I think strict Darwinians discount the role of cosmology in Evolution. My wife and I often discuss something we call "Reset". Basically, that describes an event of sufficient cataclysmic effect that most established, long-ruling life-forms are wiped out in a single stroke. As a result, the competitive dynamics that had long decided which species succeed and which fail are re-shuffled. New orders arise that are so different from prior orders that the *linearity* of Evolution is effectively interrupted. If the dinosaurs had known about comets, they might have taken steps. As it was, all they could do was gaze in stupefaction at the pretty lights in the sky.

The resonance of these principles to our own industry, and to electronic commerce in general, is still difficult to gauge and appreciate. I have my theories, but I won't bore you with them here. But take this: It's not easy to see ourselves as we must look from space... from the perspective of an Alien, as it were --