Wednesday, 30 October 2024

A Different Galactic Background?

According to the Psychotechnic History Chronology of the Future:

2784 Hyperdrive invented
2815 "Gypsy"
2875 "Star Ship"
2900 Stellar Union founded

The Traveler had been bound for Alpha Centauri and a generation had grown up in it, then settled on Harbor, before the events of "Gypsy." So the Traveler had left the Solar System soon after 2784.

"Star Ship" refers to:

"...the fabulous Galactic civilization..." (p. 282) and to:

"'...the Galactic Coordinators...'" (p. 286)

- and informs us that rockets are:

"...centuries obsolete in Galactic civilization." (p. 284)

Thus, "Star Ship," like maybe also the later "The Green Thumb," seems to assume an interstellar/galactic background different from the one that is supposed to be in place at this stage in the Psychotechnic History. 

Authors try to fit stories together into common schemes that do not always work. In my opinion, "Entity" and "Symmetry," both included in The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, do not fit and we know that the concluding instalment, "The Chapter Ends," is disputed.

2 comments:

Stephen Michael Stirling said...

I don't see the point of trying to cram everything into a future history, myself. Those stories are good; why try to fit them in?

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I'm inclined to agree. Unless it's plain from internal evidence within a story or an author's explicit wishes we should avoid that cramming of too many stories into a future history. That's why I object to including "The Chapter Ends" as part of the Psychotechnic series--the lack of that kind of evidence.

Ad astra! Sean