Wednesday 24 May 2023

The Future Of Mankind

Poul Anderson, "Neptune Diary" IN Anderson, All One Universe (New York, 1997), pp. 23-32.

The text of this "Diary" fills just over seven pages because p. 23 is an internal title page and p. 24 is an introduction. The Diary covers seven days from Monday 21 August 1989 to the following Sunday. On the Monday, there is "...a panel of science fiction writers...," including Poul Anderson and Larry Niven:

"Our topic is supposed to be the future of science fiction, but of course, like every such panel, we wander over the whole map, mainly wondering aloud about the future of humanity itself." (p. 25)

The future of humanity is a major issue in science fiction and also a much more important issue than the future of science fiction. By comparison, the future of sf fades into insignificance. I would be glad to see global issues resolved even if no more sf came to be written. I think of Anderson's Genesis as an ultimate work of futuristic sf speculation but have not kept up with more recent authors.

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