from Commissioner Svoboda's concerns at the beginning of "Robin Hood's Barn" to Sherrinford's achievement at the end of "The Queen of Air and Darkness";
from Yakov Kahn's ominous arrival on Mithras at the beginning of "Home" to Elva's triumphant return to Vaynamo at the end of "Time Lag."
The Rustum History is nine stories that can fit into a single volume and the Directorate History is just four of the six stories in one Anderson collection. However, each of these series is substantial enough to count as a short future history and rereading them confirms it.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And in both the Rustum and Directorate series we see an important principle as regards the colonization of other planets: human should not settle planets inhabited by other intelligent races. Which is why Captain Kahn FORCED the evacuation of the Mithras base, to prevent it from becoming a colony. Mithras had an intelligent race of its own.
However, this will not always be so neat and clearcut, as the case of Roland in "The Queen of Air and Darkness" shows. That planet was settled by humans who THOUGHT the planet was uninhabited. By the time they found out otherwise, a hundred years or more later, it was too late, it would be impossible for the humans to leave. So, some kind of modus videndi between the natives and humans of Roland would have to be worked out.
Sean
Sean,
And the Vaynamoans coexist with the Alfavala.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot about the Alfavala! And that brings up another complication: can or should humans colonize planets which have only a half intelligent or quasi intelligent species living there? Because the Alfavala seem to have very limited intelligence the question becomes more difficult to answer. Perhaps the first humans to settle Vaynamo only found out about the Alfavala when the new colony was already firmly rooted? But in any case the Vaynamoans co-exist with the Alfavala and treat them kindly.
Sean
Sean,
Do Alfavala have souls? I don't believe in souls but, for those who do, aliens with different levels of intelligence might present difficult problems.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I don't know. But based on what I recall of the Alfavala, good arguments could be given for either Yes or No. I can imagine the Christians of Vaynamo debating that issue and deciding that if the question could not yet be definitively resolved, the best solution would be to treat the Alfavala kindly. To LEAN a bit in the direction of a Yes answer.
Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ has discussed similar issues in his booklet INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (Catholic Truth Society: 2005). As did C.S. Lewis in his essay "Religion and Rocketry." And I as well in my article "God and Alien in Anderson's Technic Civilization." Interested readers can find that here!
Sean
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