Re:Has E.T. Made A Call? (Possible Contact from Intelligent ...
by daniel-cussen on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @11:04PM
(#99624)
Wars are "expensive" in that they cost lots of money, but when america wages war the money that is spent in such great amounts is spent on American troops and government contractors, who in turn take the money they earned and spend it on other goods, so it does not "destroy" the money. In fact, war is generally an economy booster.
Dude, broken window fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window"
Re:Has E.T. Made A Call? (Possible Contact from Intelligent ...
by curi on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:54PM
(#99513)
There are laws of physics, which govern how knowledge is created, and how it is not. Superstitious methods of thinking cannot create a higly advanced civilization.
Knowledge is created by a process of replication (with errors), and selection. In human-level terms, truth seeking requires being open to new ideas, including criticism, and replacing faulty ideas. Attitudes like, "some things should remain mysteries and aren't for us to know," "I can believe whatever I want as long as it makes me happy," or whatever it is behind superstitions, prevent knowledge creation. If those attitudes are too prevalent, and applied to too many subjects, you can't develop space flight, and other advanced knowledge.
Likewise, a warlike race of aliens is not hard to imagine. Wars are "expensive" in that they cost lots of money, but when america wages war the money that is spent in such great amounts is spent on American troops and government contractors, who in turn take the money they earned and spend it on other goods, so it does not "destroy" the money. In fact, war is generally an economy booster. As far as the destruction of resources, assume this hypothetical alien race is warlike toward OTHER species, not internally. The things they are destroying, then, are not on their homeworld, but on the worlds of those they conquer, and every world they conquer is another batch of resources for them to sap before moving on.
I just think you can't really predict the way another race would develop based on a random sample of 1 (humans).