You never know. Societies both real and ficticious can often get along just fine with some seemingly obvious gaps in their knowledge.
Many cultures have no concept of zero, and many have no concept of left and right (direction is absolute, so north, east, south, west, etc.).
As for fiction, take Steven Universe. The Diamond Authority managed to exist for millennia and conquer numerous planets without ever inventing the wheel, instead using flight, teleportation (via warp pads), and palanquins (which have legs).
i dont think its possible for a civilization capable of interstellar travel to avoid developing some concept of a camera. theyre pretty much required for the kind of science it takes to get to that point. even if theyre all completely blind, they would still create cameras because theres so much information in the electromagnetic spectrum they couldnt afford to ignore, they would just be interpreted differently. think about it, how would you develop an orbital launch vehicle without the ability to capture and store images? how would you learn enough about stars or space to even conceive of leaving your home planet?
Knowing what a camera is doesn’t imply that they can recognize our cameras. The alien could be surprised that even after developing that technology we still have wars over made up borders.
are you being deliberately obtuse? i was replying to someone who said maybe they dont even have cameras. i wasnt saying anything about the plausibility of the comic…
Cultures that use absolute direction are better at navigating and their people always know which way is North. The fact that so many white people don’t know which way they’re facing is, I think, the obvious gap in cultural knowledge.
Another big gap in western cultural technology is that most white people don’t practice any perception-altering mental techniques. Most of them don’t see a use for such techniques. But the lack of personal control over perception is a big reason for transphobia. When most white people see a “non-passing” trans person, they get upset about the social expectation to perceive a personal truth that they cannot perceive. Instead of just, using a mental technique to edit their perception of gender. White people have a learned helplessness with regards to their perceptions, and it leads to a lot of social conflict.
A big example in the news a couple years ago was when JK Rowling erroneously perceived Algerian boxing champion Imane Khelif as a man. Instead of just changing her perceptions, Rowling started a cyberbullying feud and got sued into shutting up. And Imane is cisgender! White people can be very entitled about changing the world to fit their perceptions, because they don’t know how to change their perceptions to improve the world.
I come from a white family, and I enjoy the benefits of white privilege thanks to pale skin. I identify as white in terms of issues of racism and ancestry. But I have left white culture behind. After all, whiteness was invented by slave traders in the 1500s to justify slavery. In Europe, people identified with ethnic groups such as their nationality or religion. In Europe, there are massive racial tensions between Bulgarians, Serbs, Hungarians, Romani, Turks… But in the new world, all of the peoples of Europe (Except for arbitrary groups like Irish and Jewish) could unite as the singular WHITE RACE, defined in opposition to the black slaves and the native Americans. It was a fiction, dozens of different ethnicities ganging up together to beat the shit out of the new victims. Whiteness is inherently colonial, because whiteness was invented to justify colonisation.
I grew up in Australia, being taught to identify with the white colonial oppressor culture. But it didn’t work, I do not see Myself in the criminals who stole this continent for their king and queen. I have done what I can to decolonise My mind, and I continue to do so. It’s a process that will never end until all the world has said no to whiteness. Are you brave enough to leave whiteness behind? You have some great choices in front of you. You could rediscover the culture your ancestors had before whiteness was invented. Maybe you’re English, or German, or Dutch. Or you could help make something entirely new, while remembering and attempting to reconcile the past. Whiteness does not have to be your heart.
cool story. doesn’t change the fact that you used “white people” in a way that implies you think all white people are like that, which is bigoted. feel free to double down though im sure that will convince me.
White and black aren’t the same. Just like cis and trans aren’t the same, and straight and gay aren’t the same. There’s a difference between punching up and punching down. There’s also a difference between insulting a group you aren’t part of, and criticising a culture you were born into. I think I have the right to criticise the environment I was raised in. And so do the people who have lived their lives being oppressed by that culture.
You never know. Societies both real and ficticious can often get along just fine with some seemingly obvious gaps in their knowledge.
Many cultures have no concept of zero, and many have no concept of left and right (direction is absolute, so north, east, south, west, etc.).
As for fiction, take Steven Universe. The Diamond Authority managed to exist for millennia and conquer numerous planets without ever inventing the wheel, instead using flight, teleportation (via warp pads), and palanquins (which have legs).
i dont think its possible for a civilization capable of interstellar travel to avoid developing some concept of a camera. theyre pretty much required for the kind of science it takes to get to that point. even if theyre all completely blind, they would still create cameras because theres so much information in the electromagnetic spectrum they couldnt afford to ignore, they would just be interpreted differently. think about it, how would you develop an orbital launch vehicle without the ability to capture and store images? how would you learn enough about stars or space to even conceive of leaving your home planet?
Knowing what a camera is doesn’t imply that they can recognize our cameras. The alien could be surprised that even after developing that technology we still have wars over made up borders.
are you being deliberately obtuse? i was replying to someone who said maybe they dont even have cameras. i wasnt saying anything about the plausibility of the comic…
Sorry, I tried adding information and didn’t understand your meaning
Cultures that use absolute direction are better at navigating and their people always know which way is North. The fact that so many white people don’t know which way they’re facing is, I think, the obvious gap in cultural knowledge.
Another big gap in western cultural technology is that most white people don’t practice any perception-altering mental techniques. Most of them don’t see a use for such techniques. But the lack of personal control over perception is a big reason for transphobia. When most white people see a “non-passing” trans person, they get upset about the social expectation to perceive a personal truth that they cannot perceive. Instead of just, using a mental technique to edit their perception of gender. White people have a learned helplessness with regards to their perceptions, and it leads to a lot of social conflict.
A big example in the news a couple years ago was when JK Rowling erroneously perceived Algerian boxing champion Imane Khelif as a man. Instead of just changing her perceptions, Rowling started a cyberbullying feud and got sued into shutting up. And Imane is cisgender! White people can be very entitled about changing the world to fit their perceptions, because they don’t know how to change their perceptions to improve the world.
i dont really like how you keep saying white people like all of us are like that… no group is a monolith.
I come from a white family, and I enjoy the benefits of white privilege thanks to pale skin. I identify as white in terms of issues of racism and ancestry. But I have left white culture behind. After all, whiteness was invented by slave traders in the 1500s to justify slavery. In Europe, people identified with ethnic groups such as their nationality or religion. In Europe, there are massive racial tensions between Bulgarians, Serbs, Hungarians, Romani, Turks… But in the new world, all of the peoples of Europe (Except for arbitrary groups like Irish and Jewish) could unite as the singular WHITE RACE, defined in opposition to the black slaves and the native Americans. It was a fiction, dozens of different ethnicities ganging up together to beat the shit out of the new victims. Whiteness is inherently colonial, because whiteness was invented to justify colonisation.
I grew up in Australia, being taught to identify with the white colonial oppressor culture. But it didn’t work, I do not see Myself in the criminals who stole this continent for their king and queen. I have done what I can to decolonise My mind, and I continue to do so. It’s a process that will never end until all the world has said no to whiteness. Are you brave enough to leave whiteness behind? You have some great choices in front of you. You could rediscover the culture your ancestors had before whiteness was invented. Maybe you’re English, or German, or Dutch. Or you could help make something entirely new, while remembering and attempting to reconcile the past. Whiteness does not have to be your heart.
cool story. doesn’t change the fact that you used “white people” in a way that implies you think all white people are like that, which is bigoted. feel free to double down though im sure that will convince me.
I think maybe your white fragility is having a negative impact on your literacy.
replace white with black and think about whether it sounds bigoted
White and black aren’t the same. Just like cis and trans aren’t the same, and straight and gay aren’t the same. There’s a difference between punching up and punching down. There’s also a difference between insulting a group you aren’t part of, and criticising a culture you were born into. I think I have the right to criticise the environment I was raised in. And so do the people who have lived their lives being oppressed by that culture.