Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 0/13 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   10 Books To Save Humanity!!
Straggler
Member
Posts: 10333
From: London England
Joined: 09-30-2006


Message 46 of 100 (562497)
05-29-2010 9:43 AM
Reply to: Message 42 by Blue Jay
05-28-2010 10:59 PM


Re: My attempt at a list.
How would we ever rediscover the Theory of Evolution if we're all moving to a planet without a fossil record (without one that's tied to us, anyway), and presumably with total available biodiversity limited to whatever livestock we brought with us?
If we are going to cite the theory of evolution as one of man's main intellectual achievements (which I would BTW) then how would we pass that on? Is there a definitive book or other text based means of passing on this great insight under the scenario under consideration?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 42 by Blue Jay, posted 05-28-2010 10:59 PM Blue Jay has not replied

  
Straggler
Member
Posts: 10333
From: London England
Joined: 09-30-2006


Message 47 of 100 (562499)
05-29-2010 9:55 AM
Reply to: Message 43 by ZenMonkey
05-29-2010 1:50 AM


Much Closer
Thanks for your list. It was certainly a refreshing alternative to the other comments so far made. And more in line with what I had in mind.
I thought that the assumption was that the technical knowledge was all accounted for, and that the question was what 10 books could represent all of humanity's cultural achievments?
Cultural and intellectual was my aim. For example the colonisers will have engineers and pilots who can no doubt do complex calculations. But they won't have cosmologists who are experts in quantum field theory or the more abstract aspects of GR. So if we think that General Relativity (for example) is one of man's intellectual achievements worth preserving then we should include the text that best passes on that knowledge and insight.
This may be were I am confusing things in this thread. I am trying to incorporate all the aspects of human endevour (incl maths, philosophy, science, art etc. etc.) that are not in themselves vital in any practical sense.
Maybe tyhe best way to think of what I am getting at is to ignore those things that are necessry (i.e. assume already catered for) and instead concentrate on what should be included.
This will of course be highly subjective. But that is what I am asking. And your list is a good thought provoking one IMHO.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 43 by ZenMonkey, posted 05-29-2010 1:50 AM ZenMonkey has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 48 by ZenMonkey, posted 05-29-2010 3:44 PM Straggler has replied

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4511 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 48 of 100 (562522)
05-29-2010 3:44 PM
Reply to: Message 47 by Straggler
05-29-2010 9:55 AM


Re: Much Closer
My take, which differs only slightly from Straggler's, I think, is that the starship is going to have as many textbooks and the like as anyone could want, so that your biology texts would have a perfectly good explanation of ToE, and the physics texts would likewise describe GR in full. The point of including a scientific work in this List of Ten would be if the work in itself, and not just the information it contained, is an intellectual achievement of significance. There's a profound difference between studying a geometry textbook and reading Euclid's Elements. You could read a very accurate plot description of Hamlet, but that would be nothing like reading or seeing the play itself.
To my mind, as examples of what human beings have thought and aspired to, these 10 books should not only be reminders to our colonists of their intellectual heritage, but might also be something that they could point out to members of an alien civilization and say with as much pride as they can summon up, "Here's what we can do. This is what it's meant to be a human being."
That said, I now want to revise my list a bit, trying to stick as closely as I can to the standard of intellectual and cultural achievement. I've also tried to focus on books that have been ground-breaking and transformational in some way or another, books that have changed the way we see ourselves and the universe.
On those grounds, one could argue that the Bible has been the most influential book on Western culture of all. I admit to some prejudice in leaving it out; perhaps I don't want to burden the remnants of humanity with the poison of monotheism. But I'll also argue that the Bible itself hasn't necessarily been so influential so much as the belief systems that have grown up around it have left their deep imprint on our culture. It's Christianity, more than the book of Zephaniah itself, that has shaped wars and cathedrals. As worthwhile as some parts of the Bible are as literature or as philosophical thought, there's also a lot of stuff that no-one would miss. I would think it no great loss to say goodbye forever to all the Levitical laws or the tale of the genocide that the Hebrews committed in Canan. My bias might also be showing when I leave out something like The Divine Comedy, but feel compelled to include Nietzsche.
I assert that while books like these aren't as immediately useful as the manual for the FTL drive or medical textbook, that doesn't make them any less necessary. Some of them might require a measure of effort and seriousness to read, though probably not as much as one might think, but nothing here is beyond the abilities of a reasonably intelligent person. (Newton might be the exception, since he apparently had no interest at all in diluting his thoughts with a lot of explanation just to make them accessible to anyone not determined to be brilliant.) I've read all of them at one point or another, and even a modestly endowed mind like mine has been opened up and elevated again and again by the experience.
I'll accept the limitation that you have to be able to find a single volume edition of a book for it to count as just one title and not more. Since I'm limiting myself to books I've actually read, and not merely going by reputation, there are going to be some sad ommissions. So Faust might be a book of incomparable majesty, but I couldn't tell you. Okay, there are some plays of Shakespeare that I haven't attempted, and the Principia is forever out of my league. In terms of intellectual achievement, however, there was no way I could omit it. On the other hand, since I've never been able to conquer James Joyce either, he's lost forever, I'm afraid. I regret that I don't know enough Eastern literature to be able to represent it fairly.
Homer The Illiad
Shakespeare Complete Plays and Sonnets
Newton Principia
Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass
Cervantes Don Quixote
Chaucer The Canterbury Tales
Hamilton, Madison and Jay The Federalist Papers
Neitzsche Beyond Good and Evil
The Tao Te Ching
Kafka The Complete Stories

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
What's the difference between a conspiracy theorist and a new puppy? The puppy eventually grows up and quits whining.
-Steven Dutch

This message is a reply to:
 Message 47 by Straggler, posted 05-29-2010 9:55 AM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 49 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:19 PM ZenMonkey has replied

  
Straggler
Member
Posts: 10333
From: London England
Joined: 09-30-2006


Message 49 of 100 (562628)
05-31-2010 3:19 PM
Reply to: Message 48 by ZenMonkey
05-29-2010 3:44 PM


Re: Much Closer
ZenM writes:
My take, which differs only slightly from Straggler's, I think, is that the starship is going to have as many textbooks and the like as anyone could want....
Let's go with that. My original intent was to try and establish what people considered to be the crowning intellectual achievements of the human race. Things that surpassed those insights necessary for simply surviving (or something like that). But I have obviously failed to convey this.
ZenM writes:
Homer The Illiad
Shakespeare Complete Plays and Sonnets
Newton Principia
Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass
Cervantes Don Quixote
Chaucer The Canterbury Tales
Hamilton, Madison and Jay The Federalist Papers
Neitzsche Beyond Good and Evil
The Tao Te Ching
Kafka The Complete Stories
A worthy list and it def pisses all over my initial pop culture inspired list (where I basically looked at my own bookshelves and mentally threw 10 books into a rucksak).
If we have text books I am not sure how worthy of inclusion Principia is in itself. As inclusion on purely historic grounds it would have to compete with Darwins Origin Of Species and countless ancient greek works by Plato, Euclid and others. I would include something that dicusses the development of philosophy rather than the philosophical works of Nietzsche. Something like Russel's History of Western Philosophy. And I think your suggested inclusion of the Divine Comedy would be more worthy of inclusion than say Alice in Wonderland. Magna Carta instead of The Federalist Papers on the basis of greater historical worth.....just to explicitly show my own deeply cultural bias
More generally there are a number of problems with this thread:
1) It is probably an innately pretentious and silly question that I am asking. The sort of thing that seems like a wothwhile exercise when cycling home after a few beers but which is more likely to result in pretentious waffle in practise.
2) I have obviously failed to satisfactorily communicate what I am after in this thread.
3) Even ignoring the above failings the EvC audience are probably not ideally suited to this question anyway. People here are obviously far more inspired by the practical considerations of travelling to and colonising another planet than they are considering some pseudo-intellectual pretentious nonsense about mankinds intellectual and cultural legacy.
Oh well.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 48 by ZenMonkey, posted 05-29-2010 3:44 PM ZenMonkey has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 54 by ZenMonkey, posted 05-31-2010 11:09 PM Straggler has not replied
 Message 58 by Dr Adequate, posted 06-01-2010 12:27 AM Straggler has replied
 Message 60 by Jumped Up Chimpanzee, posted 06-01-2010 4:51 AM Straggler has replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 285 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 50 of 100 (562630)
05-31-2010 3:38 PM
Reply to: Message 14 by Straggler
05-28-2010 7:16 AM


Re: My Own (Initial) List
Of course. But are you saying we haven't created anything worth saving?
Lots of things. But necessities come before luxuries, and ten books is a small limit.
I think you are missing the point (as much as there is one to this thread). They have engineers, medics, builders, electricians, nutritionists, agriculturalists etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. The colonizers are not neanderthals. They are all practically skilled and educated in their colonizing speciality to modern standards.
Well, if they're allowed to produce a compendium of their knowledge en route, then that would give us a little more latitude.
---
A history of the world would be useful. A good one. (If you open up the average history of the world halfway through, it'll be about something that happened in the Western world in the eighteenth century or later. This is a bad history of the world.)
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 14 by Straggler, posted 05-28-2010 7:16 AM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 51 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:49 PM Dr Adequate has replied

  
Straggler
Member
Posts: 10333
From: London England
Joined: 09-30-2006


Message 51 of 100 (562634)
05-31-2010 3:49 PM
Reply to: Message 50 by Dr Adequate
05-31-2010 3:38 PM


Re: My Own (Initial) List
Well, if they're allowed to produce a compendium of their knowledge en route, then that would give us a little more latitude.
Let's, for the sake of argument, assume that everything that needs to be documented has been documented.
Of course. But are you saying we haven't created anything worth saving?
Lots of things. But necessities come before luxuries, and ten books is a small limit.
Aside from that which is needed for survival and even comfort what else would we want to pass on to future generations of our species if we were limited to ten books? What aspects of non-vital human intellectual achievement are worthy of being saved at the expense of all else?
That is the question I am asking here.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 50 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-31-2010 3:38 PM Dr Adequate has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 52 by Theodoric, posted 05-31-2010 8:34 PM Straggler has replied
 Message 56 by Dr Adequate, posted 06-01-2010 12:04 AM Straggler has replied

  
Theodoric
Member
Posts: 9076
From: Northwest, WI, USA
Joined: 08-15-2005
Member Rating: 3.7


Message 52 of 100 (562678)
05-31-2010 8:34 PM
Reply to: Message 51 by Straggler
05-31-2010 3:49 PM


Re: My Own (Initial) List
I haven't been putting anytime into this because the premise seems so overwhelming. I guess I can think of one that seems oddly appropriate.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Also, I think Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" would have to be on my list.
Well that's two. I will try to put some effort into expanding this list.
Edited by Theodoric, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 51 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:49 PM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 64 by Straggler, posted 06-01-2010 1:17 PM Theodoric has not replied

  
Buzsaw
Inactive Member


Message 53 of 100 (562687)
05-31-2010 9:28 PM


The Perfect Space Trip!
Forget the space ship and just one book will do just fine
.
The Bible, 66 books in one has the whole trip planned and set up for us all. The designer of the entire Universe has the perfect place out there in (abe: the cosmos) . The streets are of transparent gold, the gates of the city are made of pearl. There's even a tree of life to eat of to keep the new arrivals alive for eternity. There's no evil or hostile aliens whatsoever. The weather's absolutely perfecto. There's day all the time and the (abe: fruit on the trees) so nutritious that you never need rest.
There's much more but think of it. You don't even need to worry about a spaceship to get you there. The son of the designer and owner of the place comes with a batch of alien supermen called angels who know space better than any GPS and carrys you safely through all of the stuff we're not designed to endure. You get a built-in-body space outfit that equips you perfectly for space travel and residency.
Now here's the deal, best of all! All you need is to know the son of the owner/designer and he's already paid the price so that as many as want to get their passes can take the Manual which the designer has distributed to all the nations, just as the son said would happen when just a few knew about it. It gives the instructions as to how to get your free passes.
ABE: I forgot to mention that it's not known when the aliens come to pick up the travelers for this space trip, but according to the manual you look for certain things signifying when the time is getting close, so if you wnat to go, don't dilly dally.
Another thing: What place you get out there in this utopia is determined by something like a point system. Once you secure your pass, the more points you get racked up with the son before departure, the better deal you get upon arrival in this limited free offer. Check out the manual for how to rack up points.
Edited by Buzsaw, : As noted.

BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4511 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 54 of 100 (562702)
05-31-2010 11:09 PM
Reply to: Message 49 by Straggler
05-31-2010 3:19 PM


Re: Much Closer
Hi Straggler,
Straggler writes:
If we have text books I am not sure how worthy of inclusion Principia is in itself. As inclusion on purely historic grounds it would have to compete with Darwins Origin Of Species and countless ancient greek works by Plato, Euclid and others.
I felt compelled to include the Principia because not only are Newton's insights well beyond what 99.999% of us even can ever hope to experience, but how he put it together and presented it is a thing of beauty in itself. You can learn classical mechanics and physics from any old decently written textbook, but to see Newton's mind at work is staggering. I can certainly see a strong argument along the sames lines for including Origin of Species, as it too is a great piece of writing and reasoning. I wasn't sure what to do about Einstein's Principles of Relativity either. Some have argued that while ToE and the calculus (and physics, and everything else in the Principia) were both huge achievements, they were insights that were in some sense inevitable. I'm sure that Wallace and Leibniz would agree with that. On the other hand, I've heard it said that had there been no Einstein, SR and GR might still be waiting to be discovered. Debatable, but still indicative of the magnitude of Einstein's achievements. So ultimately, I think that I stuck with Newton and booted Einstein and Darwin mostly on aesthetic grounds.
It also pained me greatly to not include Euclid's Elements, but again, the ideas can still be transmitted in full even without the beauty of the original presentation. My favoring literary rather than scientific works has mostly to do with how irreplaceable and unique great works of literature are. Only Shakespeare could have written Shakespeare.
Straggler writes:
I would include something that dicusses the development of philosophy rather than the philosophical works of Nietzsche. Something like Russel's History of Western Philosophy.
Eh, I'm still resisting the anthology approach. I haven't read Russell, so I can't say whether his thinking is seminal in itself, or whether he's just giving a summary and analysis, however brilliantly. I suspect the latter, and so have to disagree with including a book about philosophy, rather than a book of philosophy. I feel honor-bound to reject Russell for much the same reason as I would the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Saying no to The Complete Works of Plato might be indefensible, considering how essential Plato is to everything that has come after. Personal preference, maybe, as was choosing Nietzsche above all the other thinkers. Maybe it would be better to let Plato and Nietzsche stand as bookends to philosophical thought, as the foundation of a temple and its ultimate destruction by lightning and fire.
That was fucking pretentious, but what the fuck.
Straggler writes:
And I think your suggested inclusion of the Divine Comedy would be more worthy of inclusion than say Alice in Wonderland.
Personal preference again. Alice certainly has that "Where the hell did that come from?" quality that I was after. Plus, I just can't stay interested once Dante gets to Paradise.
Straggler writes:
Magna Carta instead of The Federalist Papers on the basis of greater historical worth.....just to explicitly show my own deeply cultural bias.
Which is perfectly fine. I just don't think that anyone reads the Magna Carta for the beauty and brilliance of its prose. (Also, I haven't read it at all, so I'm in no position to judge.) I'm actually giving The Federalist Papers the boot for the same reason, however significant they might be to American democracy, although now I can't think of anything that would serve as a model of brilliant political thought. Maybe there's a reason why I can't think of any aesthetic masterpieces about government.
So in light of the above pedantic blathering, I'm revising my list again.
Homer The Iliad
Shakespeare Complete Plays and Sonnets
Newton Principia Mathematica
Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass
Cervantes Don Quixote
Einstein Principles of Relativity*
Plato Complete Works
Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
The Tao Te Ching
Kafka The Complete Stories
*The edition that also has papers by Lorentz and Minkowski, which is kinda cheating, but what the fuck. It's also kinda fudging my rules, because I've only read enough of this to know that I am way, way out of my league here. But why let my intellectual failings deny the human race one of its finest moments?
I'm having fun with this, anyway.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
What's the difference between a conspiracy theorist and a new puppy? The puppy eventually grows up and quits whining.
-Steven Dutch

This message is a reply to:
 Message 49 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:19 PM Straggler has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 55 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-31-2010 11:56 PM ZenMonkey has replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 285 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 55 of 100 (562711)
05-31-2010 11:56 PM
Reply to: Message 54 by ZenMonkey
05-31-2010 11:09 PM


Re: Much Closer
I felt compelled to include the Principia because not only are Newton's insights well beyond what 99.999% of us even can ever hope to experience, but how he put it together and presented it is a thing of beauty in itself. You can learn classical mechanics and physics from any old decently written textbook, but to see Newton's mind at work is staggering.
You speak as though you've read it.
I haven't read it, I admit, but I am told that he concealed his use of calculus to reach his results, by re-explaining the results he'd gotten through calculus in terms of Euclidian geometry. If this is true, then we are not seeing "Newton's insights" nor "Newton's mind at work".
I could have been misinformed --- as I say, I haven't read it.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 54 by ZenMonkey, posted 05-31-2010 11:09 PM ZenMonkey has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 57 by ZenMonkey, posted 06-01-2010 12:13 AM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 285 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 56 of 100 (562713)
06-01-2010 12:04 AM
Reply to: Message 51 by Straggler
05-31-2010 3:49 PM


Re: My Own (Initial) List
Let's, for the sake of argument, assume that everything that needs to be documented has been documented.
OK.
What aspects of non-vital human intellectual achievement are worthy of being saved at the expense of all else?
Ah, well, that's a different question.
One thing I would suggest that I don't think has been suggested yet is some book lavishly illustrated with photographs showing our achievements in the fine arts, the decorative arts, and architecture. They can't take the Taj Mahal with them, but they can go with photographs of it.
Also, how about musical scores? Is there any (non-practical) work of man that exceeds the Goldberg Variations? Let's send 'em off with the works of Bach.
---
P.S: Are we assuming that the colonists are going to be using English as a common language? Our answers would be rather different if they were all Chinese.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 51 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:49 PM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 63 by Straggler, posted 06-01-2010 1:07 PM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4511 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 57 of 100 (562714)
06-01-2010 12:13 AM
Reply to: Message 55 by Dr Adequate
05-31-2010 11:56 PM


Re: Much Closer
I've read a bunch out of the Principia - it was actually the text we used in college to learn calculus, as well as classical physics. (My memory is fuzzy about the latter, but I sure remember the former.) I haven't done the whole thing, though, and it's been a while. Like maybe 25 years or so. But the impression lasts.
I am sure that Newton was a totally anti-social, ego-maniacal, thoroughly unpleasant person, so who knows what he was really up to. As far as him hiding his work, I believe - and I'm almost certain I'm wrong, just because I am so often - it might have been more a case that he just didn't want to waste the time explaining the calculus if he didn't have to. Or he was too busy with other things to bother letting anyone know what he'd come up with. He might also have been holding it back for fear that someone might steal it, or for some other sociopathic reason. But in the end, I do believe that it's all in there, none of the good parts left out. I do remember my junior year math instructor saying, "Newton doesn't even give you the minimum that you need to understand what he's doing here!" Like I said, my impression is that if you're not up to understanding him on your own, he's not going to bother holding your hand for you.
What a guy. But great stuff. You'd love it.
Edited by ZenMonkey, : No reason given.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
What's the difference between a conspiracy theorist and a new puppy? The puppy eventually grows up and quits whining.
-Steven Dutch

This message is a reply to:
 Message 55 by Dr Adequate, posted 05-31-2010 11:56 PM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 285 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 58 of 100 (562716)
06-01-2010 12:27 AM
Reply to: Message 49 by Straggler
05-31-2010 3:19 PM


Re: Much Closer
My original intent was to try and establish what people considered to be the crowning intellectual achievements of the human race.
But perhaps that too is not your question, or we would include the Origin of Species, the Principia, Einstein's papers, Archimedes' On The Method, and so forth, as being among the most brilliant of human achievements.
It's not clear what we're trying to do here.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 49 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:19 PM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 59 by ZenMonkey, posted 06-01-2010 12:58 AM Dr Adequate has not replied
 Message 61 by Straggler, posted 06-01-2010 9:41 AM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4511 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 59 of 100 (562718)
06-01-2010 12:58 AM
Reply to: Message 58 by Dr Adequate
06-01-2010 12:27 AM


Re: Much Closer
Dr Adequate writes:
But perhaps that too is not your question, or we would include the Origin of Species, the Principia, Einstein's papers, Archimedes' On The Method, and so forth, as being among the most brilliant of human achievements.
My take was intellectual and cultural achievements. I'm a liberal arts guy, as much as I'm anything at all, so I felt most competent sticking with literature that I'd actually read and that I felt were unique contributions.
I agree with your earlier post that it's hard to know what to do with art and architecture, though they might be outside the scope of the OP. Pictures are pitifully inadequate for either, so they might just be a dead loss, or at least survive just as tours on the holodeck.
Music might be outside the scope of the OP as well. Let's just say that someone has an iPod or the 22nd century version thereof, and so Mozart and the Sex Pistols can both live on.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
What's the difference between a conspiracy theorist and a new puppy? The puppy eventually grows up and quits whining.
-Steven Dutch

This message is a reply to:
 Message 58 by Dr Adequate, posted 06-01-2010 12:27 AM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
Jumped Up Chimpanzee
Member (Idle past 4942 days)
Posts: 572
From: UK
Joined: 10-22-2009


Message 60 of 100 (562734)
06-01-2010 4:51 AM
Reply to: Message 49 by Straggler
05-31-2010 3:19 PM


Thanks for the laughs
More generally there are a number of problems with this thread:
1) It is probably an innately pretentious and silly question that I am asking. The sort of thing that seems like a wothwhile exercise when cycling home after a few beers but which is more likely to result in pretentious waffle in practise.
2) I have obviously failed to satisfactorily communicate what I am after in this thread.
3) Even ignoring the above failings the EvC audience are probably not ideally suited to this question anyway. People here are obviously far more inspired by the practical considerations of travelling to and colonising another planet than they are considering some pseudo-intellectual pretentious nonsense about mankinds intellectual and cultural legacy.
Now that there is finally some kind of serious on-topic discussion I won't scupper your thread any more. But I just wanted to say I haven't stopped grinning all weekend at the idea of Straggler getting more and more frustrated at the refusal/inability of most EVC members to give a straight and simple answer to a straight and simple question.
What topped it for me was the fact that you foresaw the problems that might arise, and tried to nip them in the bud in your OP, but this was totally ignored. It was like writing in large letters across your brow: "NO HEAD SHOTS ALLOWED!"
I think this thread has proved that EVC members are like neither Rimmer nor Lister, but instead like the Cat.
Unherdable.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 49 by Straggler, posted 05-31-2010 3:19 PM Straggler has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 62 by Straggler, posted 06-01-2010 12:46 PM Jumped Up Chimpanzee has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024