Tuesday 27 July 2021

Interstellar Wanderers In Three Universes

We imagine an inter-universal meeting between:

a Nomad, from Poul Anderson's first future history series;

a Kithman, from one of Anderson's shorter future history series;

an Okie, from James Blish's main future history series.

However, these three kinds of "starfarers" inhabit not only alternative future histories but also universes with different laws of physics.

In the Kith universe, the light speed barrier remains impenetrable.

In the Psychotechnic History, a large spaceship - but nothing larger - can be made to fly faster than light. 

In the Okie history, an entire city can be raised from a planetary surface, enclosed in an atmosphere-protecting shield and moved through space faster than light. Later, a planet is moved between galaxies.

"Go with God!" as Blish's Warriors of God proclaim.

The Hebrew Bible differentiates between major and minor prophets, the difference being only that the "minor" prophetic books are shorter, not that they are less important. Poul Anderson's several future histories can be divided up on a comparable basis.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Theoretically, if FTL is possible, then it should be possible to use the hyperdrive of Anderson's Technic stories to transport objects as large as cities FTL. Of course, questions like costs and economies of scale would determine whether or not people would try to make, say, Chicago, a Flying City!

Ad astra! Sean