I am awakened after midnight by a gibbous moon
rising in the clear east sky,
moonbeam stabbing me in the eye.

The alien saucer had hunted me at night,
but I hid under a freeway overpass.

It ducked low on the horizon, hunting me,
and found me crouched there, hiding.

The saucer's green beam was a death ray,
sapping all my strength 'til I awoke in fright.

Earlier, when we talked, I had asked them
to tell me how their saucer engine worked.

They never say, but hunt me down and fly away.

I love your poem-story Rick.

I wonder if v3d4 might give you a clue to the engine design?

Are you 'special', seen as food or a source of knowledge, or do they want Rick on the rack?

Bill.

Carl Jung might might know were he still alive. It was in two dreams several years apart. Never dream under an open window when the moon will rise to awaken you.

Animated avatars seem to sap my CPU cycles, too.

remembranceisfutile
youknowonlywhatweputintoyourmind
mindhahaha
donotputyourwordtousrickhuman
donotpushyourluck
luckhahaha
weareseeingyou
donotdisruptwithus
wewillmakeyoudevolved
hahahayoursaucerfriendsthem
friendshahaha

Make for space theythem, and when you are old enough, make space!!

Your new avatar looks like an X-ray of Homer Simpson.

It's not so much that my brain is small; neither am I big-headed.

It's just that I recognise that there is always room for improvement!

The beard is now shorn by the way.

rhymerhumanwherecanwegetmorepicturesofinsides
welikepictureswewilltellyousaucerengineworks
getmorepictureswelikepleasewewilltellyouclues

I need no clues.
The evidence, notwithstanding the inabilty to create space, speaks for itself!

createspacehahaha
okifyougetmorepictureswelikeyoucanflysaucerok

Flying saucers exist only in the minds of those who 'see' them!
I do not see flying saucers.
I will never fly in a flying saucer, so no matter how many pictures I may provide, whether you like them or not, I am stuck aground!

You must attempt to seek your own pictures, perhaps using your flying saucer!

I love aliens !!

whotoldyouflyingsaucersexistonlyinthemindsofthosewhoseethem
youknowhowtheengineworkswhotoldyouhowtheengineworks
wewillcometoseeyousoonrhymerhumanwewilltalktoyou

DOH!
(all aliens are not super intelligent, that's a steroetype.)

Neuroscientist Dr Michael Hofman of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research has compared the brain structures of primates to try and understand what would happen if our brains were to become much bigger. According to Hofman, we humans have hit the limits of our intelligence – if our brains got any bigger, they’d actually get slower: ‘After a particular brain size, something strange happens. There is some maximum in intelligence, in processing power, in cognitive abilities, but beyond that point you find a decrease.’

HeyHeyhuman,

That explains alot. On our planet, our brains are 75% of our body mass.
Our flying saucers are faster than light but we lose the keys constantly.

and if you think faster than light travel is rediculous*, I agree!
That's what I said to my conjoined unit when we were out looking for a new saucer, I said, 'who needs to travel faster than light anyway? I mean really?That's just stupid. Who has the time to mess around like that?' Besides, once you put a hole in the space-time continueum* your saucer insurance is pretty much fucked. But we went ahead and got one anyway. They're all over the place, we call them the sport utility saucer. It's nice to have that kind of power under the dome but with faster than light capabilities, parallel parking is a b*tch.





*(we don't have spell check on our planet, sorry.)

Hey Hey, do you have a link on that Hofman brain research? His hypothesis is similar to mine. We're maxed out.

For now just:

http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites.../arewereal.html

Thanks, Hey Hey, that's an interesting thread. It more or less proves that a Matrix-like scenario isn't entirely impossible. Something new and different to worry about.

You're welcome. Happy New Year, by the way!

Now I know how my bacteria feel! I'll treat them better from now on.

I suppose I have to speak up in defence on this one for own sake !!

I don't agree with Dr. Hoffman.

His conclusion may have been correct for an organ which operated with serial connections and non-parallel capabilities.

I, however, have parallel capability, and as my brain increases in size, it proportionately (or, possibly by a square law) increases its capabilities.

I suspect that ever-bigger brains are not needed anyway.
It is far more important that what we are endowed with is optimally linked, functional and programmable!

Any pea-brain knows this, and needs far less oxygen to draw the conclusion!

The conventional wisdom is that man continues to evolve "toward" an ever-improving intelligence. I think Dr. Hofman is right and that the conventional wisdom is wrong. We are at the pinnacle of intellectual possibility for organic life forms and that our successors will probably be electronic or nano-tech. And all this science argument in a poetry forum, no less!

Joking apart, the advancement of intelligence may continue within existing structures or progress to inorganic ones, but for Man, the main problem is that He does not know where He is going and at the same time He is 'spoiling' everything around Him.

The only fundamental group aim seems to be the profit motive.

I think Dr Hofman was trying to indicate that the time periods for transmission of (some) signals might become too long if the brain becomes too large. The distances increase but the transmission rates (neuronal and synaptic) stay the same.

rhymer, I agree that one aim is profit, but some might say that this involves a competitive element and competition brings diversity and diversity increases survival prospects.

Hey Hey,

I agree with the principle of your construct, but the idea I'm considering is that our desired objective is not aimed at survival; so many of the things we do are in fact ensuring our demise rather than our survival!

I appreciate that survival is an 'in-built' function of some sort, but with the knowledge now available to Man, surely more should be done than having a few conferences where promises are made for many years into the future, yet where so little seems to be actually achieved.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not a doomsayer, I try to apply reality to proclaimed future events and outcomes. We truly Create nothing, merely modify what already exists or burn it up!

After the American elections recently ratifying the current stupidity, I have completely given up. I just live for today now.

RickHuman

My human is a little rusty, please to help me; when an election "ratifies" the incumbants' policy, does that specifically mean "illegal, unconstitutional voting fraud?" Or is the fraud of this election just incidental?

(Intresting note, on my planet, elections are carried out through anal probes.)

-they

Called a "suppositrode" I suppose, as in the science fiction novel "Bill the Galactic Hero."

That's very interesting. Actually, we call our electoral probes direct electronic recording systems.
The probes are quite painless really, mainly because you don't really have to know who's holding the other end of it.

when the satellite waned to the quarter less full
then the light of awareness shown forth from the spark

as I followed the flight of the startling flit
hunkered gibbous beneath the obtuse overhang

where we spoke of the travel of metal and mind
and my dumbness revealed that this one would enquire

of the clanking grey spheroid I come by enclosed
with my envy full focused on this boundless one

when the one travels far beyond all instantly
and my place is removed to a light years entrail

so I pilot this dish farther long as I may