posted on Jul, 15 2004 @ 08:42 PM
slank: Astute observations. A technician unaware of how machine screws work may interpret them as a very tight "friction fit" and destroy
them while prying what they hold together apart. The lack of appropriate tool and mechanical paradigms is indeed a challenge for the
xenotechnologist.
This might be particularly problematic if the item being examined is based on biotechnology founded on a form of life -- or physical principles --
unknown to the examiner.
The idea of nuclear power was virtually unknown to humanity at the beginning of the twentieth century. Now, a century later, almost everyone on earth
knows of it, but few truly understand it. Without proper instrumentation, humans are incapable of detecting lethal levels of radioactivity, and most
humans would die, unknowingly, in the presence of highly radioactive materials. What about other hazards undetectable to humans?
Add to that the problem of relative scale. Homo sapiens, for example, is probably huge compared to most intelligent life in the universe. We
may be surrounded by intelligent life unlike our own, yet be completely oblivious to it. Or, more intriguingly, only partially oblivious to
it.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke