What Did The Last Easter Islander Say

It Invites A Search For Ultimate Causes: Why Were Europeans, Rather Than Africans Or Native Americans, The Ones To End Up With Guns, The Nastiest Germs, And Steel?

Livestock Adopted In Africa Were Eurasian Species That Came In From The North. Africa's Long Axis, Like That Of The Americas, Is North/south Rather Than East/west. Those Eurasian Domestic Mammals Spread Southward Very Slowly In Africa, Because They Had To Adapt To Different Climate Zones And Different Animal Diseases.

One Way To Explain The Complexity And Unpredictability Of Historical Systems, Despite Their Ultimate Determinacy, Is To Note That Long Chains Of Causation May Separate Final Effects From Ultimate Causes Lying Outside The Domain Of That Field Of Science.

In Much Of The Rest Of The World, Rich People Live In Gated Communities And Drink Bottled Water. That's Increasingly The Case In Los Angeles Where I Come From. So That Wealthy People In Much Of The World Are Insulated From The Consequences Of Their Actions.

Our Biggest Threat Is Not An Asteroid About To Crash Into Us, Something We Can Do Nothing About. Instead, All The Major Threats Facing Us Today Are Problems Entirely Of Our Own Making. And Since We Made The Problems, We Can Also Solve The Problems.