From: eric@flesch.org (Eric Flesch)
Subject: Hey, Anthropocentrist !   Yes, You !!
Date: 1998/01/23
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I'll bet you think anthropocentrism (the idea that we are the center
of existence) is dead.  I'll bet you think you are not an
anthropocentrist.  You're wrong!

An inherent part of anthropocentrism is being unaware of veing
anthropocentric.  When mankind considered the Earth to be the
universe, other possibilities were not considered.  It was just the
natural way for things to be.

In the first 20 years of this century it was thought that the Milky
Way was the universe.  While dissenting voices were raised, it was not
considered that the Milky-Way-centered view might be a form of
anthropocentrism.  Today, however, it clearly seems so, in hindsight.

Today we consider that the universe forms the surface of a
hypersphere.  But the hypersphere itself is thought of as being
non-existent, a form without substance.

Imagine the 7 blind men feeling the elephant, putting their notes
together, and concluding that they had determined the shape of an
elephant, but that there was nothing actually beneath the form, i.e.
that there was not actually an elephant, but only its shape.  Silly,
wouldn't it be.

So here we are, thinking ourselves wise, seeing the shape of a
universe-embracing hypersphere, but we think it empty.  How silly!
How ...  ANTHROPOCENTRIC !

When the realization comes that the hypersphere is an existing,
active, contributing member of a meta-universe "ecosystem", exchanging
matter & energy with our visible universe, only then will we finally
rid ourselves of the anthropocentrism which is inhibiting our full
understanding of cosmology.

Eric Flesch