Re: What would make you believe?

On Feb 12, 11:41 pm, mcv <mcv...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> To push the discussion into a completely different direction: suppose
> you were a time traveller from the future with the job of selecting
> someone to help you save the world. How would you select that person?

It wouldn't be anything like the scenario described, that's for sure.
More like materializing on the White House lawn in my flying saucer,
during the day at the height of tourist season and preferably while
the press is around (or maybe during the inauguration) with enough
flashy bits to awe the local yokels, walk out waving a white flag
('cause undoubtedly by this time folks will be pointing guns at me)
and announce to all and sundry that I am a time traveler from the
future and a representative of a future government with vital
information to the survival of this civilization and most of those
people in it and I want to speak to someone in charge.

If I think about it long enough, I might substitute the UN for the
White House.  Whatever.  The idea is to get the people who can
actually do something involved, and present them with the knowledge of
what needs to be done.  That knowledge can then be distributed the
whatever experts can make a difference ("Here are the orbital
parameters of the asteroid that is going to smash the earth, this is
how to produce a vaccine for the plagues, and these are the names of
the conspirators who are planning the world take-over").

That's bound to be much more effective than approaching some random
stranger babbling about winning the lottery.  Sheesh.

Luke