The Times-Colonist, Victoria, BC, August 3, 1994 reported that Steven Hawking, in a speech at Cambridge University, made the astonishing statement that "I think computer viruses should count as life.'' Hawking went on to embellish this idea. Hawking holds the academic chair of Isaac Newton who wrote, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.'' Unfortunately, Hawking lacks his great predecessor's humility.
The San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, CA, June 12, 1994 reported that the California Environmental Protection Agency has completed a "Comparative Risk Project'' that includes human perceived risk as an environmental hazard. The "social welfare'' component of environmental risk will play a prominent role in setting future agency priorities according to the California EPA secretary. Included in social welfare risk will be anything that damages a child's (or adult's) "view of their world as a safe and nurturing place'' regardless of whether or not the person's perception is, in fact, correct.
We wonder if the California EPA will ban the mailing of Green-peace propaganda into California on the basis that it raises perceived risk or rather merely bludgeon the targets of that propaganda.
The New American10, October 17, 1994 p 44 reports that the Board of Trustees of Green Cross International includes Yoko Ono, Olivia Newton-John, Carl Sagan, Robert Redford, and Ted Turner. Green Cross plans to "foster a global value shift'' and "the development of international ecological law.'' The head of Green Cross International is Mikhail Gorbachev. For reference to Mikhail's methods of fostering value shifts, potential targets of this new enviro organization may wish to consult with the people of Afghanistan.
