Thursday 24 December 2015

Coordinators

(Ganymede.)

Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History is a succession of proto-series:

Un-men;
Sensitive Men;
Planetary Engineers;
interstellar exploration teams;
Nomads;
Traders (see "Teucan");
Coordination Service field agents;
Galactics.

"...Archimedes Academy, headquarters and training school of the Order of Planetary Engineers...," (The Snows Of Ganymede, Chapter 2, p. 9) could be the setting for any number of Engineers stories. In fact, it reads as if it is being set up for that purpose. See here.

Does anyone else notice similarities between the conclusions of Snows... and of "Esau"?

I have found another concealed continuity in the Psychotechnic History:

after the outlawing of the Psychotechnic Institute, the Planetary Engineers preserve psychotechnic training and the head of their Order has the title, "Coordinator";

there are Galactic Coordinators in the period of early faster than light interstellar exploration;

the Stellar Union Coordination Service uses computers called Integrators;

some Coordinators leave the Service to join the Nomads, giving them direction and restraint without disrupting their spirit;

the Nomads preserve knowledge after the collapse of the Stellar Union;

the later Galactic civilization employs psychotechnicians and uses Integrators.

Thus, three sets of Coordinators link the Institute to the Galactics.

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