I still feel a bit sad-as-previously-described, but I updated slightly back when I realized (I think?) that the reason Dath Ilani are so smart is because they’ve been doing eugenics for awhile. So, it’s sort of a vision of how Earth could be if we’d gotten started rolling towards the Civilizational Competence Attractor several centuries ago, which isn’t as inspiring now in the ways I originally wanted but is kinda cool.
I’m assuming the downvotes are from people interpreting the parent comment as ‘vague positive affect for eugenics.’
I do want to note that dath ilan eugenics is entirely “the government pays extra to help smart and altruistic people have more children”, not “the government prevents anyone from reproducing”. Also, a central plot point of the story is that the main character is someone the government didn’t want to pay to help have more children, and is annoyed about it, so it’s not like the story doesn’t engage with the question of whether that’s good.
(This comment really made me laugh, I have not seen this synopsis before. I do love the book, I read it at a hard time in my life, it inspired me a great deal.)
Yes, I had a similar reaction. It puts one in the mind of this classic synopsis of Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:
I still feel a bit sad-as-previously-described, but I updated slightly back when I realized (I think?) that the reason Dath Ilani are so smart is because they’ve been doing eugenics for awhile. So, it’s sort of a vision of how Earth could be if we’d gotten started rolling towards the Civilizational Competence Attractor several centuries ago, which isn’t as inspiring now in the ways I originally wanted but is kinda cool.
I’m assuming the downvotes are from people interpreting the parent comment as ‘vague positive affect for eugenics.’
I do want to note that dath ilan eugenics is entirely “the government pays extra to help smart and altruistic people have more children”, not “the government prevents anyone from reproducing”. Also, a central plot point of the story is that the main character is someone the government didn’t want to pay to help have more children, and is annoyed about it, so it’s not like the story doesn’t engage with the question of whether that’s good.
(This comment really made me laugh, I have not seen this synopsis before. I do love the book, I read it at a hard time in my life, it inspired me a great deal.)