My beliefs
1. Lets start with the biggie: There is no soul, spirit, afterlife, supreme being or reason we are here
2. Therefore there can not be any ghosts, zombies, vampires or any other type of undead spirits/creatures
3. Neither are there any gods, demons, sprites, goblins, pixies, elves, poltergiests, leprechauns (sp?), mermaids, dragons or other "mythical" or "folklore" creatures
4. There may well be aliens somewhere out there, but I don't believe they have an unhealthy interest in abducting American citizens, or that they have visited this world at all during modern human civilization, or that we would have much hope of recognising them as living, sentient beings anyway!
5. That the universe is based on scientific principles, which we will be able to understand one day.
6. That the terms "eugenics", "genetic modification" and "cloning" are probably the least understood by the general public & most twisted by media portrayals, and that all of them can and will one day be used for good.
7. That the rise of mass media has increased knowledge of events, but in a very narrow way, and that we are losing the ability to impartially research news stories for ourselves.
8. That we are currently in a self-destructive social phase of our history, and in centuries to come this will be looked on as the social dark ages.
9. That technology is good - and better technology is better. We will never de-humanise ourselves by inventing robots/machines/computers with true thought capabilities.
10. That humanity will colonise other planets one day.
posted by Juggling Mother @ 12:59 pm
14 Comments:
At Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:29:00 pm,
Paste said…
Hmm, not much point in me doing this one as I am with you on all these except number 9 which I'd like some clarification on, in other words not sure what you mean!
At Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:38:00 pm,
Paste said…
Good grief, I've just read that Simon post (22/12/05) he is one scary individual! Quite possibly certifiable :-)
At Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:41:00 pm,
Juggling Mother said…
No 9 was in response to the many "anti-research/technology" films & media stories we have seen recently. You know, things like I Robot (such a sweet little story when Asimov wrote it), AI and the new Battlestar Galatica, which say that however many safeguards we program into our machines, they will turn on us, enslave, kill, or out-evolve us. Also that if we try to make ourselves or our lives better, we will either all turn into versions of Frankenstiens Monster, or start to lose our ability to reason/feel emotion/have children etc.
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 12:37:00 am,
mig bardsley said…
There was a theory a while ago that various world govenments were encouraging SciFi movies and a general public interest in the subject because Aliens had in fact been spotted or encountered or something and the govenments wanted to prepare us. To avoid mass panic. Or to provoke it?
Well it was an entertaining theory. Quite irrelevant of course :)
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 10:42:00 am,
CyberKitten said…
MB said: because Aliens had in fact been spotted or encountered or something and the govenments wanted to prepare us. To avoid mass panic. Or to provoke it?
Well it was an entertaining theory. Quite irrelevant of course.
Why should people panic at the thought that aliens exist & have visited Earth?
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 11:15:00 am,
Juggling Mother said…
Why should people panic at the thought that aliens exist & have visited Earth?
because it goes against the vast majority of religious teachings. Because it would mean we (as a specieis) do not have control over everything that happens in the universe.
Because many people are very small minded & becuse they might be cleverer than us. Because we are unable to comprehend that they would not be human, with human motivations & assume they would either wage war or enslave us.
Because it would strip politicians, governments & nations of there strength & powerbase.
Basically because we would lose our feeling of superiority.
Bring it on, I say:-)
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 12:45:00 pm,
CyberKitten said…
Mrs A said: Bring it on, I say:-)
Indeed. I think it would be rather cool. I'm hoping they're like the Kzin. They're my favourite fictional aliens. Or maybe the Asgard. They're pretty cool too.
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 1:14:00 pm,
Juggling Mother said…
I'm not too sure about the Kzin, as according to Wikipedia "The onset of their relationship with humanity ends the golden era, where humanity had almost completely succeeded in re-writing history into a non-violent whitewash, and where organized violence was only known about by roughly 1 in 1000 people, and there was no interpersonal violence, except occasional out-bursts in the asteroid belt where medical and psychological care were spread too thinly"
The Asgard are getting better since we saved their arses, but they started off as arrogant bastards really, & I doubt we'd actually be quite that helpful in reality:-)
hmm, I'll have to think on which Alien ~I'd like to be our first contact (definitely not the vulcans!). Although, as I've said, I seriously doubt they'd be even remotely humanoid, and would probably operate on a vastly different scale to us anyway. I just hope we can communicate sucessfully.
At Wednesday, March 15, 2006 9:20:00 pm,
CyberKitten said…
The kzin are fun once they stop trying to kill & eat you. Giant orange cats that smell of cinamon.. Can't remember if they purr though..
Mrs A said: Although, as I've said, I seriously doubt they'd be even remotely humanoid, and would probably operate on a vastly different scale to us anyway. I just hope we can communicate sucessfully.
Mathematics would probably be a good start..
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 5:41:00 am,
chosha said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 5:48:00 am,
chosha said…
Why should people panic at the thought that aliens exist & have visited Earth?
Because they clearly have more technology than us (we not being able to detect, let alone, visit, other civilisations in the universe) and that is scary, because on Earth we use superior technology to control and manipulate other nations. In other words, we're not scared that they will be truly alien...we're scared that they will be just like us. I have always admired the way that the movie Starman depicted this - we send out a call, and then we want to trap, study, dissect and kill any being who actually answers it. I'd bet my life savings that that is exactly the way it would go down.
I'm quite comfortable with the idea of life on other planets. I don't know if they've visited us, or if they will, but it seems pretty logical they're out there.
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 5:55:00 am,
chosha said…
Genetic modification is indeed misunderstood by the public, because the public is not given all the information, even about changes to the very food that they eat. They are also not kept informed about seeds modified so that the mature plant does not produce seeds to provide for the next crop, so that third world "beneficieries" of better, more resilient or more nutritious crops are forced to buy the seeds every time. Hey but it's all about the money, right?
People deserve a lot more information about modification and a lot more regulation should be in place so that people have the information needed to make informed decisions about what they consume.
Science is a daily carnival of wonders, but your faith in it to produce a better world seems a little misplaced. Have you really never looked around to see the irreparable damage to human life and environment that has been caused by the fact that Science only ever asks the question, "what is possible?" and never, "should we wisely refrain?" Technology can never be our saviour while it is still causing so many wrongs.
Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDTs.
I don't care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees...plee-ee-ease!
At Sunday, March 19, 2006 9:34:00 am,
Juggling Mother said…
"Science is a daily carnival of wonders, but your faith in it to produce a better world seems a little misplaced. Have you really never looked around to see the irreparable damage to human life and environment that has been caused "
Yes, not all scince has been used for good. not ll science will be used for good int he future. that much is obvious. but on balance I would say that scientific achievments have made life immeasurably better over the past 1000 years or so. do you not agree?
Or would you prefer to live in the middle ages, where there was no science to speak of (in Europe/the west) and a child mortality rate of approx 50%, and a life expectancy of your early thirties?
At Thursday, July 06, 2006 4:26:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
I have written several stories about the Kzinti (Man-Kzin wars VII, VIII, IX, X and XI). They do purr sometimes. One of my Kzin, old Raargh, has a human friend, Leone, and now purrs when she tickles under his chin. Orlando, a Kzin kitten, purrs when eating tuna ice-cream.
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