| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Uncle Clover" |
| Date: |
03 Nov 2006 12:20:48 AM |
| Object: |
What if we contact E.T., and... |
....E.T. tells us to "shut up"?
Humans have excruciatingly vivid imaginations, particularly when it
comes to such unknowns as what kinds of extraterrestrial life might exist "out
there". In pretty much all of our fantasies, from the most realistic-seeming to
the most absurd-seeming, we end up interacting with that alien life in various
ways - love, hate, wars, cooperation, etc....
But what if there is some sort of cosmic "civilization" out there and it
just shrugs us off? I wonder how we would handle that. Being treated as one of
a gajillion emerging low-tech lifeforms throughout the galaxy, barely noticed by
the cosmic culture, no "special place" for us in the grand scheme of anyone's
thing...
Most of us have always viewed the notion of contacting extraterrestrial
intelligence as a momentous event. But what if it isn't? What if first contact
is "ordinary" or even "boring" to the societal cosmos at large? That - that
would really be something. The entire history of human civilizations - our
hopes, our dreams - all of these things would reach a climax, only to find out
that nobody really cares. That almost leaves a bad taste in one's mouth - kind
of like bad sex with a partner who hasn't bathed or brushed and post-orgasm you
just feel _so_ let down....
Hmmnn... Just a thought. :-?
--
L8r,
Uncle Clover the AntiTwink
************************************************
The true mark of a civilized society is that its
citizens know how to hate each other peacefully.
************************************************
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| User: "Denis Loubet" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
03 Nov 2006 02:44:29 AM |
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"Uncle Clover" <UncleClover@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
news:3dnlk2p0vh351vat93ei1dda7t374a60c3@4ax.com...
...E.T. tells us to "shut up"?
Humans have excruciatingly vivid imaginations, particularly when it
comes to such unknowns as what kinds of extraterrestrial life might exist
"out
there". In pretty much all of our fantasies, from the most
realistic-seeming to
the most absurd-seeming, we end up interacting with that alien life in
various
ways - love, hate, wars, cooperation, etc....
But what if there is some sort of cosmic "civilization" out there and it
just shrugs us off? I wonder how we would handle that. Being treated as
one of
a gajillion emerging low-tech lifeforms throughout the galaxy, barely
noticed by
the cosmic culture, no "special place" for us in the grand scheme of
anyone's
thing...
Most of us have always viewed the notion of contacting extraterrestrial
intelligence as a momentous event. But what if it isn't? What if first
contact
is "ordinary" or even "boring" to the societal cosmos at large? That -
that
would really be something. The entire history of human civilizations -
our
hopes, our dreams - all of these things would reach a climax, only to find
out
that nobody really cares. That almost leaves a bad taste in one's mouth -
kind
of like bad sex with a partner who hasn't bathed or brushed and
post-orgasm you
just feel _so_ let down....
Hmmnn... Just a thought. :-?
Read more David Brin! That's right down his alley.
--
Denis Loubet
dloubet@io.com
http://www.io.com/~dloubet
http://www.ashenempires.com
.
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
03 Nov 2006 08:59:21 AM |
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On Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:20:48 -0500, Uncle Clover wrote:
...E.T. tells us to "shut up"?
Well, they did get an unlisted frequency...
--
Mark K. Bilbo
--------------------------------------------------
"...otherwise, we're looking at the potential
of this kind of world:.... a world in which
oil reserves are controlled by radicals in order
to extract blackmail from the West..." [George Bush]
Wait... oil reserves?
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| User: "Hatter" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
03 Nov 2006 09:54:21 AM |
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Uncle Clover wrote:
...E.T. tells us to "shut up"?
Humans have excruciatingly vivid imaginations, particularly when it
comes to such unknowns as what kinds of extraterrestrial life might exist "out
there". In pretty much all of our fantasies, from the most realistic-seeming to
the most absurd-seeming, we end up interacting with that alien life in various
ways - love, hate, wars, cooperation, etc....
But what if there is some sort of cosmic "civilization" out there and it
just shrugs us off? I wonder how we would handle that. Being treated as one of
a gajillion emerging low-tech lifeforms throughout the galaxy, barely noticed by
the cosmic culture, no "special place" for us in the grand scheme of anyone's
thing...
Most of us have always viewed the notion of contacting extraterrestrial
intelligence as a momentous event. But what if it isn't? What if first contact
is "ordinary" or even "boring" to the societal cosmos at large? That - that
would really be something. The entire history of human civilizations - our
hopes, our dreams - all of these things would reach a climax, only to find out
that nobody really cares. That almost leaves a bad taste in one's mouth - kind
of like bad sex with a partner who hasn't bathed or brushed and post-orgasm you
just feel _so_ let down....
Hmmnn... Just a thought. :-?
--
L8r,
Uncle Clover the AntiTwink
I've been mulling about a similar idea for years now. The alien
Federation shows up. They are too advanced and highminded to just take
us over and do indeed "come in peace". Turns out they like to tourist
here from time to time and consider Terra "quaint" with its little
tribal customs and such. The Aliens are obnoxious, boorish, and
unbeleivably rich. The lot of everyone on earth is improved enormously
because of their tourist credits allowing us to solve starvation,
improve infastructure, and rare life extending techniques are now
common pills, but at the cost of these aliens showing up completely
insensitive to our cultural taboos, demanding hotels have sonic showers
installed even though it requires ten percent of an entire cities power
supply to run that hotel, and pulling little stunts like buying the
Empire State Building to take to their home planet as a quirky lawn
ornament.
Some Earth people do emmigrate to the stars to operate the one thing
the rest of the universe has never heard of: Resteraunts.
I call it: Third World from the Sun
Hatter
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
03 Nov 2006 10:08:40 AM |
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Cite:
ST:TOS-PrimeDirective
Adams:HHGTTG-Earth:Mostly Harmless
Some short story I read years ago:Meat that thinks?
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| User: "Harry F. Leopold" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
06 Nov 2006 03:12:38 PM |
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On Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:08:40 -0600, wrote
(in article <1162570120.112148.133560@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>):
Cite:
ST:TOS-PrimeDirective
Adams:HHGTTG-Earth:Mostly Harmless
Some short story I read years ago:Meat that thinks?
Ah yes, just read that last a few months ago. Got it somewhere on my PDA, or
buried with a few thousand other ebooks on my computer. Damn, who wrote it?
Not one of my usual suspects, I think it was from the early 50's. Possibly
Murrey Leinster, I have a ton of his stories on my PDA and his has been the
most read of my older stuff lately, though I have also been reading a bit of
Daniel Defoe and John Cleland, but I really doubt that either of them wrote
about "Thinking Meat?" I am pretty sure it wasn't Wolheim, Clarke, Asimov,
Norton, Bester, EE Smith, Twain, Ferber, Shaw, Heinlein.
Varley? Maybe, but I don't think so. Nor Spinrad, Williamson, Dozois. It is
almost a silly enough premise that Jim Theis might have written it, but it
was far too well written to be him. (Eye of Argon, anyone?) A. B. Chandler?
Possibly, but I don't think so though I have read several of his old stories
recently.
I did read a collection of Schmitz stories recently, it might have been one
of his stories. Also read some Delany, Piper, Silverburg, Pohl and Hamilton
as well, but I don't even think it was any of them.
I need to find some software that reads MobiPocket files, most of my fiction
is in that format and my standard thread search programs don't handle that at
all.
The more I think about it the more I think it was probably Schmitz, you can
find a copy of a bunch of his stories at Baen's Free Library if you are
interested. Check under Erik Flint in the Author area, he recently re-edited
some of Schmitz' stories for republishing, he has the original stories posted
for those who want to read them as originally published.
--
Harry F. Leopold
aa #2076
AA/Vet #4
The Prints of Darkness
(remove gene to email)
³I'm sorry, son, but there's nothing we can do for you. There's no cure for
stupid.³ - John Baker
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| User: "L. Raymond" |
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| Title: Re: What if we contact E.T., and... |
03 Nov 2006 12:27:14 PM |
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Uncle Clover wrote:
...E.T. tells us to "shut up"?
Humans have excruciatingly vivid imaginations, particularly when it
comes to such unknowns as what kinds of extraterrestrial life might exist "out
there". In pretty much all of our fantasies, from the most realistic-seeming to
the most absurd-seeming, we end up interacting with that alien life in various
ways - love, hate, wars, cooperation, etc....
But what if there is some sort of cosmic "civilization" out there and it
just shrugs us off? I wonder how we would handle that. Being treated as one of
a gajillion emerging low-tech lifeforms throughout the galaxy, barely noticed by
the cosmic culture, no "special place" for us in the grand scheme of anyone's
thing...
There's a short story, I forget which one, in which Earth has met an
ET civilization and plans are made for diplomats to met with each other
on the surface of another planet. When the time comes to meet, the
aliens send a messenger scurrying out to leave a note, then he
disappears inside again. It turns out the aliens were able to pick up
their favorite TV show out there and wanted to watch it. "Gentleman,
Earth has been preempted," the Earth Captain announces.
--
L. Raymond
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