From: hils@saynotospam.net   
      
   On 23/10/15 20:53, RS Wood wrote:   
   > On 2015-10-21, Hils  wrote:   
   >> "We were among the first 8 per cent of worlds that could potentially   
   >> support life when we came into being 4.6 billion years ago, according   
   >> the astronomers behind the study. Many of the other Earth-supporting   
   >> planets won’t turn be around for some time — and are likely to come   
   >> about after our own sun burns out in six billion years. [...]   
   >>   
   >> Humanity arrived early enough to be able to see back into the   
   >> beginnings of the universe with telescopes like Hubble and other   
   >> equipment.   
   >>   
   >> But that same understanding might be off-limits to future   
   >> civilisations.  Because the universe is expanding so fast, any   
   >> observable evidence of its beginnings is likely to be erased — leaving   
   >> people in the future with no clue about how the universe got to where   
   >> they are."   
   >   
   > Interesting article.  It's strangely ethnocentric - has trouble   
   > believing any other society could exist anywhere in time and space.  I'm   
   > still partisan to Arthur C Clarke's proposition that the real   
   > intelligent life existed long before us, and visited us long enough to   
   > either find us strangely amusing or take pity on our primitive   
   > intellects.   
      
   "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you   
   know it." (Men in Black)   
      
   > I suspect the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy might have had fun with   
   > this train of thought, too.  Love that part (maybe in the 3rd book?)   
   > where Arthur Dent lands on some planet where prehistoric humanoids are   
   > about to discover fire, and then some annoying, juvenile, alien assholes   
   > land in their space craft and make a fool of themselves, almost   
   > interrupting the humanoids.  Arthur gets annoyed these bastards would   
   > disturb his ancestors, and is then informed the ancestors to the human   
   > race isn't those humanoids but rather, the assholes.   
      
   ISTR a similar storyline at the end of Battlestar Galactica.   
      
   And one can only estimate the damage done to people and the world by the   
   culturally-transmitted mental illnesses which hide among the world's   
   religions, and by the kleptocrats who insist that we all must tolerate   
   ignorance, barbarism and superstition.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)