In ancient Greece (469 – 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance, who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students…?” 

“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Test of Three.”

“Test of Three?”

“That’s correct,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my student let’s take a moment to test what you’re going to say. The first test is Truth. Are absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man replied, “actually I just heard about it.”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second test, the test of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him even though you’re not certain it’s true?”

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued, “You may still pass though because there is a third test – the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really…”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?”

The man was defeated and ashamed and said no more. This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. It also explains why Socrates never found out that Plato was banging his wife.

The crappy thing about this is that most people will read this and find it funny due to one sentence at the end instead of taking the time to reflect upon the Role Of Three outlined in the story and apply it to their own lives.

And cheap. The basic ninja figure is only $7 and just lots of fun to play with. I have some wacky ideas of project to attempt with these figures (stop-motion animation comes to mind immediately).

Take a look and, if you’re willing, drop a few buck to play with one. They are well worth the cash. I picked mine up at Emerald City Comics in Seminole, FL. yesterday and keep stopping what I’m working on to play with the little buggers.

Eight years of refinement reduced the size of the engine by a meager two feet in both directions and did nothing for the extreme level of power consumption, though the intervening years did generate better methods of power generation. Another three years saw the first launch of a colonization vessel towards the moon, and six more years the first manned exploration vessel towards Mars. Another three years saw the USSV Sky Eagle, the first Haslett class long range exploration vessel begin its voyage to wander our solar system and better understand our cosmic neighborhood.

It didn’t get far.

Near the orbit of Neptune came first contact with extraterrestrials. A squad of forty Soquindus warships interdicted the Sky Eagle’s journey and bombarded it with communications in over eighty languages and dialects. Their message was simple: Don’t leave the solar system. Once the humans of Guinturra, their name for Earth, had established a planetary government capable of speaking for our planet it could petition the Gamedian League for probationary membership. Any attempts to leave the solar system would be obliterated.

End Message.

It has been twenty three years since that ultimatum, and humans are still stuck in earth, resigned to their galactic reservation.

The basic premise resides around a race of intelligent extra-terrestrials that have launched their first intergalactic expedition. These aliens have roughly the same level of technology as humans, a little more advanced in some places, a little behind in others, but have geared their country/planet to exploring space much like the United States when Kennedy announced that we Americans would be the first people on the moon.

Now imagine a civilization that after reaching their moon didn’t stop there and instead continued to push onward. Soon after they hit several of their solar system’s planets and then, after years of planning and toil, launch their first colony ship at what they determine to be the closest planet that can sustain their form of life.

Earth.

The colony ship takes over a hundred years to reach earth using some specialized deep space engines. Upon arrival, in our present day, they find the planet they hoped to claim as the first intergalactic colony of their race/country turns out to be inhabited by us. Earthlings. Humans.

Natives.