Space Races

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, Terrestrials were the first race to develop the hyperdrive in their immediate volume of space. This single discovery in the Solar System generated several interstellar realms: Terran, Merseian, Ythrian, Gorrazanian. However, the hyperdrive had also been independently discovered nearby:

"It may be a nonhuman craft... Our intelligence reports, interrogation of prisoners, evaluation of explorers' observations, and so on, all indicate that three or four different species in this region possess the hyperdrive."
-Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 567.

Contact with technologically advanced civilizations is so frequent that Nicholas van Rijn can issue the order:

"'Get them on the telecom and develop a common language. Fast!'" (p. 569)

Although he is no scientist - no one can do everything -, van Rijn must of necessity be better acquainted with scientific principles and discoveries than any of his capitalist predecessors. Thus, when he is told that the Cainites:

"'...don't sweat...There's a complicated system of exo- and endothermic reactions in the blood to regulate temperature.'"
-Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (New York, 2010), p. 284.

- van Rijn is able to reply:

"'Sweating is not so common on cold terrestroids...Always you find analogs to something you met before, if you look long enough. Evolution makes parallels.'" (ibid.)

It is to be hoped that planetary environments supporting complex organisms are common enough that generalizations like this will be made. However, I expect that we will have to look a very long time to find parallels. On the other hand, if two species with interstellar capacity both want to communicate, then hopefully a common language will indeed be developed quickly.

I have just heard a radio documentary about the world economy:

globalization;
technological innovation;
emergence of China and India;
increasing extremes of wealth and poverty.

It sounds like the Polesotechnic League.