Random Thoughts

Yes, i do have some

# - Names - 18/09/02:
Isn't it pointless giving everyone the same 5 or 10 names over and over?  Your name is meant to identify you, mark you out from everyone else, yet every time I hear Charlotte, Matthew, Ben, Chris, I inevitably have to ask "which one?".  Clearly the solution is to give children individual names: the difficulty being in managing this without being too cruel! [see the names of most rock stars' children for examples... Moon Unit Zappa leaps to mind...]

My current favourites are Xanthea [because i like Xanthe and Thea so this is two for the price of one!] and Theo - not unique, but not over-used either!  There was another one too, but i've forgotten it... which rather undermines my argument...

# - Aliens - 18/09/02:
Exactly how stupid are we, looking for extra-terrestrial life?? In his it-gets-better-as-you-get-nearer-the-end book "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Chimpanzee", Jared Diamond points out that if aliens find us they're hardly likely to just drop in for tea and scones:

    'The astronomers tacitly assume that we and the little green monsters would welcome each other and settle down to fascinating conversations.  Here again, our own experience on Earth offers useful guidance.  We have already discovered two species that are very intelligent but technically less advanced than us - the common chimpanzee and pygmy chimpanzee.  Has our response been to sit down and try to communicate with them?  Of course not.  Instead we shoot them, stuff them, dissect them, cut off their hands for trophies, put them on exhibit in cages, inject them with AIDS virus as a medical experiment, and destroy or take over their habitat.  That response was predictable, because human explorers who discovered technically less advanced humans also regularly responded by shooting them, decimating their populations with new diseases, and destroying them or taking over their habitat.
    'Any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same way.  Think again of those astronomers who beamed radio signals into space... describing Earth's location and its inhabitants.  In its suicidal folly that act rivalled the folly of the last Inca emperor, Atahuallpa, who described to his gold-crazy Spanish captors the wealth of his capital and provided them with guides for the journey.  If there really are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us, then for heaven's sake let's turn off our own transmitters and try to escape detection, or we are doomed.'