this week, scientists announced the discovery of a planet, about 20 light years away, that seems similar to earth in the respect that it might be able to support life. Or, for all we know, may already support life.
I thought about those those signals we send out to "see who's out there" that contain little snipits of our culture, language and so forth. And it was suggested to me that perhaps the signals that are picked up might not be the ones we purposefully send, but one of the many radio waves that are just floating in the cosmos in all directions.
What might be the impressions another world might have of us if they saw ______________ 1st?
What if it was porn? What if it was gay porn?
what if they got the daily show 1st and thought it was a real news broadcast?
what if they surmized that the Miss America pagaent was how we chose our leaders?
would they feel snubbed if the 1st thing they saw was the "miss universe" pagaent?
what if it was a bjork video and that's what they thought our music all sounded like?
what if it was gwar?
worse yet, what if it was celine dion?
what if the 1st thing they saw was the rodney king video?
what if the 1st things they see are reality shows like "joe millionaire" and "joe blo" and the other "fake" reality shows. would their impression be that we make it a practice to fool people? will that give them license to prank us by living amongst us unwittingly?
what if it's star trek and they think way too much of us...and our intergalactic allies?
what if it's south park and they think we are all foul mouthed, 2 dimensional kids, one of which that can ressurect himself on a weekly basis.?
what if it's teletubbies and they not only think we look like that as a people, but that's our news.?
what if it's war of the worlds or independence day and it only "emboldens the enemy?"
what if it's ET and they see how our authorities discriminate against aliens?
what if it's a bush speech on "comprehensive immigration reform" and they take it as an invitation to come and live here?
what if it's star wars and they start devising a strategy to use against "the force?" meanwhile scratching their heads wondering why they never heard of this darth vader guy.
the possibilities are endless....