Interplanetary And Interstellar Exploration In Two Future Histories

I am still finding it interesting to compare future histories and this will lead to some philosophical reflections on futuristic fiction.

The first six of the thirteen stories in Larry Niven's Tales Of Known Space are also the first six in his Known Space future history. Of these six, the first four describe the exploration, respectively, of Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Mars in the period, 1975-2000. The fifth and sixth stories, set in the twenty first century, describe, respectively, the third Mars expedition and social changes back on Earth while the timeline informs us that interstellar exploration and colonization begin in this century. Next in the chronology is a novel set in the twenty second century.

The first two of the twelve stories in Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate describe the exploration, respectively, of the extra-solar planets, Ythri and Avalon, in future centuries. The third story in the Earth Book describes social changes back on Earth.

The eleven stories in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, are the first eleven in Anderson's Technic History and they include seven that were in the Earth Book. Of these eleven, the first describes the exploration of the Saturnian moon, Iapetus, shortly before 2057. The second and third stories in The Van Rijn Method were the first and second in the Earth Book.

Patterns:

interplanetary, then interstellar, exploration;

social changes on Earth;

the future recedes - Niven's interplanetary exploration was in the twentieth century; Anderson's is in the twenty first.