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Sudden Realization of Inter-being

ClayTheScribeClayTheScribe Veteran
edited February 2012 in Philosophy
I'm a writer and I had the idea for a plot for a science fiction story in which an advanced alien race decides to save humanity from self-annihilation by causing them to all realize the illusion of separateness and that they are all inter-connected. I wonder, what would that look like on this planet after that "switch" has been turned on? Thich Nhat Hanh said our suffering would be over. I wonder if we would have the capacity to truly grasp it at our stage in evolution or would we turn from it because we are so addicted to our suffering?

Comments

  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    You might be interested in this 16 minute sci-fi short in a similar vein.

    http://video.pbs.org/video/1871378153
  • You may say I'm a dreamer...

  • I recommend stargate tv series
  • conradcookconradcook Veteran
    edited February 2012
    Lem had a short story (in the _Cyberiad_) where aliens try to do exactly this, and it goes horribly wrong.

    Why does it go wrong?

    The strategy is to make people feel one another's suffering, as a means of leveraging people into taking care of each other. But it doesn't work.

    People in one town find a widow who recently lost her husband, and drive her out, throwing stones at her until she leaves the area.

    In another town, there is a man with a toothache who people do forcible oral surgery on.

    --Then again, he has a book where the military develops Love-Thy-Neighbor bombs. It drops LTN bombs on the enemy army to make it impossible to defend themselves from attack.


    Conrad.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    you still don't get it, do you?
    Please don't reply, that was a hypothetical question.

    We know you don't get it...... :rolleyes:
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