the "aliens whose fully worked ethical system is nonetheless identical to an Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten poster are aghast at the behavior of humans" trope was fully played out by 1967, your Space Jesus take is more careworn than Aesop at this point
-
-
Replying to @chaosprime
I'd like to see aliens that are shocked we don't do enough murder.
1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp
you've read this one right https://rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterWatts_Ambassador.pdf …
2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @chaosprime
I have and it's shit because it dosn't actually establish it's bold claims, it just shouts them until the audience shuts up. Watts does this a lot. And also it has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp @chaosprime
My idea is more of the usual "Friendly elder race makes humanity into a client state" except their cultural imperialism makes us less "Civilized" by the metrics of 20th century earth, because they aren't bothered by the same things we are.
1 reply 1 retweet 1 like -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp @chaosprime
As for my problem with Ambassador. The alien at the end has no reason to believe the location of earth the Narrator gives it is anything other than a trap, and the Narrator has no reason to believe the alien will spare him. It trips on it's own Nihilism.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp @chaosprime
What I want to see is no Nihilistic cosmic horror, but rather more exotic forms of hope.
1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp @chaosprime
Even aliens who valued the same things we did, could make terrifying overlords if they calculated risk differently. "We've decided your city has an ideal murder rate, any resources spent reducing it would be better spent elsewhere, we'd show you the math, but yo'd go insane."
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @PomoPsiOp @chaosprime
This example makes them sound like Utilitarians, but I'm thinking more general than that. Aliens who look at human behavior, and decide that it's "Normal" and that under a threshold, stopping violence isn't worth the cost to individual freedom.
1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
consider: past a threshold, promoting individual freedom isn't worth the cost to violence
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.