Sunday 19 August 2018

Rapid Technological Advances And Geopolitics

Poul Anderson, "The Children of Fortune." See here.

I did not need to reread far (see here). Alaric Wayne has produced an atomic motor, a power-transmitting beam, a complete mathematical theory of turbulence and a hundred other innovations to transform civilization. He might make a force-screen to protect the North American moon base now that the Siberians also have a moon base. (6, p. 100)

The North American continent is divided into the North American Union and Mexico.
Latin America is recovering and is a potential ally of the Union. Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico have absorbed most of the other states.
Australia and New Zealand, not too badly hit during World War III, run the South Pacific.
"'Malaya dominates the archipelago and the Indian Ocean.'" (3, p. 85)
Turkey has taken over most of the still anarchic Near East and rules the territory of the old Ottoman Empire with some of southern Russia.
North Africa is partly Turkish and partly independent states.
Black-ruled South Africa stretches from Capetown to the Congo.
Europe is ruined and barbaric.
The feeble Russian state is squeezed between Ukraine and Siberia.
Afghan warlords rule much of India.
China is warring provinces.
Siberia, now independent and ruled by a Khan, has annexed Manchuria, Mongolia and Korea and controls Japan and some North Chinese states.

Recovering from World War III, humanity prepares for IV.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Is it expressly stated in "Children of Fortune" that some fear a WW IV is possible? I'm not surprised to see both disintegration of former great powers and the rise of new ones with opposing ambitions. Simply trying to recover from WW III and coping with the massive, mostly not beneficial mutations caused by radiation should come first, not rivalry for domination of the world. But, that's simply what human beings are like.

This mention of a Siberia ruled by a Khan reminded me of the concluding parts of S.M. Stirling's THE SEA PEOPLES, where we get glimpses of a new Mongol Empire arising in the post-Change world.

Sean