Pierson's Puppeteers , often known just as Puppeteers , are a fictional alien race from American author Larry Niven 's Known Space books. The race first appeared in Niven’s novella Neutron Star .
113-616: The sobriquet "Pierson's" comes from the name of the human who made first contact in the early 26th century in the Known Space timeline. According to the Niven story The Soft Weapon , Pierson was a crewman aboard a spaceship at a time when there was a camp revival of the ancient Time for Beany TV show featuring Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent , an animated character based on a hand puppet; Pierson accordingly described
226-455: A positive psychologist , explains that environment plays a key role in human behaviours such as forgiveness and revenge. This hypothesis theorizes that various social environments cause either forgiveness or revenge to prevail. McCollough relates his theory to game theory . In a tit-for-tat strategy, cooperation and retaliation are comparable to forgiveness and revenge. The choice between the two can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on what
339-527: A 1864 French story "Qu'est-ce qu'ils peuvent bien nous dire?", where humans detect a signal form Mars. Stories of this type became numerous by 1950s. The systematic search for technosignatures began in 1960 with Project Ozma . Apart from telepathy , languages are the most common form of interpersonal communication with aliens, and many science fiction stories deal with language issues. While various nonlinguistic forms of communication are described as well, such as communication via mathematics, pheromones, etc.,
452-571: A Bracewell probe is a form of alien artifact that would permit real–time communication. A Big Dumb Object is a common variation of the Bracewell probe, primarily referring to megastructures such as ringworlds , but also relatively smaller objects that are either located on the surface of planets or natural satellites, or transiting through the solar system (such as Rama in Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke (1973)). A famous example
565-469: A Kemplerer Rosette." Eventually, their sun converted from a yellow dwarf to a red giant , so the Puppeteers moved the "Fleet of Worlds", the five planets, to their system's Oort cloud . This is one of the reasons the Puppeteers were so successful at keeping the location of their homeworld a secret—explorers would be looking for a yellow dwarf (as one could surmise that Puppeteers had evolved around
678-467: A Puppeteer's lifespan is unknown, but it is at least several centuries— Nessus , the most prominent individual Puppeteer in the works, is over 300 years old during the events of the original Ringworld novel. This, together with a total lack of contraceptives (except major surgery) for their species along with an unwillingness to use them, is responsible for extreme crowding: the Puppeteer homeworld has
791-636: A Soviet Communist Party functionary in charge of propaganda, complained that Strugatskis had alleged the futility of the Communist intervention into fascism on an alien planet. Based on the 1940 short story " Farewell to the Master ", The Day the Earth Stood Still depicts the arrival of a single alien, Klaatu , and a robot, Gort , in a flying saucer , which lands in Washington, D.C. In
904-514: A beach, will instinctively move toward the ocean. A marsupial climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behaviour, internal escape functions, and the building of nests . Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience; for example, a dog can improve its listening skills by practice. Instincts are inborn complex patterns of behaviour that exist in most members of
1017-526: A behavioural response. Some behaviours include maternal care, aggression, defense, and social hierarchy. These behaviours are influenced by sensory input — sight, sound, touch, and smell. Within the circuitry of the limbic system, there are various places where evolution could have taken place, or could take place in the future. For example, many rodents have receptors in the vomeronasal organ that respond explicitly to predator stimuli that specifically relate to that individual species of rodent. The reception of
1130-690: A classic of French science fiction. It depicts the struggle of prehistoric humans with an apparently intelligent but profoundly alien inorganic life form. However in the latter novel it is unclear whether the Xipéhuz arrived from the outer space or originated on the Earth. Throughout the 1950s, stories involving first contact were common in the United States, and typically involved conflict. Professor of Communication Victoria O'Donnell writes that these films "presented indirect expressions of anxiety about
1243-678: A device which could stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, thus allowing him to subliminally condition those he dealt with. In Ringworld , it is revealed that the Puppeteer government meddled in human and Kzinti gene pools. They started a series of wars (the Man–;Kzin Wars ) between the warlike Kzinti and humans, and guaranteed that the Kzinti lose each time, not least by using a starseed lure to guide an Outsider ship into human space, introducing faster-than-light travel to humanity. This
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#17327724877611356-473: A factor in their longevity. Technologically, the Puppeteers are very advanced, centuries or millennia ahead of most other species (including humans). For example, humans in Niven's universe invented (actually purchased from the Puppeteers) a method of cheap teleportation in the twenty-fifth century called a transfer booth , which requires an enclosed space at either end of the transmission. Puppeteers use
1469-486: A humanoid uses hands. The Puppeteer's native language sounds like highly complex orchestral music, but they seem to be able to reproduce human language without difficulty or device, as well as the Heroes' Tongue ( Kzinti ), suggesting their vocal arrangement may resemble a pair of avian-like syrinxes rather than vocal cords. Biologically, Puppeteers are highly intelligent herbivores ; a herd animal , Puppeteers prefer
1582-522: A major novelty in social science fiction . In the Strugatskis' later works the powerful organization КОМКОН (COMCON, Commission for Contacts), in charge of progressorship, was tasked with counteracting the work of suspected alien progressors on the Earth. Strugatski's novels related to the subject reject the idea of the " export of revolution ". In his report "On serious shortcomings in the publication of science fiction literature", Alexander Yakovlev ,
1695-501: A majority of Puppeteer history; Experimentalist regimes only take power when a crisis threatens the safety of the Puppeteer race, and action is considered less dangerous than inaction. The leader of the Puppeteers is known as the Hindmost. Since Pierson's Puppeteers are foremost concerned with their own safety and the survival of their species, the most important Puppeteer is considered to be behind, or protected by, every other member of
1808-451: A man's heart out through his splintered spine. ( Ringworld , Chapter 13, published 1970.) Another behavioral trait is the coma state, broadly a cognate of the human fetal position –in the same way that ostriches are said to bury their heads in the sand, Puppeteers fold up into a ball, tucking their three legs and two heads underneath the padded cranial bulge. This is, in part, an explosion reflex , learned during childhood. Their cowardice
1921-641: A much more elegant and sophisticated booth-less "open" version in the form of stepping disks , which require no enclosure. They transformed their home world, and several other astronomical bodies, into a Klemperer rosette , in order to flee a galactic catastrophe. Puppeteers appear to lack generalized empathy towards other intelligent species and display almost textbook sociopathic tendencies: they are highly manipulative, appearing to feel no psychological distress when their actions cause harm to others, they perform interstellar-scale manipulation of other species, inducing and directing large scale wars in order to achieve
2034-536: A novel situation. While these instinctive behaviours appeared complex, the insects and animals did not adjust their behaviour despite it not helping them in that novel situation. The following are some insect and animal behaviours that Fabre observed and labelled "instinctive", for they do not involve reasoning: Fabre believed instincts were "fixed patterns", meaning these linked sets of behaviours do not change in response to novel environmental situations. One specific example that helped him arrive at this conclusion
2147-442: A population of over a trillion , and four farming worlds are dedicated entirely to supplying the population with food. Even then, grown food is a luxury reserved for only the highest-ranking, with synthesizers feeding the vast majority. While contraception is forbidden, access to 'brides' (the parasitized breeding host, the third 'sex') is strictly controlled. Puppeteers also have access to highly advanced medical technology that may be
2260-526: A predatory stimulus usually creates a response of defense or fear. Mating in rats follows a similar mechanism. The vomeronasal organ and the main olfactory epithelium, together called the olfactory system , detect pheromones from the opposite sex. These signals then travel to the medial amygdala, which disperses the signal to a variety of brain parts. The pathways involved with innate circuitry are extremely specialized and specific. Various organs and sensory receptors play parts in this complex process. Instinct
2373-465: A sensitive period for a bird in which it learns the identity of its mother. Konrad Lorenz famously had a goose imprint on his boots. Thereafter the goose would follow whoever wore the boots. This suggests that the identity of the goose's mother was learned, but the goose's behaviour towards what it perceived as its mother was instinctive. In a conference in 1960, chaired by Frank Beach , a pioneer in comparative psychology , and attended by luminaries in
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#17327724877612486-419: A single hindleg ending in hoofed feet , and two snake-like heads instead of a humanoid upper body. The heads are small, containing a forked tongue, rubbery lips rimmed with finger-like knobs, and a single eye per head. The Puppeteer brain is housed not in the heads, but in the "thoracic" cavity well protected beneath the mane-covered hump from which the heads emerge. They use the "mouths" to manipulate objects, as
2599-415: A single incredibly large, highly complex molecule. Once a sufficient number of the atoms which constituted the molecule were annihilated by the antimatter, the molecule could not remain stable, and thus degenerated into a selection of less complex compounds and elements, effectively causing the hull to vanish in an instant. Fortunately, the vessel's pilot was sufficiently cautious to be wearing a vacuum suit at
2712-417: A single mother whose three-year-old son was also abducted by a UFO. Initially conceived of as a film, the 1985 novel Contact , written by American astronomer Carl Sagan , depicts the reception of a radio signal from the star Vega . Two-way communication is achieved with the construction of a Machine, the specifications of which are included in the message. In 1997, a film adaptation was released. Within
2825-466: A stimulated fixed action pattern by consciously recognizing the point of its activation and simply stop doing it, whereas animals without a sufficiently strong volitional capacity may not be able to disengage from their fixed action patterns, once activated. Instinctual behaviour in humans has been studied. Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) is said to be the first person to study small animals (other than birds) and insects, and he specifically specialized in
2938-557: A suitable alternative superconductor causes the fall of advanced civilizations throughout the Ringworld. The Fleet of Worlds is the home planets of the Pierson's Puppeteer race. They consist of the native homeworld, called "Hearth", and its five agricultural worlds, arranged in a 'Kemplerer rosette' (likely a misspelling of a Klemperer rosette ) being moved in synchronicity with each other. The number of worlds has varied; at maximum (at
3051-418: A sun was a liability rather than an asset. We moved our world to a tenth of a light year's distance, keeping the primary only as an anchor. We needed the farming worlds and it would have been dangerous to let our world wander randomly through space. Otherwise we would not have needed a sun at all. "We had brought suitable worlds from nearby systems, increasing our agricultural worlds to four, and setting them in
3164-407: A variety of circumstances under which first contact can occur, including indirect detection of alien technology , it is often portrayed as the discovery of the physical presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence . As a plot device , first contact is frequently used to explore a variety of themes. Murray Leinster 's 1945 novelette " First Contact " is the best known science fiction story which
3277-483: A visit of an alien from a planet circling Sirius to the Solar System . Micromegas, being 120,000 royal feet (38.9 km) tall, first arrives at Saturn, where he befriends a Saturnian. They both eventually reach the Earth, where using a magnifying glass, they discern humans, and eventually engage in philosophical disputes with them. While superficially it may be classified as an early example of science fiction,
3390-499: A war. Jonathan Vos Post analyzed various issues related to understanding alien languages. Many notable writers have considered how humans are supposed to treat the aliens when we meet them. One idea is that the humans should avoid the interference in the development of alien civilizations. A notable example of this is the Prime Directive of Star Trek , a major part of its considerable cultural influence . However,
3503-583: A yellow dwarf from their biology and that they were comfortable on Earth-like planets without pressure suits ) when their planet(s) were actually near a red giant. In the short story " At the Core ", Beowulf Shaeffer , who made the discovery about tidal forces five years previously, in " Neutron Star ", discovers that the Galactic Core is exploding. This news prompts the Puppeteer Exodus, where
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3616-414: Is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a corresponding clearly defined stimulus. Any behaviour is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning ), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. Sea turtles , newly hatched on
3729-544: Is a strategy game that depicts an alien invasion, although first contact technically occurs prior to the game's start. The Halo and Mass Effect franchises both have novels that detail first contact events. Mass Effect: Andromeda has multiple first contacts, as it takes place in the Andromeda Galaxy . The Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem , first published in 2006 and translated into English in 2014, presents first contact as being achieved through
3842-445: Is a recurring theme in the works of Polish writer Stanisław Lem . The majority of his "first contact" stories, including his first published science fiction story, The Man from Mars (1946) and his last work of fiction, Fiasco (1986), portray the mutual understanding of a human and alien intelligences as ultimately impossible. These works criticize "the myth of cognitive universality ". The "first contact" may originate from
3955-435: Is a reproductive benefit to offspring survival. If an offspring has attachment to a parent, it is more likely to stay nearby under parental protection. Attached offspring are also more likely to learn from a parental figure when interacting closely. (Reproductive benefits are a driving force behind natural selection .) Environment is an important factor in the evolution of innate behaviour. A hypothesis of Michael McCollough,
4068-541: Is also reflected in their architecture and object design, as all the Puppeteer-designed rooms and vessels have no sharp edges, everything curves into everything else, giving a "half-melted" look and meaning that objects are less likely to damage someone inadvertently, through their own carelessness. In Ringworld , Nessus, a Puppeteer, explains how his race's cowardice is partly a result of a science experiment (the details of which are not given) that proves
4181-529: Is called instinct is often imprecisely defined, and really amounts to strong "drives". For Maslow, an instinct is something which cannot be overridden, and therefore while the term may have applied to humans in the past, it no longer does. An interest in innate behaviours arose again in the 1950s with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen , who made the distinction between instinct and learned behaviours. Our modern understanding of instinctual behaviour in animals owes much to their work. For instance, there exists
4294-512: Is closely related to the anthropological idea of first contact . Popularized by the 1897 book The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells , the concept was commonly used throughout the 1950s and 60s, often as an allegory for Soviet infiltration and invasion. The 1960s American television series Star Trek introduced the concept of the " Prime Directive ", a regulation intended to limit the negative consequences of first contact. Although there are
4407-505: Is doubtful that the Puppeteers genuinely accept other species' claims to having souls. A courageous Puppeteer is regarded as insane by his species, and actually shows symptoms associated with human mental illness , such as bipolar disorder , clinical depression and so on. However, aside from the crew of the Explorer (in the novel Fleet of Worlds ), no human has ever met a completely sane Puppeteer, as no sane Puppeteer would ever leave
4520-424: Is his study of various wasp species. All of the wasp species he studied performed a certain pattern of behaviour when catching their prey, which Fabre called a fixed pattern. Then Fabre intervened in the wasps' process of catching prey, and only one of the species adjusted their behaviour in response to this unfamiliar interception. Fabre explained this contradiction by arguing that any individuals which stray from
4633-594: Is known for founding the first psychology laboratory, which occurred in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. He was able to draw conclusions about instinct from his careful observations of both animal and human behaviour. Wundt believed unconscious processes (which he called "instinctive movements") were the result of sensations and emotions, and these unconscious processes were building blocks towards consciousness . An example of what Wundt studied to arrive at his conclusions regarding unconscious processes includes
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4746-422: Is more suitable for describing animal behaviour, while he recommended the word propensity for goal-directed combinations of the many innate human abilities, which are loosely and variably linked, in a way that shows strong plasticity . In the 1950s, the psychologist Abraham Maslow argued that humans no longer have instincts because we have the ability to override them in certain situations. He felt that what
4859-451: Is reinforced by an embedded power plant that reinforces the inter-atomic bonds. These facts provide the clues that allow them to later destroy a GP Hull from the inside and survive. In Destroyer of Worlds , a captured Pak Protector analyzes the hull, deducing that it comprises a dynamically reinforced molecular structure and how to siphon energy from the structure. The general foreign policy of Puppeteers consists of attempts to control
4972-410: Is specifically devoted to the "first contact" per se , although Leinster used the term in this sense earlier, in his 1935 story " Proxima Centauri ". The idea of humans encountering an extraterrestrial intelligence for the first time dates back to the second century AD, where it is presented in the novel A True Story by Lucian of Samosata . The 1752 novel Le Micromégas by Voltaire depicts
5085-584: Is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and Southern England are invaded by Martians . It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon . Instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour , containing innate (inborn) elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour
5198-425: Is the 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey , where mysterious black " Monoliths " enhance the technological progress of humanoids and other civilizations. A number of stories involve finding an alien spacecraft, either in the space or on a surface of the planet, with various consequences, Rendezvous with Rama being a classic example. Many science fiction stories deal with the issues of communications. First contact
5311-665: Is the center of multiple episodes in the series, including " Who Watches the Watchers " and " First Contact ". In both episodes, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is forced to break the Prime Directive. Released in 1996, Star Trek: First Contact portrays first contact between Humans and Vulcans at the end of the film. This event leads to the formation of the United Federation of Planets. The War of
5424-500: The Star Trek franchise, first contact is a central part of the operations of Starfleet . While primarily depicted in the television shows, it has also been in a majority of the movies. The Prime Directive is one of the foundational regulations regarding first contact in Star Trek , and has been portrayed in every television series. Despite its importance, it is frequently violated. In the original pilot episode for Star Trek ,
5537-582: The primitive reflexes , such as rooting and suckling, behaviours which are present in mammals . In rats, it has been observed that innate responses are related to specific chemicals, and these chemicals are detected by two organs located in the nose: the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and the main olfactory epithelium (MOE). Some instinctive behaviours depend on maturational processes to appear. For instance, we commonly refer to birds "learning" to fly. However, young birds have been experimentally reared in devices that prevent them from moving their wings until they reached
5650-462: The "instinct of curiosity" and its associated "emotion of wonder", though Spink's book does not mention this. M. S. Blumberg in 2017 examined the use of the word instinct, and found it varied significantly. Among possible examples of instinct-influenced behaviour in humans are the following. Examples of behaviours that do not require thought include many reflexes. The stimulus in a reflex may not require brain activity but instead may travel to
5763-479: The 2007 novel Fleet of Worlds . In the story Flatlander , a GP Hull is exposed to a constant stream of diffuse antimatter during a visit to a star system with some exotic qualities. Whereas a conventional hull made of metal, for example, would simply have ablated under these conditions, the General Products hull instead simply unravelled. This was due to the fact that a GP Hull essentially consisted of
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#17327724877615876-515: The 60- LY sphere of Known Space . One of the most important items sold by General Products is the General Products Hull for spaceships. Such a hull is completely impervious to everything except antimatter (which is not highly advertised but covered by a company warranty); the hull is transparent to visible light which can be alleviated by polarization or complete opacity; tidal forces and extreme gravitational force will not affect
5989-488: The Archons". In–universe, it is intended to prevent unintended negative consequences from first contact with technologically inferior societies, particularly those that lack faster-than-light travel . " Encounter at Farpoint ", the pilot episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation , depicts Federation first contact with the Q Continuum, although this encounter was only included later in production. The Prime Directive
6102-516: The Directive often proves to be unworkable. Over time, the Directive has developed from its clear and straightforward formulation to a loosely defined, aspirational principle. Evolving from a series of bad experiences coming from the "interventionist" approach in early episodes, the Prime Directive was initially presented as an imperative. However, it is often portrayed as neither the primary concern, nor imperative. In Soviet science fiction there
6215-519: The Fleet of Worlds flees the galaxy at just under light speed for the Magellanic Clouds , in the hope that by the time the explosion reaches the Fleet of Worlds, the Puppeteers will have found a way to protect their civilization. This exodus prompts a major stock market crash in human society. In 2864, the Fleet of Worlds leaves Known Space. Beowulf notes, however, that the speed at which
6328-454: The Fleet of Worlds is moving (0.8c) would cause nearly as much damage as the Core explosion itself. This suggests radiation may not be the primary danger the Puppeteers flee, also that Puppeteers may, in fact, have a means to deal with radiation affecting entire worlds. In Crashlander it is speculated that the Puppeteers are planning on moving to the now-uninhabited Core, isolated from potentially dangerous species - which would have either fled
6441-495: The Prime Directive has become a staple of the Star Trek franchise, and the concept of a non-interference directive has become common throughout science fiction. The 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind depicts first contact as a long and laborious process, with communication only being achieved at the end of the film. In Rendezvous with Rama , communication is never achieved. In 1985, Carl Sagan published
6554-492: The Puppeteers caused 'Birth Lotteries' on Earth around 2650, granting the winners the right to have extra offspring (strict limits were placed on most people to avoid overcrowding). Teela Brown , who journeys to the Ringworld with Louis Wu, is a descendant of multiple generations of lottery winners. Her luck is highly selective, bending probability so that the outcome most beneficial to her or her descendants comes to pass, without regard to its effects on those around her, contrary to
6667-507: The Puppeteers have nothing equivalent to an immortal soul , and therefore death is, for their species, eternal oblivion . As a result, the Puppeteer race is fanatically devoted to its own safety. It is worth noting that this explanation is a form of diplomatic, post hoc rationalizing, as their cowardice is a biologically ingrained trait and not actually a rational choice. It is diplomatic, in that it validates in other species what Puppeteers consider to be irrationally insane bravery, although it
6780-575: The Second Red Scare. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg , starring Richard Dreyfuss , Melinda Dillon , Teri Garr , Bob Balaban , Cary Guffey , and François Truffaut . The film depicts the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana , whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object ; and of Jillian,
6893-579: The Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells . It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann . The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel
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#17327724877617006-593: The Worlds . During the Cold War , films depicting alien invasions common. The depiction of the aliens tended to reflect the American conception of the Soviet Union at the time, with infiltration stories being a variation of the theme. A Bracewell probe is any form of probe of extraterrestrial origin, and such technology appears in first contact fiction. Initially hypothesized in 1960 by Ronald N. Bracewell ,
7119-428: The age at which their cohorts were flying. These birds flew immediately and normally when released, showing that their improvement resulted from neuromuscular maturation and not true learning. Imprinting provides one example of instinct. This complex response may involve visual, auditory, and olfactory cues in the environment surrounding an organism. In some cases, imprinting attaches an offspring to its parent, which
7232-541: The alien he had met as a Puppeteer, given some resemblance of the head and neck with Cecil. Puppeteers dealing with humans usually give themselves the names of centaurs and other figures in Greek mythology , such as Nessus , Nike and Chiron . Puppeteers' names for themselves are reportedly highly complex, and unpronounceable by humans. The group name they use for their own species translates as "Citizens". Pierson's Puppeteers are described by Niven as having two forelegs and
7345-412: The aliens are used only as a technique to involve outsiders to comment on Western civilization, a trope popular at the times. Traditionally the origin of the trope of conflict of humans with an alien intelligent species is attributed to The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, in which Martians mount a global invasion of Earth. Still, there are earlier examples, such as the 1888 novel Les Xipéhuz ,
7458-436: The broad definition of first contact, there are a number of variations of the methods that result in first contact and the nature of the subsequent interaction. Variations include: positive vs. negative outcome of the first contact, actual meetings vs. interception of alien messages, etc. The idea of an alien invasion is one of the earliest and most common portrayals of a first contact scenario, being popular since The War of
7571-517: The central conflict in Niven and Edward M. Lerner 's Fleet of Worlds .) Nessus explains some of this background to Louis Wu and the crew of the Long Shot thus: "I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilization was dying in its own waste heat. Total conversion of energy had rid us of all waste products of civilization, save that one. We had no choice but to move our world outward from its primary." "Was that not dangerous?" "Very. There
7684-483: The company (and smell) of their own kind. Their cycle of reproduction is similar to that of Earth's digger wasps : the Puppeteers consider themselves to have three genders (two male, one female): the two "male" genders are the equivalent of human female and male (one has an ovipositor , the other produces sperm) and the "female" is a (non-sentient) parasitized host into which the ovum and spermatozoon are deposited. Puppeteers are very long-lived. The exact length of
7797-456: The contending sides in the nature–nurture debate as applied to the analysis of behavior." F. B. Mandal proposed a set of criteria by which a behaviour might be considered instinctual: (a) be automatic, (b) be irresistible, (c) occur at some point in development, (d) be triggered by some event in the environment, (e) occur in every member of the species, (f) be unmodifiable, and (g) govern behaviour for which
7910-540: The crew of the USS Enterprise encounters the Talosians, subterranean humanoids with telepathic abilities , when attempting to rescue the survivors of a crash. While the episode wasn't broadcast in its entirety until 1988, it was incorporated into the first-season two-part episode " The Menagerie ". The Prime Directive, also known as Starfleet General Order 1, was introduced in the 21st episode "The Return of
8023-425: The crew were not. Because the Puppeteers seemingly have no experience of tides, they were unable to anticipate the deadly tidal forces. (As told in Niven's short story, " Neutron Star ".) Crashlander reveals that the Puppeteers may have feigned their ignorance of tidal forces. The Puppeteers had to make some drastic alterations to their home system, during their history, as waste heat due to overindustrialisation
8136-476: The detection of an extraterrestrial signal ("message from space") . In broader terms, the presence of an alien civilization may be deduced from a technosignature , which is any of a variety of detectable spectral signatures that indicate the presence or effects of technology. The occasional search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) began with the advent of radio , which was addressed in science fiction as well. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction mentions
8249-558: The discovery of a radio signal, as well as an alien infiltration similar to that of Invasion of the Body Snatchers ; Independence Day portrays an alien invasion similar in theme and tone to The War of the Worlds ; and Star Trek: First Contact portrays first contact as a beneficial and peaceful event that ultimately led to the creation of the United Federation of Planets . The 1994 video game XCOM: UFO Defense
8362-462: The distinction of linguistic vs. non-linguistic, is rather semantic: in the majority of cases all boils down to some form of decoding/encoding of information. While space operas bypass the issue by either making aliens speak English perfectly, or resorting to an " universal translator ", in most hard science fiction humans usually have difficulties in talking to aliens, which may lead to misunderstanding of various level of graveness, even leading to
8475-432: The end of the Earth . The 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the first works to portray first contact as an overall beneficial event. While the character of Klaatu is primarily concerned with preventing conflicts spreading from Earth, the film warns of the dangers of nuclear war . Based on the 1954 serialized novel , the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers depicts an alien infiltration, with
8588-535: The existence of instincts is natural selection . More specifically, his research suggests natural selection causes small changes in the nervous system over time. These changes bring about hereditary drives in organisms, which are then responsible for any unconscious processes. Another thing to note is that Wundt used the terms unconscious processes , reflexive movements , and instinctive movements interchangeably, often grouping them together. Sigmund Freud considered that mental images of bodily needs, expressed in
8701-470: The facial expressions babies made in response to the sensations of sweet, sour, and bitter tastes. He concluded these facial expressions were the result of the babies trying to avoid unpleasant emotions because there was something unpleasant in their mouths, and that these instincts (which he uses interchangeably with reflexive movements) only became innate because past generations learned it and it benefited their survival. The process by which Wundt explained
8814-406: The field, the term instinct was restricted in its application. During the 1960s and 1970s, textbooks still contained some discussion of instincts in reference to human behaviour. By the year 2000, a survey of the 12 best selling textbooks in introductory psychology revealed only one reference to instincts, and that was in regard to Sigmund Freud 's referral to the " id " instincts. In this sense,
8927-411: The film focuses primarily on the linguistic challenges inherent in first contact, and the film's plot is driven by the concept of linguistic relativity and the various responses of the governments . The 2021 novel Project Hail Mary depicts an unintended first contact scenario when the protagonist, Ryland Grace, encounters an alien starship while on a scientific mission to Tau Ceti . Due to
9040-500: The film, humanity's response to first contact is hostility, demonstrated both at the beginning when Klaatu is wounded, and when he is killed near the end. First contact is used as an example of a global issue that is ignored in favor of continuing international competition, with the decision by the United States government to treat Klaatu as a security threat and eventually enact martial law in Washington, D.C. being allegorical for
9153-414: The form of mental desires , are called instincts. In the early 20th century, there was recognized a "union of instinct and emotion". William McDougall held that many instincts have their respective associated specific emotions . As research became more rigorous and terms better defined, instinct as an explanation for human behaviour became less common. In 1932, McDougall argued that the word instinct
9266-609: The galaxy entirely or been destroyed. Their initial path is revealed to be out of the plane of the galaxy, but no mention is made of Louis Wu noticing trajectory when flying there on the Long Shot in Ringworld . In in-universe chronological order: First contact (science fiction) First contact is a common theme in science fiction about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life , or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites . It
9379-496: The galaxy is exploding, the Puppeteers turned the fleet towards the Magellanic Clouds , gradually reaching a speed of 80% lightspeed . Although the Puppeteers have Faster-than-light technology they prefer to travel at safer, sub-light speeds. For centuries, the location of the Puppeteer homeworld was a great mystery. No entity in Known Space outside the Puppeteer race was aware of the location, despite extensive surveys, with
9492-470: The goal of their own safety and they do not appear to be disturbed when required to make choices that result in the deaths of billions or trillions. From what little interaction is shown between Puppeteers, it seems their lack of empathy extends to their own species. Mate selection seems to be largely status-based, with higher status mates being more desirable. The Puppeteer Nessus finds comfort in having his living space produce simulated proximity to his species:
9605-414: The hull but can kill the occupants, unless nullified by variable cabin gravity. The hulls are advertised as being capable of flying through the upper atmosphere of a star unscathed, although the contents will be cooked; as a protection against this particular contingency, the Puppeteers also provide a stasis field . Exposure to antimatter is the only known method for destroying a General Products hull until
9718-405: The instincts of insects. Fabre considered an instinct to be a linked set of behaviours that an organism undergoes unconsciously in response to external conditions. Fabre concluded a significant difference between humans and other animals is that most animals cannot reason. He came to this conclusion after observing how insects and wild birds continued to repeat a certain behaviour in response to
9831-504: The interests of the rest of the Ringworld expedition on more than one occasion. The Puppeteers also influenced species on the Ringworld. After discovering the Ringworld, the Puppeteers sent probes with fungi on board that destroys room-temperature superconductors , in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage over the Ringworld. These fungi cause all superconductors (with the exception of those buried in Scrith ) to rust into powder. The lack of
9944-427: The norms of their species are merely an exception, while also admitting that there could be some room for growth within a species' instincts. Fabre's belief that instincts are fixed opposes the theory of evolution. He rejected that one species could evolve into another, and also rejected that the consciousness humans possess could be achieved through the evolution of unconscious traits. Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)
10057-544: The novel Contact . The book deals primarily with the challenges inherent to determining first contact, as well as the potential responses to the discovery of an extraterrestrial intelligence . In 1997, the book was made into a movie . The 1996 novel The Sparrow starts with the discovery of an artificial radio signal, though it deals mainly with the issue of faith. The Arrival (1996) , Independence Day , and Star Trek: First Contact were released in 1996. The Arrival portrays both an indirect first contact through
10170-461: The opening of the novel Fleet of Worlds ) the Fleet comprised six worlds. By two Earth centuries later, in Niven's novel Ringworld , the Fleet contains five worlds. The Puppeteers first moved their worlds into this formation when their home star turned into a red giant , using an inertialess, reactionless drive purchased at great price from the Outsiders . After the discovery that the core of
10283-409: The organism needs no training (although the organism may profit from experience and to that degree the behaviour is modifiable). In Information Behavior: An Evolutionary Instinct (2010, pp. 35–42), Amanda Spink notes that "currently in the behavioral sciences instinct is generally understood as the innate part of behavior that emerges without any training or education in humans." She claims that
10396-471: The partner-organism chooses. Though this psychological example of game theory does not have such directly measurable results, it provides an interesting theory of unique thought. From a more biological standpoint, the brain's limbic system operates as the main control-area for response to certain stimuli, including a variety of instinctual behaviour. The limbic system processes external stimuli related to emotions, social activity, and motivation, which propagates
10509-431: The planet Wunderland . Puppeteers were willing to pay large sums of hush money in order to suppress even trivial details about their homeworld. In 2641 AD, it was discovered that the Puppeteers' homeworld had no moon, information deduced as a result of the solving of the mystery of the deaths of a crew of a ship investigating a neutron star. The ship, based on a General Products hull, was impervious to tidal forces but
10622-535: The planet, humanity becomes stagnant, with Earth under the constant oversight of the Overlords. Stanisław Lem 's 1961 novel Solaris depicts communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence as a futile endeavor, a common theme in Lem's works. The 21st episode of Star Trek , " The Return of the Archons ", introduced the Prime Directive, created by producer and screenwriter Gene L. Coon . Since its creation,
10735-567: The possibility of a nuclear holocaust or a Communist invasion of America. These fears were expressed in various guises, such as aliens using mind control, monstrous mutants unleashed by radioactive fallout , radiation's terrible effects on human life, and scientists obsessed with dangerous experiments." Most films of this kind have an optimistic ending. She reviewed four major topics in these films: (1) Extraterrestrial travel, (2) alien invasion and infiltration, (3) mutants, metamorphosis, and resurrection of extinct species, and (4) near annihilation or
10848-649: The probable exception of Jinx-born pirate Captain Kidd. In the short story "A Relic of the Empire", he discovered the Puppeteer home system by accident, and returned in the ship Puppet Master to rob inbound Puppeteer vessels, rather than pursuing a formal blackmail arrangement. Kidd claimed the Puppeteers' home planet orbited a "red giant, undersized" star (known as "Giver Of Life"), in the vicinity of coordinates 23.6, 70.1, 6.0 (using an unnamed coordinate system). Before dying, he passed this location along to Richard Shultz-Mann, of
10961-469: The reception of a radio signal. The Dark Forest , published in 2008, introduced the dark forest hypothesis based on Thomas Hobbes' description of the "natural condition of mankind" , although the underlying concept dates back to "First Contact". The 2016 film Arrival , based on the 1998 short story " Story of Your Life ", depicts a global first contact, with 12 "pods" establishing themselves at various locations on Earth. With regard to first contact,
11074-594: The safety of the Fleet of Worlds (see below). On occasion a Puppeteer will express its amusement by facing its two heads towards each other, in effect, looking at itself. This is described by Niven to be the closest to laughter a Puppeteer comes. Politically, the Puppeteers have a form of democracy with two major parties: the Conservatives and the Experimentalists. The Conservatives have held power for
11187-416: The smells, sounds, and sights of other Puppeteers. However, he appears to have little need or desire for social interaction with others of his kind. Socially, two notable traits of Puppeteers are their racial/cultural penchant for cowardice and their tendency to congregate in herds. The cowardice is thought in Puppeteer society to originate with the Puppeteer instinct for turning one's back on danger. However,
11300-405: The species, and should be distinguished from reflexes , which are simple responses of an organism to a specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light or the spasmodic movement of the lower leg when the knee is tapped. The absence of volitional capacity must not be confused with an inability to modify fixed action patterns. For example, people may be able to modify
11413-440: The species. It is a shortening from the more literal the one who leads from behind . A maddened, deposed Hindmost is responsible for Louis Wu's return to the Ringworld in the book The Ringworld Engineers . The Puppeteers' renown for honesty in trading allowed the species to accumulate an expansive mercantile empire called General Products; since the human Bronze Age , the Puppeteers have ruled this empire including every race in
11526-477: The spinal cord as a message that is then transmitted back through the body, tracing a path called the reflex arc . Reflexes are similar to fixed action patterns in that most reflexes meet the criteria of a fixed action pattern. However, a fixed action pattern can be processed in the brain as well; a male stickleback 's instinctive aggression towards anything red during his mating season is such an example. Examples of instinctive behaviours in humans include many of
11639-538: The term instinct appeared to have become outmoded for introductory textbooks on human psychology. The book Instinct: An Enduring Problem in Psychology (1961) selected a range of writings about the topic. In a classic paper published in 1972, the psychologist Richard Herrnstein wrote: "A comparison of McDougall's theory of instinct and Skinner's reinforcement theory —representing nature and nurture—shows remarkable, and largely unrecognized, similarities between
11752-416: The time, and survived, as did the owner of the ship. In Fleet of Worlds , the characters tour a General Product factory and ask innocent-seeming questions of their tour guide, Baedeker. Baedeker reveals (apparently unintentionally) that the manufacturing process is extremely sensitive to gravity and impurities, that the hulls are constructed from a single super-molecule using nanotech , and their strength
11865-416: The titular Body Snatchers overtaking the fiction town of Santa Mira. Similarly to The Day the Earth Stood Still , Invasion of the Body Snatchers reflects contemporary fears in the United States, particularly the fear of communist infiltration and takeover . Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke depicts a combination of positive and negative effects from first contact: while utopia is achieved across
11978-524: The trait is thought by many to actually originate from their herd instinct , as the instinct to turn one's back is linked to an instinct to kick the hind hoof at an attacker. In Ringworld , when Nessus and the expeditionaries are threatened, the Puppeteer defends himself quite effectively: All in one motion, the puppeteer had spun on his forelegs and lashed out with his single hind leg. His heads were turned backwards and spread wide, Louis remembered, to triangulate on his target. Nessus had accurately kicked
12091-411: The universe around them to ensure their own safety. As Puppeteers try to expose themselves to as little risk as possible, they use other beings as agents whenever possible, utilizing a combination of bribes and blackmail to obtain cooperation. Blackmail is not immoral to Puppeteers, and they have an established code of conduct surrounding the practice, making it perfectly safe for both the blackmailer and
12204-478: The victim, including that the blackmailer must turn over all their evidence against the victim and submit to a partial memory wipe, so they cannot betray the blackmail deal. The Puppeteers also use more personal manipulation; for instance, Puppeteers who have dealt with human males have utilized a voice that sounds like that of a seductive human female, and the Puppeteer Nessus utilized an implanted tasp ,
12317-499: The viewpoint that information behaviour has an instinctive basis is grounded in the latest thinking on human behaviour. Furthermore, she notes that "behaviors such as cooperation, sexual behavior, child rearing and aesthetics are [also] seen as 'evolved psychological mechanisms' with an instinctive basis." Spink adds that Steven Pinker similarly asserts that language acquisition is instinctive in humans in his book The Language Instinct (1994). In 1908, William McDougall wrote about
12430-495: Was a mechanism to cause rapid Kzinti evolution, since the most aggressive Kzinti would die in battle, leaving the more docile individuals to breed, eventually reducing their racial instinct for aggression. Another Puppeteer breeding experiment was the Lucky Human Project . The Puppeteer government concluded that humans' most notable quality was luck and decided to strengthen this trait. Manipulating politics on Earth,
12543-529: Was a popular concept of " progressors ", Earth agents working clandestinely in less advanced civilizations for their betterment, following the ideas of Communism (portrayed as already victorious on Earth ). The term was introduced in the Noon Universe of the Strugatsky brothers . The Strugatskis' biographer, writing under the pen name Ant Skalandis [ ru ] , considered the concept as
12656-529: Was much madness that year. For that reason it is famous in our history. But we had purchased a reactionless, inertialess drive from the Outsiders. You may have guessed their price. We are still paying in installments. We had moved two agricultural worlds; we had experimented with other, useless worlds of our system using the Outsider drive. In any case, we did it. We moved our world. "In short, we found that
12769-407: Was rapidly making their planet uninhabitable. They moved their home planet further from their sun, to lessen the effects of global warming, but overindustrialisation forced them to move five other planets closer to their world and terraform them into "farming worlds", arranging all the planets into a 'Kemplerer rosette'. (Before Ringworld opens, one of the worlds has left the formation, as part of
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