Daven Laure, Ranger of the Commonalty, does not anthropomorphize the nonhuman sophonts that he encounters but does acknowledge that they are aware and can think. Doesn't everyone? Do some Rangers think that other apparently intelligent species are really elaborate biological automata? We are told nothing about any of these species but, in another spiral arm of the galaxy, they will not be just the Merseians, Ythrians, Cynthians, Wodenites etc that had been encountered within two hundred light years of Sol.
Laure is from the Fireland mountains on New Vixen. That tells us that the Vixenites, originally of the Supermetals Company, then of the Terran Empire, had travelled a long way to found a colony. There is more information to be found here but I am being interrupted.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
To be fair to Daven Laure's colleagues, I think it might be possible some creatures on some planets might at first seem to be intelligent, but after various kinds of tests, human explorers would conclude they were simply animals. We see Anderson examining that idea in one of his two contributions to A WORLD NAMED CLEOPATRA, "The Serpent in Eden."
Ad astra! Sean
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