SF books with long-lived humans/aliens?

[luzula]

Can you think of SF books where there are long-lived humans/aliens who by reason of their long lives are better at overcoming the problems of short-term thinking? Problems I'm thinking of are things like "let's go on hunting this species for food, even though if we do, it'll go extinct", or "let's go on burning fossil fuels, even though if we do, it'll wreck the climate".

I guess another question is whether longer lives would necessarily make us wiser that way...we already do have long lives compared to lots of other organisms. No matter how long you make it (500 years?) there would still probably be even longer-term problems that this society would take a short-term approach to, on their terms. And even if you have a long life, you might still discount the future as opposed to the present.

KSR's Mars books do have lots of interesting thoughts about how a longer life changes you personally, and also changes society.

Comments

[hyarrowen]

Doris Lessing, Shikasta and follow-ups. That concentrates more on the fall of those civilisations, though; they only realise in retrospect that the "golden age" was better.

I was going to say Numenor, but tbh they were pretty short-sighted given their longevity. Like, cutting down all the forests in Numenor, then in Eriador. The irl British were were better at that, planting oaks for shipbuilding a couple of centuries down the line.

John Wyndham's "Trouble with Lichen" looks at the effect of an anti-ageing drug, and how that might change society, particularly women's roles.

Michael Scott Rohan's duergar in the Winter of the World series are portrayed as wise, technically advanced and able to withstand an Ice Age much better than modern humans. But you don't get much detail on that.

None of those are quite what you want, sorry!

[luzula]

Thanks! : )

It's been forever since I read those Lessing books...

I was going to say Numenor, but tbh they were pretty short-sighted given their longevity. Like, cutting down all the forests in Numenor, then in Eriador. The irl British were were better at that, planting oaks for shipbuilding a couple of centuries down the line.

The elves do have long lives and are not short-sighted, though. : )

Re: planting oaks, Sweden too! I remember actually some forester recently sent a message to the Navy, saying, "your oaks are now ready!". I guess it was partly a publicity thing, but also literally true that it was a commission from hundreds of years ago.

[chestnut_pod]

Maybe it’s only Finwë’s extended family who are so aggressively shortsighted! Although I suppose after two Ages of the World the ones who are left do learn to have a bit of perspective.

That’s very cool about the forester surviving all those hundreds of years — the thought of the quality of record-keeping required is delightful!

[luzula]

Hee, yeah, the Fëanorians do make bad decisions! I guess I was thinking more along the lines of the elves having a stable population and not depleting their resource base, which they don't seem to have a problem with.

[chestnut_pod]

That’s very true! Aman seems to spring eternal.

[hyarrowen]

The elves do have long lives and are not short-sighted, though. : )

They're also complete idiots on occasion... I've thought since, the Dwarves are long-lived and seem to have their shit together. But again, you don't see much of them or of how it affects their thinking. And also, to a lesser extent, the hobbits.

Re: planting oaks, Sweden too! I remember actually some forester recently sent a message to the Navy, saying, "your oaks are now ready!". I guess it was partly a publicity thing, but also literally true that it was a commission from hundreds of years ago.

How lovely! I hope they're put to good use. Just goes to show that the Numenoreans were also idiots, since us ordinary types have been thinking centuries ahead for a long time (maybe not so much now.)

[luzula]

You're right, some of the elves do make terrible decisions! I guess I was thinking more along the lines of the elves having a stable population and not depleting their resource base, which they don't seem to have a problem with.

Hmm, I can't remember the lifespan of the Dwarves, but I guess they're not immortal like elves? According to a wiki: about 300 years.

[hyarrowen]

Two or three centuries, mostly. I can only think of one really bad decision they ever made, and that was to go after the Silmarils. In terms of resource depletion, however, they certainly delved too deeply in Moria.

The Ainur seem to manage Aman's ecosytem pretty well, whatever one might think of their decision-making in other respects.