Just watched `age of stupid' for the first time. Plenty of the politics of the film up for question, but the basic message? Pete Postlethwaite's future archivist says -

We wouldn't be first life-form to wipe itself out. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly.

Not that I think we'll wipe ourselves out, but - we did it knowingly? Texas suffers its worst drought and a strong contender for the U.S. presidency thinks prayer is the solution. That's pretty much exactly our approach as a species. We will carry on right through to the end of this century convinced that reality is whatever we want to believe it is.

I hope Hayek is wrong. I suspect he isn't. He thought the idea of social justice was a dangerous illusion. His suspicion of intellectual elites, of engineers and scientists, had the same source. If he's right, the totality of human society - the fabric that actually sustains us - is far beyond whatever intellectual structures we believe ourselves capable of creating. We're ants at best.

Watch the path that global carbon output is taking. The (perhaps far from adequate) two degree target? See the pic I've included from the Copenhagen Diagnosis. If you like, be amused by the gap between accusations of corruption against climate scientists and the awesome silence following, say, Roy Spencer: `I view my job a little like a legislator, supported by the taxpayer, to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to minimize the role of government.'

So I can't help but think Hayek's right, and Age of Stupid is right too: we're entirely capable of wiping ourselves out, because at root we're no better than bacteria turning the ocean anoxic. We're unique only because we get to understand why it happened. Only because we get to watch.