Conversation:

Entry: Aliens and Cannibals - First Contact in Ecuador, 1956 - A87780180
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni (GE, Post Editor), Not here the darkness, in this twittering world - U1590784

The last time I wrote about missionaries, one of them got eaten.

This time, it's the MISSIONARIES who were referred to as 'cannibals'. (Don't worry, they didn't really eat anybody.)

I like it how you got Picard into this. I also had to think of the prime directive after reading the introduction.

I thought this was a very interesting Entry.

Thanks, Tav! I knew h2g2 would understand this story.

We watched the documentary last night - it was really amazing.

Parts at the end remind you of 'The Gods Must Be Crazy'. The people both sides of this saga will warm your heart.

This is a great article, offering an understanding of both sides of the conflict.

However, you haven't really linked NASA's interest in aliens with your story about the Waodani. Is there any evidence that NASA are studying incidents like this to inform their thinking about interacting with aliens?

Aren't most predictable aliens of the green slime kind?

I don't know if NASA have been studying these scenarios in particular, MVP. I'll do some research, thanks - and if NASA aren't doing it, I will remove the reference to them.

Science fiction fans are quite familiar with the first contact scenario, of course - minus the 'green slime aliens'.

Aha.

I have added a link to a paper - you can read the entire paper online - by a Penn State professor who is affiliated with NASA. On the subject, 'Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis'.

I didn't say NASA were studying missionaries. I suspect neither group quite realises the connection. I did suggest that it would be a good idea.

This writer, however, HAS thought about missionaries in that context, and he did it in 1979:

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/xenology/26.0.htm

So that's where the phrase 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' comes from.

I'm sure there ought to be possible stories and jokes about meetings between aliens, astronauts and missionaries....

great tale Dmitri

Not sure if you need another link but Prof Stephen Hawking issued a warning a few years ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8642558.stm

Thanks, GB. I worked that reference in. That's a good one.

MVP, there's an old story - by Asimov, I think - about an alien race of the Jewish persuasion. It's pretty cool.

And Fred Hoyle, former Astronomer Royal, wrote a novel about Jesuits encountering life on another planet. Less cool encounter.

Okay, this story is too good to keep, even though I can't work it into the Entry:

When Mincaye, the Waodani who is Jessie Saint's honorary grandfather, wanted to go to the US to attend Jessie's high school graduation, he needed a passport. Steve Saint, himself an Ecuadorian citizen, said this was going to be nearly impossible. But he was willing to try. He and Mincaye went to the US Embassy and started filling out forms.

Full name? Mincaye.
Bank? Er, like river bank?
Occupation...

Steve wrote: Hunter/Gatherer.

This got so much attention, the Consul showed up and gave him a passport.

The documentary records Mincaye's take on US culture. Not flattering, but very, very funny.

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Another cracker Dmitri