# A question about David Brin's Uplift Universe **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-david-brins-uplift-universe/598602 "2011-10-04T20:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-david-brins-uplift-universe/598602/21 "2011-10-05T07:48:21Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > In other words, why set up this fantastic universe then constantly have your main characters constantly _hide_ from it? And it wasn’t once - it was every book after _Sundiver_. Once is fine, two times is OK, three times is just plain irritating. :rolleyes: The point is that they try to hide, but the Universe keeps finding them. Hiding was kind of the point of Startide Rising, it’s a Sci-Fi version of the Submarine Adventure Story (_Run Silent, Run Deep_, etc). Hiding is _only_ a starting point for the Uplift Trilogy, though. And I liked the kids and the whole Huck Finn-viewed-through-alien-eyes conceit. But the plot really doesn’t focus on them _that_ much. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-david-brins-uplift-universe/598602/22 "2011-10-05T07:48:28Z")
One thing that strongly points to humans uplifting themselves is that Earth has so many different species on the verge of sentience. I remember it being a big deal that Humans already had 2 patron races, dolphins and chimpanzees. They had to hide the fact that Earth had a lot of other potentially upliftable species like gorillas, and other primates. If Humans evolved to be sentient unlike the other galactic species, it would make sense that close relatives would also be very close to sentience. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-david-brins-uplift-universe/598602/23 "2011-10-05T09:07:49Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > They had to hide the fact that Earth had a lot of other potentially upliftable species like gorillas, and other primates. If Humans evolved to be sentient unlike the other galactic species, it would make sense that close relatives would also be very close to sentience. As I recall (and it has been a while), Humanity had to hide the fact that they nearly caused the extinction of a number of near-sentient earth species, and had caused the extinction of non-sentient species - if there was one thing that would prevent them from having Patron status, their carelessness with Earths biodiversity would have been it. Si [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-david-brins-uplift-universe/598602.md?page=1)