In his orbiting prison, Hugh McCormac recalls a conversation with a quadrupedal Wodenite, then is rescued by a team that includes a centauroid Donarrian whose:
"...simian countenance was a single vast grin." (p. 11)
Earlier in the Technic History, a Donarrian was loyal to a human being in "Sargasso of Lost Starships."
Can bodies be so different yet minds so similar that a Donarrian grins like a man while rescuing his wrongfully imprisoned (human) Admiral? I don't know but there is only one way to find out. The truth must be out there. There has got to be organic life at least on some of the many recently detected extra-solar planets. We will have to look for Wodenites and Donarrians.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I simply can't believe that OURS is the only planet in the galaxy, never mind the cosmos, with intelligent life. I believe it is far more reasonable than not to think that other intelligent races exist.
I also believe it is reasonable to think that evolution on some planets might end up with intelligent races arising which parallels ours in some ways. That is, a four legged species might change so that the forelimbs becomes arms with hands. And such a being is more likely than not to have one head in which the senses for sight, hearing, smell, and an orifice for eating will be located.
As you said, the truth must be out there! So let us get GOING and get out there to find out! I hope something the like the speculative Alcubierre FTL drive can be made practical! Or even the hyperdrive of Anderson's Technic stories.
Ad astra! Sean
But I don't expect such parallels to exist for all intelligent races. I expect some to be as weird and strange and as peculiar as you seem to think should most often be the case. Such as the tri-bodied Didonians we see in THE REBEL WORLDS.
Sean,
I would have said that life might be rare but the number of exo-planets goes against that. But how common are intelligence, civilization, technological civilizations and such civilizations that become stable and endure? We don't know but there are big obstacles to each of these stages.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And both Poul Anderson and Michael A.G. Michaud discussed such questions in their books IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? and CONTACT WITH ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS. But, as you said, we don't KNOW as yet.
Ad astra! Sean
And space-based observatories will solve at least some of these questions soon, as launch costs collapse.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I want that to happen as fast as possible! I want Elon Musk to found his colony on Mars! I want some genius to make the speculative Alcubierre FTL drive a REALITY soon!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Musk's probably going to have a permanent base on Mars within the next 10 years. Alas, the warp drive will probably take a lot longer...
A permanent Martian base within 10 years after all the delay since Apollo? It seems unreal.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: MY fear is that disastrous policies of the kind favored by the Democrats in the US might prevent Musk from founding his Mars base/colony. Which is why I am so impatient for him to do that. Yes, a working Alcubierre FTL drive is too likely to take a lot longer to make a reality.
Paul: When I think of the long stagnation in a real space program after 1973, my anger grows! Disastrous shortsightedness and stupidity. Plus, I have to suspect many disliked the idea of mankind leaving Earth in any serious way. It would make it impossible for various kinds of ideologues to impose their varying straitjackets on all of the human race.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul. I’m uncertain if the SpaceX program could have been duplicated much earlier than it was — there are crucial developments in materials (particularly in rocket engines) and in computers that may have been indispensable.
But we certainly could have done more.
Sometimes in sf, a private party has just blasted off or floated up to the Moon or Mars without notifying anyone else first. Could that conceivably happen with SpaceX?
Kaor, Paul!
Not in the least likely! Not when SpaceX rockets are so large and being launched from Cape Canaveral. For something like what you suggested, it would technology which is much smaller to build and use.
We see Anderson using a similar idea in "The Light," btw. In that story, however, the inventor suppressed what he had done. Because he apparently thought the Europe of the 1400's and 1500's too war torn to merit his work.
Ad astra! Sean
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