Re: virus: Rationality in the Cave

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Wed, 17 Mar 1999 14:07:36 -0700

At 11:30 AM 3/17/99 -0800, KMO wrote:

>If by extraterrestial spacecraft you mean a vehicle built by intelligent
>beings who share no history or kinship with humans in another solar
>system which those aliens then piloted from their star system to ours in
>a way that makes sense to us (i.e. the ET (movie) scenario) then I think
>the chances are pretty slim. If it were a "guess how many jelly beans
>are in the jar and win a prize" kind of contest, then my guess would be
>zero.

Mine too. But you must admit that it is not physically impossible for it to be true that we are being visited by ETs so you too must be willing to wrong some small fraction of the time.

>If by "all in the mind" you mean to say that the experience is something
>that is known, familiar, mundane and devoid of serious implication, then
>no, I couldn't sign on, even tentatively, to the idea that experiences
>of being "outside the cave" are "all in the mind."

No, I would not ascribe any of those properties to "all in the mind". If I say I meant "subjective" that would be opening up a big can'o'worms, yes? Let me try this: I meant "all in the mind" in the same sense that dreams are all in the mind. (I'm assuming we have a common understanding on the realities of dreams ;-). 

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/