>From Mr Lawrance: > You don't sound like an annoying broken record. To be blunt, you sound > silly, asking that. I don't think there's any disagreement at all over > what would constitute an "authentic alien artifact" -- it would be a > piece of litter left by an authentic alien, and an authentic alien is a > non-earth creature. An *authentic* non-imaginary real-type actually > existing non-earth creature who can potentially drive a flying saucer > around and maybe crash it on the White House lawn. > > PLEASE don't start denying that words which have perfectly clear > definitions can be defined! If *you* want to go off and use the word > "alien" to mean something entirely different, go ahead, but please > stick to the usual dictionary definition when attempting to hold > conversations with others in which information will be successfully > transferred through use of words: > > alien n 3: a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its > atmosphere [syn: extraterrestrial being] > > (from Wordnet -- there are a number of definitions of 'alien' but I > don't think anyone here was intending the word to mean, e.g., "a > foreigner".) > > The debate is over the question of whether there are any aliens within > 2 lightyears of the Sun, and whether there have been any of them flying > around dropping bits of random cruft on Earth any time in the last few > decades. The debate is *NOT* over whether the cruft dropped by an > alien should be called an "artifact" or not, nor over whether a creature > from another planet driving around Earth in a flying machine should be > called an "alien".
Just to be clear on this point I sez (previously): >> There is a story, an advertisement (I think it came from IBM) that >> described how a 3rd world tribe found an appropriate use for one of >> their expedition's laptops - a nutcracker. At least it proved the >> artifact was constructed well. Silly me! A contraire! I think discussions concerning whether there are legitimate "artifacts" amongst us indigenous folk is just as much a legitimate a discussion here as compared to whether there are any aliens within 2 light-years of the Sun and whether some of those "trips" may have resulted in them having to deal with a flat tire or two. But if some of those discarded "lug bolts" don't crack my nuts, and it's such a simple request I make here, the object of interest is not likely carry a lot of significance within my sphere of influence. Incidentally, is "...within 2 light-years" the magic number? Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
