Acquired characteristics are inherited in technology and culture. Lamarckian evolution is rapid and accumulative. It explains the cardinal difference between our past, purely biological mode of change, and our current, maddening acceleration toward something new and liberating- or toward the abyss.

History does include aspects of directionality, and the present range of causes and phenomena does not exhaust the realm of past possibilities.

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

Science is not 'organized common sense'; at its most exciting, it reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition.

Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

People talk about human intelligence as the greatest adaptation in the history of the planet. It is an amazing and marvelous thing, but in evolutionary terms, it is as likely to do us in as to help us along.

Look in the mirror, and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.