RE: [OT] Re: Human aggression in space

This came up in a discussion once, which was mainly concerned with 
indicting X or Y ethnic group as the purveyors of all violence and evil.

 Somebody brought up the point that from the paleo evidence so far 
(sketchy, but OK) that the Cro-Magnon variant pretty much wiped out the 
Neanderthals in Europe over a period of a few hundred years.  When
compared 
to estimated migration rates & patterns, that's a pre-historic genocide
of 
huge proportions.  And there would be more Neanderthal gene-leftovers if

they had interbred.  We're all violent chimps, when it comes down to it.

There are several ways that this has been approached in SF, and all have

succeeded and failed, to some degree.  You've got 3 standard settings:
1) Humans encounter MUCH more aggressive races (Bugs, Kra'Vak - maybe?, 
etc.)
2) Humans are no more or less aggressive than everybody else - no real 
loonies (Star Wars, Star Trek, others)
3) Humans are violent psychopaths, compared to the rest of the
peace-loving 
galaxy (A.D. Foster's 'A Call To Arms' series, various short stories)

Personally, I like to have a variety - a few sociopaths, a lot of OK
races, 
and a few scaredy-cats.  Makes for more interesting interactions.

Noah

-----Original Message-----
From:	Beth Fulton [SMTP:beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au]
Sent:	Wednesday, September 30, 1998 06:12 PM
To:	FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject:	[OT] Re: Human aggression in space

G'day one and all,

>I always wonder about the authors who think humans would be aggressive
>compared to other alien species...  How many other species have they 
met?..

May be not quite you meant, but existing and on-going paleoecology
studies
are suggesting that we have encountered other sentinent species (the
other
branches of the Homo tree) and we eradicated them and their cultures. OK
in
a few years time the "they would've gone anyway" argument may be back in
full swing, but at present everything's pointing to we killed them or
bred
them out (I wonder if Hitler would have had a slightly different view if
he'd realised that Caucasians are the only "race" known (so far) to have
Neanderthal genetic markers in their make-up?).

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
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email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au