message 0523

• On Cherryh's 'Inside Outer Space' article (topic: the implications of space travel for civilizations, esp. regarding warfare)

>Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 18:18:01 -0400
>From: "Nancy Silberstein" <silbersteinn@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
>Subject: Cherryhlist/CJC on Aggression

C. J. Cherryh, "Goodbye Star Wars, Hello Alley-Oop," INSIDE OUTER SPACE, 
pp. 19-20

Humanity...has reached that level at which it can destroy life on its own 
planet, which is precisely the technological level at which it can escape 
the planet.  As a natural concomitant to our own technological expansion, 
we are learning not only tolerance of other kinds, but their value.  From 
being able to destroy the world, we must consciously and daily refrain.  It 
seems reasonable that any species that hopes to get off its planet must 
reach such consciousness of power and responsibility...or kill itself off 
before it can get off-planet.

Random aggression is therefore a trait subject to severe culling BEFORE the 
starfaring stage, and must be somewhat rarer than some might suspect.

Purposeful aggression is subject to the same strictures.

It is possible, still, that there might be some aggressive species or 
totally xenophobic species that would seek war for its own sake.

And there may be other species, of course, who will have to study a long 
time to learn what the word war means at all, species whose patterns of 
aggression are very divergent from ours and so specific to particular 
situations situations that they are not species-threatening; or species 
whose responses are totally bizarre from our viewpoint.

With such beings, conflicts might take many shapes.