Tuesday 18 September 2018

How Are There Spacemen When There Is Interstellar Teleportation?

In Poul Anderson's The Enemy Stars:

spaceships are necessary to carry the mattercasters to other systems;
the ships must be maintained;
men teleport to them to make scientific observations from space;
someone must explore new planets;
apparently, the Protectorate can teleport an entire Space Navy to a colonized system.

Thus, a retired spaceman on an island in the Outer Hebrides lives surrounded by items brought back from other planets.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Teleportation, outside of frankly fantasy stories, is difficult to take seriously. More so, perhaps, than either indefinitely extended lifespans or a FTL drive. I think a physicist or engineer would explain teleportation is simply not very plausible because it would violate the known laws of nature.

These difficulties explains why Anderson was content to try out the idea of teleportation in "only" one novel and two short stories.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

And in "The Interloper."

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I had forgotten about "The Interloper"!

Sean