bear often answers major questions in contemporary science and culture with fictional solutions. for example, "the forge of god" tries to explain the fermi paradox. if the galaxy is filled with intelligences that could be very dangerous, young civilizations could only survive by staying quiet so nobody would notice them and attack. in "queen of angels" bear examines crime, guilt and punishment in society. he does this by examining consciousness and awareness. part of the novel is about highly advanced computers that begging to become intelligent and aware of themselves as they communicate with humans. in the two books "darwin's radio" and "darwin's children" he writes about the problem of overpopulation with a mutation the human genome making, basically a new series of humans. the books bring up the question of cultural acceptance of something brand new that cannot be stopped.