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"I do think there is a link in that in both cases, writing fiction or writing a computer program, at any given moment you're focusing on a very specific and particular thing—one word, one line of code, whatever."
- Neal Stephenson
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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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