Hubris

Why is it that humans seem to think they are the pinnacle of intelligence in the universe? I don't understand this. What makes them think there aren't greater intelligences out there? What makes them think they would even comprehend that intelligence if they were confronted by it? Yes, I'm absolutely serious about this. I think that dolphins and whales are probably at least as intelligent as we are. Can we communicate with them? Not really. They can understand us a bit but we "train" them but I think it's more likely that they are just humoring us. If we were suddenly confronted by a non-human intelligent being, how would we react? Frankly, if I were an alien (and I'm not ruling that possibility out) and I'd been monitoring earth's media broadcasts, I'd want nothing to do with us. Our media reflects hysteria, racism, willful destruction of our planet and a crass materialistic society is portrayed on prime time television. Seriously, an enlightened society wouldn't want to talk to us. We are too primitive. We kill our own over pieces of paper that is only valuable in our own minds and our society makes sure we can't live without it. It's like a heroin addiction. We have a sick society. It makes me think about the Fermi Paradox. The points of the paradox are: The Sun is a typical star, and there are billions of stars in the galaxy that are billions of years older. With high probability, some of these stars will have Earth-like planets, and if the earth is typical, some might develop intelligent life. Some of these civilizations might develop interstellar travel, a step the Earth is investigating now. Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned interstellar travel, the Milky Way galaxy could be completely traversed in about a million years. Now, there are some explanations of why we don't seem to have been contacted. These are: No other civilizations have arisen It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy others Life is periodically destroyed by naturally occurring events Inflation hypothesis and the youngness argument Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in spacetime It is too expensive to spread physically throughout the galaxy Human beings have not existed long enough Humans are not listening properly Civilizations broadcast detectable radio signals only for a brief period of time They tend to isolate themselves They are too alien They are non-technological Everyone is listening, no one is transmitting Earth is deliberately not contacted (zoo hypothesis) Earth is purposely isolated (planetarium hypothesis) It is dangerous to communicate The Fermi paradox itself is what prevents communication They are here undetected They are here unacknowledged So, there's some food for thought. Personally I'm of the opinion that we are quite simply to primitive for an advanced society to care that we even exist as sentient beings. If you dispute this, watch prime time television for about a week.

Mental Illness

Yes, mental illness. A heavy subject. I suffer from depression as well as PTSD and OCD. My brother suffers from depression, PTSD, OCD and I'm pretty sure narcissistic personality disorder. He might also be borderline personality disorder or possibly schizophrenic. I'm not sure. I do know that when he gets depressed that nobody loves him, nobody cares, nobody knows what it's like, blah blah blah. This might seem a bit harsh but when he gets on the pitty potty it's all about him. Nobody and nothing else matters. Not his wife, not his sister, not his parents, nobody. He becomes emotionally and verbally abusive to people around him. Back in the day, I used to get these phone calls in the middle of the night, He'd be drunk or overdosed on some of his meds and need me to come get him wherever he was and take him to the hospital. Or sometimes the hospital would call and tell me they had him in the ER unresponsive. That went on for a good ten years. Then he straightened his shit up, finished college, got his masters degree, married a wonderful woman (his 5th) and we all thought he finally had his shit together. And then he took a desk job in Boston. Boy did that screw him up. He's not one of those people who can do a desk job. We knew it was a mistake but he didn't ask us. Basically shit flew apart in Boston and he and his wife ended up in Colorado. I don't know if he's been drinking again or not but he's started his shit again with the "oh poor me" business. It usually escalates around the holidays. Basically he's putting his wife through hell. It pisses me off. He's ignored mom and dad, he's ignored me, like we've all done something to him. Doesn't seem to have any sense of family obligation. And now he's tearing his wife apart. I'd punch him right in the face. Or kiss him upside the cranium with a baseball bat. (Yes, that was a vague Primus lyrics reference.) It's not fair and not right. He gets his own head so far up his own ass that his brain doesn't get enough air to function. Ok, rant over.

J.D. Salinger There are still a few men who by greatwallsoffire

J.D. Salinger There are still a few men who by greatwallsoffire



Is it true?  Or is it a fantasy?