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297 ills such as war, crime, poverty, and injustice would be quickly eliminated. Because of these considerations, a biological society will probably not hesitate to cede its own social control to an intelligent executive automaton.*’ The grand principles of morality... are not to be viewed as confined merely to the inhabitants of our globe, but extend to all intelligent beings. —Reverend Thomas Dick, 1826°* Isn’t it axiomatic that any non-human intelligence must be evil? —Kingsley, a character in The Black Cloud* Since the Middle Ages, many who have speculated about intelligent extraterrestrials have argued that they would be morally superior to our- selves. Although this once was meant to inspire human improvement, it has become an assumption that many make when debating the conse- quences of contact. Clarke claimed that no culture can advance for more than a few centu- ries at a time on the scientific and technological fronts alone. “Morals and ethics must not lag behind science,” he insisted, “otherwise the social system will breed poisons that will cause its certain destruction. With superhuman knowledge must go equally great compassion and tolerance.”** Like Clarke, Grinspoon believed that technical advancement without spiritual progress creates a dangerous and unstable condition that will be selected against. He thought that natural selection on a galactic level will favor those living worlds where technical and spiritual advancement proceed together.*” Sagan implicitly assumed that more advanced extraterrestrials would have higher moral standards: while we are asked to imagine enormous progress in their knowledge of the physical sciences, we are also asked to imagine that they are as backward as we are on sociological and ethical questions. Jill Tarter envisioned that there will be a highly established code of ethics among more advanced aliens.** Papagiannis offered a sweeping vision, driven in part by the Limits to Growth theory. Those societies that overcome their innate tendencies toward continuous material growth will be the only ones to survive. As a result, the entire galaxy in a cosmically short time will be populated by stable, highly ethical and spiritual civilizations.” Human history does not support the assertion that social wisdom will accompany scientific and technological progress. Some of the worst horrors in our own history were committed by some of the most scientifically and They Will Be Morally Superior Some of us disagree. They Will Be Morally Superior