Re: [GZG] A number of scientists respond to Hawking's concernsabout Aliens

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LOL, 

I'll have to claim ignorance and say that any similarities between my
comments and the works of others are purely accidental. I'm nowhere as
well-read in the scifi realm as I'd like to be. 

I think that people were hung up on the glory of space exploration that
common sense sort of went out the door. I know that for the longest time
there were a loto f folks who had this utopian idea that advanced races
that could cross the stars would have necesarily overcome all their
petty issues and somehow become enlightened simply through the process
of getting there. Rubbish, I say. 

-Eli 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phillip Atcliffe" <atcliffe@ntlworld.com> 
To: gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu 
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 9:56:29 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [GZG] A number of scientists respond to Hawking's
concernsabout Aliens 

emu2020@comcast.net wrote: 

Of course there is every reason this could easily go something along the
lines of "....we have promised ourselves that we we would not make these
same mistakes, but we failed. We have since realized that this is folly.
Prepare to die!" 

Another possibility is, "Oh....this place is yours? Sorry, we really
didn't notice you there." "Of Men and Monsters" by William Tenn. 

Still another, "I realize you are intelligent and that you have
developed culture, but we are starving and your planet represents the
only supply of fresh food in the sector." 

Or perhaps, "...but you are so damned tasty!" 

How about, "We'd love to have peaceful coexistence but the fact that you
don't eat your mates after breeding and selectively cull your young is
an afront to our way of life." 

"Five fingers? Really? that's too weird." What was that story that had
first contact being the local alien overlord informing the human race
that they'd just been given to the local overlord of another species,
and he was just a bit bigoted. "Don't any of your species have grren
skin? Or at least blue?" 8-) 

 In all seriousness I like the fact that Hawking was willing to accept
the fact that aliens, if encountered, have just as much of a chance to
be a foe as a friend. What intrigues me about the whole debate is that
Hawking is saying the same thing that Jack Kirby (the comic artist and
all-around imaginative genius) said when the Pioneer 10 plaque was
designed and publicised. Why tell aliens where we are? They might not be
benevolent. Jack's words were lost, or ignored, in all the controversy
over other aspects of the plaque -- the nudity of the human figures, the
non-appearance of the woman's vagina, the supposed submissive pose that
she had (actually intended to demonstrate the workings of the hip
joint), etc., etc. Lots of people had alternative ideas for the plaque
-- one suggestion from, IIRC, the Catholic Church, was to show a pair of
hands folded in prayer (nothing else, just the hands). Jack's was to
show a pair of super-powered humans leaping off the planet to convey the
message "Hi there! Look what we can do. Mess with us at your peril." 

Yet again, the King was decades ahead of his time... ;-) 

Phil 

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