Sunday 8 October 2023

Higher

The Day Of Their Return, 16.

Yakow makes three leaps of faith:

first, that the Builders did not become extinct:

"'It is a reasonable inference that these beings did not perish, but rather went elsewhere...'" (p. 200)

(Comment: It would be a reasonable inference if there were some way to test it. Otherwise, it remains an unverified hypothesis.)

- secondly, that they "went elsewhere" not only spatially but also spiritually:

"'...putting childish things away as they reached a new stage of evolution.'" (ibid.)

(Comment: This is completely unwarranted. Beings that have survived and gone elsewhere have not necessarily evolved to "a new stage.")

- thirdly, that they will help:

"'And it may conceivably be wishful thinking, but it does seem more likely than otherwise, that the higher sentiences of the cosmos take a benign interest in the lower, and seek to aid them upward.
"'This hope, if you wish to call it no more than that, is what has sustained us.'" (ibid.)

(Comments: It may indeed conceivably be wishful thinking! More likely? That is not enough to go on. "Higher" and "upward" in what senses? A mere hope, indeed.)

Ivar thinks in response:

"...why should intelligence progress indefinitely? Nothin' else in nature does. Beyond that point where technology becomes integral to species survival, what selection pressure is there to increase brains? If anything, we sophonts already have more than's good for us?" (ibid.)

Yakov's "higher" clearly means something other than increased intelligence although he needs he clarify what he does mean by it. But, when technology becomes involved, we are no longer dependent on selection pressure. At least one rational species could set out to enhance its own consciousness deliberately. And that might have happened somewhere. Ivar also thinks:

"...what we've explored is one atom off outer skin of one dustmote galaxy..." (ibid.)

And John Ridenour had reflected that the universe - the universe of the Technic History, at least -:

"...produces sophonts as casually as it produces snowflakes."
-Poul Anderson, "Outpost of Empire " IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010, pp. 1-72 AT p. 7.

So the probability that at least one species has progressed further and gone higher increases significantly. Or, if no one else has, we can. However, I would not place a Yakow-like faith in such a proposition. The question remains empirical.

10 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

This is a clear case of "motivated reasoning", I think.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree with Stirling, mere motivated reasoning by Yakow.

And I am skeptical that any Fallen intelligent race can or will go on to a higher stage of existence. Or even merely "higher" intelligence.

Ad astra! Sean

DaveShoup2MD said...


As Haldane (or Eddington, or Clarke, or all three) said: "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it is stranger than we can imagine.”

And as another thoughtful British philosopher said: “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Plenty of mysteries yet to unravel on our own planet, much less the Solar System.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Dave!

I agree, esp. your last sentence. It reminded me of what Anderson himself wrote for the "Commentary" he included with SPACE FOLK" (Baen Books, 1989, pages 258-59): "Look up. Space begins about fifty miles above your head. Yonder are all the materials, energy, elbow room, and wonderful discoveries to make that our species can ever require. Whether or not we reach the stars (and we can eventually, with or without Einsteinian speed limits laid on us, if we really want to) the Solar System holds more than enough."

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

If the universe seems strange to us, that's only because it differs from our expectations which were based only on our limited experience.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And it will probably look even stranger once mankind gets off this rock!

Ad astra! Sean

DaveShoup2MD said...


Sean - True. Energy without measure, resources without limits, another world - only three days away - with the surface area of Africa.

And all of the above - at hand - to make life on the only green world for light years a paradise of comfort and abundance for the entire human race.

Oh, well. If only.

DaveShoup2MD said...


Paul - True, but when it comes to H. Sap, "our limited experience" is all we have. ;)

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Dave,

Sure but that does explain the apparent strangeness.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Dave!

I agree! But we should also thinking only of making life more pleasant on Earth. We should also think of opening up more frontiers, enabling humans who want to do so to leave Earth and found new homes and societies/nations on other worlds. New frontiers would be outlets for the restless and ambitious, people who would otherwise feel frustrated and stifled on Earth.

Ad astra! Sean