Lois’s answer to “I'm afraid to ask a question which must have been asked before, but here we go: For the Vorkosigan …” > Likes and Comments

Thanks for your answer! And for the reference, I haven't read much "old" sciencefi, but what you tell us about Cordwainer Smith appeals to me, I'll have a look.
What you say as a conclusion is a very new and disturbing notion to me: On day, I was as usual wondering about the possibility of similar developments as human beings in the universe, when I heard a very interesting program on the radio, in which the speaker was explaining that the probability of life on other accessible planets at the same time was nearly null. That earth was probably very early or very late, and had practically no chance to bump into live on another planet. I thought it was fantastically logical, but also very frustrating!
My love for aliens is very possibility the consequence of the Star Wars moovies and a bunch of TV series, as Star Trek, but aliens who are "just people in costume", as you say, annoy me. There aren't many books in which I found them really credible.
Anyway, I love your books are they are, so aliens are not mandatory in sciencefi for me: when a book is good, with as fantastic characters as yours are, et bien... the reading is great! :)

I think it was Carl Sagan who once said that if we ever do encounter intelligent life from outside our solar system they would not be "little green men,." That's why he did not believe any of the accounts of alien abductions, because all of the accounts described the aliens as little green men, or something similar.

Is Miles' mother's name a homage to Cordwainer Smith ?

Don't forget that Asimov did write one very important novel with non-human aliens, The Gods Themselves.

FYI, Asimov later explained his lack of aliens by revealing that robots were sent ahead to look for human-habitable planets and terraformed them, essentially plowing under any previous inhabitants.