Come On Down

[poliphilo]

A sci-fi fantasy I'm fond of- The Saga of the Exiles- predicates an alien intervention at the beginning of the 21st century (in fact, any time now.) The aliens- who are nice chaps- allow us the join their Federation, but on certain conditions. One of the conditions is that we abandon all but one of our religions.

And we do. Just like that.

How I wish. How I wish....

For some reason the religion we choose to retain is Roman Catholicism.

A certain leeway is allowed. People are permitted to flavour their Catholicism with Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or whatever they used to adhere to. But I don't remember there being any Muslim-flavoured Catholics or Southern Baptist-flavoured Catholics.

It's a silly book.

I wonder how long it's actually going to take us to get beyond our religious differences.
How many thousands of years.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

So many science fiction writers seem to be rather stingy about time--they have us exploring Titan and setting up camps in the year 2019.

Sure--like we're going to get it together down here and get to Titan in about twenty years.

With Bush in charge, these writers ought to start shoving their timeframes out about 200 years, at least. That should get us back out of the New Dark Ages.

As for aliens landing, I wish.

Why do we always assume that anything unlike us is a predator?

That's us!

Maybe aliens are benevolent teachers. Maybe they'll show us how to use warp drive and how to be kind to each other.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Maybe they'll show us ... how to be kind to each other.

I don't think we'd recognize it if they did.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

We probably wouldn't give them time before we shot them because they looked scary.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Yup.

Sad to say.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Several years ago, a rare whistling swan settled in for a few weeks in a local waterway. People drove out to see it. Mostly we see swans in parks, with their pinfeathers clipped to keep them from flying far.

The newspapers came out to take pictures.

Soon afterward, a stupid hulk with a rifle shot the swan.

If he hadn't, another stupid hulk with a rifle would have.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Of course they could be here already. If they were they'd surely be following the Prime Directive and keeping a very low profile.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

following the Prime Directive and keeping a very low profile.

You think?

How would they look like us? Surgical procedures via a Beverly Crusher sort of doctor?

I wish one of them would talk with Bush pretty soon.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They are so far advanced they can transform themselves at will.

Or maybe they look like us already- and all they need to do is make minor adjusments- like Spock does in the movie, covering his pointy ears with a sweat band.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, let's say they're from an M-class planet.

So how would they start helping us out?

I don't think they'd want to give us warp speeds just yet. Just thinking about that makes me smile. Can you imagine us nervous conflicted predators hurtling out into space to seek out other civilizations?

I wish I could imagine how they'd help us. It's beyond me. Sometimes I think only evolution itself will help us out.

We'll get our warp drive, but we'll be benign cockroaches in the year 40,000.

With opposable thumbs.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think we'll learn how to speed up evolution. We'll merge with our computers and be able to carry the entire contents of the Internet around in our heads.

Something like that.

I think the aliens are merely observing us. Perhaps they give things a surrepticious nudge every once in a while. Oh- and when they get too bored with hanging about being frostily benign they fly down to New Mexico and mutilate a cow.