← Start with a question
Investigation
Who has the right to speak for Earth?
The Servator asked for ten representatives. It did not say representatives of what — and no election has ever been held for the position.
Civics · Ethics · Cognition
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The rule you never noticed
- Who speaks for your class when a decision has to be made quickly?
- How did they get the job, and could you remove them?
- Who speaks for people too young to vote — or for anyone who cannot use human language at all?
The evidence
Suggested reading path
01Established KnowledgeWe Are Still Learning to Recognisze Intelligence at HomeBefore asking whether we would recognisze an alien mind, look at how recently we conceded that octopuses, corvids, whales, and colonies have minds at all.02Speculative FictionCapability Is Not MaturityBuilding the instrument and deserving what it shows you are unrelated achievements.
Also read
From Civics Under Pressure
Questions to think about
Keep arguing
- — Separate three claims: speaking for a government, for humanity, for Earth.
- — Must a representative use human language or possess a human body?
- — Is humanity Earth's representative because we are the only species able to claim the position?
Continue
Other investigations
Biology · History · Ethics · Literature
Who has the right to rewrite a human being?
Physics · Measurement · Philosophy of science
How can the Servator hang there without pushing anything?
Biology · Cognition · Philosophy
What if an octopus is intelligent in a way we cannot measure?
Astronomy · Statistics · Astrobiology
If intelligent life is rare, how could anyone ever find us?
