Stephen Hawking wants us to stop looking for aliens, in fact he thinks we should keep our head down and hope they don’t notice us and I for one agree.

Basically the argument is that chances are, contact with extra-terrestrials would not be a friendly meeting. Rather, a race advanced enough to be travelling throughout the universe is probably not on a galactic search for new friends, but more likely resources. And what reason would we have to believe they would have any interest in living in harmony with us? Are there any examples, any at all, of colonialism on earth where the colonizers wanted to share? Of course not.

Perhaps some kind of inter-galactic governing body will exist some 10,000 years down the road, but only after hundreds of years of wars and galactic genocide that this planet will certainly not make it through.

This may seem like paranoid rambling, albeit with the endorsement of one of the smartest men on the planet. But the point is, why take the risk. The probability, and potential for, literally, astronomical earth-shattering disaster is far too high.

Also, while we’re on the subject, can we please stop trying to invent robots that are smarter than us? Has no one seen The Terminator? Again, why would a robot that is smarter than me do anything for me? Why would it serve me? And again, are there any historical examples of a smarter, stronger, better educated race being enslaved by their subordinates? Of course not! We’re manufacturing our own demise!

The Conservative government announced this week it would be cutting off funding to the Community Access Program, reducing its $15 million budget down to $2 million. The initiative, brought forth in 1994, “gives thousands of Canadians affordable access to the Internet in places like schools, community centres and libraries. It provides access to those people who might not have computers or Internet access in their homes or workplaces.”

A noble and just effort for sure, so why the cuts?

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Does it mean anything if an onion ring is more poplular than a Prime Minister, or if a pickle has more fans than Nickelback ?

This recent rise in lazy-man activism has been much criticized, for good reason. Really, what does it matter if an onion ring has more facebook votes than Stephen Harper. Does that mean we should move our federal elections to facebook? Is that how we engage people? Would the outcome be a country presided over by pub fare?

Facebook and other social networking services may create an environment for meandering, responsibility-free complaining, but when put to proper use they can be valuable resources to activists. They’re tools for communication that galvanize and mobilize enormous groups of people at once and while the groups mentioned above may only prove that a large chunk of the population has the munchies, the tool itself has promise.

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When Apple finally revealed the iPad to the world a few weeks ago, the amount of hype and speculation surrounding it made it nearly impossible to appreciate.

Almost instantly, the tech industry was criticizing the uselessness of such a device. Steve Jobs had barely left the stage when “5 worst things about the iPad” lists started popping up all over the place. Left and right, the question most being asked is “why?”

But why is irrelevant. Technology creates it’s own demand. Who needed a smart phone before they existed? Moreover, who needed the internet? I have no doubt the iPad will become a necessary household device, but that need and usefulness doesn’t come on launch day. Before a device or new technology can stake that kind of claim it needs to get into people’s hands. It needs to be used, before it can be useful.

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