Would We Recognize Extraterrestrial Technology If We Saw It?
It depends on what kind of technology it’d be.
Fire is technology. A hammer is a piece of technology. Plenty of examples of alien technology would be easy to recognize as such, even if we wouldn’t have the idea about its purpose. Especially now, when so many SF stories, movies and video games had provided us with great many deal of examples of weird, alien stuff.
You may try to download this archive and check it for the thread. With some luck, it’s there…
What little I remember is that it happened on /x/ (obviously) and either the thread or the guy in talking was named “Vault Dweller”. It was taking place so long ago that the name didn’t result with immediate “hue, hue, hue, BASEMENT DWELLER, morelike” responses. The story wasn’t very complicated, but the guy sounded tired, very tired, like someone on the edge of collapse, or resigned. He claimed that he feels some presence there, in the structure he always lands in when he falls asleep, but he didn’t encounter nothing, just empty spaces.
A thread on the 4chn (back in the days when it was still ruled by non-jaded M00t).
There was this guy, who described a place he visited in his dreams every night. It resembled a cross between “House of Leaves” and some prison and the dreamer didn’t know what he had to do, but felt that something is required of him. He was part exhausted by the experience, part scared. What struck me was that the guy sounded genuine, and convincing. His testimony was unlike all those abominable greentext edgy bullshit.
The story is now lost to the time, since there’s no archive of threads from such ancient past.
I sometimes wonder to this day what did happen to the guy, whether he found the solution to this cruel puzzle, or succumbed to it, thus losing his sanity and possibly life…
Maybe you see things differently, but perhaps there is something more interesting and constructive you could say than: “You both failed at life.”
I certainly see things differently. I see a person who wastes time in the Internet instead of trying to fix what absolutely should be fixed - it’s not that we have all the time in the world to make things right. Look at the part you quoted - “before she passes”. The guy realizes that the mother may die, but still, talking crap on the Internet seems to him like the better choice to spend the precious time left on.
For me, selecting Internet upvotes, virtual handshakes and high fives by random, anonymous nobodes, over family is certainly within the definition of “failed at life”, and I’d sooner bite my own tongue off rather than approach such a person with “interesting and constructive” words.
But I’m also aware of the fact that everyone has enough time to present their story in the Internet with all the nuances included. Nobody in the Internet is obliged to be a telepath - the correct framing of the story is its author’s responsibility. If they choose to be scornful towards their own family with “they didn’t accept my pronouns” as the only argument, then they deserve as much scorn too.
I agree, and if it was explained in detail that the family is in the wrong here, I’d probably agree on the separation being the reasonable choice.
But it wasn’t. It was presented in a childish, scornful “in yaaaaah faaaace” way, supported by exaggerated generalization along the lines of “all x who y should go f* themselves”. This is wrong. This is wrong on so many levels, that it’s actually painful to see how one could fall so low and act like it’s ok.
I don’t know what your relationship looks like with your parents, hopefully it’s lovely, but once you’re an adult the power dynamic needs to change dramatically. (…)
I recall Stalin’s Iron Wall. And am a father myself.
Family, friends are special people in our lives and so they get special treatment. They aren’t just any people you can throw away, sever ties with and block. If the relationship between you evolved into ping-pong of requests and demands, it’s unhealthy relationship and you need to put the effort and at least try to make it work. It works both way - the same is expected of them.
You may fail at that, they may fail at that, you all mail fail, unfortunately, but this is in no way the reason to feel good about it, no “victory”, no “yay!” achievement.
To see people announcing in public that they got rid of their closest family because they “didn’t respect my pronouns”, said in a scornful tone… No. This is wrong. It’s a clear indication of a flawed life.
You may think otherwise, you may disagree - I have no problem with that, feel free to go about your way, while clicking “block user”. But don’t argue with me that I am wrong about my thinking, because there are no arguments that will change my opinion on this topic.
Man, MS WORD features block diagrams, full of shapes that might be connected to one another with adjustable lines and it will be far superior tool to either of these abominations…
There are also countless tools that might help you, that are either dedicated to this task, or simply useful enough to get the job done.
I believe that part of the problem - at least in my case - is that typical person immediately sees 3-4 possible generic answers to such questions.
For me… It’s like opening Pandora Box and have the brain flooded with not just answers but long chains of interactions, where none leads to anything positive. A “simple” question is like like an abyss that’s gonna suck you down and exhaust you while you’re trying to escape it so much, that you feel like lying down and trying to remember that air is meant to be inhaled again after it’s exhaled…
There was this scene in the original Terminator movie, where the robot sees the spinning list of possible answers to “cat question”. For me, this list doesn’t stop. Even when the conversation is already finished, the list continues to spin.
Zuckerexus-6, apologizer/celebrity replicant model.