From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 00:43:54 MST
Anton Sherwood, <bronto@pobox.com>, writes:
> Answering Spike's question sideways, I've read several stories that at
> least touch on the desirability of immersing our destined successors in
> human culture, so that even if human genes go extinct we'll have a
> living legacy.
>
> One is Poul Anderson's "Turning Point"; y'all can find it for
> yourselves. If you've read it but forgotten the title, this may jog
> your memory: "May I have a cracker for my oontatherium?"
Yes, I remember that quote; it was a good story. What do you do if
you discover aliens who are super intelligent, but living in savagery?
(They won't be for long, that's the problem...)
> Another is a short story by Silverberg iirc, in the form of a
> conversation over drinks: a scholar says he has found persuasive
> evidence that humans once had ten fingers, not twelve.
I seem to recall this being the last story in a collection about matter
transmitters, perhaps by Harry Harrison. The idea is that at some point
the human race was taken over, but nobody really noticed because the
culture stayed the same.
Hal
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