OrionWorks wrote: >>From Mr Lawrance: > >> You don't sound like an annoying broken record. To be blunt, you sound >> silly, asking that. I don't think there's any disagreement at all over >> what would constitute an "authentic alien artifact" -- it would be a >> piece of litter left by an authentic alien, and an authentic alien is a >> non-earth creature. An *authentic* non-imaginary real-type actually >> existing non-earth creature who can potentially drive a flying saucer >> around and maybe crash it on the White House lawn. >> >> PLEASE don't start denying that words which have perfectly clear >> definitions can be defined! If *you* want to go off and use the word >> "alien" to mean something entirely different, go ahead, but please >> stick to the usual dictionary definition when attempting to hold >> conversations with others in which information will be successfully >> transferred through use of words: >> >> alien n 3: a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its >> atmosphere [syn: extraterrestrial being] >> >> (from Wordnet -- there are a number of definitions of 'alien' but I >> don't think anyone here was intending the word to mean, e.g., "a >> foreigner".) >> >> The debate is over the question of whether there are any aliens within >> 2 lightyears of the Sun, and whether there have been any of them flying >> around dropping bits of random cruft on Earth any time in the last few >> decades. The debate is *NOT* over whether the cruft dropped by an >> alien should be called an "artifact" or not, nor over whether a creature >> from another planet driving around Earth in a flying machine should be >> called an "alien". > > Just to be clear on this point I sez (previously): > >>> There is a story, an advertisement (I think it came from IBM) that >>> described how a 3rd world tribe found an appropriate use for one of >>> their expedition's laptops - a nutcracker. At least it proved the >>> artifact was constructed well. > > Silly me! > > A contraire! I think discussions concerning whether there are > legitimate "artifacts" amongst us indigenous folk is just as much a > legitimate a discussion here as compared to whether there are any > aliens within 2 light-years of the Sun and whether some of those > "trips" may have resulted in them having to deal with a flat tire or > two. > > But if some of those discarded "lug bolts" don't crack my nuts, and > it's such a simple request I make here, the object of interest is not > likely carry a lot of significance within my sphere of influence. > > Incidentally, is "...within 2 light-years" the magic number?
No, no, just a rather arbitrary value picked as being closer to this star than any other ... And sorry, I was yelping about your discussion of semantics, nothing more. I don't have any bones to pick with your thoughts, just their expression. Certainly discussion of whether there are alien artifacts present is perfectly on-topic, for the thread and for the mailing list. I was objecting to a discussion of the *definition* of an alien artifact, not to the question of whether we've got some. And it is also quite possible that I totally missed your point. > > Regards > Steven Vincent Johnson > www.OrionWorks.com > www.zazzle.com/orionworks >
