Re: Things presented in-story as Good Ideas that seem like really Bad Ideas

On 9/8/24 11:49 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

Lucky Starr's "Council Of Science", the Venus Belt, the Federation's
"Prime Directive".  Things like that.
 Examples?
 (How about we exempt Super-Powered Vigilantes)

This reminds me of an example I have mentioned here before, 1-2 years ago, but it's a rather large spoiler for the work in question (The Stars Asunder by Doyle & MacDonald).
Spoiler for The Stars Asunder below,
Tony
Spoiler for the stupidest first-contact strategy I’ve ever seen,
courtesy of Doyle & MacDonald in The Stars Asunder…
here there be spoilers...
last spoiler space for 50 miles...
A ship belonging to Civilization “A”, which I charitably won’t refer
to as The Civilization Of Tunnel-Visioned Militaristic Idiots, has occasion to make first contact with a ship from Civilization “B”.
They sincerely believe — as in, it is played straight in the book that these people think this will be a successful way to establish relations to the mutual benefit of both civilizations — it will go best if they grapple/tether the other ship, make a hole in their hull, and send an armed boarding party through.