{"id":98171,"date":"2026-02-05T02:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T07:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=98171"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:44:52","slug":"the-mote-in-gods-eye-a-no-win-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/02\/05\/the-mote-in-gods-eye-a-no-win-scenario\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>The Mote in God\u2019s Eye<\/em>: A No-Win Scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e47CbIHWzP0?si=Jy6C-ItEgb9X7qHO\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Feral Historian<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 26 Sept 2025<\/p>\n<p>For whatever reason books by [Larry] Niven and [Jerry] Pournelle always end up being a lot harder to cover than I expect. It&#8217;s not that the core ideas are buried in dense convoluted storytelling or unusually compelling characters (often quite the opposite) but rather I think that the core ideas are always a little uncomfortable to face head-on. And <em>Mote<\/em> is great example. <\/p>\n<p>Niven and Pournelle create a scenario not only of the cyclical rise and fall of a civilization, but one that through a combination of biological and cultural factors points to the impossibility of long-term coexistence between Humanity and the Moties. <\/p>\n<p>00:00 Intro<br \/>\n01:26 Aristocracy and Contact<br \/>\n04:11 The Moties<br \/>\n08:48 Crazy Eddie<br \/>\n10:18 The Middle Path?<br \/>\n12:53 The Gripping Hand<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd39 Patreon   | patreon.com\/FeralHistorian<br \/>\n\ud83d\udd39 Ko-Fi     | ko-fi.com\/feralhistorian<br \/>\n\ud83d\udd39 and Merch! | feral-shop.fourthwall.com<br \/>\nStill plugging <em>Ninti&#8217;s Gate<\/em><br \/>\n\ud83d\udd39 amazon.com\/dp\/B0CYXH9BWD<br \/>\n\ud83d\udd39 also on Kobo<br \/>\nkobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/ninti-s-gate?sId=f30f9d90-907a-449a-aeab-7b25215297f1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feral Historian Published 26 Sept 2025 For whatever reason books by [Larry] Niven and [Jerry] Pournelle always end up being a lot harder to cover than I expect. It&#8217;s not that the core ideas are buried in dense convoluted storytelling or unusually compelling characters (often quite the opposite) but rather I think that the core [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,28,44],"tags":[495,130,1593,1124,424,85],"class_list":["post-98171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-media","category-space-science","tag-civilization","tag-evolution","tag-feralhistorian","tag-genocide","tag-morality","tag-sf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-pxp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100708,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98171\/revisions\/100708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}