"Homo sapiens is a wolfish creature; two of him can end with ripping each other apart, on an indefinitely long voyage in as crammed a shell as this. But even when our agents have gentler instincts, we try to make up teams of diverse breeds. The members must be compatible in their physical requirements but, preferably, different enough in psychologies and abilities that they form a whole which is more than its parts."
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 211-251 AT pp. 220-221.
"'Three in a ship... You, the Master merchant, trained in culture comparisons and swogglehorning. A planetologist and a xenobiologist. They should be nonhumans. Different talents, you see, also not so much nerve-scratching when cooped together.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Trouble Twisters" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 77-208 AT II, p. 99.
Comments
That is too sweeping a generalization about humanity. Cultures are extremely diverse but a "wolfish" culture projects its characteristics onto humanity as a whole.
We have previously noticed the dichotomy between the vastness of space and the crammedness or coopedness of spaceships. Clearly the ships need to be spacious for long voyages.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I'm more inclined to agree with Anderson than not. Human beings "cooped up" ARE indeed often quarrelsome and that can end in violence if various means are not used to prevent that.
And that idea of persons from different species being more likely to be able to get along than if they were all of the same race is not limited to the Psychotechnic or Technic timelines. I thought of this analogous example from "Sunjammer," one of Anderson's Flying Mountains stories: "No doubt the company psychomeds had known what what they were doing when they picked Storrs, West, and Golescu to operate MERLIN. You needed a balance of personality types..."
Ad astra! Sean
Cooping humans up together is cross-culturally risky, though different cultures use different methods of minimizing the risks.
In STARFARERS, the way the ‘Envoy’ is crewed is a recipe for disaster. The gender balance is absolutely wrong for a long-term expedition that dosen’t expect to return to Earth for many thousands of years, and hence won’t really be coming ‘home’ at all.
For reasonably short voyages, especially under strict military discipline, it isn’t a big deal. But for really long ones you do not, not, not want a mixed-sex crew with a substantial male majority. That’s the worst possible combination. An all-male, all-female or predominantly female mixed crew could work.
What they’ve got is an invitation to alienation, jealousy, brooding hatred and eventual madness and murder... which is just what happens.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and I think the Captain of "Envoy" was aware of that problem. However, for the kind of really LONG voyage being planned, my recollection is that the foundation organizing the expedition simply couldn't find enough of the right kind of people you would need for minimizing these risks.
Most stable, successful people are unlikely to volunteer for a journey that would last 10,000 years, Earth time. So Captain Nielsen and the Foundation had to take whoever they could find, despite their misgivings.
Ad astra! Sean
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