Hinterlands

Hinterlands is a science fiction short story, first published in Omni magazine in 1981, and later republished in the collection "Burning Chrome" in 1985.
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The story is a fable about the 'cargo cult' concept, and explores the consequences for cultures and civilisations when confronted with artefacts from an unknown, but very likely superior civilisation that aren't meant for them but are discovered by them anyway. Artefacts that are valuable to the lesser civilisation, but may be dangerous in ways the lesser doesn't even have concepts for.