Now - THAT is a lovely parable, Hiama!
In CS Lewis's "Out of the Silent Planet" there is a lovely speculation about the multi-sentient species thing. On Malacandra there are three (or is it four?) intelligent species - and they are made to consider the notion of only one horrific.
I certainly think the whole notion of god would have been very different - and would this have meant a less narrow and prejudiced and bloodthirsty religious history?
I agree.
Holy wars ?
Its like some of the threads here ( I see Writing was everythng is locked !!) , they can become somewhat narrow, I like to see all manner of views expressed, we can always turn the TV off if we don't like what we see.
My views are probably a reaction against my strict catholic upbringing, with certain of the clergy decrying other religions as wrong and catholicism as the only true religion. In my view its ok to go and sit in a church once a week as long as you do help people in the outside world as well, I see so many people who preach one thng and practise another. If we all had a bit more compassion that would be a start.
Off soap box now-your turn !
Heehee - my religious upbringing was weak enough for it to have little impact for good or ill - and I always read widely enough to know that other religions thought they were it and a bit, too.
That is one of the reasons I like Buddhism - so tolerant - you wanna introduce gods and demons and such? Go ahead! We don't mind! So many paths...so much time...
I bought a book yesterday " Why is the BUDDHA smiling ? " by Mark Magill, a volunteer firefighter from upstate New York, its really easy to read and enjoyable ISBN 1-84181-196-3
And why IS the Buddha smiling?
Another species as smart as humans evolving at the same time? Ooooh, interesting question. What do I think? I think that human nature would have made a mess of things. We would have to dominate. We would have to conquer. We would have to delineate OUR territory, OUR borders.
'Tis an interesting query.
Does "intelligence" presuppose an ability to communicate fluently between the two species? The aliens landing and saying, "We come in peace" has a whole different dynamic than the aliens landing and communicating in the infrared, which or course we wouldn't understand.
And no niche competition? I'm thinking avian. What if there'd been some really, really smart birds? There are already many analogous (really, I suspect homologous, but the more qualified people who've done the mountains of research on it say analogous, and who am I to....), I say, I say (says Foghorn Leghorn) analogous traits between mammals and birds -- endothermy, the four chambered heart, that sort of thing -- could not we push back the emergence of dinosaurs a bit, put them on the path toward warm blood, give 'em a four-chambered heart, and make them a common ancestor of, say, raptors and primates?
Yeah, but back to... the niche thing is imperative. If there's niche competition, as between the neanderthals and our supposed forebears, one species always wins out, in nature and in the lab. So I'm thinking these smarties would have been in the air. Or in the water. What about them dolphins? "So long and thanks for all the fish," I suppose. This too has been addressed by greater minds.
Still haven't had a thought today. War half a world a way and I type type type. Sigh. And have to go to a staff meeting in half an hour to discuss the latest ineffective method of getting twelve people to sign one piece of paper that will get stuck in a drawer and shredded in thirty years. More sigh.
So formidable are my problems, and so miniscule are those of others by comparison!
Mine just got solved, partially. I just defended my dissertation proposal, yay!!! 10 minutes ago. Now I don't have to think for months!
A girl after my own heart!!!
Non-thinkers Unite!!!
(and congrats. Dagmaraka!!
)
Well done Dagmar!!! Yipppeeeeeeeeee!
But don't stop thinking - we enjoy your thoughts. Don't let that wicked, thoughtless, JerryR suborn you!
but of course i will try to think. for the bad news is, i still have to write the dissertation. this was just the dissertation proposal...
Hey, you've got, what, a five-year window to do that? All those meetings with your adviser to say, "Yup, still reading," then crank the whole thing out in a month and pray that it never has to face peer review?
sadly, no. i can't work so i need to get done asap - unless they wave my continuing fee. but at least i got a darn good motivation!
Hmmm.... I find that dealdines take the spirit out of academia (which is, of course, to bullshite one's way into a permanent position before the uncomfortable but all-too-late realization that one has yet to actually accomplish anything).
You can keep your motivation. A-yup...
Deadlines do the same thing, for that matter.
Hmmmm - I needed dealdines to accomplish anything - used to have to lock meself in the bath, no matter how weird and wrinkly I got, to make myself read the things I had to read. Of course, once I stopped HAVING to read them, they became fascinating! So many topics I became so conversant with AFTER the essay had been turned in.
Any chance you might tell us what your thesis is in, Dagmar?
Patio! Baaaaaad dog! Without thinkers, where are we? I enjoy my trips back into academe - still have to lock meself in the bath, though. I am two essays shy of my Infant Mental Health Degree - have been for over a year now. Sigh.... Now - I am out helping to develop a huge program in it - but the essays remain unloved and undone. Only good thing is the program will be thoroughly evaluated - so there is my research proposal with no effort on my part...well, I guess I have to learn the techniques and run the program....that MIGHT be some work..
Joanne - try not to focus just on that....your focussing will not change anything...
Infant Mental Health! Cool.
Can't you just, like, read "Blank Slate" and be done with it?
