"Don't worry about planet Earth, she can very well take care of herself. As the Stones said: Time is on her side!"
Oh, I fully agree with you here! - Planet Earth will be ok..
Humans, and complex life on planet earth... well - time is not on our side!
"the grouchiest man at Theremin World" - LOL! ;-) Thanks Christopher - You made my day! ;-)
Oh - As for "I almost gasp at your hypothesis about luck".. Dont worry..
A couple of years ago I would not only have gasped, I would have cussed vehemently! - My whole paradigm was based on effort and responsibility, on "intuition", and on "rational thinking" - I believed that I was "self made", and that, when I failed, it was because I had not put the effort in, or had been neglectful.. Luck was a word I despised... And this caused me to have a hard, arrogant 'core'. To me, people who did not understand CHOSE not to understand - all the information required was easily available - I spent my time sweating over subjects which were difficult for me, untill I mastered them.. Those who tried to build (for example) Theremins but could not be bothered to even find out what capacitance was, were, too me, just lazy.
Being debilitated for nearly 2 years, and in this time trying to get pieces of my life to fit together (self-help books, counselling, life coaching - even meditation) brought me right back to hard science, and an unpalatable truth - There is NOTHING in this universe which has ever been seen to be counter-causal.. Everything is the result of preceding 'events' or 'stimuli' - In fact, if it wasnt for Hiezenberg's quantum uncertainty, Laplace would have been right - everything past, present and future would already be "written"... As it stands, there is debate about the effect of quantum uncertainty (Einstein did not like it, and stated "god does not play dice") but regardless of this, there is no observed (or imagined) mechanism by which any counter-causal event can occur.
Bottom line (for me, anyway) is that "free will" (and freedom in general) is a total illusion - An illusion which has been essential for human evolution, but an illusion none the less.
Studying the above, and all its ramifications, has replaced theremins as my major intelectual persuit - It is easier for me to do, as mostly involves reading and thinking, which I can do when I must have my legs elevated.
And I am about half way through writing a comprehensive book on the subject, probably to be titled "Positive determinism and effective living" which deals with the science, shows how determanism need not be fatalism, and deals with implications for society - criminology, religion etc..
But it all comes down to one shocking truth - Luck! Everything we are is determined soley by how "lucky" we are - Oh, we can apply different criterion to define luck - But everything that we are is entirely, absolutely and completely what we have been "made" by the way the universe has "bumped" us into shape - We have absolutely no "right" to scorn others for what they are or how they behave, or to feel "superior" because of what we are.. Shuffle the luck, and you would be them, they would be you.
*We do "need" to behave as if people are responsible for their badness, we do need to "live the lie" of freedom, because our behaviour acts as a force which plays into the equations... But the truth is that a vile criminal is an extremely unlucky individual, regardless of whether they are caught or not.