* * * This message was from Rob Perkins to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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{at}REPLY: 
Amy Guskin wrote:

>>Why is it assumed in SF-genres like B5, anything by Arthur C. Clarke, 
>>various Star Trek episodes, some other places, that
"spirit-only life" 
>>or energy-based existence is considered a progression from where we 
>>humans are today?
>>
>>I wonder, in earnest, about the origins of that idea. <<
> 
> 
> I do, too.  I'm actually quite fond of my body (most of the time), and the 
> pleasures of the flesh.  :-)

Heh. Me too. And I'm left wondering why God would put us in 'em if He 
thought we'd be worse off in 'em than out of 'em.

So I'll wax a little philosophical here, in the interest of provoking a 
thought or two: We love super heroes and super hero comics and all that 
they can do. And we love telekinetics and force-users and clairovoyants 
and so forth.

Now, bearing in mind that I believe that people with their identities 
pre-existed before birth, what if the attainment of physical form is not 
depravity per se, but the first step in developing just such super-hero 
powers? That is, the fact that you can pick up that coffee cup in the 
morning is so much more than you could do 10 months before you were 
born, that you clamored to get an opportunity to come and do it?

Yes, I'm aware that death gets in the way of that seeming to be a 
progression. Unless resurrection or stuff like it is also part of the 
progression.

I wonder what science fiction with that sort of intelligence-progression 
would look like.

Rob, not skilled enough to actually write the stories
                                                    
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