Naah; I assume nothing. The film was more useful to the question.
Contact communication was signal only. Interesting point on the dna,
though I was thinking if they were really nasty they'd just do a
vivisection.
:)
jm
On 30 Jan 2001, at 11:46, Michael Lorrey wrote:
> John Marlow wrote:
> >
> > Heh. Or how's this for you: Faced with the Contact scenario choice--
> > send a man or a woman to First Contact, which would you choose?
>
> Well, in the novel, there were both male and female passengers in the
> contact ship. Don't believe everything you read in the movies.
>
> >
> > (I'd lean toward man, to avoid giving them a look at the female
> > reproductive system--assuming they didn't know where we came from.)
>
> Irrelevant. They collect dna from skin cells or hair that exfoliated
> during the visit of the male and in less than a year they could know
> everything they need to know. Cloning the male provides them with gonads
> that produce both X and Y chromosomes.
>
> >
> > Religious or nonreligious?
>
> Non-religious. Rationality is paramount.
>
> >
> > (I'd send nonreligious, every time; wouldn't want irrational
> > beliefs/destruction of same coloring judgement or actions.)
> >
> > On the other hand, women tend to be more interested in true
> > understanding and less inclined to macho sh*theadedness...
>
> While women tend to either be easier to drive into irrationality with
> fear or else more inclined to appease an agressor (or both). Macho
> Sh*theadedness evolved because it has its usefulness when dealing with
> strange environments and new animal species.
>
> You are blindly assuming that any alien species will be the
> stereotypical space hippie/buddhist. Species that explore and expand
> tend to also be agressive. In humans, expansionism tends to occur in
> societies infected with dogmatic memes of manifest destiny, holy favor,
> etc. A species that travels here rather than just communicating via
> radio or laser beams is more likely to be such an agressive species.
>
John Marlow
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