Weird world.

[arib]

Lots of news sources have been reporting about a recent overflight of a previously uncontacted tribal group in South America, as shown here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7426794.stm

Apparently they were found as part of a study to determine the effects that illegal logging could have on the rainforest. This discovery has made me consider a few things.

-Is this what any hypothetical aliens think when they fly over the Earth? "Look, an isolated planet full of semi-sentients that hasn't contacted other planets yet. How novel!"

-On a related note, is this their equivalent of a UFO sighting? They probably don't have the concepts, it may well be a dragon/giant flying monster sighting from their perspective.

-What happened (or didn't happen) that made this group remain so isolated, while everyone else has more-or-less become interconnected?

-Lots of news sources say that contact with this group should really be avoided, because of the diseases we carry that they just haven't been exposed to (think Isaac Asimov's Spacers). Is that a permanent state of affairs? What if some catastrophe required evacuating them? WHat if they find us someday? Would we need to rush them into cleanrooms?

Just some thoughts, feel free to chime in.

Comments

[beki.livejournal.com]

Those folks haven't been immunized against a lot of what we consider childhood diseases. If you recall your history, when the Europeans came to the continent in the 1600's and after, a lot of the native populations died due to epidemics of things like measles and what not due to the fact that those diseases had never made their way over to this continent. I could see where it would be a huge concern because our germs are more invasive than their germs because they have no immunity. Coming into contact with "modern" civilization could easily wipe them out totally.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

The Amazon Basin is big freaking HUGE. The vast majority of it is covered by double and triple canopy rain forest with frequent cloud cover and fogs. It's only in the last ten years that we finally mapped the entire length of the Amazon - and that was through satellite imagining! These people remained isolated through being in one of the hardest to navigate, dangerous, and altogether frustrating areas on Earth.

What they thought of the flyover depends on their beliefs and what they've seen in the past. Remember, the fact that we haven't seen them before doesn't mean they haven't seen us!

I think the disease aspect is being overstated. "Civilized" germs have been in South America for over 500 years. There would have been some exposure over the centuries.

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wow; it's creepy to see the photo of them looking up at the plane. You can almost make out their faces, and imagination does the rest, to come up with what they think of what they see. And they immediately understand it as a threat. I'd love to know how they're processing that experience, and wonder if that simple overflight will ultimately change their culture. Are they able to imagine that there are human beings inside that big shiny, noisy flying thing?