Extraterrestrial Civilizations - Isaac Asimov [98]
If all this is so, then even though our earlier analysis of hundreds of millions of civilizations arising in our Galaxy is correct, it is no wonder that we haven’t heard from them.
COOPERATION
Yet this analysis, while depressing, is perhaps not completely compelling. Contentiousness is not the only factor to be considered in human beings. There is also an element of cooperation and even selflessness.
If the intelligence of a human being makes it possible for him to remember grievances and to labor to avenge them, it also makes it possible for him to sympathize with the feelings of others, to understand and forgive. Even with a completely hard heart, a human being may appreciate, for purely selfish motives, the advantages of cooperation.
After all, though an instant blow may fell a competitor and make it possible for you to eat all the food immediately present, sharing the supply and combining talents in the search for additional food may improve the long-term chances of fending off starvation.
There are countless examples in human history of unselfish devotion to family, friends, tribe, and even to abstract ideals. Countless men and women have placed any number of considerations ahead of immediate satisfaction of desires—even ahead of life.
And if the unselfish have always represented a minority in human history, their influence has been out of proportion to their numbers.
Even that most contentious of all human activities, organized warfare, could not be carried on at any level beyond the free-for-all melee were it not certain that soldiers would defend each other and routinely risk their lives on behalf of each other.
The result is that, on the whole, the political units of humanity (societies within which violence is placed under severe constraint and is visited with organized punishment) have tended to increase in size and population with time.
The hunting tribes of a few hundred individuals gave way to farming communities, to city-states, to empires of increasing extent. One-sixth of the land area of the world is now under the centralized rule of the Soviet government in Moscow. One-fifth of the world’s population is under the rule of the Chinese government in Peking. One-third of the world’s wealth is under the control of the American government in Washington.
One might suppose that the natural development is toward a political unit that will include the entire planet and all its population and wealth.
There seems precious little sign of this at the moment. The nations of the world recognize no law higher than their own will and may freely go to war with each other if they choose—and some do choose. What’s more, the inner constraints may fail, and civil war or anarchic terrorism at various levels can occur.
It remains a clearly visible fact, though, that since the coming of the nuclear bomb, there has been a growing reluctance to chance war. There have been no wars between major powers since 1945; and no minor war has been allowed to embroil the major powers in active combat.
Again, there is increasing appreciation of the fact that overpopulation, pollution, resource depletion, and human alienation are dangers that affect the entire globe, and that the solutions will have to be undertaken on a global scale. The thought seems to go against the grain, and one can almost hear the grinding of collective teeth in frustration as the peoples of the world face the annoying necessity of having to forget their grievances and suspicions in order that they might learn to cooperate.
Humanity may fail. The forces of violence may overcome those of cooperation; or else we have waited too long and even though we attempt cooperation with all our heart, we can no longer prevent civilization from collapsing under the gathering pressures. However, even if we lose out, it will not be an inevitable or unopposed loss; we