Last Wednesday I was in my usual evening unknowncountry.com chat, and we were discussing the museums and libraries of alien civilizations and the sorts of wonders they might contain.
While I think it would be a lot of fun to spend an evening in such a place, especially if the librarian/guide was knowledgeble and interested in being helpful, it seemed to me that an advanced alien civilization would not have such things as museums or libraries.
My point of contention is this: The difference between a primative civilization and an advanced civilization could very well be in whether or not they believe matter really exists.
A civilization who believes matter is real would also believe that matter is solid (the chair your sitting on is real), matter exists under a set of rules which must be followed (Laws of Physics), and that the collection of material things is a worthwhile goal (Material Wealth). This primative civilization would believe that it's important to collect trophies of past experiences, which when one looks at museums and libraries honestly this is what they are, a collection of a civilization's trophies.
On the other hand, a civilization who nolonger believes matter is real would see only consciousness as actually existing. What we call 'existence' would be nothing more that a playground for life to play in. The laws of physics would be whatever these beings wanted them to be at the time. They would have direct access to all knowledge in the multiverse. They would not 'die' because even the bodies they are wearing, assuming they chose to wear bodies, would only be figments of their imagination. This species would be (for lack of a better term) a species of gods. The people themselves would become the relics and documents normally found in a museum or library.
The only reason for an advanced civiliation to have museums and libraries is if someone thought they would be fun to have.
I guess another point I'm trying to make here is that we as human beings of the planet Earth tend to make the mistake of thinking we are somehow 'normal' as far as civilizations go. We use ourselves as the point of reference upon which all other civilizations are judged. (Which Judgement is the topic for another blog post) We assume that our views are 'Universal' and as such can be applied to other civilizations. We assume that because we are adversarial and polarized then everyone else must be too. Because we are greedy materialists who use technology as the yardstick for measureing a civiliation's advancement then that must be how all civilizations measure advancement. Then again, we also assume that the idea of 'advancement' means the same to everyone else that it does to us or that they even have such a concept.
In our science fiction we always treat humanity as if it's the middle of the road with all the other beings being some left or right extreme of who we are. If you look at the show Star Trek for example, you have the Klingons who are the war-mongers, the Romulans are the fascists, the Vulcans are the peaceful scientists, the Borg are the Hive-Minded egoless race who's merged with their technology, the Beta-zed are psychics (and one of the only feminine races on the show). Then you have the humans, who are just normal.
Quite the contrary, we appear to be one of the extremes. In my personal opinion, the reality of our standing in relation to what is normal is that we would be a combination of the Klingons and Romulans. We as a society seem to be warmongering fascists. While I know many people will take acception to this description of our species, I ask that you take some time to watch us as a people (yourself included) with loving detachment. Take your ego out of it and watch with open eyes the way we treat each other.
The motto of our society seems to be "Free will is important, but only as long as you think the way I want you to think. And if you disagree with me, I'm going to go to war with you and kick your ass until you think the way I tell you." There is no peace or freedom for anyone in that mindset, but apparently it's the mindset most rampant in our culture.
To wrap things up here, what this blog post is getting at is that an advanced civilization seems to have two traits, neither of which we have. The first trait is that they see matter as a figment of the imagination, to be played with. The second trait would be that they recognize others have completely different points of view from their own and that these differing views are equally valid. Being 'Advanced' is a matter of one's world view, not technology.
What do you think?
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