When humans gain the ability to space travel efficiently, we encounter the same problems we did on earth. Space travel was often looked at as a glamorous futuristic endeavor; clean spaceships and perfectly colonized worlds exist outside of humanity. Outer space seemed to be that place where we could finally achieve perfection.
But it becomes obvious in this genre that this is not the case. In reality, the openness and unconquered vastness of space just enable humans to do "their own thing," which we all know is never that bright. It becomes painfully obvious that we will never escape our problems and our own human tendencies; even when we try to emulate the planet we once were. Having the ability to "start over" and create another world really can make us understand how unrealistic our ideas for a perfect society are.
In Babel-17 we are presented with the expanding world that is suffering through intolerable differences. I found it interesting how with the expanse of beyond earth, we lose a sense of what is considered normal. I liked how language became a huge part of this book; and it had a large impact of how each character thought of their own situation and changed each interaction. In an almost 1984 way, language controlled the outcomes of each relationship.
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