If aliens were to observe us from afar, I'm sure they would find several common modes of human transport strange. Walking or cycling still makes sense - you need to get from one place to another somehow - but why move around a ton of steel, just to get 75 kilos of me from one place to another?
And mass public transportation are hardly an improvement. Buses, trains, boats and planes are all more efficient than cars, but wants wants to sacrifice all their private space, just to get from A to B? Unless of course the aliens do the observing are a colonial species, in which case they might very well interpret collective travel options in those terms.
And of course they would be quick to see that lots of humans exhibit migratory behaviour, staying in one spot most of the year, then suddenly flying south for a few short weeks in summer. If they are cold-blooded, they might conclude that we are also cold-blooded: why else would we lie in the sun for hours on end?
And then there are the diurnal rhythms of going to one place (the office) during the day, and to another (the home) at night, just like plankton species that rise to the surface of the sea during the day, then sink into the depths at night (or the other way around). And there is the weekly foraging trip to the supermarket. And the twice yearly trips to the church, and so many other rhythms (see also my entry on all kinds of natural and less natural rhythms) that you will never understand unless you are human, and even then ...
And mass public transportation are hardly an improvement. Buses, trains, boats and planes are all more efficient than cars, but wants wants to sacrifice all their private space, just to get from A to B? Unless of course the aliens do the observing are a colonial species, in which case they might very well interpret collective travel options in those terms.
And of course they would be quick to see that lots of humans exhibit migratory behaviour, staying in one spot most of the year, then suddenly flying south for a few short weeks in summer. If they are cold-blooded, they might conclude that we are also cold-blooded: why else would we lie in the sun for hours on end?
And then there are the diurnal rhythms of going to one place (the office) during the day, and to another (the home) at night, just like plankton species that rise to the surface of the sea during the day, then sink into the depths at night (or the other way around). And there is the weekly foraging trip to the supermarket. And the twice yearly trips to the church, and so many other rhythms (see also my entry on all kinds of natural and less natural rhythms) that you will never understand unless you are human, and even then ...
No comments:
Post a Comment