Interesting video analyzing Star Trek's "prime directive" - what's good and bad about it, and the errors of its application:
_http://wimp.com/primedirective/
For those unaware of what the prime directive is:
Basically it amounts to respecting the sovereignty and free will of other civilizations. I thought the video did a nice analysis and criticism, in essence stating that the prime directive is not helpful without context, without the law of 3. There is good, bad, and the context that decides which is which. The video also gives examples of dogmatic applications of this directive in star trek, black and white thinking, and other logical fallacies.
This all ties in nicely with the whole new age idea of being saved by aliens from natural disasters or some human-caused calamity. I'd imagine cosmic STO dudes would do whatever they feel is the action that is of most service to all involved, and they know better than we do what is of service. The 64,000 question is would they save humanity from destruction? Or at least that's what many people consider the 64,000 question, but ultimately is life truly so precious and important to save? Clearly they don't interfere with wars and major natural disasters that kill millions since that happens all the time. They don't interfere with genocide, massive government brainwashing campaigns, and crazy toxicity the majority of the planet is exposed to on a daily basis. And ignoring all that, our human life span is at best 100 years or so - in other words it's brief and death is guaranteed shortly after birth, so to speak.
There were something like 40 billion total humans on the planet who ever lived (as far as mainstream historical knowledge is concerned, but close enough for all intents and purposes) - most of whom are dead now, and none of whom lived past 125 or so. So if they let all those untold billions die (a couple billion of whom died as kids!), why would they save the relatively small number of people that are alive today (let's say 7 billion)? Are "we" more special/important than the other 40 billion that came and went and nobody stopped them from dying in infinite amount of ways there is to die around here? Or do aliens only save people when too many of them die all at once? Why is 40 billion people dying over a period of a few thousand years ok, but 7 billion dying within a much shorter time period not ok? Seems pretty arbitrary from where I sit - more like something subjective humans came up with than any real "rule". Preserving the human race you say? Fine, they will save like 8 humans and use those to repopulate the earth when the dust settles. That's probably all the DNA sample they need, and don't count on you being one of those 8. So they still don't need to save the vast majority to ensure survival of the human race. Or better yet, they already have the human DNA blueprint in a computer somewhere, so they don't even need to save those 8, just let everybody die and then use the blueprint to engineer a few specimens and there you go, human race all over again, no problem.
Every generation, hell, every human, thinks they're special and important and better than all those other humans, especially the 40 billion dead ones. Their world is long gone, but the world of today is suddenly vital, and will be saved if something were to go wrong, just because I'm alive in this world, not in the old world of the dead. It's the same mentality that occurs for smaller-scale disasters (not global). If we nuked Iraq and killed 1.5 million people in a day, the world would be outraged. If we invade and kill those same people over a course of 5 years, then it's not as big a deal, no moral outrage. Weapons of mass destruction are "shocking" and "disastrous" and "deadly", but single bullets (with depleted uranium!) that do far more damage over a couple of years rather than seconds are perfectly acceptable.
You guys know how when someone is having a really bad time in their life, one common piece of advice on this forum is that if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. In other words, your life is a reflection of who you are, and if you don't change what you do, you'll just keep getting the same crap till you start doing something differently. Well, just as nobody saved the other 40 billion of us, nobody will save the 7 billion of us who are alive today, and if we repeat the same mistakes we'll get the same crap. I'm preaching to the choir here, but maybe not - even I struggle with that realization sometimes, cuz wishful thinking creeps up on you, that whole false sense of security is hard to completely shake. So even if we know this already, we don't really viscerally "know" it - it can easily become just a disconnected piece of intellectual understanding with no power, and that's bad, so we really ought to keep consciously shoving it back in the forefront, not file it away.
Luckily we don't need to be saved - that's not the 64,000 challenge because ultimately it's not human life that is most precious, it's how it is lived. Human life is so ridiculously short that clearly staying alive at all costs isn't what the universe intended otherwise we'd live for billions of years rather than a few decades. So we must be here for something other than just fruitlessly trying to stave off our inevitable death as long as possible, winning at best a few years before we croak anyway. Our alien friends know this too, which is why they don't desperately try to save people from death left and right. Our value is in what we do while we're here, what we learn, and if we do nothing and learn nothing, at least we're fertilizer.
The guys who put "live free or die" on New Hampshire license plates were massive hypocrites, but they still had a point. So to summarize: Don't let a false sense of security lull you into being passive and thinking that someone else will take care of things, that things just "work out" and you'll be "alright" simpy because you're you. All those other people can suffer and die and have major problems but the universe will protect you because you're special. You and the other 40 billion special dead people, eh? Oh and the other point is that we have nothing to lose! What do we have to lose by trying to figure this whole damn thing out and getting the info out there to everyone willing to listen? There are worse things to lose than our precious lives, and while nobody should do anything stupid and lose their life when it's simply uncalled for, that's still the "worst" the PTB could ever do to anyone - kill them. They're pathetic! Really, despite the brief physical discomfort at the moment of death, it actually isn't as bad as it seems, cuz it's not the person who dies that really suffers - it's everybody else who could've used their help and companionship who are still alive, that's who suffer. I bet the dead person doesn't regret dying and wallowing in self pity because of how precious his life was, but he probably regrets doing something stupid and losing their life and no longer being around to contribute to something larger than themselves here on Earth.
Nobody is alive for the sake of being alive (hence our short lifespans), but if you're living just for the sake of living, then you're probably the person who is most concerned with the question of whether aliens will save you/us when it gets really rough. And I'd then recommend a long hard look at your priorities :)
And yeah I'm being a massive hypocrite right now too because who am I to talk? I consistently fail at walking the walk, but for better or for worse, I am taking the advice of "if you don't change anything, you'll keep getting the same crap forever" to heart and have recently made massive changes in my life - that I will discuss in the swamp as soon as I take care of a few more things since there's too much flux right now and the dust hasn't yet settled. But the idea that we're addicted to our own suffering, that we actually LOVE our suffering, and are afraid of success (which means sacrificing the suffering we love), is both crazy, and totally true, and is hitting very close to home right now, but that's a good thing, I wish more things would hit me over the head like that, I need it.
_http://wimp.com/primedirective/
For those unaware of what the prime directive is:
wikipedia said:
Basically it amounts to respecting the sovereignty and free will of other civilizations. I thought the video did a nice analysis and criticism, in essence stating that the prime directive is not helpful without context, without the law of 3. There is good, bad, and the context that decides which is which. The video also gives examples of dogmatic applications of this directive in star trek, black and white thinking, and other logical fallacies.
This all ties in nicely with the whole new age idea of being saved by aliens from natural disasters or some human-caused calamity. I'd imagine cosmic STO dudes would do whatever they feel is the action that is of most service to all involved, and they know better than we do what is of service. The 64,000 question is would they save humanity from destruction? Or at least that's what many people consider the 64,000 question, but ultimately is life truly so precious and important to save? Clearly they don't interfere with wars and major natural disasters that kill millions since that happens all the time. They don't interfere with genocide, massive government brainwashing campaigns, and crazy toxicity the majority of the planet is exposed to on a daily basis. And ignoring all that, our human life span is at best 100 years or so - in other words it's brief and death is guaranteed shortly after birth, so to speak.
There were something like 40 billion total humans on the planet who ever lived (as far as mainstream historical knowledge is concerned, but close enough for all intents and purposes) - most of whom are dead now, and none of whom lived past 125 or so. So if they let all those untold billions die (a couple billion of whom died as kids!), why would they save the relatively small number of people that are alive today (let's say 7 billion)? Are "we" more special/important than the other 40 billion that came and went and nobody stopped them from dying in infinite amount of ways there is to die around here? Or do aliens only save people when too many of them die all at once? Why is 40 billion people dying over a period of a few thousand years ok, but 7 billion dying within a much shorter time period not ok? Seems pretty arbitrary from where I sit - more like something subjective humans came up with than any real "rule". Preserving the human race you say? Fine, they will save like 8 humans and use those to repopulate the earth when the dust settles. That's probably all the DNA sample they need, and don't count on you being one of those 8. So they still don't need to save the vast majority to ensure survival of the human race. Or better yet, they already have the human DNA blueprint in a computer somewhere, so they don't even need to save those 8, just let everybody die and then use the blueprint to engineer a few specimens and there you go, human race all over again, no problem.
Every generation, hell, every human, thinks they're special and important and better than all those other humans, especially the 40 billion dead ones. Their world is long gone, but the world of today is suddenly vital, and will be saved if something were to go wrong, just because I'm alive in this world, not in the old world of the dead. It's the same mentality that occurs for smaller-scale disasters (not global). If we nuked Iraq and killed 1.5 million people in a day, the world would be outraged. If we invade and kill those same people over a course of 5 years, then it's not as big a deal, no moral outrage. Weapons of mass destruction are "shocking" and "disastrous" and "deadly", but single bullets (with depleted uranium!) that do far more damage over a couple of years rather than seconds are perfectly acceptable.
You guys know how when someone is having a really bad time in their life, one common piece of advice on this forum is that if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. In other words, your life is a reflection of who you are, and if you don't change what you do, you'll just keep getting the same crap till you start doing something differently. Well, just as nobody saved the other 40 billion of us, nobody will save the 7 billion of us who are alive today, and if we repeat the same mistakes we'll get the same crap. I'm preaching to the choir here, but maybe not - even I struggle with that realization sometimes, cuz wishful thinking creeps up on you, that whole false sense of security is hard to completely shake. So even if we know this already, we don't really viscerally "know" it - it can easily become just a disconnected piece of intellectual understanding with no power, and that's bad, so we really ought to keep consciously shoving it back in the forefront, not file it away.
Luckily we don't need to be saved - that's not the 64,000 challenge because ultimately it's not human life that is most precious, it's how it is lived. Human life is so ridiculously short that clearly staying alive at all costs isn't what the universe intended otherwise we'd live for billions of years rather than a few decades. So we must be here for something other than just fruitlessly trying to stave off our inevitable death as long as possible, winning at best a few years before we croak anyway. Our alien friends know this too, which is why they don't desperately try to save people from death left and right. Our value is in what we do while we're here, what we learn, and if we do nothing and learn nothing, at least we're fertilizer.
The guys who put "live free or die" on New Hampshire license plates were massive hypocrites, but they still had a point. So to summarize: Don't let a false sense of security lull you into being passive and thinking that someone else will take care of things, that things just "work out" and you'll be "alright" simpy because you're you. All those other people can suffer and die and have major problems but the universe will protect you because you're special. You and the other 40 billion special dead people, eh? Oh and the other point is that we have nothing to lose! What do we have to lose by trying to figure this whole damn thing out and getting the info out there to everyone willing to listen? There are worse things to lose than our precious lives, and while nobody should do anything stupid and lose their life when it's simply uncalled for, that's still the "worst" the PTB could ever do to anyone - kill them. They're pathetic! Really, despite the brief physical discomfort at the moment of death, it actually isn't as bad as it seems, cuz it's not the person who dies that really suffers - it's everybody else who could've used their help and companionship who are still alive, that's who suffer. I bet the dead person doesn't regret dying and wallowing in self pity because of how precious his life was, but he probably regrets doing something stupid and losing their life and no longer being around to contribute to something larger than themselves here on Earth.
Nobody is alive for the sake of being alive (hence our short lifespans), but if you're living just for the sake of living, then you're probably the person who is most concerned with the question of whether aliens will save you/us when it gets really rough. And I'd then recommend a long hard look at your priorities :)
And yeah I'm being a massive hypocrite right now too because who am I to talk? I consistently fail at walking the walk, but for better or for worse, I am taking the advice of "if you don't change anything, you'll keep getting the same crap forever" to heart and have recently made massive changes in my life - that I will discuss in the swamp as soon as I take care of a few more things since there's too much flux right now and the dust hasn't yet settled. But the idea that we're addicted to our own suffering, that we actually LOVE our suffering, and are afraid of success (which means sacrificing the suffering we love), is both crazy, and totally true, and is hitting very close to home right now, but that's a good thing, I wish more things would hit me over the head like that, I need it.
