Sf can be set in any time or place but is usually future-oriented. The Time Traveler explored the future. Wells wrote The Shape Of Things To Come. Heinlein wrote the Future History.
Sf has addressed:
future technologies, e.g., spaceships;
a technology predicting dates of death ("Lifeline" by Heinlein);
a communications technology receiving messages from the future ("Beep" by James Blish);
time travel to or from the future.
Predictive social science occurs elsewhere in sf. In Anderson's World Without Stars (New York, 1966), sociodynamicists extrapolate a trend and prove its outcome which is confirmed by subsequent events. However, these sociodynamicists neither govern nor advise governments. They are merely called in to reassure the elders on a particular planet. Earth has starport towns, educational centers, science and scholarship and a town has a civil monitor but there is no mention of any planetary or interplanetary government so do these populations with indefinitely extended lifespans manage their affairs without needing to be governed? Unfortunately, there is one passing mention of millions of governments on p. 22!
See also Science Of Society and its combox.
2 comments:
I’m skeptical of the concept. Human actions are not predictable in detail; if you study historical on a fine-grained basis, the degree of agency, of individual choice, leaps out at you.
For example, it was very likely that the Americas would be ‘discovered’ about the time Columbus did it. The techniques, the technology and the incentives were all there. The Portuguese did it by accident in 1500, only eight years after CC in 1492. But in terms of the consequences, it mattered immensely precisely who did it and precisely when and under whose auspices. Cortez’ conquest of Mexico is another example — full of outrageously unlikely chances and near-death experiences.
Kao,r, Paul!
I share Stirling's skepticism for things like the "sociodynamicists" mentioned in WORLD WITHOUT STARS. At most, a medical advance like the antithanatic of that story might lead to more stable societies, but not ones with PREDICTABLE and PROVEN trends. The mere mention of gov'ts continuing to exist bears that out!
Anderson's posthumous FOR LOVE AND GLORY is another look at the idea of indefinitely extended life spans. And a more plausible one, IMO.
Ad astra! Sean
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