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Strength and Technology
- If humans are that much stronger than any other alien species how did any of them produce advanced technology? Low tech smithing of iron requires an exceptionally strong human to work and even working with softer metals takes a not insignificant amount of effort. Regardless of gravity material would still take the same amount of force to shape and that basic step is necessary for the development of tools or machine to do it instead.
- For that matter most forms of starting a fire require either deathworld dangers like common lightning storms or lava flows or, again, high strength to produce friction. I guess it might be possible if non-deathworld trees have a lower ignition temperature but then you get to the issue of how long the wood will last and how hot the fire's going to be.
- There is proof that the Hierarchy infiltrated pre-FTL species of low-class worlds. They have been around at least since the time of dinosaurs, thus they are likely responsible for low-class species gaining technology. Higher class species, such as the Gaoians or the OmoAru are from worlds that do have some of the common Deathworld dangers, and while they are still significantly weaker than humans, they are strong enough to have technology without outside intervention.
- There is technology like plunking mills and general force amplifiers (various lever type things) which would allow any sapient to do things they are ordinarily not physically strong enough to do. Also, on worlds where getting sick is almost no danger and food is easy to come by, they would be able to not have fire be among their first inventions (humans needed it to cook food so we could digest it easier as well as some other benefits). It has also been stated that there is only one class 2 planet, Garden, and a class 1 planet would be "the Eden". That would seem to indicate that most planets are not perfectly safe planets and would be more in the low middle range (3-7); which would be very nice and safe, but not completely free from dangerous meteorological processes like lightning. As to whether or not low class species would need Hierarchy influence to gain technology, that theory doesn't make much sense as the Igraens themselves and all species predating them couldn't have been given tech by the Hierarchy which would indicate that low class species don't need to be ascended by a precursor.
- As mentioned in the original point, you still need a base level of strength to build the tools to build the tools, even assuming they develop some elaborate system of pulleys and levers to let them hammer metal or whatever, they would still need to be able to carve wood into the right shapes. And humans are apparently so much stronger than the second strongest race that they can charge through their heavy weapon blast like nothing and proceed to rip their arms off. That's a huge strength gap and a fair number of work saving tools are actually fairly reliant on strong gravity to function.
- The short answer is that this is "Soft" rather than "Hard" science fiction. Of course, the exact number on the Mohs scale tends to vary by author. But in general, the series as a whole seems to be in the neighborhood of "2".
The title "Monkeys Reaches Stars"
- Why isn't it "Monkey Reaches Stars"? Is it a typo? Or is there some subtle meaning I'm missing?
