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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (37140)	9/3/1999 5:11:00 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 71178

<<Serve us right if some SuperBrainyAliens should appear here, and decide that we are the yummiest things they ever saw. >> But what if they also lacked the instinct to kill? I mean came from a place of no conflict and didn't understand offence and defense. SuperBrainyAliens might become SuperTastyAliens on the barbacoa. An alligator isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but dickweed.rotten.com

To: jbe who wrote (37140)	9/3/1999 5:32:00 PM
From: Gauguin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

The only consolation for us would be to point out that the Consciousness of the SuperBrainyAliens is probably even more diseased than our own, for the very reason that it is more advanced.... Exactly. Or kind of. (I mean I'm not saying I understand exactly what you meant...oh, nevermind.) What do you realistically (!) think the chances are of any beings evolving past this destructive tool phase? What percentage of 1000 planets of humanoids ever gets more than say 500 years past where we are? 100 years? Is there like a HUMP, a big one, right here? Possibly our greatest threats are genetic manipulation and environmental toxins? And the CO2 argument aflare? Whatever; they are all products of our TOOL phase. And they may just do us and most of everything in. Or make it impossible for humans themselves to survive, except in more isolated, "primitive" (BWaahahahaaahahaaa!) units? Suppose dolphins are "very" intelligent. Or whales. Now they live in a Medium in which "civilization" infrastructure and tools are not necessary to survive. Man, of today, does not. He has to "make" stuff. That seems very intelligent. Think about it! :o) (Said uninsultingly, if possible.) Whales could evolve for 200 million years without touching off environmental chaos. Perhaps they have. (In personal bias, I happen to think that's one good respectful reason not to go killing them, because they haven't started to shoot at us. And may be our superiors.)(Do we not take on the appearance of pesky pests?) What if that were a conscious choice on their part? And the most advanced beings on the planet took to the oceans? Leaving the difficult "land" for us bonehead chippers? Consider the support systems of both animals. How do we judge "advanced?" By "reasonable" criteria, more advanced species than ours already exist. With advanced skills of communication and memory, and essentially "culture." And perhaps the MOST significant or telling quality of a specie's advancement, is that its life-support system is destructive and mortally dangerous to neither itself or other planetary habitants. By that criteria, we have a couple hundred million years to go to prove ourselves.

To: jbe who wrote (37140)	9/3/1999 7:02:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I believe that was Schopenhauer, who was an early influence on Nietzsche, but whom he repudiated not so long after the "Birth of Tragedy". It is probable that N quoted S to that effect in the "Birth of Tragedy", I can't recall specifically enough....