| What causes a mass extinction? |
Nothing is impossible?
There have been many mass extinctions throughout the history of life on Earth of which five are the most
outstanding. The chart at the bottom of the page synthesizes the number of animal species that vanished
in different geological periods. What happened to those archaic dynasties? How can we find out?
One sure way to do it is to brainstorm obstacles that are impossible for humans to overcome. If Man, with
all his intelligence, with all his technology, with his magical ability to foresee events, cannot solve a problem,
we have to conclude that the rest of the animal kingdom could do no better.
Most people, however, truly think that Man is all powerful and can overcome any problem that comes his
way. These deluded folk were led to believe that nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible for humans, that
we have the intelligence and the ability to solve any problem. They reach such a patently irrational conclusion
from the amount of technology we have developed in the last few decades to make our lives much more
comfortable. It really is quite magical when you come to think of it. You press a button and a light turns on
in your room. You press another and the TV turns on or off by remote control. The reason we can solve
technical problems is that we possess the ability to foresee events and subsequently react by inventing
whatever technology is needed to get through the impasse. These individuals have been bombarded by so
much Hollywood special effects and dazzled by the wonders of modern technology that they have lost touch
with reality.
If you genuinely believe that Man can do absolutely anything that he can imagine, then you don't have the
intelligence to understand the arguments presented in this site and you might as well move on. This site is
not for you. Thanks for visiting.
The list of things we can't do
There are a few things that are impossible for humans and which the naive believer in omnipotent Man
is certainly unaware of. They include things such as avoiding aging, density dependent birth rates, and loss
of genetic diversity. They also include things such as traveling interstellarly and creating life.
With respect to extinction there are at least two things that humans cannot do. The first one is prevent our
population pyramid from overturning. The second one is to prevent the ecological pyramid from overturning.
It is this second one that concerns us here. Our reasoning will be straight forward. If humans cannot prevent
their own ecological pyramid from overturning, neither could any other species in the history of life on Earth.
If we can rationalize this, we have found the mechanism of a mass extinction.
However, in Science, we must start at the beginning. Our first task is to define what a mass extinction is.
What do we mean by the term 'mass extinction'? Only after we define this elusive term can we speculate
on how the ecological pyramid overturned on the species that lived in the past or how it could conceivably
overturn on Man.
Below you will find a comparison between how the members of the Paleo-Mathematical Establishment
explain mass extinctions and how a rational scientist explains mass extinctions.
| "You're crazy, Monsieur Jules Verne! It is impossible to fly into outer space, let alone to land a man on the Moon!" |
19th Century
| 20th Century |
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| To comment on any of the pages in this website go to: Rational Scientific Method |
| The History of Life on Earth |
- Mass Extinction Causes and Mechanisms
Proposed by the Paleo-Math Establishment
A Rational Mechanism for Mass Extinction
- 1. Food
2. Probability
3. Collapse
4. Linear
5. Surviving
