“A sapient species doesn’t reach space unless the members learn to cooperate. They’ll wreck the environment, one way or another, war or straight libertarianism or overbreeding.”

—  Larry Niven, book N-Space

Short fiction, N-Space (1990)
Source: Madness Has Its Place (p. 561)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 22, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A sapient species doesn’t reach space unless the members learn to cooperate. They’ll wreck the environment, one way or …" by Larry Niven?
Larry Niven photo
Larry Niven138
American writer 1938

Related quotes

“The theory of evolution is based on the struggle for life and the survival of the fittest. Yet cooperation is common between members of the same species and even between members of different species.”

Robert Axelrod The evolution of cooperation

Axelrod, Robert, and William Donald Hamilton. "The evolution of cooperation." Science 211.4489 (1981): 1390

Samuel Bowles photo

“The point of Darwin's statement is clear: in competitions among groups, those whose members have learned how to cooperate—that is, not to compete with one another—often win. Think of team sports. Darwin spoke of tribes as groups that would benefit from having a preponderance of cooperative members. The same reasoning applies to firms, neighborhoods, ethnic groups, and nations.”

Samuel Bowles (1939) American economist

Source: Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change, 2005, p. 50

Edward O. Wilson photo

“Most kinds of aggressive behavior among members of the same species are responsive to crowding in the environment.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.5 Aggression

“I think that as long as somebody feels passion and there’s passion behind the words, it doesn’t really matter how loud or soft they are, they’ll reach you.”

Alisen Down (1976) Canadian actress

Source: 12 Monkeys: Alisen Down On Why We Love Olivia https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/12-monkeys-alisen-down-on-why-we-love-olivia/ (July 6, 2018)

“Childhood is analogous to language learning. It has a biological basis but cannot be realized unless a social environment triggers and nurtures it, that is, has need of it. If a culture is dominated by a medium that requires the segregation of the young in order that they learn unnatural, specialized, and complex skills and attitudes, then childhood, in one form or another, will emerge, articulate and indispensable.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Source: The Disappearance of Childhood (1982), Ch. 9 : Six Questions

George W. Bush photo

“Members, you and I will work together in the months ahead on other issues: productive farm policy, a cleaner environment, broader home ownership, especially among minorities, and ways to encourage the good work of charities and faith-based groups. I ask you to join me on these important domestic issues in the same spirit of cooperation we've applied to our war against terrorism.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)

Peter Singer photo

“Speciesism—the word is not an attractive one, but I can think of no better term—is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species.”

Peter Singer book Animal Liberation

Source: Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals (1975), Ch. 1: All Animals Are Equal

Larry Niven photo

“Species evolve to meet the environment. An intelligent species changes the environment to suit itself. As soon as a species becomes intelligent, it should stop evolving.”

Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye

Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 3 “Dinner Party” (p. 31)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing photo

“Precisely the way on which the species reaches its perfection, every individual human being (one earlier, one later) must have traversed, too.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic

Eben die Bahn, aus welcher das Geschlecht zu seiner Vollkommenheit gelangt, muß jeder einzelne Mensch (der früher, der später) erst durchlaufen haben.
The Education of Mankind, § 93

R. A. Lafferty photo

“We will quickly measure you one way or another. We have no living ex-members.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

Source: Space Chantey (1968), Ch. 7
Context: "This is the Improbable Club," said the President-Emeritus in a heavy muffled voice, "and you things have made an improbable entry. Many unqualified persons have attempted to crash this Club, but you have done it literally. Whether you will be able to qualify for our high membership is another thing. It will not matter. We accept, for a brief moment at least, all who come here as members. We will quickly measure you one way or another. We have no living ex-members. Sit you down, all, and unwind your ears. Remember, each topper must be topped."

Related topics