The scientific myth of happy mastership in a pioneering work of science fiction

Reading a pioneering novel of science fiction, Auf zwei Planeten (On Two Planets) by German Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910), sheds light on the belief in a close tie between the progress of modern science and technology and civilizational progress. The Martians, having achieved a higher stage of evolution, are masters of nature and therefore masters of themselves, i.e. free. Following their ambition to raise humans to their level, they are faced with against this aporia: may one impose freedom? May one impose progress?