Thank you, speaker.
As you all know, my planet – Earth – is a class 12 high-gravity deathworld, home to a species of sentients, humans. Us. Me. We humans are a technological species, and it is inevitable that we will discover the principles of FTL transportation. Many of this assembly believe – and I agree – that my species freely travelling about the galaxy would constitute a grave threat to many other planets. And so this council has installed a barrier around earth. Notwithstanding, nothing is forever. It is inevitable that eventually, humans will defeat this barrier.
The question now confronts you – what should you do now? On this question, I would like to offer a few suggestions.
First, I would like to address the idea that the best thing to do would be simply to glass Earth. Although I am sure no-one here openly advocates for such a thing, I am equally sure that many here have concluded that it would be the best course of action. As we humans enjoy constructing our rhetoric in sets of three, I will offer three reasons why it is not.
First, it would be morally reprehensible. I will not speak further on that – you either get it or you don’t.
Second, who’s next? Should this council proceed with such a course of action, then it establishes that genocide is a tool of policy available to the council at need. I am sure that after humanity is exterminated, the council will promise itself never to do such a thing again. I am equally sure that the next time such a thing becomes the expedient course of action, having done it once this council will indeed do it again. And again the next time.
Where does it all end? If you exterminate a class 12 species, what is to stop you exterminating a class eleven? Or a ten? Or a nine? After all – the threat is there. Having done the unthinkable once, it becomes thinkable to do it again. Every species – particularly the more formidable – with have good cause to wonder if some day, it might be their turn to be wiped out. For the general good, of course.
No no. The only option is to never do such a thing. Not even once. Not for any reason.
And the third reason that I would like to put forward for not glassing my home and the home of my ancestors is this: what if it doesn’t work?
After all, even the best laid plans go awry. There are many reasons why such an effort might not succeed. Most of them, admittedly, involve treachery or dissent among the members of this council, but if you will forgive me for saying so, I have not noticed that either of these things are in short supply.
What if for reasons of principle or profit, some species saves humanity or a significant portion thereof? Fearsome as a technological deathworld species may be, there is a great deal of difference between a deathworld species eager to make a good impression, to become part of galactic trade and culture; and one that you have previously attempted – and failed – to genocide.
So: what if it doesn’t work?
Many of you remain unconvinced. But that doesn’t matter. For these three reasons alone, and one hopes chiefly for the first of them, this council will not proceed with the genocide of humanity. Even if you are right, even if this would in fact be best and wisest course of action, nevertheless it will not happen. There is not the political will to do it. I suggest you stop dwelling on the possibility that it might be made to happen, and instead attend to the situation as it actually stands.
So what should you do?
First, I strongly disagree with the idea of lifting the barrier. Some of my fellow humans are outraged at the idea that humanity is caged. But we are no more caged or confined to our planet now than we were a year ago. To my fellow humans, let me toss out a few words that they will recognise: Jonestown. Year Zero. The crusades. The cultural revolution. The Iron Curtain. Charles Manson. Idi Amin. Hitler. Can you imagine what a gangof – say – two hundred religious zealots might do in any planet in this federation? It does not bear thinking about.
Nevertheless, this is not the best reason for keeping the barrier in place.
You may be aware of the various plagues and diseases our deathworld hosts. Every medical researcher who has examined a human is equally shocked and in awe. The diseases present in one drop of human would would devastate any planet in the federation. But the corti implants work perfectly well, this threat can be managed.
No, the diseases aren’t the best reason for keeping the barrier in place.
The reason you should keep this barrier in place is mice. Mice, rats, and rabbits. Herbivorous species – although rats are partial to a little meat. The eat voraciously, they breed prolifically. We humans, on our home planet, find them to be a major agricultural pest. Behind me you can see footage of mouse and rabbit plagues. Remember, this is occurring on a high-gravity deathworld. Our own planet is home to predators that hunt these things, but you can see how their sheer numbers are overwhelming. For you, on your homes, they would be impossible to control.
My home – Australia – has been devastated by rabbits. Earth comprises isolated landmasses separated by seas. Australia evolved without these species, but they were introduced to the continent by humans. Half a continent turned from stable, if arid land to inhospitable sand desert. We have controlled them with engineered diseases, but it is only a matter of time before they become immune.
And this story has been repeated again and again. Introduced water buffalo and horses destroying watercourses. Introduced grey squirrels out-competing native red squirrels. The Indian mynah bird making a mess of the Australian ecosystem, and the Australian rainbow lorikeet becoming a pest in India. The introduction of the fur beaver into South America has been an unadulterated tragedy. You have access to a great deal of the content of the human Wikipedia – the articles relating to biohazard and invasive species make for sobering reading. And I have not even mentioned the plants. A single blackberry seed would doom any of your planets, as would a single fertile eucalypt spore.
Can humans free to launch themselves into the galaxy guarantee that there will not be one breeding pair of rats, one spider egg sac, on their ships? No, we cannot.
And so again, in the face of the inevitability of humans winning free of the barrier, what should you do?
You need to establish communication with human governments. Sooner rather than later. Do not attempt to lie: we are not stupid. Explain that you have established an emergency quarantine. Our cultures will understand this – our world is a deathworld. We understand ’emergency’, we understand ‘quarantine’. Such a thing will be acceptable, although we will want to know when the quarantine might be lifted. Your problem is that the answer is “never”. But this can be mitigated.
After all, most people never leave their world, most people never go into space. Everyone present here has done so, of course, but do not let your own experience mislead you. Most people happily spend their lives on the world of their birth. Were quarantine lifted, even then less than one human in ten thousand would ever actually leave our gravity well and go into space. Ongoing quarantine will make no material difference to almost everyone.
Humans should be a party to this council, of course. Some small numbers of humans – properly inoculated – will need to be permitted to enter space. At the very least, you will want some human police to capture and restrain the occasional human criminal who stows away, and detachments of human soldiers and police may be useful in other ways. If you give the governments of earth the power to decide who does and does not enter space, those governments will be more than pleased to exercise that power and restrain their own populations.
And in the end, humans who do come here to space will not remain long. I wear weighted clothing, I sleep in full gravity as often as I may, but even so my bones and teeth are becoming hollow, my muscles are atrophying. It is too late for me, I have been out here too long. I will never see an earth sunset again, or smell the scents of home. It would take years of rehabilitation, were I to return to earth, before I could stand unaided for very long. I am exiled from my home, never to return. And so it will be for any human who remains out here. No – human presence in the galaxy will be a few thousand individuals assigned out by the government, who do a brief tour of duty before returning.
So, my advice is: establish contact, proceed to normalise relations. Maintain an almost absolute quarrantine with the agreement and assistance of the governments of earth. This course of action may work, and it is almost certain that nothing else will.
I very much look forward to a day soon coming, when earth participates in this community on terms mostly acceptable to all.
Thank you for your attention.