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"[Science fiction] is the only kind of writing that allows you to look at the world we live in and change one piece at a time."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Benevolent Ostracism | ||
| Choosing not to contact primitive races. |
| The aliens were members of a highly-advanced civilization which had spread its culture throughout the entire galaxy. Cognizant of the limitations of the as-yet-underdeveloped animals who had latterly become dominant upon Earth, they had placed us in a sort of benevolent ostracism. Until either we or our institutions would have evolved to a level permitting, say, at least associate membership in the galactic federation (under the sponsoring tutelage, for the first few millennia, of one of the older, mere widespread and more important species in that federation) — until that time, all invasions of our privacy and ignorance — except for a few scientific expeditions conducted under conditions of great secrecy — had been strictly forbidden by universal agreement. |
| Technovelgy from Liberation of Earth,
by William Tenn. Published by Future Science Fiction in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the Noninterference With Other Worlds from In the Deep of Time (1879) by George Parsons Lathrop, the prime directive from With Folded Hands (1952) by Jack Williamson, Relations with Extraterrestrial Life from Ogre (1944) by Clifford Simak, to the Law of Contact from Orphans of the Void (1952) by Orville Shaara and the Alien Self-Government from Co-Operate or Else (1942) by A.E. van Vogt.
Thanks to SFFAudio for pointing this story out.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
