The power to give, and the power to take.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." —John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

"Ready, are you? What know you ready?" —Yoda

My fellow geeks and geekettes, welcome to my first post.

I just watched, for the first time in quite a while, the movie "Sphere," and it got me thinking. I consider myself a fan of science fiction, especially the substantive material, the "good stuff," if you will. This movie actually has a trace of that at the very least. A sphere of unknown origin is found on a ship made in the future, but ended up sunk in the Pacific Ocean of the past, by way of a quantum singularity. This sphere imbues any who willingly submit themselves to it with the power to manifest whatever the mind can imagine.

Now that is some kind of power. Initially, there are many things I'd love to imagine into existence. Here's the thing, however. Assume, for a minute, I'm not the only one. Also assume that I have a bad day, and am angry. I think you can see where I'm going, just on those two small assumptions.

Though such a power would, on all counts, be intriguing and tempting, even a gift, would we be, at this point in human development, ready?

I sincerely and emphatically think the answer is no. I would even give this answer to being ready for first contact with any intelligent life out there, if there is any.

Here's why:

1) Though we are capable of great things, like art, music, love, architecture, and so on, we are also capable of disgustingly hideous things, such as genocide, rape, war, mass murder, terror. Unfortunately, we haven't yet, as a species, figured out how to separate the two any farther than they currently exist.

2) And this one kind of goes hand-in-hand with the previous point, we have yet to unify as a species. There will still be people of different faiths, and nationalities, but the titles of Human, Terran, and Earthling are but names with no really meaning as of yet. It is my thought that this point, mostly with the first contact scenario, will be an important step in proving our readiness for anything beyond ourselves and our place in space. If this doesn't happen before first contact, it should happen very soon after.

3) We tend to be afraid of what we can't understand. Now this is an instinctual thing, which means that it will be incredibly, if not exceedingly difficult to overcome. It is also understandable and, I think, possible to set aside for exploration's sake. On the other hand, it can be quite dangerous. Many would, in reaction to something not understood approaching them, react violently. In some cases, it may be warranted, but not all. There was a time I didn't understand what a car was, yet years later, I got a license to drive one.

There may be other points that I will think of, but these are the first ones that come to my mind when the question of "are we ready?" comes up.

Again, I must say, in all seriousness, that we, right now, are not ready for a next great step, possibly the next greatest step in our existence, and it saddens me, but it is probably just as well that that's the answer.

I would love to take a spin 'round the galaxy, and see other places we could only dream of. I would love to think I can have a billion dollars, or galactic credits or what ever, and it'd show up right then and there, with a space ship to boot. Unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen, and it shouldn't, for some time.

Thoughts on the matter are welcome, of course.