Sunday, October 22, 2006
How much for the planet?
Somebody is trying to sell a planet on eBay. It's listed under "slightly unusual" -- not even really weird, or even totally bizarre. I don't know which I should be more incensed about: that someone has the gall to sell it, or that some people are gullible enough to bid.
Still, I guess there's some precedent. The European governments sold chunks of the western hemisphere to settlers, with no more claim to ownership than an agent claiming the land as theirs. For some of it, they didn't even know what they were selling. Never mind that it was previously owned. Settlers often ended up with some pretty odd lots of land.
So what does a planet-seller hope to gain? Other than money, of course. The planet is supposedly habitable. What if it's already inhabited? (therein, the plotline of many a science fiction novel) If/when we finally do develop intergalactic travel and get there (transportation is not provided in the auction offering, alas), will somebody's great-great x whatever descendant try to claim it as their own? Bought and paid for! No doubt they'd find an unscrupulous attorney to support that claim.
People are weird.
I've come to realize that people believe what they want to believe. It doesn't matter how flimsy the explanation, how truly unlikely the story or much physical proof there is against that belief, they will still stand behind it. And anyone who says anything negative is accused of a coverup, or part of a conspiracy. Hard to prove that, and so they claim that any negative comment simply supports their belief.
Yup, people are weird. But entertaining.
Still, I guess there's some precedent. The European governments sold chunks of the western hemisphere to settlers, with no more claim to ownership than an agent claiming the land as theirs. For some of it, they didn't even know what they were selling. Never mind that it was previously owned. Settlers often ended up with some pretty odd lots of land.
So what does a planet-seller hope to gain? Other than money, of course. The planet is supposedly habitable. What if it's already inhabited? (therein, the plotline of many a science fiction novel) If/when we finally do develop intergalactic travel and get there (transportation is not provided in the auction offering, alas), will somebody's great-great x whatever descendant try to claim it as their own? Bought and paid for! No doubt they'd find an unscrupulous attorney to support that claim.
People are weird.
I've come to realize that people believe what they want to believe. It doesn't matter how flimsy the explanation, how truly unlikely the story or much physical proof there is against that belief, they will still stand behind it. And anyone who says anything negative is accused of a coverup, or part of a conspiracy. Hard to prove that, and so they claim that any negative comment simply supports their belief.
Yup, people are weird. But entertaining.
# posted by Leslie Carmichael @ 9:30 PM 
