OM deity, you STILL expect people to take individual responsibility for their actions?!! Why were I come from in the 3120’s, no one is responsible for anything; If a kid pilfers candy from a store, it’s because that mean man stuck his tougue out at the kid, scaring the kid for life. Mass murders only murder because they came from an abusive home, and therefore we cannot punish them, because it is not their fault that they are murderes.
Also think things like school (prison for small people) would be something they find barbaric, particularly grading. “Don’t you realize how damaging to a kid’s Phykee it is to compair him/her to other students, especially if that kid cannot make the grade? We mustn’t grade children, because we don’t want them to think of themselves as little failures”. Ditto same argument except for phys ed “Games where the goal is to physically contact the less adept players, and remove them from the game?” (<<Dodge ball)
Arthur C. Clarke used a twist on this idea in The Deep Range
[SPOILER]The final portion of the novel suggested that sea-farming operations (and land-farming ones) would eventually be supplanted by synthetic food production.
Clarke also used another twist on the idea in the short story “Food of the Gods”. A synthetic-food company executive starts by explaining to a squeamish Congressional committe the distasteful fact that food production is based on templates reflecting the old barbaric practice of killing animals for meat. The story ends as the testifier leads into the accusation he is launching about a competitor’s template by spelling an archaic word: ‘C-A-N-N-I…’."[/SPOILER]
I’d HOPE that it would be religion. But I’m thinking that will be waaayyyy in the future, since religion is like herpes in that it is impossible to get rid of, you just have to learn to live with it in such a way that it doesn’t interefere with your life.
So maybe, I dunno, SUVs? Sheer, blatant, in-your-face gloating wastefulness is pretty barbaric…
Priceguy, here are the 9:
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Methionine (and/or cysteine)
Phenylalanine (and/or tyrosine)
Threonine
Tryptophan
Valine
Some say 8, some say 9… you can get your sulfur from methionine or cysteine, and the phenylalanine and the tyrosine are somewhat interchangeable, but these are pretty much the ones we can’t directly synthesize.
ZombiesAteMyBrain, huh? I’m not sure if I’m being whooshed or not. Either way, I’m confused.
I’m sticking with my Atkins diet, and throwing in the H2 hummer along with root canals (since I just had my first one ever this morning) for good measure.
While it is true that I cannot provide a cite (other than a purely anecdotal one of course) that they eat sandwiches on other planets, I’m a little confused as to why you’re asking for one. Isn’t the time traveler from our world?
Do they really? It seems to me that although our technology is advancing, the last century was one of extreme barbaric violence and despotism. Stalin, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Kosovo, both World Wars, Saddam…
And we still have child labour and slavery worldwide. cite and cite
Some people are forgetting that the whole point of this thread is to look at modern society from an alien point of view in order to discern remarkable features.
I am not recommending the abolition of the American automobile culture. I’m just pointing out the barbarity of it.
Again, I didn’t say anything was broken. I just implied it was insane, from the perspective of a time traveller from the far future…
He would be amazed hwo most Americans never consider the sanity level of their double standards for risk. And a substantial fraction of them even think that the risk of death by motor vehicle is a necessary, unavoidable part of life.
Yet at the same time, Americans conduct vehement, well-funded campaigns against risks that are much, much less both in magnitude and severity, and against some that aren’t even scientifically established. And they go to great lengths to eliminate marginal risks to the point where children can’t even touch each other on some playgrounds…
Yet they continue blissfully trading momentum with each other on the highways. And they keep buying bigger and bigger vehicles to do it with!
When you’re from the future, that’s easily at least a little barbaric, and more than a little insane!
From the perspective of our hypothetical outsider, Americans don’t “need to drive.” They want to drive, and make lifestyle, political, and civic decisions that reinforce their perceived “need.”
And even hint that you might want to even suggest challenging that “need” and some people get defensive and belligerent.
Why wouldn’t the time-traveller be from another planet? It wasn’t specified in the OP that he’s from earth. I wouldn’t be surprised if another planet, somewhere in the universe, didn’t have a more reliable method of time travel than Capn. Kirk had on Startrek.
Ahhh… I see. Then I change my opinion to how much we waste. So much of what we have is made to be disposed for the simple reason of convenience. Ball point pens, little plastic things that bear a company logo but really have no use at all. If you’ve ever been on a college campus at move-out, you’d be shocked at the things they throw out. Refrigerators, computers, TVs, desks, etc. It’s really incredible.
