From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Fri Jul 09 1999 - 19:30:20 MDT
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky thinks: that the idea of intercepting and decoding
> communications
> between ETCs is fundamentally misguided. ...so looking for unguarded
> information is like searching
> for 20 dollar bills on the streets of Manhatten.
SETI is searching for religious leaflets being handed out on the streets
of Manhattan. We know that when two societies come into contact
whose technological levels differ greatly, the less advanced civilization
is always greatly destabilized, as the younger and more forward thinking
in the less advanced society begin to urge the others to give up the
old traditional ways. Specifically they seek extinction of superstitions,
since the more advanced seem to be doing fine without them.
SETI is seeking signals that were intentionally made easy to detect and
decode, sent by the orginators in the hope that we may give up our
superstitious and warlike ways, thereby becoming safer and saner
citizens of the galaxy. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:04:26 MST