Damn Your Anti Robot Bias, Lewis!

[krinndnz]

But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be Human and isn't yet, or used to be Human once and isn't now, or ought to be Human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.

- - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
My emphasis. Gee thanks, Clive. I was just having a quick reread of the Narnia cycle (

Comments

[silveradept]

Mmm. I hear you on the rereading of old classics once you're old enough to understand what the author was really getting at.

They were having trouble getting their heads around the concept that people with dark skin weren't automatically inferior people in need of salvation and "civilization". Transhumanism would be several steps further along the way, and so would be inconceivable.

As for those hatchet-raisers, there will be allies, too, against the Lewis alignment.

[krinndnz]

Yeah, I've started to get a little wary of rereading things. Still haven't written about the startling experience of finding a Maurice Sendak story in which a tiger consumes a petulant youth.

And - the people of the past varied as much as the people of today, I'm pretty sure, but the record-keeping and the lineage of documentation was different. It amuses me to think that of some particularly far-flung bits of human history, that because of the lack of context, we might be building lots of our perceptions on the period equivalent of timecube.

[silveradept]

Ooh, sounds fun. Taking on the tradition of Elijah's bear-calling, sort of.

You're right on our perception of the past - for all we know, they did it the opposite of what we think they did. Reminds me of the image of the person wearing the toilet seat as a chieftain's necklace.

[krinndnz]

Oh, I remember that! I can't remember the book, though. David Maculauy, I'm pretty sure.

Also, very related, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" is still one of the best things ever.

[silveradept]

It is, indeed. Gives you a bit of a perspective on your own life.