"I think blankfist, you're confusing general liberal philosophy (of which libertarianism is a part) with libertarian philosophy."

Now say it in a vulcan voice. And give it to 20 decimal points while the whole room stares at u.

OK, just my opinion, but I still don't think any of you is getting what he is really saying in the end.

Forget about the DNA thing for moment. forget about the one percent.
What he is saying is that such a small amount of difference sets us so very far apart from a chimp.
And in the evolution of worlds, the smallest evolutional change can set us so far apart that we are/could be insects to an "altered" alien life form.

We keep thinking and hoping that intelligent life will reveal itself to us and we will "Oooh and Ahhh" over the significant turning point in mankind's history, (Ooo, the Vulcans have discovered our warp core travel technology and are here to communicate with us.).

But, what if the aliens, being the smallest bit evolved past or in a different direction than us are beyond our level of intelligence to the point that we are interesting to study (like ants in a jar - Ooo, look, they made a bridge) but wouldn't even consider us to be worth the time of day to communicate with or take us seriously. (when was the last time you took the time to verbally train a fly to sit still?)

So, now imagine 10 different worlds somewhere, nine of them (1-9) at the same intelligence level we are and one (#10) who actually had the intelligence to evoke space travel. The #10 aliens would not only be so far more superior than the rest of us, they would completely ignore us as intelligent life and see us as we see mold, water crystals or at best chimps. (chimps with the ability to think at the same level of their dumbest pets.

This would make us one of the nine life forms without the intelligence to move forward. Just dumb-as-a-stick, examples of goo that never made it out of the petri dish. In fact these intelligent life forms may just brush us aside to study something other than us on our planet (like the Whales - another trek reference - sorry)

I don't think DNA structure was his focus here (not even his field of study), but he was trying to shed some light on what could possibly be our relationship with intelligent life.

He dreams of this stuff, he's a dreamer at heart with an urge to follow up on it. So he imagines what intelligent life could be like and he envies the possibilities of what they could be like. It's an insatiable thirst for knowledge. that's how we move forward

- and we may never evolve to a point where we get out of our petri dish. Trying is still part of the fun.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Asinine primate dominance moves. I'm thinking about leaving mammalia altogether - I'm hoping I might get accepted as a reptile. They're the Vulcans of the animal world.

Somehow I dont think a Borg Cube would work to well, they would have to construct a Romulan or Vulcan to give chase to make part 2 of this video.

This man is clearly Vulcan. Those ears and brows are a dead giveaway.

>> ^Farhad2000:

Americans will invent it?
Hahahahah!


Why is that funny?
Some good ones, in chronological order:
Suspension Bridge,Refrigeration,Morse code
Steam Shovel, Vulcanized Rubber, Motorcycle,
Phonograph, Cash Register, Solar Cell,
Photographic Film, Skyscrapers, Radio,
Zipper, Tractor, FINALLY coming to the 20th century...
Air conditioning, Airplane, AC plugs and sockets,
Supermarket, Liquid Fuel Rocket, Frozen Food,
Particle Accelerators, FM, Digital Computer
, Microwave Oven, Transistor,
Mobile Phone, Supersonic Aircraft, Video Games,
Cable TV, CPR, HDD,
Industrial Robots, Videotape, LASER,
Carbon Fiber, Weather Satellites, GPS,
Heart Transplant, Cordless Phones, CDs,
Airbags, Lunar Module, WAN, PCs,
Microprocessors, Floppy Disks, Email,
Digital Cameras, Ethernet, MRI,
BBS, Internet (not WWW), Space Telescope,
DVRs, Composite Aircraft...whew that was fun. Thanks for egging me on, troll, and if you use any of the above, thank an American!

*quality

It is really cool that Nimoy actually brought the whole hand salute to the Vulcan lore.

>> ^NetRunner:
I can sympathize.....

man u sound vulcan. are we too emotional 4 u? hehehehe

I'm not going to mention the massive surges in health insurance stock prices, or the fact that the bill was written by the health insurance companies, i'm just going to nurse my doubts privately and cry myself to sleep.

so nothing to argue about. no?

hah, so far I'm in the first group aswell. And here's to hoping we both stay in that group. What do you ride?

In reply to this comment by demon_ix:
My uncle once told me there are two types of motorcycle owners. Those who had an accident, and those who will have an accident. I belong to the first group. You?

In reply to this comment by Shepppard:
I got my motorcycle license and a Kawasaki Vulcan 500

My uncle once told me there are two types of motorcycle owners. Those who had an accident, and those who will have an accident. I belong to the first group. You?

In reply to this comment by Shepppard:
I got my motorcycle license and a Kawasaki Vulcan 500

...Upon re-reading my post, I appologise. It's a little emotionless. I'd normally make it a lot more jazzed up but with the news that my sister and her boyfriend are breaking up, I feel like I've truly lost a member of my family.

However, Just to add a bit to it to not make it look like I've had a horrible decade, I did a lot of good things too. I got my motorcycle license and a Kawasaki Vulcan 500, my drivers license and my first car, upgraded my computer a bunch of times. Finally, this year, completed a life long ambition of mine and built a computer from the ground up. And, just recently, proved my epic nerd muscle by winning a trivia contest (Winner #7, rumfro) to play the Star Trek Online closed beta starting on monday.

Clear evidence that Russell is a Vulcan.

Black Vulcan can fly

Worked for Vulcans.

To be pedantic:
1) Turning the deserts into fertile lands wouldn't cure hunger in the long term. Famines are caused by changes in the amount of food production. Although this is addressed later, with the idea of perfect meteorological systems.
2) A geologically inactive planet would be a crappy place after million of years. Erosion would wear down all of the mountains. Ecological diversity would disappear. Nutrients would become increasingly scarce. For example, Australia, the oldest, flattest, and least geologically active continent, has some of the worst soils in the world (although it does still have some fertile regions). See http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/PlusSide/fertile_soils.html

And if the geological activity completely stops, meaning the Earth's core stagnates, then our magnetic field goes away, then our atmosphere is scoured by the solar wind and we are bombarded with cosmic rays and Earth become more like Mars.

So really we should be hugely grateful that we're on this geologically active planet.