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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | but my position (using their language) may be rendered as follows. Primary succession is the only opportunity afforded life for evolution. Evolution occurs in no other circumstances. |
Do you really need such absolutism? |
Simple processes (which are the only ones we believe in) can only be expressed as absolutes. If we can't nail down a phenomenon to an absolute position, we don't really understand it.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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HYPERBOREANS: FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF EVOLUTION IN THE EARTHLY BIOSPHERE
| Ishmael wrote: | | Primary succession is the only opportunity afforded life for evolution. Evolution occurs in no other circumstances. However; primary succession is neutered where it occurs within an established ecosystem. If a new island rises from the sea, just off-shore of a mainland, no new forms of life will emerge there. It will simply be integrated within the established ecology. Primary succession results in true evolutionary change (speciation) only where it occurs on a frontier of significant size, maintained for a significant time, characterized by alien climate conditions. |
We can describe this process in even more simple terms.
Life on Earth exists in cycles of expansion and contraction. The expansive phase is longer, and static everywhere but at the margins; the chaotic phase is brief, but universally chaotic. Speciation occurs only during times of expansion and only at the margins. Times of contraction are characterized by mass extinction as marginal life forms are pushed back into the general ecology.
Life on earth expands toward the poles---though typically just one at a time---and contracts toward the equator, with the equator serving as a line of resistance for evolutionary changes in each hemisphere.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Here's something neither of us factored in.
| The building of the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze stored up so much fee-flowing water it measurably affected the speed of the earth's rotation. |
Combined with the fact that the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean measurably affected the tilt of the earth's axis, I think we can safely say all uniformitarian theories have to be ruled out on such an unstable planet.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Interesting indeed.
But what it suggests is what I've hinted at above.
Rivers are destabilizing. Rivers can lead to lakes which can lead to inland seas which can lead to.....
Therefore; the goal of vegetation must be to eliminate rivers, if the vegetation aims for a stable world.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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HYPERBOEANS: THE WEARING OF CLOTHES
Human beings are the only species on Earth that wears clothing. But it's a more fundamental phenomenon than the mere outward manifestation: The act itself.
We are the only species with an instinct to put on clothing.
We actually have a name for this instinct.
Shame.
Indeed; the most universal nightmare psychologists can identify involves the dreamer naked in a public place [Coincidentally, Mick Harper alluded to this very dream just days ago on this site, before I made this post]. Those same psychologists, Marxists all [I could have written, "Retards"], would assume that instinct to be socially constructed. It isn't. It is in-built within us as solidly as is the instinct of a beaver who, for all we know, may be embarrassed if caught without a constructed dam.
We didn't learn to wear clothes, or adorn ourselves with furs to master the frigid zone. Out of shame alone, we started putting on coverings before clothing was something we knew how to make and before we had practical reason to make it. That shame impulse then was what made us fit for the north. The tools, the methods, the technologies, the textile industry, that all came second, as practical concerns became paramount.
Nevertheless; life in the frigid zone strengthened the shame impulse. Those there who felt it most strongly were more fit for survival and reproduction.
Incidentally; I was sharing my Hyperborean Hypothesis with a Tanzanian friend and, when I came to this part of the argument, I asked had he ever had that nightmare of being naked in public. His answer: No. And he added with a laugh, "I think that's a white people nightmare."
Indeed; I think it is. As a great many other things are more common to white people than other races (which we will come to). All of which point to the origins of humanity and its distribution around the globe. All to be discussed in good time.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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HYPERBOREANS: HUMAN ORIGINS
| The frontier is key. Located exclusively in the north, the frontier is revealed at the start of each hot, equilibrium period, as the glaciers of the cold, punctuated times, retreat. As the glaciers melt, some organisms make their way north into frigid climes characterized by seasonal darkness. Only those organisms able to survive make the trip. As these species move north, most are left behind. Only "selected" organisms adapt to exploit the new environment. Those remaining in temperate regions never change (and those at the equator are never afforded the opportunity, which is why there are no arctic snakes). |
When it comes to discussing human origins, there's a lot of data out there and likely all of it is as suspect as is the climate data purporting to tell us about Earth's distant past. We will be ignoring most of it. My position is that it is always best to account for phenomena by working from principles, rather than from evidence. The principles we will be using are outlined above.
The reconstruction I propose will be simplified. There are a lot of phenomena that we "know" about (and only we know about) that will also be ignored in the interests of creating a basic model of the general processes, forces, and effects.
The story begins at the time of the last great glacial period (a period like our own, which is slowly ending).
At the time of the last great glacial period, "humanity" had spread over the globe. These were "humans" in the sense that they could interbreed with any species or subspecies of human present on the planet today, though they may have looked quite a lot different than any group of people alive today (and no doubt came in as many varieties).
These humans were already a cold-adapted species, like many other species alive at the time. They were warm-blooded and gave birth to live young that they instinctively cared for through infancy. However; they were shameless. Like the wild beasts they lived among, they wore no clothing. They used tools and understood throwing weapons but had no machines (not even fishing lines or bows).
Then came the great warming.
The equator became increasingly hot and uncomfortable for our warm-blooded ancestors. They moved away from it into temperate climes, along with much of the warm-blooded wildlife. Tropical animals and plants, reduced in number during the glacial period, flourished, and plant life filled the entire globe. Temperatures rose everywhere but nowhere so high as they did at the equator, which became a torrid barrier to those humans in the northern hemisphere.
However, once the glaciers in the north had disappeared, and plants had colonized even the north pole itself (which was, at that time, over land), our ancestors found that they could venture into those territories in summer months and exploit the resources there.
As they went farther north, some managed always to linger, never returning to warmer climes.
All around the northern pole, humanity stratified into population bands, each defined by how well-adapted they were to the north, not just to its lower temperatures but also to its darkness. Some stayed in southerly latitudes. Others made their homes closer to the poles: Each group subjected to the selective pressures of their particular environment.
At the highest point were the Hyperboreans.
These humans adapted to the joys of six-month days and the trials of six-month nights.
But the differing temperatures and the differing lengths of daylight were not the only qualities differentiating each stratified environment. Not at all. Indeed; what ultimately doomed the Hyperboreans was one of the other differences that made the Hyperborean environment so unique.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| HYPERBOEANS: THE WEARING OF CLOTHES Human beings are the only species on Earth that wears clothing. But it's a more fundamental phenomenon than the mere outward manifestation: The act itself. |
I suppose laying your young in another species wouldn't count.
| We are the only species with an instinct to put on clothing. |
I was just about to take vicious issue with this...
| We actually have a name for this instinct. Shame. Indeed; the most universal nightmare psychologists can identify involves the dreamer naked in a public place [Coincidentally, Mick Harper alluded to this very dream just days ago on this site, before I made this post]. |
Still do. How is this not learned cultural behaviour?
| Those same psychologists, Marxists all [I could have written, "Retards"], would assume that instinct to be socially constructed. |
Whoops.
| It isn't. It is in-built within us as solidly as is the instinct of a beaver who, for all we know, may be embarrassed if caught without a constructed dam. |
In Megalithic Empire we argue that building dams is not instinctive to beavers but part of a domestication. But, yes, it's presumably instinctive now.
| We didn't learn to wear clothes, or adorn ourselves with furs to master the frigid zone. Out of shame alone, we started putting on coverings before clothing was something we knew how to make and before we had practical reason to make it. That shame impulse then was what made us fit for the north. The tools, the methods, the technologies, the textile industry, that all came second, as practical concerns became paramount. |
OK. I'm not convinced of this or see why it is necessary but don't take umbrage, I'm along for the ride.
| Nevertheless; life in the frigid zone strengthened the shame impulse. Those there who felt it most strongly were more fit for survival and reproduction. |
OK...ish. Ish.
| Incidentally; I was sharing my Hyperborean Hypothesis with a Tanzanian friend and, when I came to this part of the argument, I asked had he ever had that nightmare of being naked in public. His answer: No. And he added with a laugh, "I think that's a white people nightmare." |
They're a different species?
| Indeed; I think it is. As a great many other things are more common to white people than other races (which we will come to). All of which point to the origins of humanity and its distribution around the globe. All to be discussed in good time. |
Is there ever a good time to join the National Socialist Ahnenerbe?
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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The first four minutes were insufferable (god, these people have no idea how utterly repulsive they are to any normal human being). However; the description of the cloud forest was nearly worth it.
This is precisely what I suspect. That all of Earth was once a cloud forest. All of it. This is the state that plants seek to restore and would maintain, were it not for periodic catastrophe.
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SIDE NOTE: What is is about this "NPR voice" that so induces, in any sensible man, the urge to vomit? I think there's something about it that verges on the homosexual: The auditory equivalent of watching men kiss.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| HYPERBOREANS: HUMAN ORIGINS The frontier is key. Located exclusively in the north, the frontier is revealed at the start of each hot, equilibrium period, as the glaciers of the cold, punctuated times, retreat. As the glaciers melt, some organisms make their way north into frigid climes characterized by seasonal darkness. |
That's a good point. No sun for a few months is qualitatively different from no sun for a few hours. Don't know that anyone has pointed that out before.
| Only those organisms able to survive make the trip. |
Or adapt while making the trip. The trouble with this factor is that it is a gradualist one. The Arctic Circle is a human artefact. There is not much difference between life below it or above it. Things only get really severe when you are very near the poles--and no terrestrial life exists there as far as I know.
| As these species move north, most are left behind. Only "selected" organisms adapt to exploit the new environment. Those remaining in temperate regions never change (and those at the equator are never afforded the opportunity, which is why there are no arctic snakes). |
OK
| When it comes to discussing human origins, there's a lot of data out there and likely all of it is as suspect as is the climate data purporting to tell us about Earth's distant past. We will be ignoring most of it. My position is that it is always best to account for phenomena by working from principles, rather than from evidence. The principles we will be using are outlined above. |
That's very acceptable. For internal purposes.
| The reconstruction I propose will be simplified. There are a lot of phenomena that we "know" about (and only we know about) that will also be ignored in the interests of creating a basic model of the general processes, forces, and effects. |
OK
| The story begins at the time of the last great glacial period (a period like our own, which is slowly ending). |
I'll leave you to believe this.
| At the time of the last great glacial period, "humanity" had spread over the globe. These were "humans" in the sense that they could interbreed with any species or subspecies of human present on the planet today, though they may have looked quite a lot different than any group of people alive today (and no doubt came in as many varieties). |
This is surprisingly orthodox. I don't agree but it won't be an issue.
| These humans were already a cold-adapted species, like many other species alive at the time. They were warm-blooded and gave birth to live young that they instinctively cared for through infancy. |
You mean they were placental mammals that have been around for hundreds of millions of years? Or something else?
| However; they were shameless. Like the wild beasts they lived among, they wore no clothing. They used tools and understood throwing weapons but had no machines (not even fishing lines or bows). |
Hold up. Unless 'they' had fur or feathers or whatnot how could they survive even temperate cold weather?
| Then came the great warming. The equator became increasingly hot and uncomfortable for our warm-blooded ancestors. They moved away from it into temperate climes, along with much of the warm-blooded wildlife. Tropical animals and plants, reduced in number during the glacial period, flourished, and plant life filled the entire globe. Temperatures rose everywhere but nowhere so high as they did at the equator, which became a torrid barrier to those humans in the northern hemisphere. |
I'm along for the ride.
| However, once the glaciers in the north had disappeared, and plants had colonized even the north pole itself (which was, at that time, over land), our ancestors found that they could venture into those territories in summer months and exploit the resources there. |
Fair enough.
| As they went farther north, some managed always to linger, never returning to warmer climes. |
Fair enough.
| All around the northern pole, humanity stratified into population bands, each defined by how well-adapted they were to the north, not just to its lower temperatures, but also to its darkness. Some stayed in southerly latitudes. Others made their homes closer to the poles: Each group subjected to the selective pressures of their particular environment. |
It follows.
| At the highest point were the Hyperboreans. These humans adapted to the joys of six-month days and the trials of six-month nights. |
There must have been a 'most-northerly' one.
| But the differing temperatures and the differing lengths of daylight were not the only qualities differentiating each stratified environment. Not at all. Indeed; what ultimately doomed the Hyperboreans was one of the other differences that made the Hyperborean environment so unique. |
Permanent snow and ice?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| The first four minutes were insufferable (god, these people have no idea how utterly repulsive they are to any normal human being). |
I agree. Robert Macfarlane didn't want to know when we sent him a copy of Megalithic Empire.
| However; the description of the cloud forest was nearly worth it. |
If only 'nearly' I'm sorry to have bothered you.
| This is precisely what I suspect. That all of Earth was once a cloud forest. All of it. This is the state that plants seek to restore and would maintain, were it not for periodic catastrophe. |
I didn't even know of the existence of these 'mist forests'.
| SIDE NOTE: What is is about this "NPR voice" that so induces, in any sensible man, the urge to vomit? I think there's something about it that verges on the homosexual: The auditory equivalent of watching men kiss. |
Your primitivism will cut you off from useful sources if you don't watch out.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | However; they were shameless. Like the wild beasts they lived among, they wore no clothing. They used tools and understood throwing weapons but had no machines (not even fishing lines or bows). |
Hold up. Unless 'they' had fur or feathers or whatnot how could they survive even temperate cold weather? |
Yikes. You're right. A flaw in my model.
"Human beings," during the last glacial period, were limited to an equatorial, or near-equatorial range: Tropical. Climate then was much as it is now (though colder than now, at the peak of the glacial period). Absent the wearing of clothing and fur, they could not venture far from the tropics.
Human beings were spread over the globe only in the sense that they occupied this climate band around the whole Earth.
| But the differing temperatures and the differing lengths of daylight were not the only qualities differentiating each stratified environment. Not at all. Indeed; what ultimately doomed the Hyperboreans was one of the other differences that made the Hyperborean environment so unique. |
Permanent snow and ice? |
During inter-glacial periods, there are no glaciers anywhere. Not even on the tops of mountains. The south and north poles are ice-free and plant life grows there. The average polar temperature is much cooler than the tropics but keep in mind that, at these times, the tropics are such a hot-house that warm-blooded creatures will not make their homes there. The poles being generally cooler than the tropics then is not to be understood as the poles being generally "cold." (The poles are generally cooler than the equator because of the oblong shape of the atmosphere, induced by the rotation of the planet: This compresses the depth of the atmosphere at the poles, regardless of its general density.)
The air at the poles during inter-glacial periods does grow cold during winter months. It does so only because, in the darkness, plants must shut down and cease transpiration. This results in further compression of the polar atmosphere. I doubt there is snow; but there could be frost and ice. Impossible to know for sure how cold it got. We know only one thing: It got cold enough to make clothing necessary.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | However; the description of the cloud forest was nearly worth it. |
If only 'nearly' I'm sorry to have bothered you. |
I exaggerated for comedic effect. I'm embarrassingly bad at jokes. 
| This is precisely what I suspect. That all of Earth was once a cloud forest. All of it. This is the state that plants seek to restore and would maintain, were it not for periodic catastrophe. |
I didn't even know of the existence of these 'mist forests'. |
I did. Partially. I go into detail in the book on one located at sea level in Saudi Arabia. But this affords me even stronger ammunition.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Hold up. Unless 'they' had fur or feathers or whatnot how could they survive even temperate cold weather?
Yikes. You're right. A flaw in my model. "Human beings," during the last glacial period, were limited to an equatorial, or near-equatorial range: Tropical. Climate then was much as it is now (though colder than now, at the peak of the glacial period). Absent the wearing of clothing and fur, they could not venture far from the tropics. |
Shouldn't be a problem since all primates are tropical or nearly so. You might even be able to work in the only ones that aren't: those Japanese macaques who live near (and mostly in) hot springs.
| Human beings were spread over the globe only in the sense that they occupied this climate band around the whole Earth. |
You might have to pay attention to land connectivity in that case.
Permanent snow and ice?
During inter-glacial periods, there are no glaciers anywhere. Not even on the tops of mountains. The south and north poles are ice-free and plant life grows there. The average polar temperature is much cooler than the tropics but, keep in mind that, at these times, the tropics are such a hot-house that warm-blooded creatures will not make their homes there. |
Not sure about that. Warm-blooded may be a cold adaption but that doesn't mean they can't manage the warmest weather--leastways they do at present.
| The poles being generally cooler than the tropics then is not to be understood as the poles being generally "cold." (The poles are generally cooler than the equator because of the oblong shape of the atmosphere, induced by the rotation of the planet: This compresses the depth of the atmosphere at the poles, regardless of its general density.) |
Understood.
| The air at the poles, during inter-glacial periods, does grow cold during winter months. It does so only because, in the darkness, plants must shut down and cease transpiration. This results in further compression of the polar atmosphere. I doubt there is snow; but there could be frost and ice. Impossible to know for sure how cold it got. We know only one thing: It got cold enough to make clothing necessary. |
But surely this is gradualism too. It may not be necessary but it is certainly advantageous.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | But surely this is gradualism too. It may not be necessary but it is certainly advantageous. |
I remain a gradualist. A punctuated gradualist. 
The catastrophes that periodically wiped out plants on Earth did so with regularity, and always by the same means and having the same cause. This was not random. Nature leaves nothing to chance.
Evolution takes a long time. This is why Earth affords life such a lengthy inter-glacial period. During this period, there is total stasis. There is no speciation. Excepting one location: The poles.
All speciation occurs in the polar and near-polar environment, and only during inter-glacial periods: The frigid zone. This is the only place and time on Earth where true "primary succession" occurs: The conquest by nature of an untouched land surface, otherwise utterly devoid of life. The process takes eons and, via that process, entirely novel forms of life are incubated.
These forms of life then cause another mass extinction of much of everything everywhere else during the next glacial period.
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