rEvolutionist wrote:

Animavore wrote:I'm not denying there'll be grief but there's not much we can do about that. If you think of the larger picture, we can't protect them forever. I mean, what, are we going to be still 'protecting' them in 3010?

The thing is, it needs to be done slowly to firstly address health concerns, and then to address cultural concerns. If the initial contact with modern disease doesn't wipe them out, then our culture will swamp theirs. They may not care in the short term (although I'm sure the elders would), but they will care in the long term. It's incumbent upon us to not either physically or culturally wipe them out before they even get a chance at modern life.

But all culture, when you think about it, gets wiped out. But fair enough, if we come in from the angle that contact is inevitable, how would we go about slowly introducing them to the modern world?

Animavore wrote:

rEvolutionist wrote:

Animavore wrote:I'm not denying there'll be grief but there's not much we can do about that. If you think of the larger picture, we can't protect them forever. I mean, what, are we going to be still 'protecting' them in 3010?

The thing is, it needs to be done slowly to firstly address health concerns, and then to address cultural concerns. If the initial contact with modern disease doesn't wipe them out, then our culture will swamp theirs. They may not care in the short term (although I'm sure the elders would), but they will care in the long term. It's incumbent upon us to not either physically or culturally wipe them out before they even get a chance at modern life.

But all culture, when you think about it, gets wiped out. But fair enough, if we come in from the angle that contact is inevitable, how would we go about slowly introducing them to the modern world?

Which, if you had read what I said, is what I try to explain!

Zwaarddijk wrote:

Animavore wrote:

Zwaarddijk wrote:


good fucking grief, you even read? I said it will take *generations*, not fucking millennia.

I did read it. I'm pointing out the absurdity of 'protecting' them. It just can't be done. You can be as idealogical as you want but reality is different.

you are fucking misreading me all the fucking way. but the way you want it, we could just as well send loggers there to kill them off. it'd be faster.

I'm not sure who's misreading who here. I'm aware of the concerns, but I also see integration as inevitable. I'm now asking questions on how we would go about that.

Zwaarddijk wrote:

Animavore wrote:

rEvolutionist wrote:

The thing is, it needs to be done slowly to firstly address health concerns, and then to address cultural concerns. If the initial contact with modern disease doesn't wipe them out, then our culture will swamp theirs. They may not care in the short term (although I'm sure the elders would), but they will care in the long term. It's incumbent upon us to not either physically or culturally wipe them out before they even get a chance at modern life.

But all culture, when you think about it, gets wiped out. But fair enough, if we come in from the angle that contact is inevitable, how would we go about slowly introducing them to the modern world?

Which, if you had read what I said, is what I try to explain!

Sorry. I made a mistake.

Of course the pathogen scenario could also work the other way around. Maybe they're carriers of a lethal virus that will destroy all of "civilised" humanity! Only the tribe (having developed immunity in it's splendid isolation) survives. Then the meek shall truly have inherited the Earth!

Animavore wrote:

rEvolutionist wrote:

Animavore wrote:I'm not denying there'll be grief but there's not much we can do about that. If you think of the larger picture, we can't protect them forever. I mean, what, are we going to be still 'protecting' them in 3010?

The thing is, it needs to be done slowly to firstly address health concerns, and then to address cultural concerns. If the initial contact with modern disease doesn't wipe them out, then our culture will swamp theirs. They may not care in the short term (although I'm sure the elders would), but they will care in the long term. It's incumbent upon us to not either physically or culturally wipe them out before they even get a chance at modern life.

But all culture, when you think about it, gets wiped out. But fair enough, if we come in from the angle that contact is inevitable, how would we go about slowly introducing them to the modern world?

This is going to sound facetious, but we need to do it slowly. I agree that we can't leave them out there forever, it's just not realistic. We need to allow them to integrate at a pace that suits them, but cognisant of the fact that our germs could kill them, and the likelihood that they won't understand this initially. On the point of culture, i think it is important that their culture is at least documented and preserved someway. I agree that it will dissolve/die eventually, but culture and a sense of where we've come from is important to us human beings.

Mike_L wrote:Of course the pathogen scenario could also work the other way around. Maybe they're carriers of a lethal virus that will destroy all of "civilised" humanity! Only the tribe (having developed immunity in it's splendid isolation) survives. Then the meek shall truly have inherited the Earth!

That would be an ironic turn of events, indeed.

rEvolutionist wrote:

Animavore wrote:

rEvolutionist wrote:

The thing is, it needs to be done slowly to firstly address health concerns, and then to address cultural concerns. If the initial contact with modern disease doesn't wipe them out, then our culture will swamp theirs. They may not care in the short term (although I'm sure the elders would), but they will care in the long term. It's incumbent upon us to not either physically or culturally wipe them out before they even get a chance at modern life.

But all culture, when you think about it, gets wiped out. But fair enough, if we come in from the angle that contact is inevitable, how would we go about slowly introducing them to the modern world?

This is going to sound facetious, but we need to do it slowly. I agree that we can't leave them out there forever, it's just not realistic. We need to allow them to integrate at a pace that suits them, but cognisant of the fact that our germs could kill them, and the likelihood that they won't understand this initially. On the point of culture, i think it is important that their culture is at least documented and preserved someway. I agree that it will dissolve/die eventually, but culture and a sense of where we've come from is important to us human beings.

Or, as Mike said, their germs could kill us

Excellent blog piece on this: http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology ... %E2%80%99/