Poul Anderson shows us these processes in two future histories: Tales Of The Flying Mountains and the Harvest of Stars Tetralogy. These are his most hopeful works. Mankind can put aside its present conflicts and reach not initially for the stars but certainly for everything within a two light years radius of the Sun. We stand at the threshold.
13 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I absolutely agree with what you said here! While I wish so much that we had already reached the stars I know realism dictates that the exploration, developing, and settling of the Solar System is the logical first step. I only wish we had done MUCH more to do that in the forty plus years since the last Moon landing in 1973. It is disheartening to see how LITTLE has been done, in a nuts and bolts way, to do that exploring, developing, etc.
Even circa 1980 much could have been done along those lines if the WILL and determination had been THERE in the UK or US. Jerry Pournelle, in his collection A STEP FARTHER OUT, explains in many articles how much could have been at least STARTED using the technology available in 1980.
Yes, given the will and determination, something like what we see in TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS and the HARVEST OF STARS books should have at least started by now. Yes, those stories and books were hopeful but PA also took care to show how hopes might have been thwarted. Fortunately, those threats were overcome!
Your comments also reminded me of PA's article "Commentary," to be found in SPACE FOLK. Esp. this paragraph from pages 257-58: "Look up. Space begins about fifty miles above your head. Yonder are all the materials, energy, elbow room, and wonderful discoveries to make that our species can ever require. Whether or not we reach the stars (and we can eventually, with or without Einsteinian speed limits laid on us, if we really want to) the Solar System holds more than enough."
Anderson was very concerned and disturbed by the lassitude the US and other advanced Western nations had shown about the possibilities of space. It was his fear that a permanent turning away from space would lead to the human race's EXTINCTION. As he wrote on page 258 pf SPACE FOLK: "It is my considered opinion that, without access to space, without opening space for people to use, industrial civilization does not have much longer to live. At best, our near future descendants will revert to the norm of history, which Alfred Duggan described as "peasants ruled by brigands," and it won't matter if the brigands retain a certain amount of high tech. At worst, our species will go the way of the dinosaurs--who enjoyed a far lengthier day and left the globe in far better shape."
While I am not so sure that industrial civilization is liable to collapse in the next one hundred years I do agree it is urgently necessary to get off this rock, to ensure the longer term survival of our civilization.
Sean
Sean,
A comment longer than the post!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I did notice how my "comment" was six paragraphs long while your blog piece was far shorter! A slightly embarassing disparity in length.
But I consider space and it's possibilities so important that I simply have to speak up to advocate a REAL space program once in a while.
I strongly hope other readers will contribute their own thoughts and views on this matter.
Sean
I should have added to one of my prior comments here that Poul Anderson included a dystopian story he called "Murphy's Hall" in SPACE FOLK. An examination of what might happen if the human race fails to get permanently OFF this rock. It makes for grimly fascinating reading.
Sean
Sean,
There used to be something that was described as the "permanent arms economy." Instruments of genocide and their delivery systems were manufactured to be stockpiled, not used. This was good for the defense industry and stabilized the economy for a post-War generation. The space program could be regarded as part of the PAE: expensive hardware was thrown away instead of stockpiled. Also maybe rocket and computer technology was being perfected for military applications. If this was the case, then the type of space program that we want was never going to be developed on that basis. There has been an interregnum of space travel as in Heinlein's Future History. Let's hope his religious dictatorship in the US does not happen also.
Paul.
Like Sean, I mourn the fact that so little has (apparently) been done to get us off this rock we call home in the past fifty years. I well remember watching the moon landings back in 1969 with a sense of the future unfolding during my lifetime, only to watch it stagnate and seemingly go nowhere. Sad, very sad indeed.
I also agree with Sean that it is imperative for us to embark on journies afar, if only because it means the human race will still survive in one form or another, even if we all manage to wipe ourselves out here on Earth in our ignorance and arrogance. It would be comforting to think that somewhere else, we could thrive grow and expand.
Missing comma there, of course.
'...we could thrive, grow and expand.'
Kaor, Paul!
I understand what you were saying even if I don't quite agree. There WAS a time when the late, unlamented USSR was a deadly threat to human liberty and freedom. When I believed it would indeed have used nuclear weapons to conquer the world--if possible. Which means I believe it was right of the US to have built similar weapons to restrain and deter the USSR.
Needless to say I agree that the all too aptly named MAD doctrine was not satisfactory and might even have led to an exchange of strikes that would have wiped out the human race. Poul Anderson touches on that in stories like TWILIGHT WORLD and "Wildcat".
I do think you are more correct in what you said about how the Cold War affected the space programs of the US and USSR. Massive hardware designed to be used only once, not reused. We need entrepreneurs like Heinlein's Harriman or Anderson's Anson Guthrie!
As for religious dictatorship in the US a la Heinlein's Nehemiah Scudder, I simply don't see that as very likely--because Christianity is stony ground for theocracy. The Christian view is to render to God and Caesar what rightly belongs to them SEPARATELY.
Yes, I know some will point out how the Catholic Church once ruled the Papal States in Italy. But, that was partly an accident of history, due to the collapse of Byzantine rule in Italy more or less forcing on the popes a secular role. More seriously, the popes came to believe the Papal States were necessary for assuring their freedom and independence from domination by secular powers. Because, too many times secular rulers HAVE tried to coerce many popes.
I believe religious dictatorship is far more likely to arise from Islam, not Christianity. Because orthodox Muslims believe, at least as an ideal, in merging mosque and state into a theocracy. Which would inevitably mean the degrading and oppressing of all non Muslims.
I forget the name of the author but a French novelist recently wrote a book called SUBMISSION speculating on what might happen if an alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood and Socialists came to power in France. The consequences, from my brief skimming, were not pleasant and included things like the imposition of Sharia law!
Sean
Kaor, Ketlan!
Many thanks for your supportive comments. it's so bitterly frustrating that so little has been done, in a nuts and bolts way, to get us off Earth in a real way!
Sean
Sean,
Strangely, Heinlein's Angels of the Lord are a bit like Muslims with their emphasis on "the Prophet."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that as well from REVOLT IN 2100. And that's another thing I find unlikely--the orthodox Christian view is that there will be no more prophets, that all PUBLIC, binding revelation ended with the death of the last apostle. Which helps explain why most Christians don't consider the Mormons to be even heretical Christians.
I mean no offense to Mormons, many of whom I know are good and decent people. But many of their beliefs are considered not theologically or doctrinally Christian.
Sean
Sean,
Many of their beliefs are way out there. God is married!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
One quick note. Too true, what you said about the Mormons believing God to have married and begotten "divine" children the way humans do. And they have many other ideas Christians have to reject as simply not Christian.
We have mentioned nuclear weapons. That reminded me of PA's book THERMONUCLEAR WARFARE, his longest discussion about war and atomic weapons. I have wished he had revised and updated the book before he died. And I hope he would have taken into account the grim possibilities of what might happen from both rogue nations like North Korea and fanatical Muslim regimes like the Ayatollahs in Iran getting and using nukes.
Sean
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