Oliver

Many thanks for the link - wonderful stuff. That head! Ouch, good thing that the mutation was brought on well after the 'evolved' man was born.

As for the ark - if people are going to believe that a god magicked everything in the universe, then they're going to believe that the entire planet was covered in water, all animals fitted on a single boat, 2 of each gender did not cause massive inbreeding, there was enough food for all, the predators didn't immediately, after setting paw on mud covered earth, eat all prey animals. Noah's family did not become inbred either. And an entire olive tree managed to survive flooding. And even though there is no mention of marsupials of any description we just have to assume they were on the ark as well. And there must've been massive fish tanks for all the fresh-water critters. Maybe the ark was like the Tardis.

No, I don't see any of the above as a separate issue to the topic rather it underscores the lack of credibility of those who take their bibles literally.

Hey Oliver, I have to say David McCallum has definitely looked better, -at least to my unevolved eye.

Grim and Severin,

It begs the question: Was llya Kuryakin an intermediary or was Duckie spontaniously created with no genetic link to the former? I guess runner would say that IIlya didn't exist, despite the film record. :-)

Creatures of Earth, we mean you no harm. This is a message of encouragement. We observe your progress in understanding the meaning of your current level of consciousness. We see the embryonic forms of what you describe as intelligence and commend the progress you have made in the short period of 3 million of your planets’ cycles.

As the predominant cognitive life form in this region of our galaxy, we wish to advise that our 200 million cycle, silicon based life forms are not directly challenging your perceptions, merely we seek to assist you by pointing to the progress needed to overcome the difficulties you encounter, as your species makes the first rudimentary steps towards the possible development of intelligence.

Creativity, Imagination and Art have long been regarded as “early markers” of cognitive thinking. We note with interest that you have now assisted Apes, Elephants and most recently seals, to participate in painting. You will note of course, that these species have not yet developed the propensity for a) making money from this or b) cheating or c) assigning meaning. This will develop naturally as it has in your species.

Science and Medicine are progressing well however, we note that each of these has not yet been separated from the inhibitors imposed by other domains such as your social, political, religious and ecological domains. This is a direct consequence of your diverse interpretations of intelligence. In a few thousand cycles we suspect you will be able to define intelligence, even long before you achieve it.

Your species continues to create “meanings” for the purpose and function of “a creator” which is interesting. Your species has gone from a handful of “religions” to 34,000 in just 2,000 years.

Mathematically we expect you to complete this intermediate phase by 2065 cycles. By which time there will be 12.4 billion of your species and precisely 12.4 billion religions. Unfortunately, you have failed to demonstrate so far; just how all these “religions” improve your definition of “intelligence” or how intelligence quotient might be increased.

Imagination (early marker) is no substitute for intelligence.

Oliver

I am sure your question is very witty, just not sure who Ilya Kuryakin is/was. I presume that David McCullum played this character in the past, although post Steve in the Outer Limits? Although the evolution from egg-head to Ukrainian(?) to British eccentric sounds fine by me.

@ Spindoc

For intelligence to flourish one needs both imagination and reason. Imagination being the medium and reason the seed.

Hey Oliver, I'm thinkin' Duckie would prefer to be remembered as looking more like the fifth Beatle than ol' mate Steve. Severin's point about the head is well taken; thinkin' Steve's mum (or the mum of his putative peers) wouldn't have looked much better than runner in a bikini... Probably why aliens with big heads invariably wear floor length gowns.
Spindoc, some good points, although I question the figure of 34,000. Thinkin' we might be closer to 6 billion now. Our 3 resident Christians don't seem to agree on much.