Friday, May 30, 2008

Look! Up in the Sky!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/sc_nm/brazil_tribe_dc

Man, would that just ruin your day? You're a primitive tribesperson, getting out of your reed mat in the morning, getting ready for a hard day of foraging. Maybe you're yelling at the kid for leaving their toy stick on the ground. Giving your loincloth a sniff to see if it's got another day in it.

Then there's a giant thing outside the hut, hanging in the air, going whop-it-a, whop-it-a, whop-it-a. What the hell is that thing? That is not a bird. What the? Somebody go get me my spear.

Actually, I'm far less sarky about this than that sounds. I would be really freaked if it was me. I've always said I would make a good Amazon native. I once saw this documentary on them. They have this counting system: 1, 2, many. That's it. I'd be a mathematical genius in the Amazon. 1+1=2. 1+2=many. Many+many=many. That's like A Beautiful Mind stuff in the Amazon. I'd be freaking John Nash. Of course, then it wouldn't be that unusual that I'd be seeing weird stuff in the sky.

I don't know. To me, it's kind of like when people say they want their kids to be kids as long as they can. Enjoy childhood, maturity comes along too fast these days. I kind of feel like they should let these folks, who've been lucky enough to avoid the modern world this long, should just be allowed to be who they are as long as they can. Leave them alone. Our world will creep in on them too soon anyway.

4 comments:

WashingtonGardener said...

On the one hand, yes - leave them ALONE - on the other hand, they are missing OUT amn - never to have tasted Ice Cream, watched Star Wars, seen the ocean, etc. A tough choice - I think Star TRek's prime directive would be invoked here though every time ST brought it up they broke it too!

FirePhrase said...

Yeah, all those good things they miss. But they also miss rush hour traffic, the latest book from Ann Coulter, school shootings and bathing suit shoppping induced trauma.

And speaking of "first contact", do you suppose that the ones who actually saw the photographers are trying to explain this to the other folks in the tribe? "Oh, sure, Taktu, the big flying saucer. And were there little green men in there too?"

WashingtonGardener said...

yeah - choppers are the most UNSUBTLE form of intro to modern man - you think they could've sent over one of those silent white drone planes they are always circling around here - snapping footage for google maps or just looking for secret Mary Jane patches in people's back yards. At least the natives - if they saw the white drone - would just think "hmm, odd bird." But with chopper-blades whirring, that infernal racket, AND visible people inside -- your head might explode!

FirePhrase said...

It would have to be the most WT? moment ever. I mean, like you or me waking up and finding the Enterprise hovering over the bus stop. Very disconcerting.

TIME: Quotes of the Day