by David M. Petersen
I would like to discuss the essay "Glass Without Feet" by John J. McDermott. In ths essay the author is making a large distinction between what he refers to as "nature space" and what he calls "artificial space." Nature space is the open wilderness and artificial space refers to man's cities. I think there is a distinction, but I also think that a very important key idea is lost, and that idea is that man IS nature. "Nature" is the universe and man is a completely integrated part of the universe, which is completely balanced and interconnected. I think that when we view man as something that is fighting nature, or the past stages of wilderness on this planet, it is incorrect. From my point of view, the point of all earlier stages of the evolution of the world is to get to this stage, the stage where man is helping to build the evolving world with his technology. The evolutionary stages discussed in class are a good example of this, moving from the eotechnic to the paleotechnic to the neotechnic periods of technology or, in other words, moving from courser to finer and finer or more advanced expressions of technology. He does make a good point in the essay about trying to preserve the wilderness in the cities, or that the best cities incorporate the wilderness within themselves. I agree with this; we as the human race have to learn to manage this planet in terms of its "natural" resources, or wilderness, if we are to survive as a species.
The likely evolutionary path of the human race:
The 21st century needs its own philosophy; here it is: