Ear to page transcript. Speculative Fiction flick "The day the earth stood still" [produced in 1951] H. Mr Harley..Advisor to the US president K. Klatu. Envoy from elsewhere Harley. "Now that you understand the situation more clearly. Perhaps you'd like to discuss it with the president." Klatu. "I will not speak with any 'one' nation or group of nations. I do not intend to add my contribution to your childish jelousies and suspicions." Harley."Our problems are very complex Klatu. You must not judge us too harshly." Klatu. "I can judge only by what i see" Harley "Your impatience is quite understandable." Klatu. "I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it." Harley. " I'm afraid my people hav'nt. I'm very sorry..i wish it were otherwise." Is klatu justified in asking us to not be stupid..Based on what we could be as a result of our physical and psychological potential? A potential that we could have manifested since the year 0 ad Yes. Occam
it takes only a noncentric perception to see this. and we are not born centric percieved but enculturated into it. i believe the day WILL come when we cease being. it will not come about as the resault of any one thing. but as in the probable ancient history of klatu's own people, a concatination of immediate concerns well cause the perpetuation of centric perception to be forgotten. and once it has been, the importance of not returning to it, will not be. this is a very long view i'm speaking in terms of here, centuries, even millinea, though it could happen much much sooner. but whenever it does begin happening, it will still not likely be instantanious. perhapse it has already begun. perhapse even it began decades ago, or even more then a century. but slowly slowly it creaps allong, every once in a while almost taking hold. the big concatination not having accumulated yet. but soon. and a concatination. not any one big dramatic event. though there may well involve several. =^^= .../\...
Themnax Wellmet my friend. Yes.. the day will come when humanity ceases to exist. The only thing that CANNOT cease to exist. is existance. All other organised structures have but 'a' duration within existance. But occam doesnt thinkit will happen any time soon. Occam has always 'felt' that humanity has a quite extensive and colourfull future ahead. Many times we will be near decimated, mostly by our own stupidity. But always come back with a late play. In 50 thousand years or so [10 times current recorded history] none alive today will even recognise us as human.. but we will be. And in the end.. it may be a bang. or a whimper. Occam
what i meant was the day will come when as a species we stop insisting on seeing ourselves as the center of the universe. this could come about any number of ways. i absolutely aggree that there will be many diebacks that are not die outs. (and even if WE die out, we're still not the begining and ending of life, even on our own world) our population being as out of balance with the web of other life on the planet as it is now is kind of cruizen for a bruizen, one i expect the predictable concatinations of large but otherwise mundane and not invariably ele will give us. i have reason to hope, though of course not take for granted, the great 'waking up' will take place this millinium. fallowed not by some perfect utopia. we can always find ways to make things difficult for ourselves. but an era when energy and transportation will be more sustainable, at least partialy because there will no longer be an option for them not to be. i mean life could get pretty rough for us in a few decades and stay that way for a few more, and at the end of that there won't be any more oil and a lot fewer people. although it doesn't absolutely have to happen that way either. we could, if we were really really smart, or just stopped conning each other into acting more stupid then we really are, lower our collective fertility in some impartial way (so that population declines painlessly to a reasonable level through natural attrition), and stop sucking on the tit of oil, and avoid a whole lot of pain by doing so. =^^= .../\...
Themnax Wellmet Well that will truely be 'The Day' my friend. Much of what you speculate of our future from an understanding of the past and our present position. Is entirely reasonable. As human beings DO have choice.. Then the future cannot be 'determined' accurately from the present. Only 'informed speculation' can be had. MANY paths are possible. Occam takes a very long view when looking at humanity. Just the way his conceptualisation works. He does not see humanity as a civilised species with a few problems that some mindless short term solutions will fix. But as a selfish 3 year old that has worked out how to open the fridge. Plug up the toilet and torture the dog. The day we UNDERSTAND that we are but a collection of very small beings on a very small world orbiting ONE star in a gallaxy of Four hundred thousand million stars In a universe of four hundred thousand million gallaxies. And that there is never just one of any structure/oganisation. There CANNOT be just ONE tree. Or just ONE planetary system. Or just ONE biosphere attached to a planet. Occam believes the universe is a place where the rules allow self organising structures. It happened here on earth.. and resulted in life that has no end of wonder. The universe MUST BE FULL of such wonder. Think of a 100 square miles of farmland where a tiny shoot of green has broken the ground and reaches upward. [humanity] Who here is so selfcentered as to believe this is the only life that will break soil and reach upward in all that land.*** When we UNDERSTAND this. Then we might have evolved socially and psychologically one step towards being a 'civilised ' species. Untill then we continue to shit in our cot. Torture small animals for the ego empowerment of it. And treat eachother as THINGS to manipulate. Occam *** What cultivated that land? What made it conductive to life?
ps. Occam has realised that his life is not about finding all the answers. But learning To ask the right questions. Funny thing is..In social life. If u ask the right questions. People leave real quick. Funny? Not in the slightest. People only run when threatened.
If history has shown anything, it's that the almighty DNA will prevail through any hardship. No matter the vessel, a single cell or a complex organism, it will continue to thrive forever, (at least on this planet).
not just THIS planet, but (as occam points out also) a million zillion others throughout what little we are able to see from here of the universe beyond. usualy no more then one (life bearing world) to a solar system (this has to do with being within a range of distances from its primary at which the temperature range is such that water is a liquid a good deal of the time). and solar systems/stars are a good bit of a ways apart. far enough that even the total colapse of life on one, is unlikely to have any discernable effect on another. but not so far as to be totaly impossible to some day travel from one to it's nearest neighbors. that may or may not possess life bearing worlds. there ARE 20 or so 'suns' (stars) within 20 light years of earth and arround ten within 10 l.y. of us. (so it's really not inconceivable that beings from one or more of these could have visited our own, be awaire of our existence, and so on. i am equaly not convinced that this has not happend as i am that it has). it is one of the many uplifting reasurances that nature's diversity rightfuly comforts us with, that indeed, d.n.a., has continued to replicate itself down through the millions of years, even on this world of ours. most three year olds do outgrow being three year olds by age ten, ten year olds by age 16, 16 year olds by age 24. well most anyway. and most even live to do so. so much of what i see happening makes me want to tear my hair out, but we will survive ourselves if we don't destroy life on our planet completely. and if we do, there will be other worlds to get along just fine without us and our mistakes. the frustrating thing is that we actualy put effort, and a lot of effort, into being as stupid as we so often collectively are. if we even so much as didn't do that we'd be that much better off. yes i am happy not to have to live in a house with young children. however theoreticly delightful they are represented to be, to themselves and their elders. the long view is probably a good idea. better then frustrating ourselves perhapse. enjoy the grass that grows up between the cracks in the sidewalk and wink at its secret hope. not being would be world dictators ourselves, we need not feel compelled to beat our heads against nature and reality's diversity. only accepting instead that from time to time it might in our face scare the living living out of us. but also for everytime it does that, gives us tenfold of rainbows and blackberries and pine nuts. =^^= .../\...
