Fortunately, our new more sensitive society has done a heckuva job decolonizing the Arecibo radio telescope (above) in Puerto Rico.
What work? This is the easiest work ever You sit around and make up reasons why words hurt your feelings. E.g., let’s do Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence:
The word ‘search’ is highly problematic, with a racist past. It featured in the title of African explorer Henry M. Stanley’s famous memoir “The Search for Dr. Livingstone.” The concept of “searching” is highly redolent of white male exploration and discovery.
“Extraterrestrial” is Earth-centric. Why should Earth be privileged as being “terrestrial” when all else in the universe is “extraterrestrial?”
“Intelligence” is highly discriminatory. Intelligent people know that stupidity is just as good as intelligence because they are intelligent, which makes them better than the stupid. Or something.
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An argument from lack of evidence, a type of conspiracy theory, attempting to misrepresent the fact that no ETs have been discovered, as some type of motivated prejudice? We're also trying to find simpler life forms, if we can. Not only the anthropomorphic ones of the human imagination or whatever other potentially intelligent form.
I’m not aware of any way which “search” is considered problematic. It *is* problematic to use the word “discover” if doing so would effectively dismiss the people who already knew about the thing in question for centuries or millennia as being unimportant, particularly if it was initially “discovered” by talking to said people.
It’s possible that “extra-terrestrial” will become problematic in the distant future when humanity has a good reason not to use Earth-centric language. As it is, this is the only real frame of reference which we can reasonably work from (aside from maybe extra-solar), and unless aliens are listening in, it harms no one. (And even if aliens are listening in, it’s hard to imagine why they’d fault us.)
“Intelligence” I might give you, as this word is too broad and vague and is occasionally used in a problematic way, and is technically not what SETI was trying do detect, at least not directly: “technology” or “civilizations” would make for a more accurate description, but a worse acronym (and the aesthetics of acronyms *do* subtly affect what people think of them and how well they’re remembered, so that can’t entirely be discounted). It was also a product of its time.
Regardless, words are not problematic simply because someone decided that they *wanted* to be offended and so made up ridiculous connotations and then forced people to accept them. They’re problematic because they imply, or are commonly used to imply, things which give incorrect impressions at best and harmful ones at worst. The fact that some people can’t see that or don’t care doesn’t change anything.
“Intelligent people know that stupidity is just as good as intelligence because they are intelligent, which makes them better than the stupid.”
Try harder, darling. Intelligent people know stupid people have just as many RIGHTS as the intellectuals, they just don’t want idiots making major decisions about society.
You guy sseem to have a really hard time distinguishing between equal opportunity and equality. It’s not that hard…
Intelligent people know that stupidity is just as good as intelligence because they are intelligent, which makes them better than the stupid
IQ of 140+ here last time I was tested. I don’t think stupid people deserve less rights than me in any way. What I do take issue with is when stupid and ignorant people insist on deciding everything for me. Because guess what, when stupid people make decisions they tend to make stupid decisions!
And it goes both ways; when a trained physician tells me to do something for my health or else I’ll die, I’m not going to deliberatly ignore them and do the exact opposite either. I’ll listen to them beause I know they’re more educated on the subject than I am!
Just another thought about intelligence, I think that highly intelligent people can also live in their own world (I won't mention names but some people are both notable for high IQ and for their strange views of the universe and politics). General education (beyond learning things by heart of course) is good as it can attempt to guide. And someone who is mislead may as well get lost in philosophy a long time without an understanding about where it meets reality or not (i.e. metaphysical views are not equal). For the same reason science is awesome, with its efforts to deal with human weaknesses and because it's highly collaborative, the body of knowledge and approaches can grow. Although smart people will keep rediscovering and reinventing things, it goes beyond a single person's achievements... As Zinnia mentioned, clues of "intelligent organization" can serve to determine what to look for, like signs of civilization or of technology.
When I read the OP again I have the impression that it's one of those many divisive propaganda games, splitting hairs in any possible way. In this "bullshit tradition", words are redefined, ideas misrepresented, concepts used out of context, communities of all sorts targetted with crazy and extreme ideas, etc. Sometimes it's even difficult to determine what's AI generated or what's designed to train search engine and text generating AI... Some people seemingly become crazy and afterall, that's one of the purposes of confusion propaganda...
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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