"Immense flocks of seabirds dipped and wheeled. Or were they birds? They had wings, anyhow, steely blue against a wan sky. Perhaps they cried or sang, into the wind skirl and wave rush; but Laure couldn't hear it in the enclosed place."
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 720.
They are birds if they are descended from seagulls imported at many removes from Earth whereas, if they are the outcome of independent Serievean evolution, then maybe they should be classified as equivalents of birds.
In another future history series, Kithmen explore a planet where there are:
"...seabirds, whose wings made a white storm over the tower tops and whose flutings mingled with wind skirl and drum roll of surf..."
-Maurai And Kith, pp. 215-216.
Since this planet had also been colonized by human beings, maybe these seabirds were imported?
Each description reminds us of the other. Flandry's Legacy is Volume VII of The Technic Civilization Saga whereas Maurai And Kith is two short future history series in a single volume.
Serieve is on the edge of another spiral arm of the galaxy whereas the unknown planet visited by the Kith is:
"...three hundred light-years from Sol's calculated present position." (p. 220)
"Starfog" is listed as set in 7100 whereas the Kith story is set twenty thousand years after the Golden Flyer had departed from Tau Ceti to:
"...the fringes of the galactic nucleus." (p. 224)
- which, in turn, was thousands of years in our future.
14 comments:
In places near the sea (like Denmark, or most of England) you get flocks of seagulls following plowmen. They're waiting for earthworms and other insects to be turned up.
Kaor, Paul!
I think its reasonable to believe human colonists will introduce many Terrestrial birds and animals to their new homes.
Ad astra! Sean
Seabirds also live in & near inland water bodies. Eg: I have seen gulls & pelicans by a small shallow lake south of Calgary.
Kaor, Jim!
I've seen birds looking a lot like seagulls inland as well.
Ad astra! Sean
BTW I don't find that post-Technic civilization very credible. It's all very well to 'grow beyond war', but what if someone else has a different idea?
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly! I am very skeptical of dreamy notions of somehow "outgrowing" war. I've tried to suggest to Paul that all the Commonalty has to do is bump up against war like barbarians or an aggressive civilized power--and it's back to normal!
Ad astra! Sean
Of course the human civilizations might meet someone aggressive but meanwhile they can have peace among themselves.
Paul: until they really, really disagree about something... 8-).
Basically, you can't abolish war - or other forms of political violence -- unless you abolish politics. And you can't abolish politics without genetically severely altering human beings.
We can have a different kind of politics.
If (this is possible) it is no longer necessary to compete for raw materials, trade routes or profits, then there will be less reasons for real disagreement.
People living in a society where weapons and instruments of mass destruction are no longer produced and where large numbers of young men in different regions are no longer organized to wear uniforms, obey orders and wield weapons in order to defend their regions against each other, then anyone with real disagreements will have to disagree just by arguing with each other!
A different social context - different social responses.
Kaor, Paul!
No, that peace within the Commonalty will last only as long as no really, really serious quarrels disrupts it.
No, this stubborn insistence that only material things causes quarrels and fights is not true. People can and have fought over anything. Pride, malice, ambition for power, ideological/religious fanaticism, etc., will do.
No, fights and quarrels often escalate from small causes, as we see in Chapter 6 of GENESIS. Your hopes are unrealistic.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am not stubborn. I am disagreeing. I have replied on "power" many times. That word should not merely be repeated without any reference to the context in which it is applied. My hopes are realistic. Conflicts between, e.g., Protestants and Catholics or Muslims and Hindus happen in socioeconomic conditions of discrimination and oppression. They do not happen merely because people have different beliefs. Churches of different denominations, mosques, synagogues and gurdwaras can exist peacefully side by side.
Society can identify and encourage the conditions that generate peace. At present, however, we must oppose rising racism precisely because economic conditions are bad, therefore minorities and immigrants are scapegoated.
Paul.
Crusades and jihads are about leaders and groups grabbing land and loot, not about how many persons there are in God.
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