Some random thoughts on Three Worlds Collide, which I was re-reading on a whim:
"Why have you not yet disabled the Babyeater ship? Your craft possesses the capability of doing so, and you must realize that your purpose now opposes theirs."
"Because," Akon said, "they did not disable our ship."
The Lady 3rd nodded. "You are symmetrists, then."
I feel like there's a better answer here: "Because it's hard to un-shoot them later if we decide it was a bad idea." When uncertain what to do, keep your options open.
That's also my answer to "Humankind, you did not likewise repair yourselves when you attained to technology," I think. Species-wide self-modification on that scale probably isn't something you should do unless you are certain that 1. it will work as intended, 2. you can reverse it if it doesn't, and 3. the change itself doesn't screw up your ability to determine whether it was a good idea. If you can't be that certain, better to wait. Not-modifying is easier to correct later if you were wrong than modifying.
Species-wide self-modification on that scale probably isn't something you should do unless you are certain that 1. it will work as intended, 2. you can reverse it if it doesn't, and 3. the change itself doesn't screw up your ability to determine whether it was a good idea.
I agree (at least with 1 and perhaps 2), but this answer seems like a cop-out. I think the point of that theme of Three Worlds Collide is about self-modification in principle, not just about it being safe and working as intended. The true rejection is not "We'd like to, we're just being cautious", it's "This modification repels us and we wouldn't do it even if we knew it would work as intended".
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