Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
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Ten Reasons Aliens Would Find Humans Ridiculous
November 30th, 2010
Who the crap knows what aliens are going to be like? I don’t, but let me imagine that aliens who have the longevity and technology to learn about us will be rational and not arbitrary in the same ways that we are. Here are things I suspect they won’t understand, and might even believe to be ridiculous about humans.
1. We value our physical athletes more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
2. We value our musicians more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
3. We value our pundits more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
4. We value our politicians more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio flashes a thumbs-up after addressing an Election Night gathering hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington Nov. 2, 2010.
(Credit: AP Photo)
5. We value our spiritual leaders more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
Popes titles = 666 See this below
6. We value our comedians more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
7. We value our self-help gurus more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
8. We value our talk show personalities more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
9. We value our actors more than our scientists and other innovative thinkers.
10. We don’t value our scientists and other innovative thinkers enough.
![[Neil+deGrasse+Tyson.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQaAGeEr8Xk/SYrxd1FaykI/AAAAAAAAATo/nn5-WXaF0LQ/s1600/Neil%2BdeGrasse%2BTyson.jpg)
I’m sure I can come up with a lot more, although they are harder to find than most celebrities. Any other suggestions?
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Soooo, it’s really aliens that share your values (which I think are good ones) that would find us ridiculous, right? Who’s to say that the aliens might not be sports-addicted celebrity-worshippers who brand the scientists who enabled their trip across the galaxy as “nerds?”
It may sound silly, but I’ve always tried to do things that were universal and not human/Earth specific. That’s why I’m in the physical sciences. Writing obviously is very human-centric, however, so I’m not perfect. 😉
Your suggestion that aliens might be sports-addicted celebrity-worshippers is of course possible, and I’ve read a few good science fiction stories with similar premises. But I doubt it to be likely, whereas given the assumptions that they’re technologically advanced enough to visit, they would share and appreciate math and science and it is more likely they’d share associated values related to those topics.
Really though, I’m trying to use the idea of aliens as an objective mirror without the biases of human culture to consider whether or not the people we value are the most appropriate choices.
Mike, previous alien encounters prove you wrong.
It is obvious that the outer space bastards are far more interested in a) brutally hunting us for sports with fancy cloaking suits and dreadlocks, b) anal probing or c) stealing our women, than in scientific gibberish.
And it should be clear, by now, that they have more respect for Will Smith than for Einstein.
A good point poorly made, substituting repetition for detail and/or analysis
OK, Nomadz, your lists sounds more interesting than mine!
I remember being discouraged from the physical scicences by an academic advisor. She said, ” . . . it’s so hard and cold.” I saw a lot of beauty and depth in math-based science. I thought something was wrong with me, a female, because of desiring something “hard and cold.” Something strange about what the so-called advisor said, the emotional take on science–chemistry, math, physics, etc.
Will: There are at least two points, not one:
1. That others are valued more.
2. That scientists/innovators are not valued enough.
:p