Jeremy Wickins

Sheffield, UK

Researcher, Biometrics and Social Exclusion

Thanks, Peter - now let's see if we can get this discussion out into the wider world! My favourite example is the committee sat around deciding whether Ug the caveman should be able to exploit this "fire" he has just invented. It has advantages, but, you see, it might hurt people - exit homo sapiens!

The ability to look at costs **in the light of benefits seems to have gone away. Costs are given disproportionate weight. For instance, the banning of DDT has led to more people dying as a result of insect borne disease than most other causes. The cost was an unknown and unquantifiable (at that time) effect on other species, the benefit was dominion over the insects for the first time ever. If there is a rational race watching us from flying saucers, they must be shaking their heads with dismay! Forget about the search for intelligent life outside the Earth - let's find the bits that exist here first!