I am continuing a quotation begun here:
"...learned space technology in turn from them.
"Thus the knowledge radiated, through millennia, but not like a wave of light from a single candle. Rather it spread like dandelion seeds, blown at random, each seed which takes root begetting a cluster of offspring. A newly civilized planet (by that time, 'civilization' was equated in the minds of space-farers with the ability to travel through space) would occupy itself with its nearer neighbours." (p. 33)
My points with this quotation are, first, the evocative image of "...dandelion seeds, blown at random..." and secondly an echo of a Larry Niven story with, I think, space travelers who define intelligence as the ability to traverse interstellar space. To boost a light-powered spaceship, they might make a star go nova but do not feel guilt if, by doing this, they exterminate a race without interstellar capacity? To confirm the details of this story, I would have to go into a room where someone is now asleep so I am not going to do it right now.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That interests me, Larry Niven writing a story long ago about a star being made to go nova to enable one race to begin interstellar travel (even if that meant exterminating another species). I simply don't recall any Niven story like that. Which doesn't mean I might not have read it myself!
Sean
Sean,
I refer to a specific story although I might have got some details wrong.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I simply can't recall that particular story of Larry Niven!
I have to admit the later works Niven wrote did not appeal to me. Something, alas, seemed lacking in them. I found them heavy, tedious, ponderous, in fact boring. Which saddened me when I recalled how much I enjoyed Niven's earlier stories.
Mercifully, that was not the case with Poul Anderson and his later works! He did write a few weak stories, but not many compared to his vast output.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
If I recall correctly, the Niven story is “The Fourth Profession.” There is a species of traders, using interstellar ships powered by lightsails. If the solar system where they arrive is advanced enough, the natives either have the capacity to push their lightsail and send the trading ship to the next destination, or they they can build up such a capacity, with the advice of the traders. Otherwise, the traders send themselves on their way my making the local sun go nova. It’s a well-written story, whatever else you think of it.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Thanks for giving us the title of the Niven story Paul and I were talking about. "The Fourth Profession" does not seem familiar to me, but it might be somewhere among my SF books.
And if that was one of Niven's earlier stories then I am sure I would enjoy it. I was criticizing merely his more recent works. And these genocidal, exterminationist "traders" contradict the very nature and point of trading!
Regards! Sean
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