[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

[der Mouse]

>> Cue Poul Anderson's _The Helping Hand_.
> I'm failing to find a synopsis online, although I can probably guess
> where this is going...

Quick sketch: Skontar and Cundaloa are two planets which have exhausted
themselves warring with one another.  Terra steps in to help them get
back on their feet again.  Cundaloa gets aid; Skontar, in the person of
their ambassador, antagonizes Terra enough (albeit subtly) that Skontar
gets no aid.

Half a lifetime later, Cundaloa's culture has become a quaint tourist
attraction, replaced with a clone of Terran culture; Skontar is still
only just getting back on their feet, but is doing things their own
way, and some of them are things Terrans are visiting Skontar to learn
about (the example I remember was a type of spaceship Terran science
said was impossible).

Of course, like all fiction, it works out that way because the author
wanted it to work out that way.  But I'm sure you can see the relevance
to the discussion.

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