While having dinner at a restaurant earlier this evening with my wife. I recounted a story I had seen on TV many years ago. Perhaps some of the older members might remember it also.
It was about man's first encounter with aliens. In this story, man has his first formal encounter with aliens. People are at first afraid of them. They do not know what their intentions are. They seem peaceful enough. Many speculate what can be learned from such an advanced civilization. During one of our encounters with them, a book is taken from the aliens without their knowledge. There seems to be a title to the book, but no one yet knows what this says and experts go about translating it. After a while, the title is translated to say "How best to serve man". There had been much discussion as to what they could teach us and that there would be a plan to teach us, as revealing too much too soon might be more than we could handle. There is a meeting regarding this book. The first few pages had been translated and everyone was anxious to know what the aliens planned. At the meeting, the person who had done the translating was asked what was the nature of the book. Was it about science or engineering or philosophy, or perhaps religion? The man who had done the translating looked at everyone at the meeting and replied: "Well we've only translated the first few pages, but from all appearances, the book "How best to serve man" seemed to be a cookbook".
It was about man's first encounter with aliens. In this story, man has his first formal encounter with aliens. People are at first afraid of them. They do not know what their intentions are. They seem peaceful enough. Many speculate what can be learned from such an advanced civilization. During one of our encounters with them, a book is taken from the aliens without their knowledge. There seems to be a title to the book, but no one yet knows what this says and experts go about translating it. After a while, the title is translated to say "How best to serve man". There had been much discussion as to what they could teach us and that there would be a plan to teach us, as revealing too much too soon might be more than we could handle. There is a meeting regarding this book. The first few pages had been translated and everyone was anxious to know what the aliens planned. At the meeting, the person who had done the translating was asked what was the nature of the book. Was it about science or engineering or philosophy, or perhaps religion? The man who had done the translating looked at everyone at the meeting and replied: "Well we've only translated the first few pages, but from all appearances, the book "How best to serve man" seemed to be a cookbook".
