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Michael Crichton – Jurassic park 2
The Lost World Hypothesis
The lecture ended, Malcolm hobbled across the open courtyard
of the Institute, shortly after noon. Walking beside him was Sarah Harding, a
young field biologist visiting from Africa. Malcolm had known her for several
years, since he had been asked to serve as an Outside reader for her doctoral
thesis at Berkeley.
Crossing the courtyard in the hot summer sun, they made an
unlikely pair: Malcolm dressed in black, stooped and ascetic, leaning on his
cane; Harding compact and muscular, looking young and energetic in shorts and a
tee shirt, her short black hair pushed up on her forehead with sunglasses. Her
field of study was African predators, lions and hyenias. She was scheduled to
return to Nairobi the next day. The two had been close since Malcolm's surgery.
Harding had been on a sabbatical year in Austin, and had helped nurse Malcolm
back to health, after his many operations. For a while it seemed as if a
romance had blossomed, and that Malcolm, a confirmed bachelor, would settle
down. But then Harding had gone back to Africa, and Malcolm had gone to Santa
Fe. Whatever their former relationship had been, they were now just friends.
They discussed the questions that had come at the end of his
lecture. From Malcolm's point of view, there had been only the predictable
objections: that mass extinctions were important; that human beings owed their
existence to the Cretaceous extinction, which had wiped out the dinosaurs and
allowed the mammals to take over. As one questioner had pompously phrased it,
"The Cretaceous allowed our own sentient awareness to arise on the
planet."
Malcom's reply was immediate: "What makes you think
human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings
never think for themselves they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part,
members of our species simply repeat what they are told -and become upset if
they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not
awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare.
Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom,
human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide
behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time
when our behavior may, well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we
have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any
other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion. Next
question."
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Termín: pondělí 3.10.2016 8:00
