Looks like Clark Kent’s costume change went horribly wrong. Never trust a strange phone booth.
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A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.
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Yeah, that movie seemed pretty wise, in a smart ass kind of way. But then 9/11 happened, white people got a taste of what black people have been dealing with all along, and this quote started to take on a new meaning…
Well, first I was gonna pop this guy hanging from the street light, and I realized, y’know, he’s just working out. I mean, how would I feel if somebody come runnin’ in the gym and bust me in my ass while I’m on the treadmill? Then I saw this snarling beast guy, and I noticed he had a tissue in his hand, and I’m realizing, y’know, he’s not snarling, he’s sneezing. Y’know, ain’t no real threat there. Then I saw little Tiffany. I’m thinking, y’know, eight-year-old white girl, middle of the ghetto, bunch of monsters, this time of night with quantum physics books? She about to start some shit, Zed. She’s about eight years old, those books are WAY too advanced for her. If you ask me, I’d say she’s up to something. And to be honest, I’d appreciate it if you eased up off my back about it
He’s all very open minded about strange looking intelligence, but Tiffany is “either with us, or she’s against us!”
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I think we’re alone now.
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Damn you, now that’s stuck in my head.
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I believe it is part of the dire influence of certain Christian lines of thought, such as that man is essentially different from the other animals - an idea that would be laughable to a Jain or a Buddhist. I think this idea has held back the development of psychology and the recognition of animal language.
Not all Christians, of course: C S Lewis was remarkably free of the idea.
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As is frequently the case, in your desire to put me down, you haven’t actually answered the point I was making.
You are writing about what I would call “strong, anthropocentric consciousness” - to be conscious something has to tell a human being in language the human can understand, how it is feeling.
I specifically limited “consciousness” to a much more limited construct - I didn’t require the ability for inter-species communication, in fact I tried to define in simple terms a minimum level of self awareness.
Following your line of argument, the moment we are unable to explain how we feel to a hyper-intelligent being, we are not conscious.
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The fucking Shai-Hulud of Earworms.
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The educated didn’t think the world was flat 500 years ago.
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I know that. I bet Agent K knew that. But it screws with the cadence of the quote if you try to get that just right.
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… tie together memory, perception and other key parts of consciousness, and use it to decide what to do - which is the same function that human’s brains do.
While not untrue, I feel like there is a little bit of over simplification going on.
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… together memory, perception, oversimplication and other key parts of consciousness, and use it to decide what to do - which is the same function that human’s brains do.
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Ad nauseam
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….among…the key parts of consciousness are…memory, perception, oversimplification…and a fanatical devotion to the Pope nitpicking.
[not by you I add hastily]
[edit edit - oversimplification is the result of the power of generalisation, which is usually a sign of intelligence.]
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Bell curve hump votes for Trump. You read it here first.
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All generalizations are bad.
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Evidently PNAS have adopted the click-bait paradigm of publishing off-the-wall speculations, and sending journalists the abstract and a list of suggested headlines, knowing that none of them will pay the access charge to read the article itself and check whether it makes any sense at all.
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It’s just a joke.
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Paper wasps predated my 2009 home acquisition. They have yet to bite or sting me and I deeply regret spraying some of the nests before moving in. Once I got the garden going, I saw what amazing pest hunters they are, hovering under every tomato leaf in search of eggs and baby hornworms. One time I saw a small hornworm and reached for it. A paper wasp buzzed my ear - this is a conscious warning. Bees don’t actually “buzz” all day, only to express something. They exhibit the same behavior if one gets too close to a nest. As I instinctively recoiled, it flew across the length of my arm and grabbed the worm.
A few weeks ago, a paper wasp established a new nest on top of our front doorway dead center. There are now three or four wasps. No stings or bites. We’ve taken it as a blessing. We have a mezuzah and a mebuzzah.
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