When we discuss things, we assume one or the other is true. Maybe both are true! Today is a tribute to my enjoyment of Sci-Fi and why we haven't met any aliens...maybe we can be the aliens
Anonymous Comment -- I received this comment on the post from a good friend on the back-channel. I thought it was fantastic. There is nothing better than when I get corrected. Thank you to anonymous for being a good friend.
"I read your post on the likelihood for life to exist elsewhere. Nice. I agree it is a certainty that life exists today in many many other places, including in our own Solar System. It think it is also a certainty that intelligent advanced life exists or has existed. The universe is so big and so old that the experiment is being (has been) repeated billions upon billions of times. Ours cannot be the only instance that resulted in sentient advanced life. I also know that the universe is so old that many of these other experiments ended in extinction either thru natural causes or suicide. Your assumption that the current asymmetrical threat that exists today on Earth must also occur in the other experiments is faulty. I can imagine other beings and societies where individualism does not exist. In those civilizations the threat posed by empowered crazy antisocial individuals would not exist."
Thanks for reading and commenting Anne -- The post I have in draft for quite a while that I describe to Jillian is titled Buckle Up -- kind of about the limits, if any, of our adaptability in the age of machine-aided evolution. In my career working with control systems what always emerged was something we did not consider reaches a tipping point and breaks shit. Not worth worrying about. In the design world we just had emergency stop buttons. It will be wild when we hit one of these unforeseen limits in the natural cycle. The human response will be amazing to observe. Maybe we will come together?
What a great post! I love it. I also am optimistic that we might eventually figure things out, after a lot of struggle, if we give ourselves enough time to do so. If only we could eliminate the struggle part, but then we wouldn't be human. It's like wishing I could skip the 'rough draft' phase....
As a history lover, one of my favorite paraphrased quotes from Winston Churchill -- You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they've exhausted all other options.
I've never heard someone refer to cockroaches as "cool"! Nevertheless, this piece was super thought-provoking. I also love the idea that we could be the aliens!
I love Sci-Fi -- it seems likely we will approach a super-intelligence capacity in the very near future. We are adaptable but I think machine assisted evolution might be more than we can handle. I have a great post that may never come out of draft that evaluates the number of years, at minimum, it takes us humans to adapt to a radical new idea. My thesis is it has always been about 50-100 years. The challenge of today is we have technologies on learning curves that become destiny in 10-20 years and shrinking.
Thanks as always for reading and commenting. I will be stepping away from Substack soon to figure out if I can and want to coexist with a new Social Media part of my life. We are adaptable and I hope that I can be at peace with Notes.
RE: COCKROACHES -- so cool only in the sense of if we find amoebas or cockroaches on the Moon or on Mars a whole lot of reshuffling in people's heads will be ahead. Some will say (the dissemblers) (1) yeah I always knew that but it doesn't change anything ; (the move the goal line crowd) (2) it doesn't mean anything, they are just amoebas ; (the conspiracy gang} (3) the landing was staged just like the moon landing
Yes change and intelligence one seldom comes with the other. If we could only think the way we do in later stages of life but you see how it all makes sense. Having too much intelligence in youth wouldn't serve you and having too much change shakes a sense of security and trust in one another and in turn all things. Knowing we all have to do better is the quest and we never reach it because it is ongoing. We become nicer, more gentle and understanding in advancing years esp if one is not so now..then we exit. Because too much knowledge is a dangerous thing ☺️
Very thoughtful and a slightly different perspective for me -- thank you! I have become a bit fixated on the unique nature of the human brain being a primitive lizard and a relatively recent cortex with LOTS OF CROSSOVER. Once something exists in our "instinctual self" it is difficult to move people off a belief even when they know it is false.
One of my most favored books on my TBR is Tim Urban "What's Our Problem" -- it's about thought, bias, aversion to change, and all sorts of other things...on the waitlist at the library but when the time comes gonna drop everything
Yes someone out here in the galaxy is reading this at 6am! Humans are reactive. We will figure it out when the time comes. I do believe, like you this is a great time to be alive. It is reassuring we have the power to control what is in our sphere of influence each day.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Yours is a positive and hopeful response! My sense is this is the first real hard question. I hope you are right.
Where do you stand on the aliens and why we haven't discovered anything yet -- my take is we are severely limited in our abilities and the inevitable journey toward individualism made possible with intelligence and technology is the breakpoint of civilization. It is NATURAL for the most successful of the indiviiduals (the most powerful) to resist communitarianism as they have the most to lose. -- even if it's way off, it is a decent Sci-Fi premise :)
Anonymous Comment -- I received this comment on the post from a good friend on the back-channel. I thought it was fantastic. There is nothing better than when I get corrected. Thank you to anonymous for being a good friend.
"I read your post on the likelihood for life to exist elsewhere. Nice. I agree it is a certainty that life exists today in many many other places, including in our own Solar System. It think it is also a certainty that intelligent advanced life exists or has existed. The universe is so big and so old that the experiment is being (has been) repeated billions upon billions of times. Ours cannot be the only instance that resulted in sentient advanced life. I also know that the universe is so old that many of these other experiments ended in extinction either thru natural causes or suicide. Your assumption that the current asymmetrical threat that exists today on Earth must also occur in the other experiments is faulty. I can imagine other beings and societies where individualism does not exist. In those civilizations the threat posed by empowered crazy antisocial individuals would not exist."
Phew thanks for the reminder how fast this train is going and how it will just continue to accelerate! Hang on!!!
Thanks for reading and commenting Anne -- The post I have in draft for quite a while that I describe to Jillian is titled Buckle Up -- kind of about the limits, if any, of our adaptability in the age of machine-aided evolution. In my career working with control systems what always emerged was something we did not consider reaches a tipping point and breaks shit. Not worth worrying about. In the design world we just had emergency stop buttons. It will be wild when we hit one of these unforeseen limits in the natural cycle. The human response will be amazing to observe. Maybe we will come together?
What a great post! I love it. I also am optimistic that we might eventually figure things out, after a lot of struggle, if we give ourselves enough time to do so. If only we could eliminate the struggle part, but then we wouldn't be human. It's like wishing I could skip the 'rough draft' phase....
As a history lover, one of my favorite paraphrased quotes from Winston Churchill -- You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they've exhausted all other options.
I've never heard someone refer to cockroaches as "cool"! Nevertheless, this piece was super thought-provoking. I also love the idea that we could be the aliens!
I love Sci-Fi -- it seems likely we will approach a super-intelligence capacity in the very near future. We are adaptable but I think machine assisted evolution might be more than we can handle. I have a great post that may never come out of draft that evaluates the number of years, at minimum, it takes us humans to adapt to a radical new idea. My thesis is it has always been about 50-100 years. The challenge of today is we have technologies on learning curves that become destiny in 10-20 years and shrinking.
Thanks as always for reading and commenting. I will be stepping away from Substack soon to figure out if I can and want to coexist with a new Social Media part of my life. We are adaptable and I hope that I can be at peace with Notes.
RE: COCKROACHES -- so cool only in the sense of if we find amoebas or cockroaches on the Moon or on Mars a whole lot of reshuffling in people's heads will be ahead. Some will say (the dissemblers) (1) yeah I always knew that but it doesn't change anything ; (the move the goal line crowd) (2) it doesn't mean anything, they are just amoebas ; (the conspiracy gang} (3) the landing was staged just like the moon landing
Yes change and intelligence one seldom comes with the other. If we could only think the way we do in later stages of life but you see how it all makes sense. Having too much intelligence in youth wouldn't serve you and having too much change shakes a sense of security and trust in one another and in turn all things. Knowing we all have to do better is the quest and we never reach it because it is ongoing. We become nicer, more gentle and understanding in advancing years esp if one is not so now..then we exit. Because too much knowledge is a dangerous thing ☺️
Good read Mark
Very thoughtful and a slightly different perspective for me -- thank you! I have become a bit fixated on the unique nature of the human brain being a primitive lizard and a relatively recent cortex with LOTS OF CROSSOVER. Once something exists in our "instinctual self" it is difficult to move people off a belief even when they know it is false.
One of my most favored books on my TBR is Tim Urban "What's Our Problem" -- it's about thought, bias, aversion to change, and all sorts of other things...on the waitlist at the library but when the time comes gonna drop everything
Yes someone out here in the galaxy is reading this at 6am! Humans are reactive. We will figure it out when the time comes. I do believe, like you this is a great time to be alive. It is reassuring we have the power to control what is in our sphere of influence each day.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Yours is a positive and hopeful response! My sense is this is the first real hard question. I hope you are right.
Where do you stand on the aliens and why we haven't discovered anything yet -- my take is we are severely limited in our abilities and the inevitable journey toward individualism made possible with intelligence and technology is the breakpoint of civilization. It is NATURAL for the most successful of the indiviiduals (the most powerful) to resist communitarianism as they have the most to lose. -- even if it's way off, it is a decent Sci-Fi premise :)