I actually didn't write this but edited and adapted an article that my coworker Anna wrote. Why reinvent the wheel, right?
I found this report, "Symbol Usage In Health Care Settings for People with Limited English Proficiency" -- and was reminded of the Pioneer Plaque. Invented by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, the plaque is basically a note to extraterrestrials that we're on the level; that is, "Please don't kill us, we're ramen."
The difference between ramen and varelse is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging. When we declare an alien species to be ramen, it does not mean that they have passed a threshold of moral maturity. It means that we have.
—Demosthenes, Letter to the Framlings
Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead
No comments:
Post a Comment