[extropy-chat] The NSA's disclosures on UFOs

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Russell Wallace wrote:
> 
> As for the little green men... they don't want us to know about them, so 
> they refrain from making contact... then they do silly aerobatics 
> displays within radar range of military bases... with their exterior 
> lights on... if that's extraterrestrial intelligence, I'm not sure I 
> want to know what extraterrestrial stupidity looks like :P

This is excellently put and went straight into my quotes file.

I do have one comment, which is a general writing tip:

It is a famous rule of writing that the strongest word, phrase, or 
thought comes at the *end* of the sentence, paragraph, or essay.

Here, the punchline is "extraterrestrial stupidity" so it should go at 
the end.

I would like to be able to put into my quotes file:

"As for the little green men... they don't want us to know about them, 
so they refrain from making contact... then they do silly aerobatics 
displays within radar range of military bases... with their exterior 
lights on.  If that's extraterrestrial intelligence, I'm not sure I want 
to see extraterrestrial stupidity."

It seems like a minor quibble, but this is a powerful argument 
powerfully put, and it may be useful to quote someday.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence