-Olaf Stapledon, Preface IN Stapledon, Star Maker (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972), pp. 7-9 AT p. 9.
See:
J.D. Bernal (Wikipedia)
J.D. Bernal (biblio with links)
The World, the Flesh, & the Devil (the full text)
Arthur C. Clarke (I think) mentioned Bernal's The World, The Flesh And The Devil as pioneering the idea of generation ships. Now we can read Bernal's works online.
The World, The Flesh And The Devil begins by considering the future. Bernal distinguishes between "...the future of desire and the future of fate..." We may add the future of imagination. A future history is not an attempt at prediction but nevertheless should be plausible. I think that Poul Anderson's later future histories are less implausible than his earlier ones with their FTL and many humanoid aliens.
Several ideas in Bernal's book are relevant to Anderson's future histories so I will probably discuss them in further posts.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And one possibly relevant book I recently started reading is Sean Carroll's SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN. discussing quantum mechanics, physics, multiple worlds, etc.
I will read these comments about Bernal with interest. The only other Bernal (I think) I've head of being the man who wrote DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST.
And not all scientists totally dismiss the idea of FTL! Nor do I think it very likely that mankind is the only intelligent race in the galaxy (or universe).
And I'm still puzzled over how you seem to think"humanoid" non human races are implausible. I have argued before that parallel evolution on many planets can lead to parallel "resemblances" to our race. That is, it's simply PRACTICAL for evolution to free up the forelimbs to become arms and hands, and for a head to be on top of a torso high enough to LOOK around.
I don't expect all non human intelligent races to be humanoid, but I would not be surprised if many are.
Ad astra! Sean
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