As IF Times

Source: Why Stephen Hawking is Right to Urge Caution Before Contacting Alien Civilizations

Someone’s been watching too many movies from the ’50’s; reading too much science fiction or just plain removed from reality.

Imagine the scenario of an Alien civilization coming into contact with Earth and invoking that famous line, “take me to your leader!”.  Who would that be? What if the craft landed in Arghistan and the spokesman for the planet wound up being the local head yak herder?  What if they landed in the deep Amazon jungle and their odd appearance and strange language caused them to be ushered into a large soup pot?  What if they landed on Chicago’s south side and after being shot, led to the crib of a Snoop Dog gangsta twin?

All of these are less scary than if the Aliens were to land at UN headquarters and exposed to that body of idiots.  Is it really in the realm of possibility that someone, some body of people would speak on behalf of all Earthlings?  You can’t even get people to agree on how weather happens.

There are likely 2 scenarios under which an Alien lifeforce would make contact with our planet.  One scenario would be under the general realm of discovery.  They figured out how to get here and they’re curious to have a look.  We’d be a curiosity to them as an ant farm would be to a 9 year old.  Another possibility is that they have some reason to exploit whatever resources we may have.  In that case, the human population are just nuisances like noseeums at a beach.

Either way, the advice of anyone as to how to deal with this is as useful as an inflatable dart board.  Yet, someone has funded some society named Breakthrough Message, that wants to design a message to be transmitted to the galaxies in order to contact Alien civilizations.  The program pledges to: not transmit any message until there has been a global debate at high levels of science and politics on the risks and rewards of contacting advanced civilizations.  I wonder if Christopher Columbus was given similar guidelines when Queen Isabella sent him off.

It’s laughable that this policy statement includes high levels of politics as a requisite for contact.  To imagine that there would ever be a spokesman for the planet is science fiction.  To require that such a person would be chosen with political consideration is outright fantasy.

Source: Students at Lena Dunham’s college offended by lack of fried chicken | New York Post

The great gulf between what is depicted in the movies and what you observe in real life is laughingly wide to those that pay attention to these things.  Whomever said that life imitates art hasn’t been paying attention.  The majority of movie trailers today tease filmgoers with chaotic scenes of violence and action: well coiffed heroes with guns ablaze performing superhuman acts of courage and daring while cavalierly dispatching bad guys.

There is no angst expressed during  the decimation of faceless thugs and evil despots; nor in the property destruction that is typically a horror show for insurance adjusters.  All of this visceral action and mayhem is undertaken ostensibly to benefit the greater good of mankind.

Movie depictions are truly created out of the most improbable adolescent fantasies.  Given today’s cultural zeitgeist, there is zero chance that such alpha personas exist other than as portrayed in cinema.  Kids on college campuses can barely withstand the horrors of name calling much less take a roundhouse to the temple.

It’s comical to imagine that 20-somethings today could possibly handle a multi round automatic weapon when the mere image of one sends them scurrying away to their self declared safe zones.  If they can’t handle the odd verbal slur, they aren’t going to like their nether regions being slammed by bolo balls while tied naked to a chair like 007 in a recent Bond movie.

While film has always been about creating idealized escapism, they may want to make movies that can more identify with today’s real world.  Conflicts between despotic villains can be resolved by earnest discussions without resort to violence or name calling.  Climactic scenes will include the peaceful surrender of evil doers by the marshaling of opposing protesters holding placards instead of the generic gun battles with infinite bullets.  Instead of stylized mano-a-mano kung-fu fights, they can instead be filmed as intense rock, paper, scissors scenes.  There will always be lawyers accompanying covert operators as they parachute into enemy territories on missions.  Perhaps in a delectable bit of rapturous fantasy, they can all be sacrificed for the good of the rest of society.  Meh, that’s probably too much of a stretch.

If you think about it, Star Wars as a concept couldn’t exist.  Societies would never be allowed to continue shooting and slashing in their struggles.  More likely, the conflicts would be determined by bands of lawyers huddling over canapés and scotch while the fearful masses sit huddled nearby anxiously awaiting the results like waifs in a Dickens novel.

Yep, the entertainment of today is mislabeled.  It’s not action/adventure; it’s all fantasy.