
"son, I like to go the wild, untouched places on earth, see herds of ibex grazing next to pristine fission reactors. you feel like you're in the garden of eden"
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 21:13, Reply)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor
Perhaps the common ancestor of the ibex grazed in Gabon.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 23:44, Reply)

generally, if something requires you to build a giant power plant, cooling towers, mine and enrich uranium, then initiate a controlled thermal fission reaction to drive a turbine, we'd tend to define that as a man-made or artificial rather than a natural process or something you're likely to stumble across in nature. I mean, I don't want to belabour what I thought was an uncontroversial correction, but if everything is natural according to the brb definition (ipads? just atoms, mate. Totally natural), it's somewhat pointless to use it as a defence of nuclear power as you have
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 0:26, Reply)

or are you arguing that the universe is unnatural?
anything else would be supernatural - and that is just silly.
like, do you imagine human beings as somehow existing and operating outside of nature?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 1:32, Reply)

what underlying concept is being hinted at? sub or super both are outside the realm of human experience?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:13, Reply)

And by fatuous I'm using the dictionary definition of "silly and pointless", but feel free to substitute in your own definition as you have want to do.
"Nothing wrong with nuclear power plants"
"Why not?"
"Well, they're made of stuff that's found in the universe. Same as ox tongues and supernovas and ak47s and anthrax bacillus. all natural. Need I say more?"
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 3:35, Reply)

because we all know the sky falls on your head when you admit to saying something wrong or stupid
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 3:54, Reply)

Things are either natural and in existence (or potential existence), or they're supernatural and they're not.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:45, Reply)

the opposite of natural is artificial, not supernatural
happily, language is democratic: it's not that you're wrong per se, just that very, very few people will agree with you.
perhaps there's a facebook group you can join :)
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:10, Reply)

bending the runners in a three-drawer filing cabinet, so that the drawer doesn't stop when it's pulled out? or filling the stationery tray with thumb tacks?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:34, Reply)

add lead weights to the drawer-fronts and super-glue the stationery tray first?
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 4:10, Reply)

Nice, we're nearly in agreement. We're close, I promise.
Artificiality is an illogical conceptual throwback to a time when it was common to think of mankind as special and separate from nature (because God made everything for us, and nature must be tamed). But man is not special, separate, artificial, contrived, or fake. We exist entirely within nature. We are as natural as the other tool using animals, and the stuff we make is as natural as the stuff they make.
Why should a birds nest, termite colony, or beaver dam be considered natural, but something built by a human is artificial? What exactly is the distinction being made?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 21:37, Reply)

No ifs, no nands, what you said about fission reactors and ibex has been shown to be bollocks.
You can get increasingly specific if you like, but that will only make you slightly less wrong, it won't make me less right.
Fission is natural, it's happening all the time. Exploiting it is no less natural than exploiting any other resource or process.
Ask yourself this, is tool use demonstrated by animals natural or not? Assuming you agree it's natural, what is it in your mind that makes human tool use unnatural?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:47, Reply)

( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:20, Reply)