Science Quote by Adam Roberts
““I have a problem,’ said Nikolai Nikolaivitch Asterinov, getting to his feet. ‘I have a problem, that I wish to share with this, our science fiction writers’ collective. We are to concoct a race of aliens against which humanity can unite. Spacefaring aliens, no?’ ‘Yes, of course.’ ‘Then this is my problem. We know the party line. The philosophy of the party has always been that capitalistic Western fantasies of launching rockets to other planets will always be doomed by the internal contradictions of the competitive inefficiency of capitalism itself. Only the combined and unified effort of a whole people would be able to achieve so monumental an achievement as interstellar flight. No capitalist race could ever achieve something as sophisticated as interstellar flight; only communists could do this. Now, how can it be that these evil aliens are able to build spaceships and fly across the void? Surely they are not communists?””
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Thing Itself, 2014
The quote satirizes the Cold War trope that only collectivist societies can achieve grand technological feats, exposing the absurdity of attributing alien advancement to political ideology.
In simple terms: It mocks the idea that only communists could build spacefaring aliens.
Key Takeaway
Question political narratives behind sci‑fi tropes.
Themes
politics
science fiction
ideology
satire
technology
Mood
ironic
critical
thought‑provoking
Type
satirical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- writing sci‑fi
- political analysis
- education
- debate
- media criticism
Key Concepts
Cold War
collectivism
capitalism
alien otherness
Questions to Reflect On
- How do political biases shape our sci‑fi world‑building?
- Can cooperation exist across ideologies?
A Different Perspective
The satire may overlook genuine collaborative achievements in capitalist contexts.
![“When I'm the speaker, I know that special moment [just before speaking] is the only time I will have the entire audience's full attention. Unless an alien spaceship crash-lands on stage midway through the talk, the silence before I begin is the most powerful moment I have. What defines how well…” quote by Scott Berkun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/426/scott-berkun-12409_aliens_when-i-m-the-speaker-i-know-that-special_210194.jpg)
