Futuristic sf becomes alternative history sf either when the present catches up with it or when its scientific premises are disproved. In the case of Poul Anderson's Twilight World, World War III did not happen on schedule and Anderson himself has refuted the idea that any mutations caused by radiation could turn out to be beneficial. See here. Thus, in "past futures" sf, we read not what the future might be like but what it was once thought that it might be like. We go backwards, then forwards again but in a different direction.
If HG Wells had written about interstellar space travel, then his scientific premises would probably have included the proposition that our galaxy is the entire universe (see Significant Dates) although, following Kant, he might have speculated about other "island universes." See here.
I will reread Twilight World as a "past future" but first I must finish rereading The Winter Of The World.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That's a good way of putting it, that some "past futures" science is not about possible futures, but what it was once thought it would be like. Considering how long and prolifically Anderson wrote, we can see that several times in his own works. Most esp. in TWILIGHT WORLD and the Psychotechnic series.
Sean
Frederik Pohl's autobiography was titled The Way the Future Was. Active in sf from 1939 to 2013, he was certainly in a position to know.
At http://steve.savitzky.net/Songs/stuff/, there's a song Mr. Savitzky wrote, The Stuff that Dreams are Made of, explicitly invoking that and saying "the future isn't like it used to be":
"But the future that we lost is still someplace out there
Orion still rides hellfire toward the blue,
And rockets proudly land upon their tailfins,
As God and Robert Heinlein meant them to.
Yes, someplace there are old fans who remember
The way the future was when we were young,..."
Incidentally, Wikipedia comments that "Pohl's Law is either 'No one is ever ready for anything' or 'Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere will not hate it'."
Kaor, DAVID!
And dreamers like Elon Musk are trying to make REAL that "future as it ought to be"!!!
We need great men like D.D. Harriman, Nicholas van Rijn, and Anson Guthrie!
Sean
"refuted the idea that any mutations caused by radiation could turn out to be beneficial."
My understanding is that beneficial mutations are merely very unlikely, rather than impossible. I don't see that whether they are caused by radiation or some other factor would make a difference to that.
Kaor, Jim!
Or allegedly beneficial mutations caused by radiation are so rare they might as well be nearly impossible for all practical purposes.
Ad astra! Sean
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