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Old 01-02-2008, 07:59 PM   #6
Mike
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And given enough time, there is a 99% certainty that a vending machine will fall out of the sky and crush me. Anybody who takes doomsday scenarios with the least bit of gravity is retarded.

And the fact that you would apologize for mispelling "extinction," but then not apologize for quoting a "futurologist" is just upsetting... especially considering this particular "futurologist" is mentioned in the portion of the article labelled "Critique," that concludes that a dominant species goes extinct roughly once every one million years.

Common sense, of course, tells us that probability and statistics cannot accurately predict the future when dealing with willed creatures. We could say that there is 99% certainty that given enough time, a crazed lunatic wearing bright orange suspenders and drinking whole milk out of a Russian made baby bottle could break into my house, make himself a sandwich, and then steal my X-Box 360. However, the mere fact that we're talking -- generally -- about creatures with a will and the relative control over themselves and their immediate, social environments, makes probability and odds completely irrelevent.
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