It was idle to speculate, to build pyramids of surmise on a foundation of ignorance. - Arthur C. Clarke

It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand; but

Plans for the final assault on Big Brother had already been worked out and agreed upon with Mission Control. Leonov would move in slowly, probing at all frequencies, and with steadily increasing power — constantly reporting back to Earth at every moment. When final contact was made, they would try to secure samples by drilling or laser spectroscopy; no one really expected these endeavours to succeed, as even after a decade of study TMA-1 resisted all attempts to analyse its material. The best efforts of human scientists in this direction seemed comparable to those of Stone Age men trying to break through the armour of a bank vault with flint axes.

Purvis looked at him as though seeing something that had no right to be around in a world that had invented penicillin.