"Probably. Now, as has been pointed out, the Quinlans are technologically ahead of us in certain areas. Artificial intelligence, for instance. They had set up an AI, ANEC-23, to control, maintain, and defend Heaven’s River and keep the Quinlan race alive and safe at all costs. But the Quinlans became victims of the paper-clip problem. When ANEC saw what was happening, it deduced that the only way to succeed at its prime directive—"