Re: Splitting the genres


"David Johnston" <rgorman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43d94735.17882108@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
....
> <shrug> It doesn't matter. Although in fact if black monoliths
> descended from the sky and some people around them started
> transforming into superpowered fetuses cults _would_ form around them.
> People who think we are too smart for that are just fooling
> themselves. But the aphorism doesn't say that we have to respond to
> the incomprehensible that way.

The statement is actually an anti-magic statement. It says that if something
happens that is inexplicable - like black monoliths descending from the
sky - we cannot distinguish whether it happens due to natural or
supernatural causes. A rationalist like Clarke would assume that it happens
because of sufficiently advances tech. (Which is one of the themes of 2001).
He couldn't demonstrate that, because he would have no means of analysing
the technology, in the same way that Aztecs couldn't (initially) analyse
firearms.

I'm sure everybody but one knows this, and he's not listening anyway.

J/


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