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UFO-loon Denise M. Clark wrote about a UFO book that discusses "the intelligence of our sea life, mainly as that intelligence relates to dolphins". Slashdot user Swannie attempted to make a humorous startrek IV reference by adding "Don't forget about killer whales". Others have pointed out that this was an inaccurate Trek reference. I'd like to add that it was also silly because killer whales are in the family delfinidae; i.e. they are dolphins, and as such were not "forgotten" by Ms. Clark's statement.

FWIW, I think it is safe to assume that either Ms. Clark or the author of the book she reviewed is fond of David Brin's Uplift Wars series, and in particular the intelligent dolphins in his book Startide Rising. They ought to expand their reading just a little and familiarize themselves with Brin's essay from Otherness where he talks about the public's refusal to accept that language research has simply not shown dolphins to be as clever as we wish them to be.

For interested parties - This is a very cool book. It is an odd combination of short sci-fi stories grouped by topic along with intelligent non-fictional essays that discuss the same issues. Brin uses the above cetacean language example as a jumping off point to discuss Americans' obession with behaving as though other people's ideas, even ones that are not supported by the facts, ought to be treated like they equal merit.

Read the full length piece on David Brin's site.

covered a good deal of this in his book, The Transparent Society. Definitely worth a read as a thought experiment investigating a world without privacy, and as an examination of what privacy really is.

All evidence points to Yoda as co-villain with the emperor all along -- one lightside of the force lying-pompous-schmuck and one darkside heavybreathing-sadist-schmuck. QuiGon was dimly aware of this problem, which is why he tried bypassing Yoda -- twice! -- and yearned for balance. So did Obiwan. And their student? How esthetic it would be for QuiGon and Obiwan to turn out to have been right and Yoda wrong!

How about this? Annakin self-hypnotized an inner core of himself to hide behid a mask while pretending to be the emperor's lackey, getting ready for a day of reckoning with BOTH of those sanctimonious bastards, Yoda and Palpatine! It works!

Here's part of the SALON article that never got included:

Oh, wait. I get it. Annakin was actually a secret agent spy all along! Here's the secret facts:

Vader's the one who sent the secret plans to Leia's ship! He arranged for the droids to get away, and coincidentally land just a few miles from his hidden son! (It explains why Obiwan "hid" Luke on the one planet Darth (I mean Anniken) was most familiar with in the whole universe. The same PART of that planet. It only makes sense if the two were really in cahoots!)

Remember how, a little later, Vader talks Tarkin into "letting them go so we can trace them"? Likewise, he's the only close-up witness to Obiwan disappearing, when he supposedly "killed" his master in that sword fight! (Maybe he actually helped Obiwan pull a vanishing act.) Note that the "fight" with Obiwan distracted the guards & helped let Luke get away!

But there's more! Remember how Vader "chased" Luke in that Tie fighter... which had the chief effect of turning off all the antiaircraft guns and giving the boy a clear shot to blow up the first Death Star! (From which event, Vader is conveniently the only Imperial survivor.)

Recall how in The Empire Strikes Back Vader offered to make Luke co-ruler? (Presumably it would thus be a nicer dynasty than the emperor's). Then in Jedi recall how Vader brought Luke aboard the second Death Star? Could it be because he knew the kid would irritate the emperor and get him upset enough to finally let Darth get a crack at him from behind?

I knew there had to be some reason why Vader didn't seem to detect his own daughter -- all filled with that magic force shit -- when he grabbed her arm and looked into her eyes in Episode... um... IV is it? Then he drug-interrogated her, without detecting any Force? Can there be any explanation except that he already knew?

Pah! He let them both get away deliberately! And whenever they needed guidance, there were the droids... his own special droids, assigned to help and guide his children to their destiny.

Bottom of the page.

I don't care if he's jealous. His addendum RAWKS!

God, it's so good, I wish I'd thought of it!

note to self: read more of his books!

A good companion to this article is another Salon Article that ran in 1999 by David Brin. Excellent read on why Star Wars' morality sucks. :)

1) The US is a country with possible the greatest level of personal freedoams in history (maybe not, YMMV)
2) The US is a country where the Government has access to more information on people than has even been possible in history.

Typically, in the past Lots of government information = no personal freedom, a very repressive society, etc.

David Brin's take on this is that there are several other factors involved in this that expalin the apparent parradox, the primary of which is the access to information about the government is also the highest it has ever been, at least in the US.

He has a number of articles online dealing on the issue of privacy. In my mind, to a certain extent it is a war where the government is trying to hold on to it's secrets. This is kinda obvious in China, where alot of corruption is hidden as state secrets.

Not that this would _ever_ take place place in the USA.

on the other hand, I do not know how "transparent" a world I am currently comfortable with.

1) The US is a country with possible the greatest level of personal freedoams in history (maybe not, YMMV)
2) The US is a country where the Government has access to more information on people than has even been possible in history.

Typically, in the past Lots of government information = no personal freedom, a very repressive society, etc.

David Brin's take on this is that there are several other factors involved in this that expalin the apparent parradox, the primary of which is the access to information about the government is also the highest it has ever been, at least in the US.

He has a number of articles online dealing on the issue of privacy. In my mind, to a certain extent it is a war where the government is trying to hold on to it's secrets. This is kinda obvious in China, where alot of corruption is hidden as state secrets.

Not that this would _ever_ take place place in the USA.

on the other hand, I do not know how "transparent" a world I am currently comfortable with.

Is this a step forward for mankind, or a step backward?

That is a good question. I guess the only way to figure it out is if we try it and see what happens. The scientific method demands experiments! There is no other way to know.

It does sound scary and rather gross, but it will definitely answer a lot of questions we have about nature and human life. Plus if it turns out that intelligence is inherited then we will have quite the future ahead of us. Can anybody say Uplift?

A venture capitalist suggested that I read Brin's "Earth" years ago. Since then, I've re-read it twice, getting more out of it each time. A lot of the ideas he covered as non-fiction in "The Transparent Society" were present in "Earth." Of course, it's hard to measure how much Brin influenced the world with his vision of the effects of networking, v. how much he simply foresaw many of its effects. I know it influenced me considerably and I passed on many of the ideas in my talks at many of the early Web-related conferences.