X-Message-Number: 11955 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #11942 - #11947 Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:24:44 +1000 (EST) To Mike Perry: One key here is that the ants need not be conscious, even collectively. I think it is only a consequence of the fact that we now only know ONE intelligent species that we think that they must have the same mental features as we do... so I don't find your argument very strong. And remember: I gave them 1 billion more years to evolve. We may be much faster because of our brains and our consciousness, but 1 billion years is a very long time for evolution to work on these ants. (And if they started long enough before us, they could even be way in advance of us...). For that matter, space travel for such creatures need not look at all like space travel for us. If they're just able to send seeds into space (with the seeds having lots of metabolic features that lets them take root in many places, even those where there is no life at the time) then they'd have a form of space travel. We want to go ourselves because we are conscious, and it's just not very satisfying to send out some automated system which recreates us in the proper milieu. They would not feel that way... they would have no feelings at all. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11955