Substantive: Speaker For the Dead

I believe The Speaker for the Dead, although greatly different from Ender’s Game, raises just as many questions about human nature and human-alien contact. One question the novel raises is whether or not humans would, or should, share technology with a less technologically developed species. Although we might not want competitors, aiding a species might lead to greater mutual cooperation and create a self sufficient ally. There are several problems with sharing techno logy though. For one, even normal technological development creates “moral lag.” Simply put, societies don’t develop norms about technology until decades after it has been invented. If we were to leap a species forward technologically by centuries it could be both devastating and dangerous. For example, if humans were gave piggies assault rifles after a few decades of technological aid, could they comprehend the implications of using such a weapon when they had trouble understanding that they had murdered the two xenologists. Besides this, I believe the some of the clergy’s view of the piggies as godless savages supports a statement that I made earlier that religious fanaticism would hinder inter-species communication. During a human-alien encounter, the more religious humans may view sentient aliens as soulless or simply animals, thereby making the aliens varelse and expendable. This is an underlying theme of the Halo series, where a theocratic alliance of aliens that views humans as demons and heretics. It is interesting in Speaker for the Dead that after the gate is opened that the clergy announce that there would be likely be attempts to convert the piggies. This attempt is very reminiscent to the treatment of the Native Americans. Interestingly enough Card wrote a novel about time travelers going back to 1492 in order to redeem Columbus by inoculating the native Americans against European diseases.
In some respects I believe that the piggies should have been quarantined. Unlike the war between the Buggers and the Humans, the piggies were a legitimate threat to all life in the universe, not simply to human territory. The Descolada the piggies carried would wipe out life on any planet it was released on. The piggies could actually utilize this as a form of unconventional warfare and any species, any army and any force would be woe to resist them. Although I am very supported for self-determination, this is a specific scenario where growth should be limited for the greater good, not just for one species but for all of those in the universe. To commit another xenocide, however, would be unnecessary if the piggies’ technological growth could be kept under control. Xenobiologists could also work on a cure to the Descolada in order to enable the piggies to expand and grow freely. Despite this, I believe it was naïve for Ender and the colonists to risk so much in order to modernize the piggies and I do not see how the information about the Descolada would ensure the safety of the colony. Rather, it would put it in greater peril.