The Two Future Histories

Recent summaries bring out the differences between Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic and Technic Histories.

In the former, certain groups try - unsuccessfully - to direct the course of society. The main factors that they are unable to cope with are the effects of technological unemployment and political movements motivated by antiscientific worldviews. By contrast, in Anderson's second future history, Technic civilization and its first political form, the Solar Commonwealth, merely emerge from the Chaos. No one is trying to control the course of events. However, this new post-Western civilization then becomes subject to recurrent historical cycles later studied by Chunderban Desai.

Desai, studying history and detecting patterns, contrasts sharply with Valti, applying equations to make specific predictions.

Anderson's works are richer for including both of these future history series although we can, of course, rightly say that the second is better than the first. 

Social SF

Blog attention spiraled back to Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History when (here) it became possible to consider that future history alongside two other series by Anderson and one by SM Stirling. Although modeled directly on Robert Heinlein's Future History, the Psychotechnic History is part of a particular sub-genre together with - among certain other authors' works, of course - HG Wells' The Shape Of Things To Come and The World Set Free. (However, those two Wellsian volumes are independent novels, not short story collections.) 

The common sub-genre comprises those works, sometimes "utopian," addressing the question: how to change society with the help of science? CS Lewis parodies this question in his Ransom Trilogy, Volume III, That Hideous Strength, where his scientific social reformers are literally demonically controlled.

I see this as the central dynamic of twentieth century sf: Wells and Stapledon opposed by Lewis but followed by Heinlein, Anderson, Blish etc with Anderson and Blish addressing theological questions. Lewis wrote The Problem Of Pain and Anderson wrote "The Problem of Pain." Lewis describes the sinless planet, Perelandra (Venus) and Blish describes the sinless planet, Lithia (extra-solar). And so on.

In the Psychotechnic History, the question is: how does the world reconstruct after a limited nuclear exchange?

UN world government, becoming the Solar Union.

A secret service led by the fanatically anti-nationalist Fourre.

Un-men and the cloned Rostomily Brotherhood.

Suppression of conspiracies by nationalists and other turn-back-the-clock merchants.

Centralized agriculture.

Massive single-structure urban residential complexes.

Colonies under the sea and on other planets.

The work of the Psychotechnic Institute both in a predictive science of society (impossible but this sf) and in human psychophysiology.

Everything fails! But there are psychotechnicians in a peaceful Galactic civilization millennia later. 

Outcomes II

See Outcomes and its combox. 

Poul Anderson's "The Chapter Ends" is set in a remote future when there is a Galactic civilization that has been preceded by a long history involving a "First," and by implication at least one other interstellar, "Empire." See Missing Empires. This is entirely at odds with the Stellar Union and its (un-imperialistic) Coordination Service that had featured in earlier instalments of Anderson's Psychotechnic History. On the other hand, that Union had flown apart to be followed by the Third Dark Ages which could certainly have brought forth empires.

From Earth, the Galactic civilization is beyond Sagittarius. Interstellar civilization had been moving in that direction earlier in the series. (See Sagittarius.) The term, "integrator/Integrator" connects the two periods. (See Chronological Questions II.) Also, the Galactic civilization is ruled/managed/coordinated/whatever by psychotechnicians which seems like a culmination of this particular future history series.

Finally, the Psychotechnic History was collected with "The Chapter Ends" at the end of its concluding volume with Anderson's knowledge.

Dreams Or Nightmares

It is the time of the evening for one last post that does not require any more reading. However, inspiration has dried up. 

I had hoped that making this image of the opening page of "The Troublemakers" extra large would make it legible but it has not.

I was impressed when I had compared Poul Anderson's first two future histories and his Time Patrol series with SM Stirling's new time travel series in terms of their accounts of outcomes after different kinds of catastrophes: four works of imaginative fiction all relevant to our experience of the early twenty-first century.

Something to dream or have nightmares about. Good night.

Outcomes

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Psychotechnic Institute fails to end social and psychological conflicts even though, in the Solar Union period, some planetary populations are described as "integrate," but the Solar Union flies apart and, according to "The Chapter Ends," there are millennia of interstellar empires before there is eventually a Galactic civilization in which psychotechnicians mentally control cosmic forces. 

In Anderson's Technic History, the Chaos is followed by Technic civilization and the hyperdrive and eventually there is a peaceful interstellar civilization in another spiral arm of the galaxy.

In Anderson's Time Patrol series, the Patrol guards future millennia of continued conflicts and wars before an Era of Oneness and the evolution of human beings into Danellians.

In SM Stirling's Make The Darkness Light series, a nuclear war in 2032 is followed, in a second temporal dimension, by industrial revolutions in the Roman and Han Empires.

Are we living in a Chaos? Yes. Is a nuclear war possible? Yes, as long as nuclear weapons exist. Is a positive outcome possible? I think that it has to be possible because we do not know what will happen. At least we have to work towards something better - and probably without the help either of a hyperdrive or of time travel.

Future Historical Details

Periodically I return to summarizing parts of Poul Anderson's Technic History, then become dissatisfied with summaries that leave out too much.

I can't help referring back to the opening volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga without again appreciating the slow steady build-up of Poul Anderson's Technic History. The first six instalments introduce:

the Jerusalem Catholic Church

Ythrians

the Ythrian New Faith

Nicholas van Rijn

Adzel

David Falkayn

In the seventh, Falkayn works for van Rijn's company but has not yet met him. Only in the thirteenth instalment does van Rijn found his first trade pioneer crew consisting of Falkayn, Adzel and Chee Lan and only in the sixteenth, Satan's World, do van Rijn and the "trader team" share the spotlight. And, by that time, the crisis of the Polesotechnic League approaches.

-copied from Catching Up With References.

First, let us note that Adzel is a Wodenite. Then we add:

Falkayn will lead the joint human-Ythrian colonization of Avalon;

Philippe Rochefort, an officer in the Terran Imperial attack on Avalon and a Jerusalem Catholic, will have an affair with a direct descendant of Falkayn;

later, Dominic Flandry will defend the Terran Empire and his daughter, Diana Crowfeather, will work as a tour guide for a Wodenite Jerusalem Catholic priest.

But that still leaves out a lot of details.

A Realistic Assessment

The Winds Of Fate, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Fortunately, Artorius is able to assess the Chinese temporal expedition realistically from the outset.

(i) He knows what the Chinese regime was/would have been like in 2032. (In 2026, China is expanding economically, not militarily, but what will happen in the next six years?)

(ii) Now the early nuclear strike on Vienna makes sense. The Chinese had stolen Fuchs' temporal displacement process and were trying to forestall a Western temporal expedition.

(iii) It is reported that a member of the Chinese expedition killed a man by shooting him in the head.

The Romans have no alternative but to go to a war footing. It is the kind of thing that we expect although we still hope to see the Chinese secret police chief defeated and progress resumed.

The Blind Man

A guy came to fit blinds. He was impressed by a bookcase of sf, thought that Dune was great and hadn't heard of Poul Anderson. Ye gods! Read The Day Of Their Return, man. I usually refer to, e.g., Dune or Foundation only to point out how much better Poul Anderson wrote that kind of sf about interstellar empires etc and also wrote much more than that.

From a blog perspective, we appreciate SM Stirling as a current worthy successor of Anderson. Compare and contrast Time Patrol and Make The Darkness Light. Hence some recent and upcoming posts. 

Some people say, "I like sf," and then turn out to mean TV and films. I was in an sf shop that sold only media-related items, models, Star Wars novelizations etc. No Wells or Anderson.

Oh, well. Subcultures should flourish, of course.

A Well-Controlled POV

The Winds Of Fate, CHAPTER THIRTEEN, pp. 173-202.

This long chapter opens:

"Galenos looked around the dinner table..." (p. 173)

At least for the time being, Galen is the pov character. The dinner conversation and Galen's thoughts impart information to the reader rather than advance the plot.

Near the top of p. 185:

"...Galenos thought."

He is still, consistently, the pov character. With dinner concluded and with those who do not "need to know" having withdrawn, Galen begins to convey a message from the Emperor to the three Americans who are present and to their single other confidante on the most important matter (time travel), Josephus. There is a double space between paragraphs...

After the space and with the message delivered, the leading American, Artorius/Arthur, not only slams his fist down but also sees that Galen is observing their reactions. Thus, the pov has shifted from Galen to Artorius. (I notice all this because I am a pov cop.)

The narrative must shift from imparting general information to delineating how the Americans respond to the devastating news that they are not the only time travellers in 170 CE and that is more than I can cope with this evening. Sorry to build up to a climax, then trickle to bed.

Cultural References

The Winds Of Fate.

A senator thinks that his client has a:

"Lean and hungry look..."

-CHAPTER SIX, p. 100 -

- anticipating Shakespeare.

A farmer who finds it hard to adjust to the urgency of saving and investing in new equipment says:

"'...all the Gods damn it, you have to run fast these days just to stay in the same place!'"

-CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 158 -

- anticipating the Red Queen's Race in Alice Through The Looking Glass.

Realistically, Artorius has to face an angry crowd of people displaced by the nova res ("new things") but is able to offer them alternatives: land grants with financial help or new employment with good wages. At this early stage, the economy is still expanding in such a way that the displaced can be not replaced but relocated. (I just thought of that way of putting it now.) This is in CHAPTER TEN on pp. 138-139.

Jeremy thinks:

"'Lay on, MacDuff..."

-CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 107 -

- more Shakespeare, but, in this case, Jeremy remembers it.

Artorius corrects Jeremy's "'The game is afoot, Batman!'" with "'The game is afoot, Watson...'" in CHAPTER ELEVEN on p. 166.

The Batman is a great detective and there are stories in which they meet.

After tracking down those references, your friendly neighbourhood blogger needs a food and drink break.