"'...the more you know, the wider your field of possible operations becomes, and the more fluid and dynamic a society you need. How could a rigid society expand to other star systems, let alone other galaxies? It couldn't be done.'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1983), AN EPILOGUE, p. 106.
"'...we know that the consciousness of the observer is the only free thing in the universe. Wouldn't we look foolish trying to control that, when our working physics shows that it's impossible to do so? That's why the Service is in no sense a thought police. We're interested only in acts. We're an Event Police.'" (ibid.)
(The abomination of a Thought Police exists in 1984 and in the Bureaucratic State period of Blish's Cities In Flight. The latter bans even thinking about spaceflight as Unearthly Activities but cannot ban atomic research...)
The Heart Stars Future
In the Heart Stars federation, even the dominant Malans:
"...are slaves to their own laws and the machines that interpret them. All these planets are also very low on curiosity, except in very limited areas, and they make sure to keep those areas harmless.'"
-James Blish, Mission To The Heart Stars (London, 1980), CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 123.
Earthmen learn that they must not join the Heart Stars federation but build a free alliance against it.
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