NdGT appears not to considered the possibility that aliens from outer space, being more advanced (which is implied, given the scenario in which they are observing us while we can't yet observe them), have become vastly superior at policing their own borders, perhaps even to the point of requiring passports to enter into conversation or other congress with other members of their species. And who says that's not a bad idea?
Also, the TH song you mention is unquestionably one of their, or indeed anyone's, greatest.
Also also, what's up with the Eurotrash quotation marks?
I wrote upon the lintels of my door-post, "whimsy".
Also also also, does one not need a ticket to visit the Hayden Planetarium (otherwise known as «Hayden Panettiere»)?
I think this is the traditional alien from philosophy (Venusian?) who brings no preconceptions of any kind when examining Earthling customs. Which doesn't bear much rational scrutiny, but is at least a set device.
I deem it unbecoming of Tyson jt to derogate the inventions of the mind.
Yes.
I wonder if Tyson ever read the David Brin short story with tech-comparable aliens who have abolished war with a set of fairly simple institutions, the only specified one being international travel/migration as a universal right, but haven't made the link between air pollution and disease.
Thesis: Physical scientists are disproportionately likely to be contemptuous of the existence of purely "artificial" institutions, while engineers are disproportionately likely to be contemptuous of inefficient operation of those institutions.
I wonder what that "jt" is a holdover of.
I don't think NDGT is representative of any significant category of scientist, beyond "Scientists whose every pronouncement is seen as a pearl of wisdom by their tens of thousands of fans".
Is there an "I fucking love ignorance" Facebook page?
Let me remind you that the motto of my personal blog is "nescire aude"! I thought it up myself, but it also occurs in a book called Problematik: Nichtwissen und Wissensverlangen im philosophischen Bewusstsein:
Gegenüber den nach allen Richtungen hin vor dem Einbruch des Ungedeuteten sichernden Systemen derer, die alles (oder doch genug) zu wissen glauben, erhebt sich in ihm zum ersten Mal eine Geistesrichtung, die nicht etwa nur ein solches System durch ein anderes ersetzen will, sondern weit antipodischer grundsätzlich den Mut zum Nichtwissen--nescire aude!--aufbringt und lieber die Bedrohung einer ungedeuteten Welt erträgt, als sich vorschnell bei einer doch nur scheinbaren Deutung beruhigt. In der Vorsokratik königlich kündende Gewißheit; bei Sokrates kindlich fragende Ungewißheit.
Maybe I should start such an FB group.
I think traditionally the alien anthropologist is a Martian, but also I doubt that's what he was going for, because … I think he's a peen.
Finally we agree on something true and important.
I like the idea that there are plenty of intelligent aliens out there who would love to visit us except Earth doesn't have any consular offices on their planets to issue visas and they're really serious about rules.
Further to 8, if a scientist has any sort of success as a popularizer it's almost inevitable that he turns into a would-be prophet, sharing his wisdom with the world. Since he spends all day thinking. Pinker, Dawkins, Jared Diamond, etc.
This also happens with philosophers, of course, but much of their role in middlebrow culture has been taken over by scientists. I can't think of any except Daniel Dennett.
it's almost inevitable that he turns into a would-be prophet
KILLER ROBOTS
I'm thinking that the solution to Fermi's Paradox is that there a species with a giant laser that they fire at any planet they receive radio waves from. The aliens know about our borders and our warlike ways. That's why they're going to kill us.
15 is gold. 26,000+ wingnuts clicked "like" in favor of abolishing the IRS. Sounds like a great plan.
Oddly, the desultory MLK Day thing they put up only got 3,770 likes. It picked up some fine comments, tho....
Over 45,000 are "Sick of Obama's Failed Liberal Agenda", but when it comes down to the specifics, only a bit over 15,000 agreed that "We must stop the Obama Administration's plan for government control over the Internet." Apparently hating on Net Neutrality just doesn't rile folks up like hating on ObamaCare, Amnesty, and whatever Bengazi is supposed to be about.
Maybe the point is just to make a bunch of thirteen-year-olds go "Wow" and feel superior?
Better him than Ayn Rand.
Kim Cattral was on an episode of Colombo. I'm sure I've seen this episode before, but I don't know if that ever registered.
On topic because Columbo is at home with inventions of the mind.
14. Dennett is perhaps the exception that proves the rule, because he's chiefly known to hois pollois (dative) for trying to argue about evolutionary theory.
Philosophers were a big deal in middlebrow culture in France relatively recently; anybody know if they still are?
I don't read anything much into NdGT's tweets here. You want to do something that ought to be fairly straightforward - you are impeded by sluggish bureaucracy - you sound off about it. In the greater scheme of things, pretty meaningless.
"My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and go anywhere I damn well please!" - Ernest Bevin, as UK Foreign Secretary, 1951.
That's "tois pollois", chris, unless there's some implied subordinate clause I'm missing.
No, you're quite right. Wasn't awake yet.
Area black man says only biological categories matter.
It's a good thing for NdGT that he just wants to visit. Try getting a work visa. Unbelievable the amount of paperwork involved.
34 Yes, still here. It's taking forever but things seem to be picking up. I just got my NYPD certificate of good conduct back from the US State Dept which is the last of my paperwork I needed authenticated by them. This week to the embassy/consulate in question to get their official seal of approval everything and then I can apply for the work visa.
The US State Dept says 5 business days to process documents but what they don't tell you is that everything you send them has to be screened at a special facility before they get it which adds another 5 or so business days.
I'm giving up my apartment in Queens at the end of them month and moving into my folks' place out on LI while they're in FL. I'm thinking this will happen sometime early April now.
I think I missed how the negotiations resolved - the last I remember you were feeling low-balled. What ended up happening?
feeling low-balled
I've been waiting the whole thread for a "ball" to combine with "peen". We're almost there! I hope someone can do something entertaining with that.
36 I took the offer although they didn't budge on anything of substance. I figure I'll do my best to impress the hell out of them then renegotiate next year - and they'll know I'll be looking elsewhere. I got good advice here and elsewhere, much of it about just accepting that my initial offer would be so low and to just accept it for now and seek to renegotiate at a later date. Without that to buck me up I might have done something foolish and fucked the whole thing up.
The fruit, like my job offer, it hangs low.
38: the meaning if "peen" as a verb is essentially "to work-harden"
Now there are IRBs and if you check the box that says, "Protocol requires denying participants known, effective, and safe treatment for the study condition," you have to submit so much fucking paperwork it isn't even funny.
28: I thought Bernard Henri-Levi was still around, still appearing on gameshows like "I'm An Intellectual, Get Me Out Of Here!", that sort of thing.
science, like all human endeavors, is terrible. More to the point, deifying or fetishizing "science" is not a particularly moral or scientific position.
For this argument to be consistent, it should include a line by line takedown of Imagine, in synch with the music.
I fucking love not having to lift heavy things for a living.
There's science and then there's Science! I'm sure Tyson sees himself as popularizing the former, but an awful lot of his big fans seem to be more into the latter.
More to the point, deifying or fetishizing "science" is not a particularly moral or scientific position.
Not that I'm super into "I fucking love science," but I certainly prefer it to "I fucking love jesus."
50 should have been by OPINIONATED SAUL.
Or I guess PAUL, after he had been blinded.
This thread is why intellectuals make terrible leaders, and should be kept in cages for the good of humanity. Of course the hype around Tyson and Science! is annoying and repetitive. But we're a benighted species, so it's either this or nothing. It's annoying memes or barbarism, for us.
The characteristic vice of intellectuals is to judge ideas less on their truth or their usefulness, and more on whether they are interesting. Science enthusiasm has gotten boring (and I'm as bored of it as anyone), so we want to ascribe some greater failing to the people who do it than just that they fail to amuse us. But that's all it is: they fail to amuse us.
Anyone ever read Year Zero? This reminds me of it. We don't need to fear aliens that don't understand human laws and society. We need to fear aliens that do.