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Progressors in science fiction are people of an advanced space-faring civilization who facilitate progress of less advanced civilizations. It comes from a perspective very much the opposite of what motivates Star Trek's famous Prime Directive. The term ''progressor'' was coined by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky for their Noon Universe (1961-1985), the term was mentioned in ''Hard to Be a God'' (1964), and later it (as well as a similar term ''regressor'') was also used by Sergey Lukyanenko in the duology ''The Stars Are Cold Toys'' (1997), although with a somewhat different meaning. Doris Lessing explores the same themes in her ''Canopus in Argos'' series (1979-1983), but she calls it forced evolution. A similar concept is the basis of Iain M. Banks' Culture series (1987–); the organization carrying out the work is named ''Special Circumstances''. David Brin's Uplift Universe novels (1980-1998) focus on the closely related phenomenon of biological uplift. The aims of the time traveling society in Isaac Asimov's ''The End of Eternity'', which is constantly interfering with, changing and "improving" history, are in many ways similar. ==Noon Universe Progressors== Strugatsky's progressors are agents of the Institute of Experimental History (IEH), in some cases indirectly controlled by two Committees for Contacts with Other Civilizations (COMCONs). They are working only with human civilizations, apparently, not daring to "progress" non-human races, like Leoniders or Headies, with whom Earth prefers to keep a full scaled diplomatic contact. Aware of a possible xenophobia, progressors usually employ stealth and secrecy to work undercover, allowing only a few brightest and most trustworthy individuals on a planet to know their true background. The idea of progressorism is to "straighten the history", i.e. to facilitate the way of primitive civilizations to Noon Universe-like condition and is based on the fictional ''theory of Historical Consequences'', which determines "what is good or bad, right or not in history". Progressors diminish casualties, inflicted by historical processes or inevitable crises. However, they don't hesitate to kill in order to survive (or to achieve other goals). This contradicts the usual mindset of the Noon Universe, according to which every "bearer of reason" is a priori ethically equivalent to oneself. It's why most humans don't like progressors. In ''Hard to Be a God'', collaborators of the Institute (such as don Rumata) are merely observers/historians gathering material for the theory of Historical Consequences, and saving scientists and poets is their personal activity. True progressors appear not earlier than in ''Inhabited Island'' and ''Beetle in an Anthill''. Wanderers seem to "progress" some civilizations (including Earth), too, being ahead of humans in every aspect, from secrecy to efficiency. However, Leonid Gorbovsky thinks of this possibility as a ridiculous one: :''In the whole universe only our humankind practices progressorism, because our history is like that, because we weep over our past... We can't change it and we strive at least to help others, since we didn't manage to help ourselves in time... That's where our Progressorism comes from! And the Wanderers, even if their past did resemble ours, are so far from it now that they don't even remember it.'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Progressor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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