---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote :
Even setting aside the scenario where aliens land on the White House lawn I'm sure many people would find it deeply disturbing if we knew for sure there was intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I find it quite disorienting sometimes just gazing into an animal's eyes (a dog/monkey/cow) trying to imagine myself into its subjective "worldview". But at least animals don't have language and so don't think in any sense corresponding to our mental life. An advanced civilization of aliens that had an intellectual culture but in a radically different way to us could induce in me an existential crisis that would have me spinning off into the Void. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : Barrowd, Please re-read and note that I used the word "if." Having done so, I did not need to shore up any cred for Gordon --- saved by the "if," ya see? Meanwhile, your claim "would not change my life in any way" seems to be so obviously in-human that I would ask you to reconsider the statement. Now, I shouldn't be surprised that you said this, because you say you saw levitation, and frankly, I would equate "levitating" to "alien landing" in how strongly human-mindset-impacting either would be if the world was given all the proofs necessary to KNOW instead of believe. And there you are saying you saw it and, so I guess, you're saying that that experience didn't do "all that much of anything" to you, so probably aliens wouldn't change your world either. Have I got your reasoning here? Something like that? Did you actually KNOW that levitation was taking place, or did you say, "There's a 1% chance this is some sort of staged illusion." Even the slightest doubt would be -- to me -- why levitation didn't shake your world at the time. If there were zero doubts and yet still your world was not rocked, then, okay, I got no explanation for why your nervous system didn't "act normally." But here's what I think REAL HUMANS would do if aliens landed: 1. Obsess. Think how easily great hunks of various populations can be shifted into a mindset. 1/3 of America was roused by the word "ebola" enough to have, say, dozens of thoughts per day about what it meant to their lives. And the other 2/3rds who were immune to the mental stampede yet still had to have had thoughts about ebola's characteristics just in order to be on top of the issue. See? If aliens land on the White House lawn, are you kidding me, Barry? The sheer amount of media tonnage would make you, force you, absolutely cram you with everyone's opinions about the event. There is zero way your nervous system could avoid the prongs, the triggerings and conclusions of everyone else, and perforce, you'd be a victim of a flood of thoughts about the aliens. And "flood of thoughts" means IT CHANGES YOU. No way you could avoid, say, having a thought about aliens EVERY FIVE MINUTES. It would be the first issue of everyone upon awakening in the morning. 2. Question. There'd be no human agenda that was not obviously impacted. From wars all the way down to do-I-ask-her-to-marry-me would be revised in light of a landing. If aliens land, I don't ask if I should marry, I ask if there will be a world tomorrow in which one might then marry. If aliens lands, I don't just keep bombing another county without asking, "Hmm, do the aliens have tech that could stomp us and what would they think about our warfare?" And so forth for all agendas. Some agendas especially, but all agendas at least to some degree. 3. Doubt. Virtually every value would be re-examined in light of the landing. Am I my brother's keeper? Does God exist? What's the meaning of life? -- all these issues are now followed by "What do the aliens have to say about this?" 4. Turmoil. It would be hard to underestimate the amount of carnage that would happen almost instantly given the present cultures on Earth. Every leader's status would now be needing an "aliens" statement, and with 1/3 of every population having a religious addiction, there's going to be throngs outside of every leader's office clamoring for decisions that favor their interpretations of the aliens, and if there's dissonance, there will be blood. "If you say aliens don't worship Allah, I keel you." "If aliens are okay with homos, kill the aliens." "Should I go to work today at the nuke-bomb-making-plant?" Etc. 5. Crazy shit. There would be no end to the crazy shit. Look at Nabs going nutzoid for crop circles -- there's 1/3 of every population with similar minds -- hair triggered and half-cocked -- ready to do every single thing imaginable to the aliens. From "I want to have sex with you" to whole segments arming themselves to mass demonstrations to over-night-cults. The crazies along would exhaust global clarity with emotional obfuscations. Enough? Do I have to do more numbers to show that you have not considered an alien landing hardly at all? YOU WOULD BE CHANGED. You latched onto two gurus already who were offering panaceas, and you'd want aliens to clean up the the world too. How can you deny who you have been? And you bonk everyone here for slight infractions -- that is, you're obsessed with pointing out how falsely others are thinking about you and existence in general -- but noooooooooooooo, you wouldn't be changed? Bull. Fucking. Shit. Edg, said like a feeling, sentient human being. Nice post. There's red, passionate blood pumpin' in them thar veins. Keepin' it real. -
