Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!hjuxa!petsd!peora!jer
From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.space
Subject: Survival by Migration
Message-ID: <2020@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 08:50:48 EST
Article-I.D.: peora.2020
Posted: Wed Mar 12 08:50:48 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Mar-86 05:11:50 EST
References: <951@nmtvax.UUCP>, <576@hoptoad.uucp> <646@hounx.UUCP> <1042@vrdxhq.UUCP>
Followup-To: net.space
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl
Lines: 37
Xref: watmath net.singles:10912 net.space:6410

[The poster references a science fiction writer as saying that when a
people migrates over great distances, the "smarter, more survivable types"
migrate first, and cites the Europeans colonizing the New World as an
example.]

Consider what happened when these "smarter" types left Europe for America.
Many left Europe because they had heard exaggerated stories of a wonderful
new world.  They came to America and found hostile natives, an absence of
the amenities to which they were accustomed, and a need to devote the rest
of their lives to simple survival.

I have some difficulty in seeing how that is "smarter".  Furthermore, I
think that a society in which all the "smarter" people went off to
colonize such inhospitable environments would experience a long lag in the
advancement of their knowledge.  Consider that, aside from people building
Industrial Age machinery, a lot of the more learned people did not come to
America until they were driven there by wars in their own countries.

Rather, I think that the desire to go to other environments is indeed
inspired perhaps by a dissatisfaction with the current environment (as the
poster suggested), but more by a desire to control your own direction than
a simple "I don't like it here and I'm a smart guy so I'm leaving"
attitude.  Given the thematic trends of most popular fiction on the
subject, I also tend to feel that a desire for "action" and "conquest" is
involved, since many of the popular Science Fiction stories are little
different from stories of Conan the Barbarian set in a high-tech
environment.

[Since I don't see what this has to do with singles, followups will go to
net.space (unless you change it), which I think is where the discussion
probably leaked from (since it's also leaking into net.columbia).]
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