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The Long Way Home, CHAPTER FIVE.
Poul Anderson imagines genuine aliens. The Holatans have never had a war. Saris Hronna does not expect Holat to have changed much in two thousand years - provided that there has been no further extraplanetary interference, of course. (But what of another two thousand years, which would be necessary for a return journey?) Holatan progress is continual but is an evolutionary growth in harmony with their environment. Holatan philosophers think that infinity is a mathematical abstraction, not a material reality, but they welcome the new knowledge brought by the human explorers. On Earth, Saris directly detects electrons emitted by an aircraft searching for him. We expect to learn more about the Holatans as we read succeeding chapters of The Long Way Home.
2 comments:
I would note that on Earth, social predators (wolves, dholes, humans, etc.) -always- kill each other a lot and -always- fight over territory.
Humans are different, in that they can extend and sublimate territoriality. That doesn't mean they won't fight over it, though. Eg., they can make a religion their 'territory'.
Kaor, Paul!
And Stirling's comments above "fills out" the skepticism I have for the Holatans allegedly never having had wars or violent conflicts. Didn't they also have to struggle for survival against both each other and predators while evolving to sentience? Anderson moved away from that idea in stories written after THE LONG WAY HOME.
Ad astra! Sean
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