This World and Me

A few years ago, I stumbled across  Sonic Colors , a 2010 video game produced by Sega for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. The game features Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog and his best friend Tails on an adventure in outer space against their nemesis Doctor Eggman, who has captured and enslaved the planets of an alien life form called Wisps. The Wisps have an energy inside them which Eggman uses to power a mind control weapon, with which he plans to take over the world. Sonic and Tails team up with the Wisps to defeat Doctor Eggman and restore freedom to the planets of the Wisps. It has been called one of the best Sonic  games. This post is not going to be about Sonic (though I could write a whole post about Sonic – in middle school I secretly watched all 74 episodes of the  Sonic X  anime ). I mentioned  Sonic Colors  because it introduced me to a band called Cash Cash, whose lead vocalist, Jean Paul Makhlouf, performed in the opening and closing t...

Imagine the following scenario. As a child, you are abducted by a highly intelligent alien life form that is interested in learning more about humans on Earth. The aliens poke and prod you and ask you questions in a language that is completely foreign to you. After some time, some level of communication will be possible – you might start by pointing at things and saying out loud what they are. They're an intelligent life form, so eventually they will understand. The aliens eventually decide to keep you and observe how human children mature. Perhaps after many years, you might find yourself accustomed to the way of alien life, but you can't shake the feeling that you simply don't belong in the alien community. To them, you are the alien. Other aliens agree with you. Perhaps an alien activist will campaign the alien government for your return to Earth: after all, abducting you from Earth without your consent was a violation of your fundamental rights! The alien courts agree a...