From: Rob Harris Cen-IT (Rob.Harris@bournemouth.gov.uk)
Date: Tue Aug 03 1999 - 09:11:40 MDT
> In my opinion I completely disagree. I think logic dictates
> that Gods must care. You can't be all knowing and all feeling without
> having some kind of sympathy for things that are less than you.
>
Unless the root evolution of the SI species did not produce "sympathy". We
cannot assume other, alien species, especially vastly advanced ones, will be
anything like us. Besides, if such entities exist, then they certainly don't
"care" about us - misery and suffering is ,on this planet, far more abundant
than happiness which decays with time even in stable "happy" environments -
avoids the local minima problem. They're snorting coke off a pair of cosmic
tits. As would I be.
> Look
> at how much interest we have in trying to study (and bring back if we
> could) the dinosaurs or any extinct species no matter how old.
>
Yeah, because no-one's seen these species. There's novelty value attached.
We wouldn't be doing such species any favours by bringing them into an
environment in which they no longer have a place, and they wouldn't thank us
anyway.
> If you
> really are God, you have near infinite powers and can eventually do
> any finite task no matter how big. If, for a relative few cents, you
> could by the research and work required to recreate many of the
> dinosaurs (along with a great expansive place to keep them) Wouldn't
> you donate the few cents in relative effort to your overall ability no
> matter how much you were interested in and putting the rest of your
> abilities in other things?
>
If you were interested in seeing these species in action. I'm sure
they're not very exciting to an SI. I know ! Lets get a petri dish and grow
a load of bacteria from some undiscovered primal pool ! yeah....look at 'em
go.....see how they mop up all that nasty glucose! Not very exciting is it?
We currently have interest in dinosaurs and stuff, as they're very big and
scary - hardly a concern for an SI - it would be more like my petri dish
example to them.
> > Every day you sit on the toilet you are flushing trillions of
> > harmless little bacteria (they are even beneficial to you!) down
> > the pipes, to go to the local processing plant where most of them
> > end up dead! Does that make you *evil*?
>
> I think being ignorant of such facts does make me evil. I
> feel horribly guilty because of this. God, please make me not be so
> ignorant (and helpless to do otherwise) so I will no longer feel so
> guilty about all such injustices where I so blatantly (and often
> blindly) and unjustly destroy and fail to adequately care for things
> that are less than I.
>
OK, my son, I'll see what I can do........ahh......here's some tweezers.
Pick all the bacteria out of that piece of shit, and I'll save you from
hell.
> > Brent, while I am extremely sympathetic to your position, I think
> > you should reconsider it. Natural selection works. Stick your
> > fingers in it and you end up with suboptimal entities.
>
Yeah it works. I wouldn't say that it always produces the optimal solution -
"if it ain't broke don't fix it" is mother nature's attitude, so it would
seem. i.e it takes a destructive influence upon a society of lifeforms to
force it to adapt.
> Exactly! Don't you think something like a message from space
> saying we should freeze the dieing until they can teach us how to
> become immortal would help to convince our parents?
>
No problem, i'll just crank up the ol' messagefromspaceotron.
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