Wirt responds:

> While I very appreciate the compliment (regardless of whatever level of
> sincerity accompanies it :-), I'm certainly not the only one to express
these
> thoughts. Yesterday, in the New York Times, Robert Park, a physics
professor
> at the University of Maryland, wrote virtually the same thing in a requiem

> for the MPL that I had written earlier. I've appended his piece below.


I was _very_ sincere, Wirt. While the ideas may not be original with you,
I've never seen them expressed better or more clearly.



Robert L. Park wrote:

> But as we comprehend the scale of the universe, we must also be filled
with
> wonder that fragile, self-replicating specks of matter, trapped on a tiny
> planet for a few dozen orbits around an ordinary star among countless
other
> stars in one of billions of galaxies, could have managed to figure this
all
> out.

That view, which fills Mr. Park with wonder, would only fill me with
despair.

Lou Cook