Re:Alone in a Crowded Milky Way
by phs318u on Wednesday January 01, 2020 @05:38PM
(#21931228)
> For a successful colony, stability and conformity have to be maintained for long periods - centuries at a minimum, perhaps even millions of years.
The number one attribute that needs to be preserved is the disinclination to blow each other to smithereens. I suspect self-destruction (to a level where technological progress is setback millenia) is a common enough occurrence that would occur well-before FTL becomes a possibility.
I also suspect (despite decades of reading SF and my own wishes to the contrary), that the kinds of attributes that encourage exploration, expansion and risk-taking, are also somehow linked to aggression and violence - "might makes right".
The number one attribute that needs to be preserved is the disinclination to blow each other to smithereens. I suspect self-destruction (to a level where technological progress is setback millenia) is a common enough occurrence that would occur well-before FTL becomes a possibility.
I also suspect (despite decades of reading SF and my own wishes to the contrary), that the kinds of attributes that encourage exploration, expansion and risk-taking, are also somehow linked to aggression and violence - "might makes right".