We’ve been down the road of the aliens who test other aliens for worthiness, we’ve had some laughs with it (Space lizard!), we don’t really need to be reminded how noble everybody is. Plus, the constant return to the archetype isn’t good for world-building. The universe can’t be this full up of these guys, can it? Take the monolith in 2001. It’s a striking, powerful image–a stark reminder of how little we know about everything, how barely we’ve cracked the possibilities that life and the cosmos have to offer, how rich with potential we, as a species, still are. Now, imagine that every planet we went to had a monolith. Sometimes more than one, many of them in different colors, or different shapes, and some of them told knock knock jokes. How quickly would the magic die?
via Star Trek: "Wink Of An Eye"/"The Empath" · The A.V. Club.
Post was last modified on 14 Jan 2014 1:09 pm
When I was working in radio news in the late 1980s, I took a lunch…
We’re drawn to activities that invite us to grow, by trying and trying again, because…
I had a great time playing Hastings in this audio adaptation of a classic Agatha…
On the White House website, there is no official record of about 80% of President…
This is what we have to look forward to, as a torrent of AI-generated slop…