Bipedal Universe?

I love sci-fi.  I am not a total sci-fi geek, but pretty darn close. The idea that maybe we are not alone in the universe is an intriguing topic. I used to think that it was completely idiotic that in most sci-fi movies and programs that all, or most, of the aliens were bipedal and have  2 arms, eyes, etc. In other words, they looked relatively human. However, now that I think about it, it makes sense. Let me explain.

I had this discussion with The Boyfriend while we were watching Farscape …again… (love that show). We started discussing how we were tired of seeing human looking aliens, then it hit me—duh, if the missing link in our evolution came from the sky then this would totally make sense. Let’s take this from different points of view, shall we?

If we look at it from the stand point that an all powerful being created the universe and all that is in it; that we come from said all powerful being, then we are alone as the bible makes no mention of extra-terrestrial life and we know that everything in the bible is true     Also, the idea that others are out there defeats the idea that we are unique. “God” created us in his image…US, not them. If we believe this, then we are alone.

If we believe that we crawled out of the primordial fluids and evolved then this also makes us pretty unique. The right circumstances created us. After watching one too many Discovery Channel programmes on “our universe”, I have learned that our planet is in the the right zone, the right placement in the orbit around our sun to create “life”. One little placement either left or right means no life. One little tilt on our axis either way, no life. The odds of this happening again? Well, have you heard about other planets being found in “the right zone” and life being found on them? yeah….

However, if we believe that the missing link to us evolving from ape to man was alien (which is a theory), then this could have ramifications beyond this planet. This could mean that we are, in fact, not alone. This could also explain all the  sci-fi creators’ lack of imagination . Granted not all aliens would look exactly like us.  Differences in  skin colour, eye colour, fingers, height, even tentacles could have developed over the years for them to adjust to their environment just as we have developed to adjust to ours. However, most of them, according to the creators of sci-fi characters, are, mostly, bipedal and for me this makes sense. To think that we came directly from apes leaves much to wonder about, even if they think they found the “missing link“. Even with that, there are still tons of questions.

Now, I am not saying that I think we came from space (so put down the phone and the straight-jacket), although, how cool would that be? Somewhere, out there in the big universe are “people”, somewhat like us, but much more technologically advanced. But what happened to them? Why haven’t they contacted us? Honestly, if I had to 100% believe this theory, I would venture to say that they have been observing us and due to our constant fighting, our lack of understanding, our lack of imagination, our lack of sympathy to our fellow humans, our lack of technological advancement, the fact that we can’t seem to go one day without killing each other, they don’t want to risk revealing who they are or they have given up on us because of these things. Maybe they have died out…boy, that would sad. Or maybe, and I like this one, we were a prison colony that was forgotten about, the prisoners mated with early “humans” and now we have grown beyond our captors wildest nightmares. When they came back and saw what had happened, they fled, leaving us on our own. *sad*

Maybe we are just a molecule in a sea of experimental goo in some alien laboratory? I dunno, but I can say that I don’t believe an all powerful, all knowing being created us. If we are in experimental goo, this experiment has gone too far and I want to be in the control group. If you are reading, please transfer me to the petri dish that hasn’t  been poked and prodded or been hopped up on experimental drugs. K? Thx!

Ready?! Aim! FIRE!

Ronnie Lee Gardner is Dead exclaimed one newspaper. What shocked me, was the method which was chosen by the condemned: firing squad. According to the Guardian, he told his daughter that the reason he chose this method was “I lived by the gun, I murdered with a gun, so I will die by the gun.”

For me, this method brings about images of the old west. The condemned standing in the middle of town. The unwashed towns people watching as 5 men raise their rifles and fire.
No mercy.
No sympathy.
How it works is normally there are 5 shooters, one armed with a blank round so everyone can take comfort in the fact that they may not be the one firing that lethal blow. However, sometimes (rarely) a 6th shooter is required to administer the final shot to put the accused out of their misery.  While this method is not the most technologically advanced, let’s look at two positives of it. It preserves the organs for donations—well, other than the heart and it is the cheapest form of capital punishment.

Other than the slight risk that one of the 5 bullets will not hit the heart (meaning someone is not as accurate as they are supposed to be), there is little risk that the shots will not be deadly. The same can not be said for other forms of execution. According to the Associated Press, “University of Colorado law professor Michael Radlet has been tracking botched executions in the U.S. and found some 42 cases that went wrong between 1982 and September 2009. Of those executions, 30 were lethal injection, 10 were electrocution and two were from asphyxiation after exposure to lethal gas.” Who says technology is always good? 4 bullets, aimed at the heart. Fire. Death. What could be simpler? We try to hard to make everything humane but we forget to look at why these people are on death row to begin with. Murder. The taking of a life. An innocent life, usually. And in our attempts to make the execution more humane we actually make it more difficult (which is usually how any government works anyway).
Let’s take lethal injection.  It has the guise of being humane because it is a “medical procedure”. However, if the needle is not placed correctly in a vein, which has happened, or if there is difficulty in finding a vein, the pain can be extreme. Humane ? Cost of lethal drugs? $86.08. However, the overall cost including salary of the people involved, the phone in the room, the supplies for the drugs, etc…$30,000 +/- (from a few different sites dealing with the cost of executions).
Okay, electrocution. Sometimes a jolt of between 500 and 2000 volts doesn’t work the first time and only after the victim is checked to see if there is a heart beat do they do it again. I have been shocked. We all have. Can you imagine having that voltage running through your body more than once? And to top it all off “...the prisoner’s eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner’s flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire….Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. (Ecenbarger, 1994)“. Humane ? Cost of this? $14,000-$16,000. (again, approximate from many sites).
Now the cost firing squad is harder to find mainly because only three people have been executed by firing squad since 1977, but presumably the cost are negligible. I mean, really, how much do bullets cost? Also the blood is funnelled into bags placed near the entry site so there is no messy clean up.
The idea of capital punishment is like, to put it rudely, fucking for virginity. We are killing someone because they killed someone to prove a point. Seems a little off to me. It is like teaching your child not to bite by biting them. Also, the idea of a humane form of execution is absurd. Were their actions humane to their victims?
I can’t say that I am for or against capital punishment. I don’t believe that if we are punishing people that it should be torturous. That is just lowering ourselves to their standards. It really shouldn’t cost a lot since it will be the taxpayers footing the bill. Cheapest is the best. Should it be humane? Well, yes, to a point, but should it be painless? Naaah. After all, what does capital punishment actually serve but our sadistic impulses.

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