Connecting Future Histories

The previous post linked Heinlein's Future History to Anderson's Psychotechnic History, Technic History and Harvest of Stars tetralogy. These four series are all "future histories" although Heinlein's is also the Future History. I already knew that the Psychotechnic History was modeled on the Future History and that the Technic History grew to be a longer Heinlein-model future history but was surprised to realize that the Harvest of Stars history could be seen as a conceptual successor to the Technic History.

Heinlein begins by asking how technological advances might affect society in the near future (the 1950s). Anderson winds up by presenting a subtle account of conflict between humanity and AI technology - the Frankenstein theme but in an almost unrecognizable form. Thus there is a continuous conceptual progression from Heinlein's opening story, "Lifeline," to Anderson's two-word concluding chapter:

"FENN WOKE."
-Poul Anderson, The Fleet Of Stars (New York, 1997), Chapter 32, p. 403.

At least two other future histories should be included in this sequence:

Larry Niven's Known Space series, with the exploration of the Solar System followed by social problems on Earth, is like an update of Heinlein;

Anderson's Genesis takes human-AI interactions in a different direction and billions of years further into the future.

(Imagine reading all these works in this order for the first time!)

Genesis (New York, 2001) concludes:

"...she will abide, waiting for the judgment from the stars." (p. 248)

Thus, after all that time, there is still more to come.