Tuesday, November 3, 2015

"Ordinances And E.T.?"

After reading Denver Ordinance Article and Denver Ordinance 300, did you think of any Science Fiction short story or class connections? If you can incorporate quotations, reflect, challenge, or discern with keen insight, please do so in your blog response due today.

26 comments:

  1. This is interesting how it made it's way through the Denver board and how they let that happen because I feel like some of them would take it like a joke. Because if there were any doubters I feel the strongest opinion would be from the board. So overall I am surprised that it made it passed the board even though it seems kind of like a joke.

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  2. Although the article brings up a valid point, I think that it is better to use public funding for things such as feeding the hungry, building homes and shelters for the homeless, or taking care of abandoned animals. We should use these funds for more important, near future things rather than planning for something that may never happen or happen in the far future. If or when extraterrestrial beings visit our planet, we should welcome them kindly with the supplies and funding we already have.

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  3. I think that this is somewhat laughable that people feel a need to set this up when we have n proof of extra terrestrial life. But it gets me thinking how we are scared of the possibility of aliens of landing on our planet.

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  4. I thought of the short stories Puppet Show and Random Sample. In Puppet show the town that made contact with the "aliens" had a very calm and peaceful conversation with them. In Random Sample the little girl and her brother were beating on the aliens, telling them things that were false, and over all not making a good first impression. I honestly think it is too soon to be worrying about how to greet aliens. We have explored more of our solar system than our own oceans. I feel as though the ocean should be explored more because we have no clue what is down there. This program isn't truly necessary yet.

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  5. This reminded me of Puppet Show. The earth had sort of an ambassador team that went out to meet Garvane. In this ordinance the city of Denver would send out ambassadors to greet any extraterrestrial being. I feel like this could either be a good first example of our hospitality or it could get us all killed.

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  6. After reading the Denver Ordinance article, I thought it was a connection to the short story about the little girl who greeted the aliens on Earth. I thought of how if there had been a committee, things might have gone differently. However, these hypothetical aliens may want to talk to real everyday people, like in Muse. So I'm not sure that it would be effective in the first place. I also wondered if other cities had this committee planned or if Denver was chosen for a specific reason. Additionally, would the committee be chosen through election? I find the idea really out there, considering that most other ballots are real issues we know exist.

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  7. I didn't have any class connections, however I liked how it was involuntary and you didn't have to put money into it if you didn't want to. if you want to prep for the future you can, and if you don't believe in that kind of stuff it's not required, either way nobody is hurt and everybody just goes on with their everyday lives.

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  8. I don't believe creating a UFO ordinance using the people's tax money is very smart. It is not entirely necessary to go searching for aliens when we have plenty of problems on our own planet we should be solving with the money rather than potentially create more issues with extraterrestrials. It could also be a large waste of time and money as we could find something, but i could have little significance. In the "Puppet Show" story we read, the alien turned out to have no significance after everybody made a huge deal about it.

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  9. I think this is a fairly foolish commission because there is no need for it. The people in "Puppet Show" were just fine without a commission specifically designed to research alien life on Earth or anywhere in the universe in general. Those were just normal people as well, and handled the situation professionally and safely. Also, because there is no legitimate proof available to the public, such a commission is far fetched.

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  10. After reading the Denver Ordinance and Denver Ordinance 300, I related the articles to EPICAC. Both in EPICAC and The articles, humans greet and learn to see extraterrestrial life as humans. People are voting to Be able to greet Aliens, as if they were humans. In EPICAC, the narrator learns to love the computer as a human, and the Computer exhibits human behavior. I dont think that we should be this excited to be able to interact with alien life, because for all we know, they could not be friendly. As in the article, The vote ended up being 81% no to 19% yes. This shows that most humans are not yet ready to treat beings like this as people and give them human qualities. The articles of the ballads, certainly pose some important questions regarding xenophobia and Human qualities in other beings or things.

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  11. After read the article and looking at the pool they reminded me of the story Puppet Show. In this story an alien came down from another planet to invite the humans into an intergalactic Union. The humans in this story seemed to be further advanced in society then we are now. They were more accepting of the alien than we were. And they seemed to know more about space and other planets then we do now. I think that the poll and the things said in the article illustrate that humans are not ready to make a recurring contact with aliens and that the aliens will let us know if they want to be contacted not the other way around. In Puppet Show, they were a more advanced society that was ready for aliens, but as of right now the aliens and us are not ready to make contact.

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  12. Overall I think it’s kind of funny that this made it to the point it did before it fell apart. The articles made me think about how people may actually be afraid of this, and that’s why they chose one side or the other because it was a donation-based idea.

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  13. As humans we believe in many things. To get this law on the ballot there had to actually be a large number of people who signed to have it in the running. This isn't actually what is most important at that time. We don't know of any other intelligent life at the moment. This connects somewhat to the xenophobia unit where we are scared a little by what we see and want to be prepared.

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  14. The Denver Ordinance 300 relates to some of the stories that we have read so far. The story that we have read that is most alike to it is Puppet Show. In the Puppet Show, an "extraterrestrial" comes down to Earth and says he has to give us a message. This relates exactly to the article. What would we do if an alien came to Earth and gave us a message? Who would we send out to meet him? Would we send John Elway to greet them like Jeff Peckman says in the article? This makes me think about of if we are actually ready to encounter alien life.

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  15. This makes me think of the X-Files episode that we watched in class about the "Great Mutato" and how agents Mulder and Scully were disbelievers of the monster that was around at the time.It wasn't until Mulder and Scully were drawn to a noise in the basement that made the agents and the townsfolk uncover the truth that was in front of them.

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  16. Denver Ordinance 300 reminded me of the short story we read in class titled The Puppet Show. Denver Ordinance 300 is basically preparation for a scenario similar to that represented in The Puppet Show, should it happen in Denver/Colorado. When Garvane met with the people of Cherrybell, Arizona, he didn't want to speak to the leader of a country but I always felt that the military approaching him first was not ideal. Yet a committee that met with extraterrestrials would not be necessary until it were a recurring thing and they had experience and expertise in the area. As humans haven't yet uncovered the ins-and-outs of our own solar system. We have yet to say for certain if Mars hold life of any kind. If we don't know our own solar system, how would we be able to know how to approach UFOs? Therefore, wouldn't money be wasted on an organization that is premature and a dilettante at connecting with extraterrestrials?

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  18. After reading the article "Bolingbrook officials celebrate defeat of Denver Ordinance 300" by Reporter X I felt that t Ordinance 300 was incredibly ridiculous. Not only was the Ordinance funded by a entrepreneur who has absolutely no background in science but he wants to spend tax payer money on a a welcome mat for aliens. This was an incredibly irresponsible idea and it is good it was voted down.

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  19. Honestly, reading these articles did not make me think of and Science Fiction stories or make any connections. In nearly all of the stories we have read in class and what I have seen outside of class, whenever extraterrestrials make contact with Earth and humans, some sort of government official is the first to actually negotiate with them, not a committee like Ordinance 300 was suggesting. However, the responses to the ordinance were very annoying to me because Claar and Peckman in the Bolingbrook article both treated the issue as though there were no such thing as aliens, and that extraterrestrials are simply an idea of fiction. That is incredibly idiotic of them to think, because the universe is much, much larger than what humans can perceive, and thinking Earth is the only planet that can sustain life is pretty arrogant. My thoughts in the end are this: Ordinance 300 was a really bad idea because there is no physical reason to believe that we have been visited by aliens as of yet, and also that people need to be more accepting of the idea that extraterrestrials are out there in space.

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  20. While reading the article on “The Denver Ordinance 300”, I thought it related closely to the short story “Puppet Show”. In this story, the townspeople give a warm welcome to terrestrial strangers. The Denver Ordinance 300 wanted to build a commission to welcome extraterrestrials and keep the people of Denver safe. I don’t think we would even be ready for the coming of aliens because we are xenophobic of our own people. We don’t know everything about our own planet and most of us think the idea of aliens or other beings is silly.

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  21. its interesting that something like this would even make it to the people, for two reasons. For one, we haven't even proven the existence of them yet. Whats the point of installing something that will greet nothing. secondly, why would you let the public know about this? You might say they have the right to know, but should they know. every time something new has happened in our history, we always go against it till finally we learn that change is goo, then we start the process over again. we might accidentally start a war with another race. we dont know enough about anything yet to be dabbling in this kind of science.

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  22. After reading the “Denver Ordinance Article” about the state of Colorado putting an issue on the 2010 ballot which was wanting to create a commission for alien visitations in Denver really made me think about science fiction and some discussions we have had in class. A point that is stated about why it is bad for a committee to be funded by public money is closely related to the concept of xenophobia where the thought of an alien race being above the powers of something a human can achieve. The point made was by Don X Caulfield, “Until the human race fully embraces science and discards irrationalism, they want their presence here to be a secret…” This is a very understandable idea where we question ourselves and don’t always listen to scientific facts, which would cause humans to struggle even more with something not common. This is a very interesting article, and I feel it will come up again in other parts of the World because science is factual evidence that has been proven true for thousands of years and will continue for hundreds of thousands of years.

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  23. The whole "Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles" sounds like complete science fiction. Sure extraterrestrials might exist, but to our society they are just another aspect of science fiction. However, I don't think we would be kind to aliens like they were in "Puppet Show," but more like how Leo's dad treat Icky in "Muse." Although, it would have been interesting if this ordinance had been passed because of the fact that it was to gather evidence of said extraterrestrials.

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  24. Although it was hard to find connections to our stories that we have read this year, I managed to find one. While reading the article on “The Denver Ordinance 300”, I thought it related closely to the short story “Puppet Show”. In the "Puppet Show" the people strangely give extra terrestrials a warm welcome when they arrive. Even though the law didn't pass it is impressive the amount of people it took for the law to get there. Which shows that some people of Denver are like the ones in the "Puppet Show."

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  25. After read the article and looking at the pool they reminded me of the story Puppet Show. In this short story an alien came down to Earth and tried to get earth into the intergalactic union. The people in this story seemed to be more accustomed to seeing UFO and visitors because they did not seem phased by the appearance of the alien. They seemed to have more knowledge of space and galaxies than we do now. In the pool, it mainly explains how people in this society now are not really ready to make contact with alien life multiple times. In Puppet Show, they were a more advanced society that was ready for aliens, but as of right now the aliens and us are not ready to make contact.

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  26. After looking at the websites they reminded me a lot of the story we read, "The Puppet show" because they both involve aliens and seeing UFOs . The articles really interested me because i love learning and talking about the extra-terrestrial. In Puppet show the town that made contact with the "aliens" had a very calm and peaceful conversation with them.

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