Another Humanoid Extraterrestrial

Occasionally on this blog, I mention other books that I read, just to put Poul Anderson in a wider perspective. I have started to read Anderson's collection, Space Folk, but am also taking a break from it to look at something else.

I have mentioned the implausible humanoid aliens in some Anderson short stories like "Backwardness." In that short story, the United Nations Secretary-General, conversing with a Galactic emissary, thinks:

"It was not for him to judge a superman." (Kinship With The Stars, New York, 1991, p. 159)

- and the Cardinal Archbishop of New York thinks that:

"Among the Great Galactics, a silence must be as meaningful as a hundred words..." (p. 163)

Humanoid aliens used to abound in popular sf and are still to be seen in Star Trek. One Golden Age (1938) humanoid, not only regarded as a superman but also called "Superman," is now presented in considerably more sophisticated narratives such as the Smallville novel, Silence by Nancy Holder. In this Smallville series, we see Lex Luthor striving for the best that terrestrial humanity can achieve and therefore opposing the importation and imposition of an extraterrestrial superhumanity that, he thinks, renders human effort meaningless. It is for Alexander Luthor to judge a superman.

"Backwardness" II

What might a Galactic Federation with a very low average IQ be like? Poul Anderson presents three stark examples in "Backwardness."

(i) The quartermaster of an interstellar spaceship:

feeds the gods with rabbits because there is not enough room for cattle on the ship;

asks the Cardinal Archbishop of New York the names of the top local gods because it would be a good idea to kill some cattle for them to avoid bad luck;

but otherwise is more interested in discussing what is on television.

The Galactics had not understood the Cardinal's request to meet their chaplain not because of any linguistic problem but because they need no word for "chaplain" other than "quartermaster, when he is feeding the gods." Imagine if that was the highest level of religion that was ever to be attained.

(ii) When the vibrations generated by a star drive are detected emanating from a new planetary system, a mission is sent to check whether the new interstellar travelers still wage war among themselves and, if so, to destroy every planet in their system. That is what would have happened to the entire Solar System if a star drive had been tested while wars were still waged on Earth.

Imagine if that was the highest level of morality that was ever to be attained.

(iii) The concluding sentence of the story underlines the Galactics' backwardness when a con man, having befriended the Federation emissaries, sells them the Brooklyn Bridge. This is short-sighted but, because it happens at the end of a short story, we maybe smile, then stop thinking about it. The public had been warned not to harm the powerful Galactics as they shop in New York. In fact, the Galactics are protected by an invisible force screen but not all harm is physical.

Apart from being a lousy trick to play on a bunch of guys after befriending them, what will the confidence trick, when it is inevitably discovered, do to interstellar relations? Anderson could have written a lot more about the diplomatic repercussions of the Galactics' arrival.

Human Galactics

The point of Poul Anderson's "Details" is that history is chaotic.

The point of his "Backwardness" is that a high average IQ was not necessary for human survival or technology.

The point of his "Soldier from the Stars" is that militarily superior humanoids would be able conquer Earth by destroying much of it but they would be better advised to sell their military services to the highest bidder among Terrestrial governments, thus conquering Earth economically.

In "Details," extra-solar "human beings" able to pass as Terrestrials observe and subtly intervene on Earth. In "Backwardness," human beings from Earth-like planets where evolution exactly parallels that on Earth land to negotiate with the UN. In "Soldier from the Stars," the aliens, as far as I can remember without having reread that story recently, orbit Earth and offer their services. But they are close enough to human beings to live here, buy property, invest etc.

In each of these short stories, Anderson, in order to make his particular point, makes, for story purposes,  the impossible assumption of human beings from the stars. But he speculates seriously about extraterrestrial and extra-solar life in other works. 

"Backwardness"

Poul Anderson's "Backwardness" (Kinship With The Stars, New York, 1991) identifies itself as science fiction at the very end of its first paragraph by informing us that a con man spends his spoils not only in Florida but also in Greenland Resort or even further away in Luna City. The name "Luna City" takes the reader right back to Robert Heinlein's Future History.

What happens next? The Galactics have arrived and are negotiating with the UN. Not the same "Galactics" as in Anderson's "Details" but another fictitious humanoid race that has faster than light travel and that comes to us before we have gone to them.

In fact, this is another "Galactic Federation" story. As I said when discussing Anderson's "Peek! I See You!," the Galactic Federation is not a single sf series but a kind of premise for disparate stories: there is a Federation out there but the details like how to join are for each writer to devise. "Backwardness" exists because Anderson has, in his own words, thought of another twist to a cliche. The clue is in the title. Who is backward? Us or a million year old civilization with interstellar travel?

Some freak of mutation gave Earthmen an average IQ higher than they needed for survival. Given enough time, the Galactics, with their lower average IQ, discovered enough physics to give them military and interstellar technology but they are only a short way ahead of Earth in those respects and behind in every other way so who is going to wind up running the Federation?

Human superiority was a feature of Campbell-influenced sf but Anderson, covering every possibility, also has stories in which aliens are superior. In fact, I remember a story that was the obverse of "Backwardness," in which an alien race was more intelligent. That story is probably in the collection The Gods Laughed and I will come across it when rereading.