<
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Part V of Google's MMMMDLVIII-part series about
the late Ed Conrad who proved that MAN IS AS OLD AS THE HILLS and that
YOU'RE NOT REALLY DEAD WHEN YOU DIE.
<
====================
,
WHAT DO EXTRATERRESTRIALS WANT FROM US?
<
<               (An Editorial by Ed Conrad)
<
Well, for sure, they wouldn't want our paper money.
(too damn filthy, for one thing, transporting bacteria
around faster than the Orient Express.)
<
How about our manpower for slave labor, our incredible
work force?
<
Hmmm! Not really! Not when they know, at best, we
operate at only about 55 - 65 percent efficiency (except
in those Slave Labor U.S.-outsourced countries which
pay 10-15 cents an hour. in rare cases as much as 35).
<
Well. how about our advancement in knowledge?
Ridiculous!  WHAT knowledge, compared to theirs?
<
The basements of their many-thousands-of-years-old
libraries must be stuffed with long-outdated "See, Sally,
ee" Dick-and-Jane readers, not far from stacks of yellowed copies of
their Einstein-type encyclopedias which, for
eons have been out of date and collecting dust.
<
Okay, well, how about our gorgeous planet, with its fresh
air, clean water, spacious skies and mountain majesty?
<
I'd hardly think so, not with our wildebeest stampede of
pollution (although, perhaps, an affirmative answer if we
had asked that same question 150-200 years ago).
<
Could it be the visitors from outer space savor an education,
desiring to learn how we've made astounding progress
in good will toward our fellow man?
<
Sorry, Charlie! Another negative, with wars and battles
and hostilities raging somewhere -- all around the globe -- almost all
the time? And, just as bad, they've certainly
noticed that most folks can't even get along with their
own neighbor.
<
I know! How about our democratic form of government,
the concept that all people are treated equal (wherever Democracy
reigns)? Hmmm! That's got be a strikeout,
too. The extraterrestrials must have noticed that the most dynamic
changes in the legal system usually are instituted
to benefit the filthy rich, to make them filthy richer, with
only a handful of meager scraps passed on to the common
man.
<
Hmmm!
<

   WHAT WOULD EXTRATERRESTRIALS
           REALLY WANT FROM US?

<
To be perfectly honest, after our visitors from outer space
get a really good idea of who we are and what we're really
all about, they definitely would want NO part of us.
<
In fact, when Captain Zorbar shakes his head in disgust
and finally announces, "OK, Xstian, Turn our UFO around
because we're heading home!," the entire crew of alien spacecraft will
breathe a sign of relief and react with
a rousing cheer.
<
Autonomus Unit Zinkag 41, brood assemblage Delta 64
has responded:
<
There was a possibility that humans could contribute to civilizing the
universe but they have proven to be violent
and shortsighted for that. Instead they will be left alone
until they kill themselves off.
<
I speak only for the crew of my ship and necessarily
in an unofficial capacity, and as such the statements
below should not be taken as authoritative or their opinions being
representative of official policy.
<
Historically, the policy towards Earthers within the galactic milieu
has been largely as you say. As you know, lengthy programs of detailed
observation were undertaken several hundred years ago.
<
Nearly every academic extrapolated from the various terrestrial
techno-culture studies from that effort has concluded that Earthers,
as a self-organized species, would end poorly in some inevitable
global conflagration of religious conflict.
<
As we know, it has happened before and will happen again countless
times among species whose biology fails to
support reasoned thinking with sufficient quality and rigor.
<
Earthers have been shown to have insufficient capacity
within their brains for rational policy. In the unforgiving
universe they will pay the price sooner or later.
<
The caveat in all this comes from the possibility that these Earthers
might achieve inter-stellar spaceflight capabilities.
In that event, the chance of these Earthers destroying themselves
completely is appreciably diminished with
each successful colony.
<
The local stellar group is unoccupied and is rich in raw materials,
and is therefore ripe for exploitation, if they get
out there -- by which time it would be too late for peaceful
solutions.
<
In the nineteen eighties it was clear that the US space
program was moribund with politics; so far, so good. But
thirty years later we are threatened with civilian access
to LEO, which in some scenarios explodes into Space Renaissance,
leading to non-trivial solar-system expansion.
<
Furthermore, Earthers have somehow muddled through
any major crises without a large incident and may, in fact.
have developed geopolitical talent sufficient to this minimal task.
Barring accident, in fifty years the Earthers could be pushing their
first generation ships out in the cometary halo
or beyond.
<
Of course they could still have a big nuclear accident, but
I am beginning to think this is not assured, and hence
becomes a matter of some concern. What will we do if the Earthers
bring their cultures of insanity and violence to our space?
<
In their current "form" they cannot even begin to communicate
meaningfully with our delegates, translators notwithstanding.
Perhaps they will develop artificial intelligences that exceed their
native capacities and which would therefore be capable, in principle,
of interface.

Even in that case the problem shifts position only slightly
if they retain their delusional belief systems.
<
I suppose the question of change must be revisited. Can
these Earthers make changes to their biology and improve
the quality of their reasoning?
<
We'll ignore the issue of terrestrial politics for the moment
and simply consider whether their current level of technological
progress would allow it. I think the answer is a qualified "yes",
but I am in no way prepared to say whether they are
capable of changing enough within the time remaining.
<
Rather than wait for the actual specialists to weigh in, I would
still like to consider what this means.

Their major obstacles are political and sociological. The politics
driving their general socioeconomic systems is unable to handle
these issues properly; the entrenched conservatism rejects
nearly everything non-epsilon with respect to their vector of now.
<
On the side of sociology, the majority of Earther individuals
are peasant-level, therefore capable of contributing little more
than the work from their physical labors. This inefficiency
allows nearly unconstrained growth in established fields of
science and technology which are useful to the political
economy but only influences fundamental change as
a function of its deployment.
<
I can't even begin to guess where an impetus to improve their
biological thinking basis would arise -- or could arise. The concept
is several big jumps from the orthodoxy in any
of their religions.
<
In this light I suggest that the threat of Earther off-planet
expansion is imminent and that we should begin to discuss
what we are going to do about it if we cannot interfere directly.
<
Sincerely,
<
Autonomus Unit Zinkag 41, brood assemblage Delta 64
<
Ed Conrad
http://www.edconrad.com
<
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.ed-conrad/msg/522305f02e955b66
<
http://www.edconrad.org
<
===========================
<
<   THE AMAZING STORY OF BILLY MEIER
<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Meier
<
http://www.deepspace4.com/pages/prophecy/henoch/henoch.htm
<
http://www.deepspace4.com/pages/prophecy/henoch/henoch2.htm
<
========================
<
NATIONAL NEWS SITES
ABCNEWS.com
Arizona Republic, The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baltimore Sun
Boston Globe
CBS News
CNN
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Post
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Dallas Morning News
Denver Post
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
Florida Times-Union
Fox News
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Hartford Courant
Houston Chronicle
Indianapolis Star and News
International Herald Tribune
Kansas City Star
Las Vegas Sun
Los Angeles Times
MSNBC News
Miami Herald
Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel
Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
New Jersey Online
New York Daily News
New York Newsday
New York Post
New York Times
NPR Online
Orlando Sentinel
Oregonian, The
Philadelphia Inquirer, The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Providence Journal
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Sacramento Bee
Salt Lake City Deseret News
Salt Lake City Tribune
San Antonio Express-News
San Diego Union-Tribune
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Examiner
San Jose Mercury News
Seattle Times
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
St. Louis Post
St. Petersburg Times
Syracuse Post-Standard
Tampa Tribune
USA Today
Virginian-Pilot, The
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times
<
WORLDWIDE NEWS SITES
Age, The (Melbourne)
Asahi (Japan)
BBC News
CNN - World News
Canadian Online Explorer
China Daily
Hong Kong Standard
International Herald Tribune
Irish Times
Japan Times
Jerusalem Post
Johannesburg Star
Korea Herald
Le Monde (French)
London Telegraph
London Times
MSNBC Interactive - NBC and Microsoft worldwide news
PlanetSun - Canada
Russia Today
St. Petersburg Times (Russia)
South China Morning Post
Times of India
Toronto Star
USA Today World
<
LONDON DAILY NEWSPAPERS
Daily Express
Daily Mirror
Daily Telegraph
Evening Standard
Guardian Unlimited
Independent
Jewish Chronicle
Latin American Newsletters
Morning Star
Sun
Times of London
<
WORLD'S MOST POPULAR BLOGS
1. The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
2. TechCrunch
http://www.techcrunch.com
3. Mashable!  (tie)
http://mashable.com
3. Gizmodo     (tie)
http://www.gizmodo.com
5. Engadget
http://www.engadget.com
6. Gawker
http://www.gawker.com
7. The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com
8. TMZ.com
http://www.tmz.com
9. Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org
9. Boing Boing
http://www.boingboing.net
11. Hot Air
http://hotair.com
12. CNN Political Ticker
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
13. ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com
14. Mediaite
http://www.mediaite.com
15. Kotaku
http://www.kotaku.com
16. Jezebel
http://jezebel.com
17. The Caucus
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com
18. RedState
http://www.redstate.com
19. Deadline.com
http://www.deadline.com/
20. The Daily Dish
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
21. Popeater
http://www.popeater.com
23. Politics Daily
http://www.politicsdaily.com
21. Lifehacker
http://www.lifehacker.com
24. Vulture
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment
25. Ezra Klein
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/
<
WORLD'S TOP-RANKED  UNIVERSITIES
<
Study Real Hard So You Can Become Almost As Smart
As Ed Conrad
<
Rank    Name of University      Country
1 Harvard University                   USA
2 University of Oxford                   UK
3 University of Cambridge            UK
4 Stanford University                   USA
5 Mass. Institute of Technology   USA
6 University of California, Berkeley USA
7 California Institute of Technology USA
8 Princeton University                   USA
9 Yale University                           USA
10 University of Chicago                USA
11 Columbia University                 USA
12 University of California, San Diego USA
13 Cornell University                     USA
14 University of California, Los Angeles USA
15 University Pennsylvania USA
16 University of Wisconsin, Madison USA
17 University of Washington, Seattle USA
18 Tokyo University Japan
19 Univ. of California, San Francisco USA
20 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor USA
21 Kyoto University Japan
22 Imperial College London UK
23 Johns Hopkins University USA
24 University of Toronto Canada
25 University College London UK
26 University of Illinois, Urbana USA
27 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich Switzerland
28 Washington University, St. Louis USA
29 New York University USA
30 Duke University USA
31 University of Minnesota, Twin Cities USA
32 Northwestern University USA
33 Rockefeller University USA
34 University of Colorado, Boulder USA
35 Univ.of California, Santa Barbara USA
36 University of British Columbia Canada
37 University of Maryland, College Park USA
38 Utrecht University Netherlands
39 University of Texas, Austin USA
40 University of Texas SW Med Center USA
41 Penn State University, University Park
42 University of California, Davis USA
43 Vanderbilt University USA
44 University of California, Irvine USA
45 University of Paris 06 France
46 University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh USA
47 University of Southern California USA
48 Rutgers University, New Brunswick USA
49 University of Manchester UK
50 Karolinska Institute, Stockholm Sweden
51 University of Munich Germany
52 Technical University of Munich Germany
53 University of Florida USA
54 University of Edinburgh UK
55 Australian National University Australia
56 Carnegie Mellon University USA
57 University of Copenhagen Denmark
58 University of Zurich Switzerland
59 Hebrew University, Jerusalem Israel
60 Osaka University Japan
61 McGill University Canada
62 University of Bristol UK
63 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
64 Uppsala University Sweden
65 Ohio State University, Columbus USA
66 University of Paris 11 France
67 University of Sheffield UK
68 University of Heidelberg Germany
69 University of Oslo Norway
70 Case Western Reserve University USA
71 Moscow State University Russia
72 University of Leiden Netherlands
73 Purdue University, West Lafayette USA
74 University of Helsinki Finland
75 University of Rochester USA
76 University of Melbourne Australia
77 Tohoku University Japan
78 University of Nottingham UK
79 University of Arizona USA
80 Michigan State University USA
81 King's College London UK
82 Boston University USA
83 University of Basel Switzerland
84 Stockholm University Sweden
85 Brown University USA
86 University of Goettingen Germany
87 Rice University USA
88 Texas A&M Univ. College Station USA
89 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
90 University of Birmingham UK
91 University of Utah USA
92 University of Freiburg Germany
93 McMaster University Canada
94 Nagoya University Japan
95 University of Iowa USA
96 University of Strasbourg 1 France
97 Ecole Normale Super Paris France
98 Indiana University, Bloomington USA
99 Arizona State University, Tempe USA
100 University of Rome La Sapienza Italy
<
This URL doesn't mean diddly.
http://www.edconrad.com/wellread.html
<
See, I warned you but you just wouldn't listen.