Dr. I. J. Good; “The Human Preserve”; Spaceflight 7 (September 1965):167-170 (note that this is the magazine published by the British Interplanetary Society, ISSN 0038-6340; they don’t sell back-issues that far, don’t appear to have been scanned by IA or Google Books, and only seems to be available through universities with print collections that far back like UWash)
In The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett, there’s an interesting endnote:
Good and Everett were acquainted: both did work for IDA’s communications division in Princeton (probably cryptographic tasks for the National Security Agency). Among Everett’s papers is a copy of a treatise by Good called “The Human Preserve.” It speculates that our galaxy is secretly governed by telepathic “Chief Entities” who preserve inter-stellar law and order in what amounts to a galactic zoo. Good said that self-replicating intelligent machines would long ago have taken over the zoo were it not for intervention by the Chief Entities, whose beneficent occupation saves us from descending into anarchy. The analogy between guardianship by the Chief Entities and the American national security state’s promotion of its role as a “global policeman” was intentional.
We’re all familiar with his essay on superintelligent machines, and it seems this links up.
391. “The human preserve” (an invited contribution to a symp. on extraterrestrial life held by the Institute of Biology and the British Interplanetary Society, May 1964), JRNSS (1964), 370-373; and Spaceflight 7 (1965), 167-170 and 180 (See #476) [JRNSS = J. Royal Naval Science Service] 476. “Life outside the earth”, The Listener 73 (June 3, 1965), 815-817. Japanese translation in The Japan Tiles Weekly, Aug. 28, 1965, pp. 14-15. (See #s 391, 597, and 644.) 597. “The Cosmic Club”, Context 2 (1968), 2-9 and 36. (See #s 391, 476 and 644.) 644. “The chief entities”, Theoria to Theory 3 (April 1969), 71-82. (See #s 391, 476, 597 and 1298) 1298. “The chief entities”, a shortening of #644 for Cosmic Search 2, No. 2 (Spring 1980), 13-17.
Supposedly, the Listener has been digitized, but it’s probably not available at many American universities.
This claims to be a version from 1980. It appears to have scans of the illustrations from 1980, but retyped text.
Thanks. That’s sufficient for my curiosity: Good lays out the argument for lots of aliens (which is cogent enough and time has vindicated various beliefs such as planets being common), notes that galactic colonization is easy and highly certain on astronomical timescales, that there must be a stable governing structure (the Chief Entities, who may or may not be FAIs), and argues that the reason for the Great Silence is the ‘zoo hypothesis’ (just with FAIs).
Not too unreasonable for the time period—as he notes, the first SETI searches had just been done and parapsychology still seemed fairly credible then—but I’d say by this point it’s pretty clear that there are no intelligent aliens whatsoever and the zoo hypothesis is untenable, and parapsychology likewise. So a historical piece of minimal general interest.
780. “The use of clones in experimental parapsychology”, paraSCIENCE, 1, No. 1 (1971), p. 5. 882. “And Good Saw the it was God(d)”, Parascience Research J. 1, No. 2 (Feb. 1975), 3-13. (See #1322.) 882A. A reprinting of #882, with minor changes, Parasc. Proc. 1973⁄77 (issued ’79), pp. 55-66 1322. “Is there any scientific basis for parapsychology?” For the tenth annual meeting of the American Culture Association and the second annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association, Detroit, Michigan, April 16-19, 1980. Session on the Philosophy of Parapsychology, 8:30a.m. to 10:30a.m. April 19 to the Crystal Ballroom, Book Cadillac Hotel. (See #882.) 1322A. “Scientific speculations on the paranormal and the parasciences”, a slight revision of #1322 for The Zetetic Scholar, No. 7 (1980, Dec.), 9-29. [Issued Feb. 1981] (See #s 882, 1460.) 1460. “Scientific speculations on the paranormal: introductory comments”, for the workshop on “The demarcation between science and pseudo-science,” at the Center for the Study of Science in Society, VPI&SU, 1982, April 30 to May 2. #1322A was invited. These introductory comments show the relevance to the workshop. In VA Tech Center for the Study of Science in Society, Working Papers, 2,No. 1 (April 1983), 107-112.
Dr. I. J. Good; “The Human Preserve”; Spaceflight 7 (September 1965):167-170 (note that this is the magazine published by the British Interplanetary Society, ISSN 0038-6340; they don’t sell back-issues that far, don’t appear to have been scanned by IA or Google Books, and only seems to be available through universities with print collections that far back like UWash)
In The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett, there’s an interesting endnote:
We’re all familiar with his essay on superintelligent machines, and it seems this links up.
This claims to be a version from 1980. It appears to have scans of the illustrations from 1980, but retyped text.
See Good’s bibliography:
391. “The human preserve” (an invited contribution to a symp. on extraterrestrial life held by the Institute of Biology and the British Interplanetary Society, May 1964), JRNSS (1964), 370-373; and Spaceflight 7 (1965), 167-170 and 180 (See #476)
[JRNSS = J. Royal Naval Science Service]
476. “Life outside the earth”, The Listener 73 (June 3, 1965), 815-817. Japanese translation in The Japan Tiles Weekly, Aug. 28, 1965, pp. 14-15. (See #s 391, 597, and 644.)
597. “The Cosmic Club”, Context 2 (1968), 2-9 and 36. (See #s 391, 476 and 644.)
644. “The chief entities”, Theoria to Theory 3 (April 1969), 71-82. (See #s 391, 476, 597 and 1298)
1298. “The chief entities”, a shortening of #644 for Cosmic Search 2, No. 2 (Spring 1980), 13-17.
Supposedly, the Listener has been digitized, but it’s probably not available at many American universities.
Thanks. That’s sufficient for my curiosity: Good lays out the argument for lots of aliens (which is cogent enough and time has vindicated various beliefs such as planets being common), notes that galactic colonization is easy and highly certain on astronomical timescales, that there must be a stable governing structure (the Chief Entities, who may or may not be FAIs), and argues that the reason for the Great Silence is the ‘zoo hypothesis’ (just with FAIs).
Not too unreasonable for the time period—as he notes, the first SETI searches had just been done and parapsychology still seemed fairly credible then—but I’d say by this point it’s pretty clear that there are no intelligent aliens whatsoever and the zoo hypothesis is untenable, and parapsychology likewise. So a historical piece of minimal general interest.
Speaking of parapsychology...
780. “The use of clones in experimental parapsychology”, paraSCIENCE, 1, No. 1 (1971), p. 5.
882. “And Good Saw the it was God(d)”, Parascience Research J. 1, No. 2 (Feb. 1975), 3-13. (See #1322.)
882A. A reprinting of #882, with minor changes, Parasc. Proc. 1973⁄77 (issued ’79), pp. 55-66
1322. “Is there any scientific basis for parapsychology?” For the tenth annual meeting of the American Culture Association and the second annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association, Detroit, Michigan, April 16-19, 1980. Session on the Philosophy of Parapsychology, 8:30a.m. to 10:30a.m. April 19 to the Crystal Ballroom, Book Cadillac Hotel. (See #882.)
1322A. “Scientific speculations on the paranormal and the parasciences”, a slight revision of #1322 for The Zetetic Scholar, No. 7 (1980, Dec.), 9-29. [Issued Feb. 1981] (See #s 882, 1460.)
1460. “Scientific speculations on the paranormal: introductory comments”, for the workshop on “The demarcation between science and pseudo-science,” at the Center for the Study of Science in Society, VPI&SU, 1982, April 30 to May 2. #1322A was invited. These introductory comments show the relevance to the workshop. In VA Tech Center for the Study of Science in Society, Working Papers, 2,No. 1 (April 1983), 107-112.
1322A is available here