Thursday 21 December 2017

Influences III

See Influences II.

"A humanoid robot" and "A predictive science of society" refer to Asimov's two main sf series, later unsatisfactorily unified.

"A future history series" refers to Heinlein's five volume Future History.

"A future revolution," "Experimental longevity" and "A generation ship" refer to Volumes III, IV and V of that Future History.

Thus, I had referred to more than I realized.

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the robot, the revolution, the longevity and the generation ship each get just one of the nineteen installment whereas psychotechnics is the unifying theme of the series. Although the Psychotechnic Institute is outlawed, the science of psychotechnics is preserved and psychtechnicians are prominent in the later Galactic civilization. Heinlein's Time Chart ends by indicating the emergence of the first mature culture whereas Anderson's concluding installment shows us a mature culture succeeding earlier periods of conflict.

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