-Poul Anderson, Three Worlds To Conquer (London, 1966), Chapter 6, p. 43.
Nowadays, we hear global news instantly. Imagine living so far away that Earth was sometimes on the other side of the sun. In some ways, space travel will restore earlier conditions like communication time lags. How long did it take the news of the Russian Revolution to spread around Earth? It was not instantly known about in European trenches.
Somewhere in Anderson's Psychotechnic History, extrasolar colonies are compared to colonies on Earth in previous centuries. Their cultures diverge because of the distances involved.
In the Psychotechnic History, the Humanists overthrow the Institute on Earth but some psychotechnicians plan to make a comeback from Ganymede. In Three Worlds To Conquer, the Sam Halls overthrow the Protectorate on Earth but one loyalist Admiral plans to restore American hegemony form a base on Ganymede. Ganymede's distance from Earth makes it an appropriate base for counterrevolution in more than one timeline.
I am amazed at what I learn by reading Poul Anderson.
9 comments:
The fundamental break in how fast information flows took place in the 19th century, with the invention of the electric telegraph.
Before then, the practical limit on the transmission of information was the speed of a horse, or a sailing ship, where water got in the way.
In a single generation, the time required to get a letter from say, London to Bombay went from "months" to "seconds". Ditto, to chose a mundane example, the time required to learn the London price of wheat in, say, Chicago or Odessa.
All other changes since have simply amplified and extended this fundamental innovation. The real break took place in the 1830's and 40's.
James Blish imagined an intergalactic civilization with Dirac transmitters receiving information from the past, present and future.
Dear Mr. Stirling and Paul,
Of course I knew telegraphy had been invented in the 1840's and plans were being made, I think, to lay underwater cables from North America to Europe, which would also have enormously speeded up the flow of information. No need for such cables to connect South America to Europe that way. Telegraphic land lines would be sufficient.
In Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories, however, we do see something of a return to "slower" communications. There was no interstellar equivalent telegraphy, which meant communications could only be as fast as the swiftest courier boats. Messages to or from Terra took about two to three weeks. And longer if a message went straight from Sector Alpha Crucis to the Tauria Sector, on opposite ends of the Terran Empire.
We do see Edwin Cairncross, Duke of Herms, speculating in A STONE IN HEAVEN if something like an interstellar telegraphic system could be made if a really DETERMINED effort was sustained.
Sean
The usual upper limit for a reasonably tightly integrated political unit is 6 months total for a message and its return, and that's stretching it. There have been larger ones, but they were very decentralized.
Even the Roman Empire -- which had pretty good communications for a preindustrial setup -- was found to be too big and unwieldy when simultaneous emergencies at opposite ends of the Empire became common in the 3rd century -- hence the division into eastern and western Empires.
Ecclesiastically, that division left Rome as the only Western Church with a direct Apostolic link - to Peter and Paul. The Bishop of Rome had been made Pontifex Maximus, chief official of the Roman state religion, and claimed to be the direct successor of the chief disciple of Christ with a universal/Catholic authority. The Church in India claimed Apostolic succession from St Thomas.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Then that means Poul Anderson's Terran Empire was doing a pretty good if it only took two or three weeks by fast hyperdrive courier boats for messages from border sectors of the Empire to reach Terra and the relevant officials they were sent to. And similar times for replies to be sent back. Less time, of course, for the sectors of the Inner Empire closer to Terra.
I agree with what you said about the Roman Empire. It took superhuman, exhausting effort by the most able Emperors of the third century to attempt grappling with multiple crises in both East and West. It was too much and Diocletian began the process of institutionalizing the custom of having co-Emperors with jurisdiction in East or West.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sorry, but this is not quite correct in Catholic eyes. We Catholics believe all validly ordained bishops are successors of the Apostles. My own Ordinary, the Archbishop of Boston, is a successor of the Apostles. We believe the Bishop of Rome, by virtue of being a successor of Peter, also inherited the unique plenitude of authority conferred on Peter.
And about half of the Mar Thoma Christians of India are Syro-Malabar rite Catholics in communion with Rome.
Sean
Also you have to keep in mind that administrative technique is a technology in itself, and advances over time -- and sometime knowledge is lost.
The Roman Empire's administrative system was only moderately advanced. There was nothing like a Cabinet system, and only a rough approximation of an annual budget.
It was very difficult for a Roman Emperor to really know a province -- the statistical information was quite rudimentary, and the Romans didn't have good maps.
That's one reason why able Emperors traveled a lot; it was only by visiting a province they could really get to know it.
China had a much more advanced system. Central officials could comb the archives and find out most of the essentials of anywhere in the Empire, including things like lists of the most important families, how landownership was distributed, irrigation systems and so forth.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree with what you said. My only "quibble" is to wonder if, beginning with Diocletian, the Roman Empire began to acquire the kind of archived information typical of the Chinese Empire. I think some surviving fragments of Roman records like the NOTITIA DIGNITIA catalogs some information of that kind. And I think the Eastern Roman Empire also had a good deal of archived information.
Sean
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