Hiawatha and Minnehaha, the two O'Neill colonies orbiting Earth sixty degrees before and behind the Moon, were the first dwellings in space;
new industries in these colonies revived free enterprise and changed ways of thinking and living;
meanwhile, on Earth, multiple societies alloyed;
thus, Technic civilization began.
In James Blish's Cities In Flight:
2105 is an agreed arbitrary date for the fall of the West;
thereafter, the Bureaucratic State rules Earth until it collapses in 2522, to be succeeded by the Earthmanist culture;
however, Richard D. Mullen argues in his Afterword to Cities In Flight that, according to Spengler, Peter the Great had successfully Westernized Russia;
thus, on this view, Western civilization persisted until 2522.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I tend to think Technic civilization began some time between AD 2050-2100. With the Solar Commonwealth arising around then. And the hyperdrive being also invented around that time.
May something analogous happen in our real history? Perhaps beginning with Elon Musk founding his hoped for Mars colony?
as astra! Sean
Sean: hopefully.
In fact, I've never seen much difference between Technic and Western civilization, if you take the latter's more recent stages.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, the Western and Anglophone strain within Technic civilization is very apparent. I would argue that as time passed, esp. after the invention of the hyperdrive and the mutating of English into Anglic, plus non-human influences, Technic civilization became more and more distinct from our Western civilization.
Ad astra! Sean
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