4 ms·
This post reminds me of Samuel Butler's novel, Erewhon. "Assume for the sake of argument that conscious beings have existed for some twenty million years: see
by shever73 4y ago
This post reminds me of Samuel Butler's novel, Erewhon.
"Assume for the sake of argument that conscious beings have existed for some twenty million years: see what strides machines have made in the last thousand! May not the world last twenty million years longer? If so, what will they not in the end become? Is it not safer to nip the mischief in the bud and to forbid them further progress?"
- eloff 4y agoThat reminds me of the epilogue to HG Wells Time Traveler: “ He, I know—for the question had been discussed among us long before the Time Machine was made—thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end. If that is so, it remains for us to live as though it were not so.” That passage has haunted me since. I often wonder if that is the answer to the Fermi paradox. Civilization might be but a brief spark in the long night, separated from others by both time and distance insurmountable.
- erulabs 4y agoYou’re not wrong but… “I refute it thus” kicks big pile of old books “it remains for us to live as though it were not so” is a wonderful line.