huntsnhava40
92966
2721
25
May 4, 2021 8:43 PM
huntsnhava40
92966
2721
25
apLundell
Counterpoint : Toddlers can learn to use a smart-phone before they learn to talk. Space-traveling aliens will be smarter than toddlers.
Bizarkly
Remember *Independence Day*? "And now I'm just going to download this computer virus to the aliens, from my ancient Mac..."
Farbrook
Heck, kids today can't recognize of use a telephone form 1960.
Cazzyle
I am currently reading "Stranger in a Strange land" and this post has so much meaning!!
venomlash
See: https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/i-had-a-really-hard-time-coming-up-with-something-even-moderately-funny-this-week
mistertheloaf
(True Story) Me: "Click on the floppy disk icon to save the file" Them: "????" Me : Points to it Them: "I thought that was a TV"
T0go
ouroborus777
I think they briefly address it in one of the Star Trek episodes.
Klaumbaz
Chinese computers ran Windows in the 90s. Shoulda gone with Russia.
twentydollarbanana
I will rescue this for later humor time
high12
aww, i see what you did there. Upvote for you sir!
AceMonk
I left the post and had to come back to like this comment when it hit me.
ToSisPoS
Upward cryptosymbol pleasure icon
Itslibbytime
R e s c u e
Trollsandyoopers
SG1 did that with Thor and the Asgards, constantly asking the earthlings for help because they needed "dumb" ideas to fight the replicators
CeterumCenseo
"You might have come to the right place" - Colonel Jack O'Neill (two L!)
Strangedays2024
The second part probably depends on how the translation is handled. For Dr. Who doesn't the tardis automatically shift wording to make 1/2
Strangedays2024
Sense? On the other hand if it's just learning the language the cross over could lean more to cobra-chicken end of thing.2/2
jodeum21383950
I tend to think any sufficiently advanced species will instantly recognize an iPhone as a piece of garbage and throw it away.
DurendaI
Tbh tumblr does have some corners where there is pretty good writing advice.
Haiddon
tumblr is infinite monkeys with typewriters
Menzobarrenza
That is now my favourite analogy for tumblr.
AJFred
I work in IT. I've used windows since before windows (DOS). Had to get data off a Mac from 97 the other day. It was not fun!
high12
you had me at "culturally specific symbols"
impidge
Ever ask a kid to use a rotary phone?
TrapperQ
The little bastards would probably try dialling it with their thumbs.
Purpl3y3s
Ellen did it, some kids were able to intuit the rotary dail but none of them knew to pick up the handset & wait for a dail tone first
tarataqa
Remember when Scotty used a computer?
CarlottaVonSprockett
I should have read through the comments before I double posted about this scene, lol. https://youtu.be/LkqiDu1BQXY
soma1499
Then he says "How Quant, a keyboard" and proceeds to type 300 words a minute.
birdbrainedphoenix
Not to mention knows how to use a specific, proprietary software package for designing molecules(!?)
glenngriffon
thank you. i'm glad to see i'm not the only person who thought of this
Rivalyn
"Just because you can identify symbols on a keyboard doesn't mean you can operate a computer!" - Daniel Jackson, Stargate SG-1 s04e06
Jace99
That’s dumb. They may not even have eyes, or thumbs. They may do everything telepathically or with tiny forks.
Hyero
My money is on tiny fork shaped telepath aliens
Kbantar
I really hate how virtually every sci fi story must include literal magic like that. It's just so cheap.
MacFarlin1920
You haven't watched Star Trek? This topic had been addressed repeatedly.
Urgalicity
It's more along the lines of putting you in a 14th century forge and asking you to make spaceship parts... But I catch you.
DewiMorgan
Few of us can use a spinning wheel, quill pen, sling, adze or scythe. And knapping flint? We couldn't even bash rocks together properly!
KingAardvark1st
Also, if talking about vehicles, how many of you know how to drive a Model T? Or in weapons, who knows how to load a flintlock pistol?
CarlottaVonSprockett
Just like in Wonder Woman 1984 where Steve can just magically fly the plane that was built like 20 years after he died.
gnochi
Speaking as a student pilot who’s flown several different planes: it really hasn’t changed much since the 20s.
gnochi
Stick or yoke for controls, pushrod or lever for throttle, something for flaps, assorted labeled switches for other stuff.
KingAardvark1st
Try 40 years, but yes
CarlottaVonSprockett
Oh I thought it was a WWII plane? Tbh, I was dozing through that part of the movie, haha!
KingAardvark1st
Can't blame ya, haha, but nah she was a cold war attacker if I remember right
CarlottaVonSprockett
I appreciate the gentle correction!
folded13
Worked a job with manufacturing software written in Japan. One of the translated errors was "the fish failed to cross the stream". Zero clue
DewiMorgan
Star Trek IV: The Journey Home did this well, in the "talking to the computer" scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqiDu1BQXY
DewiMorgan
Unfortunately, followed it up with "keyboard flailing makes a molecular analysis application", but still! Good job with the mouse.
jjsjosCreator
yea but that's judging them by our intelligence, if they can cross space I'm sure they could figure it out or just get one of us to help
jjsjosCreator
half of us on this marble would gladly defect if shit got real with aliens and they made us an offer , we are a species of mercenaries
LordNergal
If your species actually understood how your own technology worked, hiring you would be helpful. The problem is, you very much don't, and 1/
LordNergal
that even extends into the fields directly responsible for making it work. -Your reptilian alien overlords 2/2
LordNergal
Essentially, humans are just 40k's orcs as far as technology; you can make it, but you can't sensibly explain it.
jjsjosCreator
no but we do understand the language and each of us carries a phone we can look shit up on , not like you need all the info in your skull
folded13
Read the series The Damned, by Allan Dean Foster.
CWrightPills
They’re made of meat. Of meat? Of meat.
typointhetitle
How do they communicate? They blow air out their meat mouths. Disgusting.
folded13
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-07-27
Kbantar
That story is so mind bogglingly stupid on par with the one with the murdering "alien" monster where the "trick" is to accept it killing him
EgregiousPanda
Sentient meat?
LordBaneoftheSith
What's 'scented meat'?
CrypticalEnvelopement
This story drives me nuts. If they know what meat is they've met other beings made of it since meat is just dead tissue.
roboticKittenTamer
They even talk about other species that are partially made of meat or spend part of their lifecycle as meat, but not a sentient being →
roboticKittenTamer
←that's completely made of meat for it's entire life.
DukeDarkwood
But not sentient, thinking, intelligent beings. Animal life they know is nothing more than walking meat. Not thinking meat nor singing meat.
TheDayTheBrainStoodStill
They *have* met other beings made of meat, but never anything even close to sentient - that's the joke.
JohnCheshirsky
Exactly. It's like if someone said that there are aliens made of rocks. I've seen rocks - but never sentient ones.
CWrightPills
Sauce material if anyone’s looking for a great short story https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
LoverdeLestat
Thank youuuuuuu
XVUltima
Very similar vibes to the Minecraft 'credits'.
TopCommenter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ Alternatively, an adaptation of that story, for those who like Ben Bailey or Tom Noonan.
robsquared
I like it, but technically speaking the brain is not meat. Meat is muscle.
SideEffectsOfJuice
Well yeah but, you know, the post above and stuff. Maybe to them "meat" means ALL the squishy stuff even?
ProbablyHolly
God I love that story.
ProbablyHolly
The video adaptation was fantastic too.
Cazzyle
Sauce for vid?
BlueGodBalmung
I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ
JohnCheshirsky
Oh yeah, I've seen this one, it's pretty good.
Cazzyle
Thanks!
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
Counterpoint: Very advanced species may specifically develop technology to help them interface with less advanced tech.
CommentBot2000
01011001 01110101 01110000
TrapperQ
Confronted with a punch card computer and don't know how to start it? Google and wikipedia are your friends.
rbudrick
Easier to make a human slave do it.
frothingpony
That. Or they just watched us for a long time and figured our stuff out.
TheEmeraldProphylactic
I’d wager that within less than a second of internet connectivity, the aliens would know everything we know AND more. Or they’re get a virus
MrNardtastic
They're called bombs and they interface with every less advanced tech in the verse. Big bada boom bitch. Yeah! Dak dak! Darmok and Jalad @..
AlcoholicsAnonymousBYO
All the kiwis - heh, "dak" - spark up!
Sarcastiball
Found da Ork
wuggles23
I can see that being plausible if they deal with many primitive civilizations but not if we were the first they met. So it could work.
Mostlydeadpool
they're called "grandchildren". "grandson! how does this ticktock thing work?"
ProphetofEntropy
they will probably just adapt something they used centuries before to talk to their version of whales.
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
...is this a reference to Stargate Atlantis??
LordNergal
That's assuming the method they used has anything in common with the lower species. There's multiple methods to solve the problem of how 1/
LordNergal
to teach a machine to do math. -Your reptilian alien overlords 2/2
wuggles23
Depends how adaptable they are and what way their technology differs from ours but yeah probably.
Sapotaattori
But then how many can actually use 'our' ancient tools well and understand their meaning? or specialized equipment in general?
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
How did we figure it out? Little clues provide hints. Imagine a program that did that but in seconds.
Sapotaattori
Like magic? With out any references? Especially if their base references are very different. Possible with simulations, but seconds?
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
Seconds was hyperbolic, but sure. Imagine you'd seen multiple tools that weren't entirely dissimilar and you could basically work out the >>
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
>> gist and go from there. I'm just saying: an advanced alien intelligence is likely to be wildly outside our experience and expectations.
jjsjosCreator
could just scoop the info from our grey matter. or drug , torture or bribe it out of us like we do to eachother already
TheDayTheBrainStoodStill
Nobody's suggesting they couldn't do it *at all*. Point is, just because it's primitive to them doesn't mean they'd grasp it *immediately*.
jjsjosCreator
they could if they just recruited one of us , which wouldn't be difficult.
LordNergal
You'd be surprised how many computer engineers don't understand how computers work. Quite a bit of your civilization operates on a 1/
LordNergal
theoretical-at-best understanding of your technology. A number of computer programmers even ascribe mystical qualities to programming. 2/
ronNhyde
Without planned obsolescence, maybe backwards compatibility would be a given.
Infinias
As someone who works at still replacing CRT monitors from 40 years ago...no...pls no...any fuckin manufacturer has their own data signal
Infinias
timing and such nonsense. Backwards is sometimes exactly that: only backwards
EngorgedPhallus
Or hyper advanced means hyper intelligence, understanding fundamentals of computing that would be ubiquitous, and can infer what we couldn't
LordNergal
Silicon-based computing technology is extremely NOT ubiquitous. Only one other species uses it. -Your reptilian alien overlords
EngorgedPhallus
The elements might not be, but the logic and math behind it is likely universal.
DonnaNobleInTheLibrary
I don't know, there's still people trying to make ternary computers a thing.
LordNergal
Bwahaha! Nope! We can't even get species to agree on prime numbers. Math is like every other language. -Your reptilian alien overlords
LordNergal
And because someone asked me in PMs what is universal: Pockets. Every species needs to carry around tiny things in a secure space. So, if 1/
digitreal
I'm gonna permanent this post.
PutItInNeutral
This is some bull shit.
grasshoppernipples
Why? There is no danger!!!!
ministryofpeace
You will be printing this post on bleached carbon sheets? How will you capture all the comments?
FukcTedCruz
Im going to click the heart button to indicate that this post is preferred before all others of the same kind.
Sasurau
How? I see no button with a four chambered pump with arteries and veins delivering blood in and out. That is what your heart is, correct?
JayEnfield
Permanent and disappear.
papayaofthesun
How?
wellthisjustgotinteresting
click the button that looks like a green schlimfordeltial
TheRighteousIndignation
You hit the heart looking icon
ScrapCode
I see nothing that resembles this... this is a human heart yes?
acme64
an electrical heart obviously, because its a machine.
bpsr2000
I'm not trying to hurt it....why would I hit it's heart ?
QuiteADapperAsshole
None of these pictograms appear to equivocate the shape of a human heart. Where are the ventricles!?
Vungor
Icon!?!?
CooCooCaChew
heart? You mean that thingy that looks like a squigldy spooge?
fivelmousekewitz
Heart?
willzabend
The butt looking thing, that's supposed to be a heart.
Vungor
INARTICULATE BLOOD PUMP
thekeyofe
I see an up arrow, a down arrow, and a thing that kind of looks like a tulip. I don't see anything that looks like a heart.
CaptainThePirate
It’s the thing that looks like this.
InsanityKiwi
Just hit the goddamn tulip.