Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [587]

CIVILIZATION IS TO GROUPS what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. … Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 587

Note

Butler builds an aphorism by strict analogy, then turns the analogy into a test: the definition is deliberately functional rather than moral, so ‘failure’ is not wickedness but loss of adaptive use. The repeated ‘serve’ triples into a diagnostic scale (well/adequately/not at all) that quietly sets up the whole book’s argument that a society can be judged by whether it still works.