"A high technological culture such as was needed to build robots and spaceships ought to imply certain qualities - a minimum level of diplomacy and caution and enlightened self-interest - because otherwise you would have wrecked yourself before you progressed that far..." (XX, p.545)
I would go further and suggest that a high technology civilization with built-in conflicts will probably destroy itself early, as ours might do quite soon.
But:
we don't know;
regarding high technology civilizations, we can only generalize from a single instance (whereas Technic civilization encompasses many rational species);
a morally underdeveloped race might have inherited its high tech from someone else;
if and when we do encounter another high tech civilization, we must be prepared for any possibility.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
While I agree that we don't know if we will somehow stagger thru our current problems, I would argue that the SOONER we get off this in a permanent and decisive way, the more LIKELY our high tech civilization will survive. Apropos of which I ardently hope Elon Musk will soon be able to send that colonizing expedition to Mars!
I don't think the Shenna of SATAN'S WORLD truly understood the high tech they were using. It seems to have been mostly inherited from the Old Shenna they wiped out.
I have two books speculating on the possibility of other intelligent races existing, and the dangers and possibilities alike that they offer: IS THERE INTELLIGENT LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? (1963), by Poul Anderson; and CONTACT WITH ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS, by Michael A.G. Michaud (Copernicus Books: 2010). The Anderson book was a pioneer in the field of careful, intelligent speculation about alien rational races. Michaud's book, being written so much later, is in many ways more advanced than Anderson's work. I only regret Mr. Michaud did not at least mention Anderson's book as a predecessor.
For completeness' sake I should mention C.L. Lewis' article "Religion and Rocketry" and Brother Guy Consolmagno's booklet INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE? (Catholic Truth Society: 2005). These two works not only discuss the possibility of rational life on other worlds, but also the religious and theological implications.
Readers should also recall Chapter 1 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE, where the non-human Wodenite, Fr. Axor, discussed ideas similar to those Lewis talked about. Which led me to think Anderson too had read Lewis' "Religion and Rocketry."
Sean
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