Christoph Reuss wrote:
>
> Keith Hudson wrote:
> > On the radio this morning an astrophysicist was saying that we are now
> > discovering so many planetary systems elsewhere in our galaxy that the
> > number of planets with lifeforms must be at least a billion.
[snip]
This is one of my favborite topics.
What difference does it make whether there are any other
species "out there", be they ETs or cherubims, seraphims,
principalities (and, oh, yes, the Pope himself!)?
All they could be is either:
(1) Object-forces [like asteroids and prions, etc.]
or
(2) tyrants [like bosses, schoolmarms, et al.]
or
(3) partners in dialogical mutually
respectful peer communication [which
seems to me to be the desirable alternative --
but our neighbors *could* be this, also]
or
(4) sub-dialogical life forms [like cats, chipmunks,
beavers, dolphins, et al.]
There is no way they could change the *nature* of the
world (which is for it to be the object
of our consciousness) -- except if they were to do the same thing
any hujman being also has the potential to do:
To show us a new idea which we could
never have previously imagined, and therefore
to make everything look different to us
than previously we thought it was.
Elsewise, ETs merely change the instance counts
associated with the various kinds of entities which
we already know can exist in the world (which includes, of course,
the category "not otherwise classified").
What would most likely happen if we came across ETs is that they
would replace Seinfeld and Sex in the City and Six Feet Under,
and Michael Jackson [who may yet become the first human to
undergo a species-change operation...] and Madonna, etc. as
the media story du jour. The logical conclusion of this
would be if the ETs wanted us to adulate them and
pay them for the privilege of watching them perform, but they also
they wanted to keep their personal privacy too -- just
like the current universe of sublunary stars which
illuminate our semiotic firmament today.
Of course, if "they" prove to be hostile, then
maybe George W Bush may have a more plausible
target for his Star Wars obsession....
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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