtual certainty. What is happening here, mathematically, is that even though our probability of life on any one planet may be extremely
small, the compound probability that life exists on at least one other planet increases steadily because there are so man places to look so many stars. This type of
convergence as the number of trials becomes large always takes place when one uses the rule for the union of independent events. If you give something enough of a
chance to happen, it eventually will. Finally, we dont really know for certain the size of the entire universe. Some believe that our universe is infinite. If
there are infinitely many stars, the answer to our question is that the probability of extraterrestrial life is identically equal to 1.00 (not
just a number indistinguishable from 1.00 to any level of accuracy), and that this holds true no matter how small the probability of life on any planet may be, as long as
that number is not identically zero (and we know that it is not zero since we exist).
Even if humanity goes extinct life will reemerge if we do not destroy the Universe
Grinspoon, Southwest Research Institute Principle Scientist Department of Space Studies and adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the
University of Colorado, 03
<David, Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, pg 415>
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that Ive learned
about the nature of our universe and our biosphere tells me that life will find a way to thrive. Gaia, as Lynn Margulis has said, is a tough
bitch. If her noosphere chops off its head, shell keep grooving along. In time, she may grow another noosphere, giving a different
proto-intelligent species a chance at reaching the big time. I see our proud little spurt of technical invention as a little eddy in a
whirling universe that is evolving, self-organizing, and moving inexorably toward more life and more intelligence . Our little whorl could
My belief in aliens is inseparable from a certain unavoidable, foolish, naturalistic optimism about our own ultimate prospects. Everything
wink out in an instant, or it could grow into a deeper more stable mind-storm. Is psychogenesis limited to Earth? I doubt it. Will there be a psychozoic age of the
universe? Has it already begun? If we believe even in the possibility of the transformation to wisdom and immortality, then we must live in a universe increasingly
permeated with intelligence, and suffused with love. I proved it mathematically in the last chapter, and equations dont lie.
Margulis = Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts
An Earth-like planet spotted outside our solar system is the first found that could support liquid water and harbor life ,
scientists announced today. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life as we know it. The newfound planet is located at the
"Goldilocks" distance-not too close and not too far from its star to keep water on its surface from freezing or vaporizing away.
And while astronomers are not yet able to look for signs of biology on the planet, the discovery is a milestone in planet detection and the search for extraterrestrial life,
one with the potential to profoundly change our outlook on the universe. "The goal is to find life on a planet like the Earth around a star like the Sun. This is a step in
that direction," said study leader Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. "Each time you goone step forward you are very happy." The new planet is
about 50 percent bigger than Earth and about five times more massive. The new "super-Earth" is called Gliese 581 C, after its star, Gliese 581, a diminutive red dwarf
star located 20.5 light-years away that is about one-third as massive as the Sun.
Smallest to date Gliese 581 C is the smallest extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," discovered to date. It is located about 15 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun;
one year on the planet is equal to 13 Earth days. Because red dwarfs, also known as M dwarfs, are about 50 times dimmer than the Sun and much cooler, their planets
can orbit much closer to them while still remaining within their habitable zones, the spherical region around a star within which a planet's temperature can sustain
liquid water on its surface. Because it lies within its star's habitable zone and is relatively close to Earth, Gliese 581 C could be a very important target for future space
missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, said study team member Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France. "On the treasure map of the
universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," Delfosse said. Two other planets are known to inhabit the red dwarf system. One is a 15 Earth-mass " hotJupiter" gas planet discovered by the same team two years ago, which orbits even closer to its star than does Gliese 581 C. Another is an 8 Earth-mass planet discovered at
the same time as Gliese 581 C, but which lies outside its star's habitable zone. Possible waterworld Computer models predict Gliese 581 C is either a rocky planet like
Earth or a waterworld covered entirely by oceans. "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius [32 to 104
degrees Fahrenheit], and water would thus be liquid," Udry said. The scientists discovered the new world using the HARP instrument on the European Southern
Observatory 3.6 meter telescope in La Sille, Chile. They employed the so-called radial velocity, or "wobble," technique, in which the size and mass of a planet are
determined based on small perturbations it induces in its parent star's orbit via gravity. Udry said there was a fair amount of time between the calculation of Gliese 581
C's size and the realization it was within its star's habitable zone. "That came at the end," Udry said. When it did hit him, Udry knew he would be spending time
fielding phone calls from the media. "You right away think about the journalists who will like it very much," he told SPACE.com. More to come David Charbonneau,
an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) who was not involved in the study, said the new finding is an "absolutely
fantastic discovery." "It means there probably are many more such planets out there," Charbonneau said in a telephone interview. Whether
Gliese 581 C harbors life is still unknown, but "it satisfies for the first time a key requirement."
Life has expanded on its bag of chemical tricks to facilitate survival in a bewildering array of environments. In recent years, weve
discovered life in the strangest of places: in unlikely corners of our planet where no one had thought to search because they seemed so
obviously uninhabitable. Weve found bacteria thriving in acid so strong that it would dissolve your skin instantly, and creatures
soaking contentedly in superheated thermal springs above two hundred degrees. Some of these hyperthermophiles, or extreme-heatloving organisms, require temperatures above the normal boiling point of water to survive. At the opposite extreme are those that
survive in intense cold. In frigid arctic tundras that appear lifeless, weve found colonies of bacteria hiding out inside frozen rocks.
Weve even found organisms that can survive after being frozen for weeks in liquid nitrogen! The green plant Welwitschia mirabilis
If the appearance of life on a given planet was very unlikely, one might have expected it to take a long time . More precisely, one
might have expected life to appear just in time for the subsequent evolution to intelligent beings, like us, to have occurred before the cut off, provided by the life time of
the Sun. This is about ten billion years, after which the Sun will swell up and engulf the Earth. An intelligent form of life, might have mastered space travel, and be able
to escape to another star. But otherwise, life on Earth would be doomed. There is fossil evidence, that there was some form of life on Earth,
about three and a half billion years ago. This may have been only 500 million years after the Earth became stable and cool enough, for life to develop. But
life could have taken 7 billion years to develop, and still have left time to evolve to beings like us, who could ask about the origin of life. If the probability of life
developing on a given planet, is very small, why did it happen on Earth, in about one 14th of the time available. The early
appearance of life on Earth suggests that there's a good chance of the spontaneous generation of life , in suitable conditions.
I think this is an occasion where that old principal of good science, Occam's
Razor, is helpful. Apply Occam's Razor to the question of the origin of life on Earth.
We look at the Earth, and with regards to that origin, as best we know, no special or freak circumstances were required. It took water,
organics, a source of energy, and a long time. Deep-sea vents are the current favorite and a reasonable place for the origin. But even if they weren't the
culprits, the chemists have found a multitude of other pathways that produce the chemistry of life. The challenge seems to be not to find THE
pathway, but the one that was the quickest and most productive. The prime point is that nothing special was required. There will be a pathway that works, on Earth and
on similar planets. Then, by Occam's Razor, the origin of life on Earth is nothing more than the result of normal processes on the planet. Furthermore, life
should appear very frequently on other Earth-like planets. There will be microbial life nearby the solar system.
[File Name]
4. Panspermia means comets will spread life all over the Universe
Shostak. SETI Senior Astronomer, 03
<Seth, Panspermia: Spreading Life Through the Universe, Jul. 24,
http://www.seti.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=191981&ct=220926>
About 25 years ago, two British astronomers, Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramsinghe, proposed that comets might be the Johnny Appleseeds of life, carrying vital
spores from star system to star system, an idea that is known today as panspermia. If the tail of such a life-loaded comet were to brush the Earth,
it
might pass some of its frozen microorganisms into the atmosphere where they could descend to our planets surface. The two
astronomers ventured that this might account for the start of life on Earth. They also made the disturbing suggestion that panspermia could spread disease. Now you
might wonder whether life from space, as intriguing as the idea might be, solves the mystery of how biology got started in the first place. Or does this theory merely
push the problem of lifes origin into someone elses lap? Well, of course, to some extent it only accomplishes the latter. But there is an appealing aspect to panspermia:
it allows life to be widespread, even if the genesis of life is a difficult and rare event. After all, humans cover the planet, even
though Homo sapiens got his start in only one locale (Africa, presumably.) Life might blanket the Galaxy even if it only sprung up
on a small number of worlds. Great. But is there any evidence for panspermia, or is it just a seductive idea with a sexy moniker? Jayant Narlikar, of the InnerUniversity Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India, claims to have data in support of panspermia. Narlikar recently flew an experiment in a high-altitude
balloon. On board was a cryogenic sampler consisting of 16 cylinders that were pumped out and decontaminated before launch. As the balloon climbed into the Indian
sky, puffs of air were sucked in. One by one, the cylinders were automatically filled with samples from various altitudes, ranging from 25 to 41 km. Once the payload
returned to Earth, it was examined in biology labs in Cardiff and Sheffield, England. To their amazement, the researchers found evidence for live cells in the samples
from 41 km. Even more interesting, these "bacteria" recovered at high altitude were non-culturable. This doesnt mean that they didnt appreciate opera, but rather that
they couldnt be grown in laboratory Petri dishes. According to Narlikar, this was important in ruling out laboratory contamination of the samples the cells found were
clearly not a common lab bacterium.