jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (03/12/86)
[The poster references a science fiction writer as saying that when a
people migrates over great distances, the "smarter, more survivable types"
migrate first, and cites the Europeans colonizing the New World as an
example.]
Consider what happened when these "smarter" types left Europe for America.
Many left Europe because they had heard exaggerated stories of a wonderful
new world. They came to America and found hostile natives, an absence of
the amenities to which they were accustomed, and a need to devote the rest
of their lives to simple survival.
I have some difficulty in seeing how that is "smarter". Furthermore, I
think that a society in which all the "smarter" people went off to
colonize such inhospitable environments would experience a long lag in the
advancement of their knowledge. Consider that, aside from people building
Industrial Age machinery, a lot of the more learned people did not come to
America until they were driven there by wars in their own countries.
Rather, I think that the desire to go to other environments is indeed
inspired perhaps by a dissatisfaction with the current environment (as the
poster suggested), but more by a desire to control your own direction than
a simple "I don't like it here and I'm a smart guy so I'm leaving"
attitude. Given the thematic trends of most popular fiction on the
subject, I also tend to feel that a desire for "action" and "conquest" is
involved, since many of the popular Science Fiction stories are little
different from stories of Conan the Barbarian set in a high-tech
environment.
[Since I don't see what this has to do with singles, followups will go to
net.space (unless you change it), which I think is where the discussion
probably leaked from (since it's also leaking into net.columbia).]
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