Terran

I have been reading this great space opera by Vernor Vinge: 'A fire upon the deep'
and it has made me think a lot. I can't read this book at any good pace, it is quite complex. There are a few things, without going into too much detail, that stand out in memory.

SPOILERS
The pack animals, the Tines are incredible creatures that offer a spring of complexity and analysis in contrast to the human race. In particular there is a death scene involving Scriber Jaquaramaphan. Johanna looks down on his inventions (a personality trait or inherent in humanity) because they disobey the laws of physics, unknown to Scriber. Instead of helping him perfect them she revels in the obscenity and laughs at them. He misunderstands and thinks that she approves, but then she throws the book on the fire. I know that we often can throw people by the wayside for silly ideas but what happens next is interesting to the storytelling aspect of the book (sci-fi's often miss). Scriber dies. All of his members except Ja are instantly killed. Ja crawls back to Woodcarver with a broken spine. It's very sad. Johanna was prepared to seek his forgiveness, although the thought processes involved in this were self-oriented. She doesn't seem to care about Scriber. Well I personally did care about him, and when the Johanna / Woodcarver side of the story seems so episodic (read: throwaway).... hell I dunno what to say about it. It's a feeling thing.

I do sometimes wonder why the human race often seems so lonely in space operas. We always appear to have enemies and don't collaborate to become something better. Would an alien be worth as much, do they all evolve the same machine logic overlayed with emotion? Or are there completely different systems of looking at things - far more foreign than cultural differences between nations? They could even have ESP or even something more quantifiable that we haven't been shown. It's all about being human.