[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: This theme -- one species with its own view of what ethics entails meeting another with an entirely different, not only incompatible but *inconceivable* view -- has been dealt with often in classic science fiction. Might I recommend, as a starting point, a story by Terry Carr in World's Best Science Fiction 1969 called The Dance of the Changer and the Three. Brilliant. As it turns out, this classic story is online, and you can read it here (it's on two HTML pages, so when you get to the bottom of the first you need to click on the second): http://lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/carr/carr1.html This should give you a taste of the magnitude of the challenge we've been talking about, a great writer trying to imagine what is essentially unimaginable, a truly alien culture, with truly alien values. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Story the year it came out. It is still talked about in science fiction circles as one of the best examples of such an attempt ever done. The fascinating thing for me when I first read it back in 1969 is that the story of the Changer and the Three is almost Zen in its essence; it's a koan, which the human trying to relate the story to other humans knows he will never and *can* never figure out. Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue. Be rest assured that the Turq is not clueless when it comes to our brothers in space.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue. Be rest assured that the Turq is not clueless when it comes to our brothers in space. My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@... wrote: My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships. Sounds to me more like a reflection of Charlie's homophobia than any actual knowledge. :-)
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
I was in the audience when Lutes came to the Boston area to give talks a couple of times back in 78 and 79. This was back when we were all eager to eat up anything anyone higher up in the movement had to say, whether MMY, Domash, Charlie Donahue, or Lutes, so we all bought everything Lutes had to say. Charlie Donahue was living in Cambridge at the time and a big part of the Cambridge TM center, and since he did not much care for Lutes, it was up to the satellite center in Wellesley to invite Lutes and host the talks. I remember hearing Lutes say Ifa you see a flying saucer, get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones...they're evil. (or maybe it was they're bad news). In the 1990s, when I was at my usual table in Annapurna, the conversation got around to the talk Lutes had just given in Iowa City. A friend who had been to the talk said Lutes denied ever saying that about the cigar-shaped ones. Under the influence of maya, Brahman appears as Ishvara, the personal God, who exists on the celestial level of life, in the subtlest field of creation. In a similar manner, under the influence of avidya, atman appears as jiva, or individual soul. - MMY --- On Mon, 9/6/10, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: From: Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, September 6, 2010, 9:48 AM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue. Be rest assured that the Turq is not clueless when it comes to our brothers in space. My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships. Sounds to me more like a reflection of Charlie's homophobia than any actual knowledge. :-) Oh yeah... he'd bring up his women reincarnated as men being light in the loafers shtick at almost every lecture.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
I paid my twenty bucks to see Charlie as he tottered to oblivion, and I reminded him that the last time I saw him he said they were about to discover Christ's spaceship hidden inside the great pyramid and I wondered why that hadn't happened yet. He said: I never said such a thing. So even in the end, he was a fucking liar. Edg --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool ffl...@... wrote: I was in the audience when Lutes came to the Boston area to give talks a couple of times back in 78 and 79. This was back when we were all eager to eat up anything anyone higher up in the movement had to say, whether MMY, Domash, Charlie Donahue, or Lutes, so we all bought everything Lutes had to say. Charlie Donahue was living in Cambridge at the time and a big part of the Cambridge TM center, and since he did not much care for Lutes, it was up to the satellite center in Wellesley to invite Lutes and host the talks. I remember hearing Lutes say Ifa you see a flying saucer, get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones...they're evil. (or maybe it was they're bad news). In the 1990s, when I was at my usual table in Annapurna, the conversation got around to the talk Lutes had just given in Iowa City. A friend who had been to the talk said Lutes denied ever saying that about the cigar-shaped ones. Under the influence of maya, Brahman appears as Ishvara, the personal God, who exists on the celestial level of life, in the subtlest field of creation. In a similar manner, under the influence of avidya, atman appears as jiva, or individual soul. - MMY --- On Mon, 9/6/10, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@... wrote: From: Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@... Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, September 6, 2010, 9:48 AM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue. Be rest assured that the Turq is not clueless when it comes to our brothers in space. My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
Oh yeah... he'd bring up his women reincarnated as men being light in the loafers shtick at almost every lecture. Didn't Lutes say it was those who were supposed to be women in this lifetime, but who incarnated as boy baby's, who were light in the loafers? I know some people have claimed that as their belief, if not Lutes. I knew someone who was a Ramtha person. The Ramtha people claim the incarnating being keeps coming around over and over as the same gender. Only the few crossovers break the pattern and are light in the loafers. Under the influence of maya, Brahman appears as Ishvara, the personal God, who exists on the celestial level of life, in the subtlest field of creation. In a similar manner, under the influence of avidya, atman appears as jiva, or individual soul. - MMY --- On Mon, 9/6/10, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: From: Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, September 6, 2010, 11:05 AM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Alex Stanley j_alexander_stanley@ wrote: My recollection is that Charlie Lutes said it was ok to hitch a ride with the aliens in the saucer shaped space ships but not the cigar shaped space ships. Sounds to me more like a reflection of Charlie's homophobia than any actual knowledge. :-) Oh yeah... he'd bring up his women reincarnated as men being light in the loafers shtick at almost every lecture. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
Grabbed it. Thanks for the link. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: This theme -- one species with its own view of what ethics entails meeting another with an entirely different, not only incompatible but *inconceivable* view -- has been dealt with often in classic science fiction. Might I recommend, as a starting point, a story by Terry Carr in World's Best Science Fiction 1969 called The Dance of the Changer and the Three. Brilliant. As it turns out, this classic story is online, and you can read it here (it's on two HTML pages, so when you get to the bottom of the first you need to click on the second): http://lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/carr/carr1.h\ tml This should give you a taste of the magnitude of the challenge we've been talking about, a great writer trying to imagine what is essentially unimaginable, a truly alien culture, with truly alien values. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Story the year it came out. It is still talked about in science fiction circles as one of the best examples of such an attempt ever done. The fascinating thing for me when I first read it back in 1969 is that the story of the Changer and the Three is almost Zen in its essence; it's a koan, which the human trying to relate the story to other humans knows he will never and *can* never figure out. Growing up on Class-A imaginings of the possible interactions between humans and extraterrestrials like this is what often leaves me with little patience when I hear New Age twifs talking about the space brothers and our friends from the Pleiaides. They have no fuckin' clue.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptyb...@... wrote: Who has written or theorized about morality in our possible future contacts with ET-s? How could we even evaluate them enough to judge if there is any form of moral code. That means no human analogues. WTF? Sometime back TurquoiseB mentioned Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children Of God. They are compelling, very well written, and have the crux of your question as a key theme.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
Thanks for the tip. I'll look them up. No one else on FFL seems to have poised this Q. I'm wondering if an ethicist, philosopher or social scientist has considered it? The time may be coming in the current century when we feel the need to give it a very close look. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: Who has written or theorized about morality in our possible future contacts with ET-s? How could we even evaluate them enough to judge if there is any form of moral code. That means no human analogues. WTF? Sometime back TurquoiseB mentioned Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children Of God. They are compelling, very well written, and have the crux of your question as a key theme.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
On Sep 5, 2010, at 1:49 PM, emptybill wrote: Thanks for the tip. I'll look them up. No one else on FFL seems to have poised this Q. I'm wondering if an ethicist, philosopher or social scientist has considered it? The time may be coming in the current century when we feel the need to give it a very close look. Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism (and many other cultures) recognize a species of interbeing that corresponds to the frequently observed greys of modern angelic and daemonic mythos. Generally the people who are having provocations (abduction experiences, etc.) of such (actually terrestrial) beings, in a previous existence, or in the current one, have damaged ecosystems involving water. Of course, if you don't believe in reincarnation, you could parse it as subconscious elements or even neurological shadows of our reptilian brains or something else. For example, this morality, across time would mean that modern day humans involved the Deepwater Horizon disaster would, in some future life, possibly be tormented by greys. Disease of the skin, etc. Unfortunately humans, having relatively short lifespan durations, can't easily deal with beings whose lifespans are vastly longer than theirs. Hell, they can't even get along with other humans, in their own time-scale! This is just one example. As with any beings, you have a number of reasons why people in another dimensions of existence would happen upon them. Since their scale of time is much, much longer than human beings, humans generally don't notice them. That's also why their vehicles (UFO's) seem to appear so quickly relative to human-time, they're really in a much longer time-frame. Thus judging them moralistically via human life is only relatively meaningful.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptyb...@... wrote: Thanks for the tip. I'll look them up. No one else on FFL seems to have poised this Q. I'm wondering if an ethicist, philosopher or social scientist has considered it? It has been considered in science fiction since its earliest days, and well. All of the best SF authors know the limitation they labor under. They may be trying to write about alien civil- izations, but they just can't be too alien. If they were, their readers could not identify, and thus they cannot sell their fiction. As a result, most aliens are pretty much like us. But this does not mean that these authors have not tried to portray aliens who were *not* like us. This theme -- one species with its own view of what ethics entails meeting another with an entirely different, not only incompatible but *inconceivable* view -- has been dealt with often in classic science fiction. Might I recommend, as a starting point, a story by Terry Carr in World's Best Science Fiction 1969 called The Dance of the Changer and the Three. Brilliant. Or many of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, especially The Left Hand of Darkness and Rocannon's World. The time may be coming in the current century when we feel the need to give it a very close look. As Ray Bradbury once wrote about what he did for a living, 'We do this not to predict the future but to prevent it. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: Who has written or theorized about morality in our possible future contacts with ET-s? How could we even evaluate them enough to judge if there is any form of moral code. That means no human analogues. WTF? Sometime back TurquoiseB mentioned Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children Of God. They are compelling, very well written, and have the crux of your question as a key theme.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
Yep, I agree. Considering that most SciFi is human story telling, it can't go too far in imaginings that are outside the envelope. At least Starship Troopers assumed that contact with intelligent Bugs quickly would become a race to annihilate the Other. However, Arthur C. Clark's novel, Childhood's End, came close to positing the Other (not the look-like-devils) as inconceivable rather than merely dangerous. Considering that 75% of our galaxy's stars are in the hub, are 25-45% older than our local solar system and are only 1-2 light years apart, the chances of inhabited planets has got to be even higher than current speculation. This might also explain why we have not been visited by ET's. We are just too far away ... way out on the archipelagos. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: Thanks for the tip. I'll look them up. No one else on FFL seems to have poised this Q. I'm wondering if an ethicist, philosopher or social scientist has considered it? It has been considered in science fiction since its earliest days, and well. All of the best SF authors know the limitation they labor under. They may be trying to write about alien civil- izations, but they just can't be too alien. If they were, their readers could not identify, and thus they cannot sell their fiction. As a result, most aliens are pretty much like us. But this does not mean that these authors have not tried to portray aliens who were *not* like us. This theme -- one species with its own view of what ethics entails meeting another with an entirely different, not only incompatible but *inconceivable* view -- has been dealt with often in classic science fiction. Might I recommend, as a starting point, a story by Terry Carr in World's Best Science Fiction 1969 called The Dance of the Changer and the Three. Brilliant. Or many of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, especially The Left Hand of Darkness and Rocannon's World. The time may be coming in the current century when we feel the need to give it a very close look. As Ray Bradbury once wrote about what he did for a living, 'We do this not to predict the future but to prevent it. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, azgrey no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptybill@ wrote: Who has written or theorized about morality in our possible future contacts with ET-s? How could we even evaluate them enough to judge if there is any form of moral code. That means no human analogues. WTF? Sometime back TurquoiseB mentioned Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children Of God. They are compelling, very well written, and have the crux of your question as a key theme.
[FairfieldLife] Re: ET morality
Correct. Phone home. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, emptybill emptyb...@... wrote: Who has written or theorized about morality in our possible future contacts with ET-s? How could we even evaluate them enough to judge if there is any form of moral code. That means no human analogues. WTF?