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In Sheri S Tepper's wonderful novel Sideshow (the final part of the Arbai trilogy) a planet of (increasingly rare and nativist) baseline humans is set up to ans
by moomin 9y ago
In Sheri S Tepper's wonderful novel Sideshow (the final part of the Arbai trilogy) a planet of (increasingly rare and nativist) baseline humans is set up to answer the question: "What is the destiny of man?"
The answer comes back: "To become something that is not man."
Extinction itself isn't really anything to be scared of. The real question is whether we're replaced by something better, and maybe what those superior beings would think of us after we're gone.
(That last question is answered in one of Stephen Baxter's books with: "an extremely successful animal that enlarged its ecological niche")
- coldtea 9y ago>Extinction itself isn't really anything to be scared of. It is to those getting extinct. And whether they're replaced by "something better" or not doesn't matter to that. Either it's you (your species) that is evolving, or it matters very much. In a hypothetical scenario, I supposed few people would rush to go voluntarily extinct to save the life of some more evolved (smarter, stronger, more beautiful, etc) alien species out there.
- moomin 9y agoNo more than ordinary death is. Some extinction scenarios have us as the (possibly biological) progenitors of our successors. You'd still want what was best for your children. The ability to interbreed with baseline humans would be at best a secondary concern. Anyway, I highly recommend the Arbai trilogy. Grass, in particular, is a masterpiece.
- coldtea 9y ago>No more than ordinary death is. Yeah, I agree it's not more scary that what's considered the scariest thing in the world, upon the fear of which whole empires have been built...