[extropy-chat] "How To Prepare For Alien Invasion"

[Lee Corbin]

Damien writes

> http://tinyurl.com/2932l7>http://tinyurl.com/2932l7

Thanks for saving my time via browser access and yet
opening yet another browser window  :-)     When you
do go out of your way to cut & paste the whole article,
you save dozens of people a little a little time and a little
trouble.  If we all did, we'd *all* save time by having
to follow fewer links.

> Wed 25 Apr 2007
> How To Prepare For Alien Invasion
> By Scott Hillis
> 
> SAN FRANCISCO, April 25 (Reuters) - When the aliens finally
> invade Earth, you may wish you had listened to Travis Taylor and
> Bob Boan.
> ...
> Taylor acknowledged alien invasion is hardly a mainstream
> concern but said it is naive to assume - as scientists like the
> late Carl Sagan did - that any beings advanced enough to master
> star travel will have evolved beyond war.
> 
> "It's a wonderful idea that has no basis in reality", Taylor
> said.

Of course.  Totally indicitive of mid-20th century pre-EP thinking.

> Fermi's Blunder?
> ...
> Taylor and Boan plugged in what they felt were conservative
> estimates, such as that aliens cannot travel faster than 10
> percent of the speed of light.

Even so, I wonder if they're totally innocent of Tipler's arguments
and von Neumann probes. It sounds like it.

> ...
> But if there are so many aliens out there, why haven't we heard
> from them already?
> 
> Mujahideen-Style Resistance
> 
> Taylor and Boan started thinking about how to respond to an
> aggressive extraterrestrial attack during a 2001 discussion
> about defending against terrorist attacks.

And now we add an apparently complete innocence concerning 
nanotechnology and the nature of tech-Singularities.

Hard to believe that they're serious.

> Failure to prepare may mean mankind will have to dig in and
> fight with improvised weapons and hit-and-run tactics, much the
> same way Islamic extremists have battled the U.S. military in
> Iraq, Taylor said.

What a laugh.

Lee

> "You'd have to create an insurgency, a mujahideen-type
> resistance", Taylor said. "The insurgents know how to win this
> war against us. It also tells us that if we were attacked by
> aliens, this is our best defense."