"And what practical good has that done you on your native planet?"
"We have learned much, which the more enlightened amongst us think a worthy end in itself. We have eliminated many diseases and lengthened the life span."
"And have thus," said Seisen, "painfully overcrowded your planet. We are more realistic, preferring slower but surer and less destructive progress."
"What, think you, accounts for these differences between our respective species?" asked Salazar.
"For one thing," said Seisen, "until recent advances in your medical science lengthened your lives, your natural life spans were much shorter than ours. Since your primitive ancestors—those which survived the perils of infancy, that is—had lifetimes of a mere thirty or forty of your years to look forward to, they were under no evolutionary pressure to develop longer outlooks. Hence the troubles caused by unchecked population growth, beyond the carrying capacity of the planet, and the consequent degradation of the environment. If a Terran was warned of the catastrophic consequences of some policy an octoquadrate of years later, his response was: 'What of it? I shall be dead then, anyway!'
"Another difference arises from the very quality that has put you so far ahead technologically: your fondness for tinkering and experimenting. The result was that having mastered fire and simple toolmaking and learned to survive in inhospitable climates, you went on and on, from one technological triumph to another, since each invention opened the way to others. So invention became a self-propelled social engine, ever accelerating.
"Hence your species crossed the border into civilization whilst most of you were still ruled by the same primitive instincts and drives that propelled you when you first came down from the trees and became terrestrial, pack-hunting omnivores. I refer to your persistent tribalism, feuding, rapacity, competitiveness, and vindictiveness. One might say that you reached civilization millions of years before you had evolved to the point of making good use thereof. Imagine a crew of kusis of one of the larger species in charge of one of our railroads and you will grasp the idea!
"In fact, even the allegedly civilized members of your species retain many traits and habits that we deem barbaric. Such, for instance, is the hunting of wild animals to eat their flesh, like that group of hunters who came through lately, killing some animals to collect their heads as trophies and others to devour. We human beings confine our meat eating to the flesh of domesticated species. Only the barbarous, nomadic Choshas gather heads to demonstrate their virility.
"I understand that Terrans were outraged some years ago when the Choshas' high chief, Kampai, hung heads of Terrans as well as those of human beings from the trophy pole before his tent. But I learn from my reading that this was once a common practice amongst some Terran tribes, such as the Celts.
"Finally, having through your science eliminated most of the natural checks on population growth, you failed to control your increase until recently, when the population of your world became so packed as to be insupportable, even by the most advanced methods of food production. This failure aggravated all your other difficulties and made some insoluble; hence millions died of starvation. You seem never to have grasped the fact that a system that works well for a hundred individuals will probably work badly for a thousand and break down completely for a million.
"Your philosophers long ago warned of this threat, but one of them said something like 'We learn from history that people do not learn from history.' Most of you still obeyed the ancient drive to increase the group at all costs to enable you to defeat any hostile neighboring tribe."
Salazar said: "I gather that you do not much like Terrans."
Seisen gave a reptilian hiss, and his forked tongue flicked pinkly out and back. "What has 'liking' to do with it? We human beings like what is good for us and dislike the reverse. You aliens, contrarywise, form a multitude of likes and dislikes on what appear to us frivolous bases, such as another's clothes, expression, or general appearance.
"Methinks I understand how this came about. In the course of evolution you Terrans developed highly mobile facial features, capable of expressing emotions, as the movement of our neck spines functions with us. To assist the integration of primitive Terrans into bands and tribes, you developed amongst yourselves an acute sensitivity to nonverbal signals, especially facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice. Whereas the movement of our cervical spines is largely independent of conscious control, a Terran can learn to send deceptive signals to a conspecific, as by smiling when really angry or hostile. Hence, you are much abler deceivers than we."
It occurred to Salazar that he had suffered all his life from inability to read other Terrans' nonverbal signals. He had once been told that he was "blind to body language." Now all he said was: "Pray continue."
"This facility," said Seisen as if he were addressing a class at a Kookish institution of higher learning, "while it speeds intraspecies communication, also makes you vulnerable to deception. I know something of your religious or occult fads and crazes, like that which your con-specific Ritter is now managing in place of the defunct Rostam Kashani. From our point of view you are an incredibly credulous lot. I have read accounts of Terran leaders who led their peoples in attempts to conquer the entire planet. The result was the death of millions and the downfall of the leader and his faction, but they never seem to learn. They have not matured mentally since the days when a primitive chief sent his tribesmen against a foe by assuring them that by a magical spell he had made them invulnerable to the enemy's arrows or bullets.
"The would-be leader need only master the complexities of Terran voice tone, expression, gesture, and so on, and he can persuade your masses that their planet is flat, or hollow with them on the inside. When the masses are free to choose a leader by an honest secret vote, they may pick a murderous maniac, provided that he can control their emotions by these artifices of voice and gesture. Or they may elect a blockhead of a public entertainer with no qualifications but a superficial charm.
"But to return to your remark about liking Terrans, to me you are all merely exotic organisms, like intelligent jutens or kudzais. I daresay that if one of you served me for years as a faithful servant or an affectionate pet, I might develop a certain fondness therefor. For the species as a whole, however, I entertain adverse feelings because of the threat that it poses to our civilization. If you would keep to other planets, I could contemplate your existence with equanimity."
"There may be truth in what you say," Salazar admitted. "What would you suggest to ameliorate this situation?"
Seisen's neck spines signaled a shrug. "From my human point of view, the only effective cure is for all you aliens to board your spaceships and return to Terra—or at least to other planets with a viable atmosphere and no intelligent other species. I am quite sure that you will not do that. In fact, I shall be pleasantly surprised if those of your United Settlements, in consequence of your growth in numbers, do not soon begin to seize lands outside those granted to you by the Empress Datsimuju. This happened repeatedly on Terra when a society with better weapons encountered another less advanced in the destructive arts. The latest manifestation of the Terran compulsion to conquer and subdue is unfolding right now near the Kashanite community."
"You mean Cantemir's lumbering project?"
"Cantemir is but a servant of the Terran Dumfries, who remains in Sungecho but governs the enterprise through subordinates. Know you this alien?"
"I have met him," said Salazar. "I came from Oõi on the same ship with him."
"What can you tell me of him?"