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Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader)
Date: Wed, 23-Dec-87 16:21:59 EST
Message-ID: <1987Dec23.162159.16826@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: The bright side of the USA-USSR arms race (SPOILER)
Summary: Has been treated in sf; stories cited
References: <8712171347.AA04834@bu-cs.bu.edu>
Reply-To: msb@sq.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto

> A point of view which could be adopted by a science fiction author (but
> I never saw a Sci-Fi story with this kind of theme) is that it was very
> fortunate for Earth people to have had this kind of arms race.
> If we assume that mankind is not alone in space, it is possible that
> there are warrior/enslaving races out in space. ...

Two recent stories that have considered the matter of the nuclear arsenal
and malevolent aliens are the novel "Footfall" by Larry Niven and Jerry
Pournelle, and the short story "The Mick of Time", in the anthology
"Callahan's Secret" by Spider Robinson.

I would be surprised if there are not others.

By the way, most sf fans consider the form "sci-fi" a pejorative.
(I make this remark only for purposes of informing.)

Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
	"But even though they probably certainly know that you probably
	 wouldn't, they don't certainly know that although you probably
	 wouldn't there's no probability that you certainly would."
	-- Sir Humphrey Appleby ("Yes, Prime Minister") on nuclear deterrence