The Ethicators

A crew of Earth missionaries explores star systems seeking intelligences to uplift. After rejecting hot and cloudy worlds they land on a lush planet where carnivorous fauna feed on one another, prompting the crew to judge moral development inadequate for souls worth saving. Rather than abandon the world, they install a machine designed to radiate ethical influence and modify future moral instincts, then depart. The device survives predation and endures through geological epochs as seas rise and fall and ice grinds valleys. The story examines technological paternalism, assumptions about moral progress, and the tension between evolution's pace and deliberate ethical intervention.