Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 14:12:07 -0600 (MDT)
From: Brock Henderson <brock-AT-unm.edu>
Subject: is anybody out there. . . ?



	This is the first mail list I've ever subscribed to.  I am a 
net-novice.  Unlike so many others I've seen posted to this list, my 
query isn't directed to those on the list, but rather, out to the 
heavens.  UFO's and ET's are what I'm interested in exploring.  The 
friend who turned me on to this list has been helping me hash out 
potential "alien" technologies for a piece of fiction I'm writing.  We're 
exploring all possible ways that an intelligent species could develop 
technologically, and how these technologies would be manifest. This subject 
would appear to be a bit off the path that this list is beating, but 
things seem pretty slow out there right now, and it's an opportunity to 
stretch the subject of technology to its outer limits.
	If you've made it this far past the mention of UFO's then I'd 
like to throw out another term from the realm of the paranormal: 
telepathy.  Imagine a culture that goes through its technological 
evolution with the ability to communicate telepathically.  The particular 
culture that I am trying to work out now is a pre-"historic" earth 
culture.  I'm trying to start off easy.  A humanoid culture that went 
through the developmental phases of a vocalized and symbolic language, 
and then developed a capacity for telepathic communication.  All of this 
before their technology had evolved beyond basic agriculture and 
architecture.  On a fluke this culture became more concerned with 
consciousness and a search for knowledge that with victimizing others, 
and so evolved on a tangent from the rest of mankind in relative 
isolation.  Developing the ability to communicate information at 
everincreasing speeds and in likewise increasingly complicated units.  
	Jumping back to present day, I would classify western 
civilization's state of technology as moving from mechanically based 
technology into information based technology.  Not that mechanics and 
information haven't always been integral parts of technology, but I'm 
focusing here on the what is driving that technology.  Now, the 
telepathic culture I proposed above would be moving into this juncture 
from the opposite direction.  From an information base technology 
(info-tech/tele-tech), they would probably eventually find cause to move 
into the realm of mechanization (mech-tech).  This is kind of like saying 
"What if we had computers before steam or combustion engines?."
	There are probably allot of factors I'm missing in this culture 
I'm proposing and in my estimation of western culture, and I would welcome 
any responses, questions or comments, on what I've got going here.
	Another area I'm looking for help in is non-earth-based 
civilizations.  Questions like, would intelligence usually equate with 
humanoid form (ie. is there a universal evolutionary pattern)?  And, 
what other technological bases could an intelligent species evolve 
under?  So far we've got tele-tech, info-tech, mechano-tech, and a few 
additional ones we've kicked around such as bio-tech (biology) and 
EM-tech (electromagnatism).  Finally one more paranormal term for the 
road, to be considered for potential technological development, is 
astral projection.  Could a technology be built around the ability to 
project consciousness and even matter across vast distances?  Sure!

Adios,
Brock (brock-AT-unm.edu)





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