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From: bobo@thejester.cray.com (Bob Kierski)
Subject: Re: Philosophy Quest.  How Boldly?
Message-ID: <1993Apr30.164327.8663@hemlock.cray.com>
Originator: bobo@thejester.cray.com
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Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
References: <1993Apr29.162132.28366@hemlock.cray.com> <C6Assy.Ao9@fs7.ece.cmu.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 93 16:43:26 CDT


In article <C6Assy.Ao9@fs7.ece.cmu.edu>, loss@fs7.ECE.CMU.EDU (Doug Loss) writes:

>    Analog SF magazine did an article on a similar subject quite a few
> years ago.  The question was, if an alien spacecraft landed in
> Washington, D.C., what was the proper organization to deal with it: The
> State Department (alien ambassadors), the Defense Department (alien
> invaders), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (illegal aliens),
> the Department of the Interior (new non-human species), etc.  It was
> very much a question of our perception of the aliens, not of anything
> intrinsic in their nature.  The bibliography for the article cited a
> philosophical paper (the name and author of which I sadly forget; I
> believe the author was Italian) on what constitutes a legal and/or moral
> person, i.e., a being entitled to the rights normally accorded to a
> person.  The paper was quite interesting, as I recall.

This is a whole different situation.  If aliens were able to get here prior
to us being able to get there, one might conclude that they would be more advanced
and therefore "more intelegent" that we are.  However if we get somewhere where there
is life, chances are we wont be able to communicate with them.  So we will have
no clue as to weather they are "intelegent" or not.

>    I think you'd have to be very careful here if the answer is yes.  The
> human track record on helping those poor underpriveleged cultures (does
> underpriveleged mean not having enough priveleges?) is terrible.  The
> usual result is the destruction or radical reorganization of the
> culture.  This may not always be wrong, but that's the way to bet.

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of it that way.  My question however was
more along the lines of... Every year the US spends millions of tax dollars
and giving tax breaks to individuals and companies who feed the poor of foreign
countries while thousands of our own people sleep on the streets at night.
Would we give to the economicly dissadvantaged on another planet if we hadn't resolved
these issues on our own?


But... Your comment brings up another good question.  Over the years we have decided
that certain cultures need improvements.  The native americans is a good example.  Prior
to our attempt to civilize them, the native american culture had very little crime, no
homelessnes, no poverty.  Then the europeans came along and now they have those and
more.  If we encounter life elsewhere, do we tell them they have to live in houses, farm
the land and go to church on sunday?
-- 
Have a day,

  @   @
   ( )     bobo
