tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post280971068215641597..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: The Laughter in the Next RoomDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-87701348345863997922008-03-07T12:05:00.000-08:002008-03-07T12:05:00.000-08:00Indeed, that's a good answer. Or, that we're just...Indeed, that's a good answer. Or, that we're just not grown<BR/>up enough yet for the grownups' table.<BR/><BR/>Popular sci-fi is full of this "answer" to the Fermi Paradox --<BR/>Star Trek's "Prime Directive" (suggesting that we too would<BR/>take such an approach if we were to visit other worlds);<BR/>the attitudes of various advanced races in various Star Trek<BR/>episodes -- the Metrons ("Arena"), the Organians ("Errand of Mercy"),<BR/>the Thasians ("Charlie X"), the Melkotians ("Spectre of the Gun");<BR/>the galactics in Carl Sagan's _Contact_ and the movie thereof<BR/>("Small steps, Ellie, small steps."), the caution of the Contact<BR/>section of Iain Banks' "Culture".<BR/><BR/>Why is it that the >Hist types take the "Paradox" so seriously? --<BR/>assuming that if "they" exist at all, they would **certainly**<BR/>have taken over all the real estate by now. Some sort of<BR/>Ayn Randian projection?<BR/><BR/>Of course, maybe there are galactic jihadists, and we've just<BR/>been luckily out of their way so far. I think I like David Brin's<BR/>ET's best of all -- nastily Realpolitik, from a contemporary<BR/>human point of view, and at the same time paying (more or less<BR/>hypocritical) lip service to a properly cosmic, enlightened<BR/>philosophy as espoused in the Galactic Institutes. Just steer<BR/>clear of those Tandu and Soro!jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com