Sunday 1 January 2023

In Pacific Colony

Poul Anderson, "The Sensitive Man" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League (Riverdale, NY, October 2017), pp. 103-157.

In "Un-Man," Sofie was "...an engineer on the Pacific Colony project..." (p. 36) True to future historical form, "The Sensitive Man" takes us inside Pacific Colony where, in the Mermaid Tavern, the title character sees engineers with rec girls, a biochemist with a clerk, caissoniers, a maintenance man, a computerman, a tank pilot, a diver, stenographers, tourists, chemists, metallurgists, others less identifiable and the group that he has come to spy on. We are still in a scenario where special agents defend the UN whereas some influential but misguided individuals seek to overthrow it and meanwhile we get some glimpses of everyday life in "the future" - now 2009, according to Sandra Miesel's Chronology.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I have no objections at all to humans exploring the depths of the oceans and exploiting resources found there. But I don't believe the oceans to be the true final frontier of mankind. I believe that frontier to be off Earth, in space and the settling of other worlds, both in and out of the Solar System. And that was also Anderson's belief and hope.

Ad astra! Sean