Reality And Systems

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XVI.

Trevelyan thinks:

"Every time you thought you had reality expressed in a system you stumbled against a new facet. The sane man must always be distrustful of his own beliefs." (p. 142)

Maybe the Coordinator is learning from his interactions with human Nomads and alien Alori?

The image for this post is a summary of the Hegelian System of Philosophy which I learned backwards for my philosophy degree. There are many smaller triads that do not appear in this diagram. As I remember it, the third term or synthesis of one triad was (something like) the King or Monarch but Hegel discussed this term before the others out of respect for the monarchy. (Maybe my copy of Stace's The Philosophy Of Hegel is somewhere upstairs?) (Later: It is in our cellar.) I hoped that Hegelian dialectic would help to refute Marxism but now I realize that dialectical materialism is not reductionist and, in my opinion, does not require refutation.

I was influenced by J. Krishnamurti who said, "Truth is a pathless land." See here.

A Krishnamurti parable: A man picks up a fragment of the truth. The Devil's friend says, "Quick! Do something to distract him!" The Devil replies, "It doesn't matter. He is only going to organize and systematize it." (That is my retelling. One of Krishnamurti's presentations of the parable is in his Dissolution Speech. See the link.)

That is a round number of posts and maybe we should leave it there for now? That might be it for this month.

Trevelyan On Interstellar Empires

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XIV.

(My computer will be collected for repair tomorrow morning. There will then be an intermission of several days.)

"'And when a technology has advanced to the point of interstellar drive, it doesn't need an empire.'" (p. 124)

Why does this proposition seem intuitively sound or at least plausible to some, if not all, readers?

(i) An inhabited planet is already economically self-sufficient. It might start to exploit other parts of its planetary system but can there be any motive for interstellar economic imperialism?

(ii) A wealthy civilization has both motive and means to control its population size. It does not need ever-new territory for an ever-expanding population and, if it did, then it would eventually run into some natural limits.

(iii) A high tech civilization will either destroy itself or resolve its internal conflicts. Having resolved its internal conflicts, it will have no reason to seek out any external conflicts.

Now let us imagine this scenario:

tomorrow, the Americans or Chinese discover an easy means of faster than light (FTL) interstellar travel;

exploring nearby planetary systems, they discover several uninhabited terrestroid planets and set out to colonize them;

then they discover that another race at exactly the same (immature) level of social, moral and technological development as humanity is also setting out to colonize those same planets;

interstellar war?

But how probable are all the elements of that scenario?  There is no sign either of FTL or of any extra-solar civilization, let alone of one at exactly our level, and we look like destroying ourselves soon in any case.

Pale Bridge

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XVII.

I find it hard to believe that I am still discovering new descriptions of the Milky Way, especially in a novel already reread several times. When the Peregrine crew began to disembark on a terrestroid planet, it occurred to me that, by glancing ahead, I might well find a description of a night sky with the Milky Way in it. Sure enough:

"Night closed over the turning planet. The pale bridge of the Milky Way arched across a vault of clear darkness." (p. 154)

I have searched for this "pale bridge" on the blog but not found it although there are other Milky Way references in The Peregrine.

More About Hyperdrives

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XIV.

See The Hyperdrive In The Stellar Union.

The drive causes a "...'wake' of gravity fluctuations..." (p. 121) but this is not the same as the hyperspatial wake detectable for up to a light-year that can be modulated to bear messages in the Technic History;

any hyperdrive ship has to be elongated because "...field generators must be mounted fore and aft..." (p. 123) (See one of Bob Shaw's FTL drives in Transports Of Delight);

although the strange ship has this necessary elongation, it is not of human design because its cylinder is beveled into flat planes, its stern bulges and its nose bears a spear-shaped mast;

Trevelyan recognizes it as Tiunran.

Since the otherling ships that disappeared in the Great Cross included Tiunran, we may deduce that X is approaching in a captured ship.

Trevelyan further opines that:

"'...when a technology has advanced to the point of interstellar drive, it doesn't need an empire.'" (p. 124)

I tend to agree but tell that to the Terrans and Merseians in the other history.

Dayspring And Milky Way

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XIV.

I will quote a short passage in full because it has at least five points of interest:

"By the hazy sheen of the Milky Way, river of suns spilling across infinity, he saw Nicki. Remembered words came to him, as if someone else were speaking into that great silence. "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place?..."
"Joachim stared out at heaven. 'Where are we?' he asked.
"'The constellations don't look any different! No, wait, they do a little. ' Ferenczi was at another port, his body black against the Milky Way." (p. 116)

Points of Interest
(i) A new description of the Milky Way: "...hazy sheen..."
(ii) It is immediately followed by a further description: "...river of suns spilling across infinity..."
(iii) A Biblical passage which we have cited before. See The Peregrine II.
(iv) Scripture sounds like Someone Else speaking. (That's the idea.)
(v) Yet another object seen against the Milky Way.

Earth, Sea And Blood

"To Earth there's no returning. She vanished with the childhood of our race. Yet as a poet once said, 'No matter how far we range, the salt and rhythm of her tides will always be in our blood.' One chapter has ended. Humankind's saga flows on."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), p. 216.

In James Blih's "Nor Iron Bars," it is disclosed that Sol is a variable star, that one of its subordinate cycles is of 212 days and that this cycle:

"'...is reflected one-for-one in the human pulse rate.'
"'...we can never be lost! Not as long as the Sun is detectable at all, whether we can identify it or not! We're carrying the only beacon we need right here in our blood!'"
-James Blish, "Nor Iron Bars" IN Blish, Galactic Cluster (London, 1963), pp. 61-92 AT p. 90.

"The sea.
"The sea is our mother.
"The home we grew too big for. The womb from which we woke.
"This is what the wise men say.
"But the wise men lie. We brought the sea with us.
"Because blood is salt water, and in our hearts there is a lightless ocean."
-Mike Carey, Lucifer: Children and Monsters (Riverdale, NY, 2001), p. 93, panels 1-2.

On The Third Day

Imaginative writers invoke the most powerful myths.

"On the third day he arose, and ascended again to the light."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 1, p. 75.

"Two days he sojourned in the realms of pain.
"Two days and two nights.
"But on the third day he rose, and in his rising he tore apart the veils of illusion which are distance and time."
-Mike Carey, Lucifer: Children and Monsters (New York, 2001), p. 86, panels 1-3.

And the Eighth Day Collective in Manchester refers to what happened after the completion of creation.

Trevelyan, Ilaloa And Nicki

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XI.

"[Trevelyan] noticed that weeping didn't disfigure [Ilaloa] as it does a human." (p. 99)

"Looking on the warmth of [Trevelyan's] face, Nicki wondered how much of it was acting." (ibid.)

Only eight sentences of continuous dialogue between Trevelyan, Ilaloa and Nicki separate these two quoted sentences. Thus, there is a very abrupt change of point of view.

It is Ilaloa that is acting, telling an elaborate lie to divert the Peregrine into a region of space where her people will capture it.

Ilaloa, neurosenitive, senses thoughts and Trevelyan understands enough to describe what they are like:

a main thread;
all sorts of sidelines and overtones;
always changing.

Each of us knows his or own thoughts and, in zazen, we sit with them but do not sense anyone else's.

The Memoirs Of Thorkild Erling

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XI.

In the library of the Peregrine, Trevelyan Micah reads the history of the Nomad ships which begins with the memoirs of the founding captain, Thorkild Erling, who was the first person narrator of "Gypsy," set three hundred years earlier. Thus, Trevelyan reads the text of "Gypsy," which was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1950 and which we read in The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2. An earlier episode of a future history series is history in a later episode.

Trevelyan senses the glamor of the first years but also Thorkild's later disappointment as Nomad society diverged from what he had imagined but what had he imagined? Had he expected just to roam on forever as "Gypsy" suggests - round the galaxy or out of it?

A Nomad ship is self-sustaining with its hydroponics and synthesized food and vitamins. Trade with planets is "...easier and more rewarding..." (p. 94) although not essential. Nomadism continues because enough Nomads still enjoy forever roaming even though their journeys have become confined to known trade routes.

Clues

The Peregrine.

Iloloa's people look human, are uncivilized and do not wear clothes.

Some nobles of Erulan are selling spaceships to people from within the Great Cross who, one of the nobles swears, are human although they do not wear clothes and "'...have the ways of natives...'" (p. 84)

An unknown race in the Great Cross is making Nomad and otherling ships disappear.

Assembling these data:

Are the nobles' customers the unknown race?
Is Iloloa, who has been accepted into a Nomad ship, a spy?
Should I have cross-referred these data the first time I read The Peregrine?
(Maybe I did but don't remember.)

(Now it is Saturday, not Friday, when this lap top will be collected but meanwhile so far I am managing to do some posting.)

Earth

The Peregrine, CHAPTER VIII.

See:

Distant Earth
Earth And Home
Home Is Where Earth Is
Cities In Flight, Volume I
Old Earth
Earth Abides 

How will people in the future think of Earth? Nicki asks Trevelyan what Earth is like:

"Within him, his mind wondered what to say. Could he tell her that Earth was less a planet and a population than it was a dream?" (p. 68)

To James Blish's John Amalfi, Earth is an idea. To Poul Anderson's Trevelyan Micah, it is a dream. To us, it is home.

Alien Audience Chambers

The Peregrine, CHAPTER IX.

See:

Alien Halls
The Audience Chamber Of Castle Afon
In The Hall Of The Mountain King...
Old Wilwidh

To these, we add the audience chamber on Erulan:

roof lost in dusk;
narrow windows;
thick-piled rugs;
bloody lances of sunlight;
gold;
jewels;
banners;
tapestries;
lines of rigid guards;
a swarm of prostrating slaves;
enthroned nobles;
blowing trumpets;
thundering kettledrums;
the robed, crowned Arkulan.

Human beings have conquered barbarians and have become barbarized. The text, "What shall it profit a man...?" is quoted twice to good effect in the Psychotechnic History.

Alien Sight

The Peregrine, CHAPTER IX.

The Erulani (enslaved by former Nomads):

"The eyes were the least human feature under a single straight line of black brow, they were oblique and felinoid - all smoky-red iris, slit-purpled and unwinking." (p. 76)

Indeed. I understand that there are several different kinds of eyes on Earth so an alien intelligence is unlikely to reproduce human-like eyes.

When a human ruler of Erulan greets visitors from the Peregrine, the wind shrills under his words and blows them across the barren flag-stones.

As ever, the wind comments as does the barrenness of the flag-stones.

Trevelyan's Philosophy

The Peregrine, CHAPTER VIII.

When the Nomad Nicki asks the Coordinator Trevelyan what he wants out of life, he replies:

"'Life itself... And that isn't a paradox. Experience, understanding, adjustment and harmony - but struggle, too, making physical reality over to a pattern.'" (p. 69)

What pattern? I agree with everything except that last word.

Today, and maybe tomorrow, posts will be short as I write and publish them quickly before the lap top misbehaves.

The Wordless Talking Of The Stars

The Peregrine, CHAPTER IX.

"The screen buzzed and hummed with cosmic interference, the wordless talking of the stars." (p. 72)

See here.

Another description of cosmic interference. People talk by radio so it is appropriate to describe stellar radio waves as the talking, albeit wordless, of the stars.

Such passages provide a common background to Poul Anderson's many imaginative accounts of human beings traveling and communicating on an interstellar, indeed on a cosmic, scale.

I hope to do some posting tomorrow.

Two Psychotechnic Practices In The Coordination Service

The Peregrine.

When preparing to investigate the Nomads:

"...tediously worked out equations indicating psychological probabilities..."
-CHAPTER VII, p. 51.

When preparing to fool a lie detector:

"Trevelyan sat back, and took conscious control of his heartbeat, encephalic rhythms, and sweat secretion."
-CHAPTER VIII, p. 59.

We remember Valti's equations and the Psychotechnic Institute's physiological researches in the opening stories of this future history series. The past is not explicitly mentioned but nevertheless is implicitly present in the future.

The Hyperdrive In The Stellar Union

The Peregrine, CHAPTER VIII.

We recognize features of hyperdrive from other works of sf:

"...a sufficiently weak gravitational field..." (p. 57) is necessary before switching to hyperdrive;

the hyperdrive fields cause an "...indescribable twisting sensation..." (ibid.) in human bodies;

speed while on hyperdrive is described as "pseudo-velocity," (ibid.) as in Poul Anderson's Technic History although that later future history series has a good reason for presenting such an account - its FTL spaceships do not move continuously through space but make many instantaneous quantum jumps between discrete points without traversing the spaces between those points.

Thus, the Psychotechnic History presents a composite version of a hyperdrive. Its only role is to separate the STL and FTL periods of this future history.

In The Stellar Union Period

The Peregrine, CHAPTER XII.

About a dozen highly civilized races scattered over the local part of the Galaxy (not the whole Galaxy);

interstellar journeys of weeks;

two months from Sol to the Sagittari frontier in the fastest hyperdrive ship (CHAPTER VI);

no strong economic ties as between, e.g., Europe and its colonies in earlier historical periods;

cross-purposes breeding, according to Micah (but why?);

despite Micah's forebodings, the Nomads feel that they belong in the universe although it is indifferent to them.

On Nerthus

The Peregrine, CHAPTER VI.

On extra-solar colony planets like Nerthus, the settlers scatter and dwell apart but are not isolated because they have telescreens and gravity fliers. This fits with what we were told about Nerthus in "The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb." The Nerthusian natives, also described accurately, are no longer concealed in the forest but prefer to live in their own unmechanized quarter of Stellamont where green six-legged "ponies" pull carts.

The Comet bar on the edge of the quarter joins our list of Andersonian taverns. A Coordinator joins forces with Nomads who are on the same quest.

Sean And Joachim

The Peregrine, CHAPTER V.

At the beginning of this chapter, Sean sees fear in Ilaloa's eyes so we are reading his pov but, after Joachim has joined the conversation on the following page, he is relieved when Nicki intervenes so now we are reading Joachim's pov.

The Nomads have some quaint laws. Having been married once makes someone an adult. Landlouper MacTeague Nicki had married Sean's brother but he died on Vixen before they had children. Normally, her father-in-law would have found another husband for her but she refused this. Meanwhile, Sean's Nerthusian wife, unable to adapt to Nomad life, left him. As members of the same ship, Sean and Nicki cannot marry although they share a berth with separate rooms. Now Sean wants to marry a Lorinyan although they will be unable to have children. Instead of saying, "Live and let live," the Nomads make problems out of Sean moving in with Nicki, then wanting an otherling wife. But that is clan life for you.

The Lorinyans

The Peregrine, CHAPTER III.

"She could have been human - almost - had she not been so unhumanly fair. The Lorinyans were what man might be in a million years of upward evolution." (p. 20)

Poul Anderson describes slim, graceful, marble-white, humanoid bodies with long, silver, silk-like hair.

Even if parallel evolution favors bipedalism, it cannot possible produce perfect-looking human beings. Why do Kryptonians, Vulcans, Time Lords and Lorinya look exactly like human beings? An explanation is needed. In Brian Aldiss' "Visiting Amoeba," evolution in the next galaxy starts with human beings - very un-Darwinian evolution.

Posting in haste. Computer failing.

This lap top is becoming less and less usable. The present arrangement, which can be subject to delays, is that it will collected from here on Fri 24 Apr and returned, hopefully fixed, on Wed 29 Apr. There are bigger problems in the world so I am learning to live with this one. 

Growing Up In The Future

Max Jones runs away from home to Earthport where:

"He saw his first extra-terrestrial, an eight-foot native of Epsilon Gemini V, striding out of a shop with a package under his left arms..."
-Robert Heinlein, Starman Jones (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1966), 3, p. 35.

I first read that passage between the ages of seven and eleven and would have had to guess the meaning of "extra-terrestrial" from context.

James Blish's Chris deFord watches Scranton go Okie and is shanghaied.

Comparable Poul Anderson characters include:

Pete in "The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb";
Eric Wace in The Man Who Counts;
Nat Falkayn in "Wingless";
Tabitha Falkayn in The People Of The Wind;
Diana Crowfeather in The Game Of Empire.

We are told something about their upbringings even if we first see them as adults. 

Earth In The Stellar Union

The Peregrine, CHAPTER IV.

I have found one point where the "Nomads and Stellar Union History" does refer back to the "UN/Solar Union History." We are told that, after the invention of the hyperdrive, large numbers of people left the Solar System not for economic reasons but because ninety per cent of the population had been made technologically unemployed.

The half billion who remain on Earth are the creative minority that shape society through scientific research, education, art and understanding. Dwellings are scattered through forest but closely connected by transport and communication. The sky is full of aircars on autopilot. The planet "...is a socioeconomic unity...," (p. 24) effectively a city. An individual might live temporarily in South America, work in Africa and holiday with Australian and Chinese friends in Arctic Resort.

Even interstellar colonists scatter across planetary surfaces although we read in CHAPTER VI that, on each planet, a city grows around a spaceport.

Another Moving Moon And The Milky Way

The Peregrine, CHAPTER III.

On Rendezvous, three moons are up and one is:

"...almost full and hurtling between the stars so that [Peregrine Thorkild Sean] could see it moving." (p. 18)

Thus, Sean has three shadows and one of them moves. Also above him:

"Overhead were the stars, constellations unknown to the home of humanity. The Milky Way was still there, a bridge of light, and he could see the cold brilliance of Spica and Canopus, but most of heaven was strange." (ibid.)

We have already found the Milky Way described as a "...ghostly bridge of stars..." later in The Peregrine. See here.

Red In The Morning II

See Red In The Morning.

Because we enjoy Poul Anderson's descriptions of natural scenery, I cannot do better than to quote for comparison Dornford Yates' description of a red dawn:

"It was as we rose out of Tours that the dawn came up. I never saw such a heaven as I saw then. The whole of the sky was fretted with tiny clouds, and every cloud was ablaze with a crimson glow. Above and beyond was the blue; but this was overlaid with a crimson coverlet. And the magic of this brocade came down to touch the earth. Highway, meadows and trees rendered it helplessly. For three or four minutes the whole of the world was red. Then the great alchemist rose and, using his ancient prerogative, turned the firmament into purest gold. But the saying stuck in my mind, Red in the morning, Shepherd's warning. Foul weather was ahead."
-Dornford Yates, Red In The Morning (London, 1946), CHAPTER VII, p. 177.

And that is a pathetic fallacy.

Star Ways

I have reread and posted about Poul Anderson's The Peregrine/Star Ways more than once before yet it remains possible to generate new posts about this novel. To appreciate any one of Poul Anderson's texts completely, it is necessary to attend to every detail. Would you have remembered the Captains' Council, the Great Cross or the connections but also the dissimilarities between this novel and the two short stories about young Pete on Nerthus? We have totally left behind the Solar Union with its Psychotechnic Institute, Humanist Revolution, Order of Planetary Engineers etc. Anderson makes us feel the excitement of exploring new regions of space toward Sagittari and the Galactic Center.

As midnight approaches here, I must return to rereading either Dornford Yates' prose fiction or Mike Carey's graphic fiction. However, The Peregrine, CHAPTER III, is on the reading list for tomorrow.

In the name of Cosmos, good night.

The Great Cross

The Peregrine, CHAPTER II.

There are about thirty Nomad ships with about fifty thousand crew.

The Stellar Union is expanding through the Great Cross spatial volume toward Sagittari and the Galactic Center  - where human civilization will later be based. The Nomads are on the Sagittari-ward frontier and spreading into unmapped space although those Nomads who want "'...new horizons...'" (p. 6) are regularly voted down by those who prefer to continue trading within known territories. It sounds as though the Nomads are becoming less Nomadic. Now that they are no longer a single ship but a fleet, they want to remain close enough to meet once a year on Rendezvous. Women marry into their husband's ships.

In the Great Cross:

five Nomad and some otherling, including four Tiurnan, ships have disappeared but none belonging to either Coordination or Survey - they would investigate;

there are many terrestroid planets but few seem to be inhabited;

the few inhabited planets seem to be familiar with space travelers although there have been no visits from known civilizations;

there are identical plant species on six uninhabited planets;

four centuries ago, Tiurnan explorers did not notice any identical plants.

Hypothesis: a powerful civilization lying between the Union and Galactic center is taking countermeasures.

Action: Nomad ships will avoid the Great Cross except the Peregrine which will explore while meanwhile receiving 20% profits from everyone else until next rendezvous.

The issue will come to a head long before then.

Splinter Of The Galaxy

The Peregrine, CHAPTER II.

Peregrine Joachim Henry says:

"'Space is too big. Even this little splinter of the Galaxy that man has traversed is larger than we can think - and we've spent our lives in the void. It's thirty thousand light-years to Galactic center. There are some hundred billion suns in the Galaxy! Man will never be able to think concretely in such terms. It just can't be done.'" (p. 11)

Thus, Joachim joins our "the edge of one spiral arm" merchants (see here) although he does not mention the spiral arm.

Joachim draws a practical conclusion:

"'So a lot of information lies around in the shape of isolated facts, and nobody coordinates it and sees what the facts mean. Even the Service can't do it - they have troubles enough  running the Union without worrying about the frontiers and the beyond-frontiers. When I started investigating, I found I was the first being who'd even thought of this.'" (ibid.)

This is a far cry from the Galaxy where Earth is one of the "great worlds" in "The Green Thumb." See here. Yet The Peregrine mentions the Nerthusian natives who remained hidden when human beings colonized their planet. (p. 12) Thus, although (I argue) "The Green Thumb" does not fit into this future history, some of its events do.

Captains' Council

The Peregrine, CHAPTER II.

Tapestries and polished metal reliefs hang from the carved pillars and panels of the Captains' Hall on Rendezvous.  When the captains are seated around the Council table, Traveler Thorkild Helmuth says:

"'In the name of Cosmos, rendezvous...'" (p. 7)

Then a ritual is followed by a meeting to discuss facts, determine policy and make proposals for voting. All Nomad ships except five are either present or accounted for. The Vagabond has brought word from the Wayfarer and the Pilgrim that they cannot attend this year. The Peregrine has brought the same message from the Vagrant which is making a deal near Canopus.

Present are:

Wanderer
Gypsy
Hobo
Voyageur
Bedouin
Swagman
Trekker
Explorer
Troubador
Adventurer
Migrant
Vagabond
Peregrine
Traveler (we remember when she was the only Nomad ship)
Romany
Stroller
Fiddlefoot

It is traditional to use names from human languages. Although human beings join choths in the Technic History, non-humans have not joined Nomad ships in the Psychotechnic History.

The Romany claims the territory fifty light-years around Thossa;

the Bedouin might help the Adventurer to subvert the trader-taxing Shan of Barjaz-Kaui who cannot be overthrown by force because the Coordination Service knows the planet;

the Cordies stopped the Stroller from selling guns to a particular race;

the Fiddlefoot, bartering for expensive Solarian goods at Spica, is prepared to sell shares in this enterprise;

the Peregrine wants to investigate the loss of five Nomad ships toward Sagittari in ten years.

The History From "Gypsy" To The Peregrine

The Peregrine, CHAPTER II.

Thorkild Erling narrates "Gypsy" and describes the beginning of the long voyage of the Traveler that he hopes will never end.

Then:

"...the presidency of the Council was hereditary with the captain of the Traveler - third of that name in the three hundred years since the undying voyage began - and he was always a Thorkild." (p. 7)

Only the third! In a single sentence, Anderson links The Peregrine back to "Gypsy," future historically. This would have been the germ of a future history series even if there were not already links to other works.

Peregrine Joachim Henry, remembering his wife, Jere, reflects that:

"It was fifteen years now since she had made the Long Trip." (p. 4)

The Nomads' life is an undying voyage so, of course, they regard death almost as a continuation - the Long Trip.

A Blue Sky And Hurrying From Star To Star

The Peregrine, CHAPTER II.

"The sky was utterly blue overhead; sunlight spilled on the wide green sweep of land; wind brought him the faint crystal laughter of a bellbird. No doubt of it, man wasn't built to sit in a metal shell and hurry from star to star. It wasn't strange that so many dropped out of Nomad life." (p. 5)

Three senses:

blue, light and green are seen;
wind is felt;
birds are heard.

Here again is the old emphasis on "metal shell." People with the technology to traverse space faster than light should also be able to make their mobile environments both spacious and pleasant to live in. But I understood that Nomadism began precisely because a sufficient number of people did prefer interstellar hurrying to blue skies, felt winds and bird songs.

A Trisected Future History Series

I have trisected Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History as follows:

The UN/Solar Union History
Eleven works;

beginning with recovery from World War III;

covering the periods of UN and Solar Union government;

thus also covering psychotechnic government, the terraforming of Mars and Venus, the Humanist Revolution, the anti-Humanist counter-revolution, Jovian secession and the beginning of slower than light interstellar travel;

ending with Terrestrial descent into social chaos.

The Nomads and Stellar Union History
Six works;

beginning with the founding of the Nomads;

covering the period of the Stellar Union;

thus also covering the work of the Coordination Service and its interactions with Traders, Galactic Survey and Nomads;

(Coordinators operate across a fraction of the galaxy, not throughout the Galaxy);

ending with a much later Galactic civilization involving psychotechnicians.

The presence of psychotechnicians in the Galactic civilization is the only tenuous connection between these two future histories.

Other Works
Five works;

including three "Galactic civilization" stories although this is not the same Galactic civilization as the one mentioned above;

some references that make these five works overlap with aspects of the two future histories.

Rain, Wind, Sunlight And The Old Immortal Dark

(I would like to find a truly memorable title for every single post.)

I am starting to reread Poul Anderson's The Peregrine/Star Ways in order either to confirm or to disconfirm my impression that Trevelyan Mich expected other Coordinators to follow his lead by leaving the Service to join the Nomads.

Meanwhile, I have come across the following passage:

"The Captain's Hall stood near the edge of a bluff. More than two centuries ago, when the Nomads found Rendezvous and chose it for their meeting place, they had raised the Hall. Two hundred years of rain, wind, and sunlight had fled; and still the Hall was there. It might be standing when all the Nomads were gone into darkness.
"Man was a small and hurried thing; his spaceships spanned the light-years, and his feverish death-driven energy made the skies of a thousand worlds clangorous with his works - but the old immortal dark reached farther than he could imagine."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), CHAPTER II, p. 6.

Observations:

we saw the Nomads founded and now we see their Rendezvous;
Traveler Thorkild has called the meeting;
not every human culture is hurried or feverish;
this "immortal dark" is not the interstellar darkness;
it is, in part, the "old and protean enemy" that haunts this future history series;
but, most fundamentally, it is mortality;
appropriately, we approach the end of the series.

Future Legends

"Even before becoming a clansman of the Peregrine, Trevelyan himself passed into legend for thwarting a plot by the anti-technic Alori to subvert human nature."
-Sandra Miesel, interstitial passage IN Poul Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), p. 252.

"Although Trevelyan would pass into legend, he was never afterwards content in his work."
-Sandra Miesel, interstitial passage IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), p. 166.

Miesel's interstitial passages change somewhat if only because more stories are included in the later collections.

Trevelyan passing into legend reminds me of Superman passing into legend, then myth. See Hugh Valland And Superman. Never forget Superman's science fictional origins. For more comparisons with works by Elliott S. Maggin, see here.

Wish Fulfillment Juvenile Fiction

"The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb."

Ten year old Pete follows an elf-like being into a forest where he is rescued from a monster. Then he uncovers an alien spy. This is what ten year old boys imagine themselves as doing.

Even at age ten, he has been taught to consider everything twice and to think it through for himself - a sign that Terrestrial education is considerably advanced. I once led a school class in a historical "sources" exercise. They had to read four passages and answer the question: Why was the English fleet defeated? The first passage was a Spanish captain boasting of his men's superior seamanship whereas the remaining passages documented that the English ships were scandalously unprepared. One pupil thought that the first passage gave him the answer so that it was unnecessary to read the remaining passages. I asked him, "If pupils from your school, Central, got in a fight with pupils from Our Lady's, would you accept the Our Lady's pupils' account of the fight?" He replied, "No!" I then pointed out that that was what he was doing here.

Questionable Canonicities

(i) "Star Ship"
(ii) "The Acolytes"
(iii) "The Green Thumb"
(iv) "Entity"
(v) "Symmetry"
(vi) "The Chapter Ends"

Do these stories fit in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History?

For (i)-(iii), see A Galactic Civilization.

For (iv)-(v), see "Entity" III and its links.

(vi) "The Chapter Ends"
This story, set millennia later, makes no reference to the Psychotechnic History - except that it does include psychotechnicians. If anything, its reference to an earlier First Empire based in Sol City contradicts the earlier History which did not have interstellar imperialism.

It has been asked whether Sandra Miesel added this story to the Chronology. I don't know although I assume that she would not have done. Given that it does include psychotechnicians, I think that the story makes sense as happening a long time after the Third Dark Ages. Its title also fits as the end of a series.

From "Gypsy" To The Peregrine

Of the eleven FTL stories listed in the Psychotechnic History Chronology, only five are indisputably canonical:

"Gypsy"
"Virgin Planet"
"Teucan"
"The Pirate"
The Peregrine

- but these are enough to give us the Nomads, the Coordination Service and Cordies joining the Nomads, thus preparing for the Third Dark Ages. Thus, the main line of the future history is preserved but there should be more on the details of this tomorrow. It is getting late here.

See also "Entity" III and its links.

A Galactic Civilization

"The Green Thumb."

Joe is a spy not for another star-faring civilization but for the hidden native Nerthusians. They cannot make war against the whole Galaxy but they can blackmail concessions from the Galaxy by threatening its colonists on Nerthus. However, in the Psychotechnic History, Nerthus is a colony not of a Galaxy-wide civilization but of the human race which has only recently begun to explore nearby planetary systems.

Thus, "The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb," together with "Star Ship," really belong to an alternative "Galactic civilization" series.

"The whole future of the planet Khazak, perhaps of the fabulous Galactic civilization itself, was balanced on the edge of a sword."
-Poul Anderson, "Star Ship" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), pp. 273-306 AT p. 282.

Nerthus and Stellamont exist in two series.

Astan IV

"The Green Thumb."

Pete does detective work. Joe says that his home planet, Astan IV, is like Earth or Nerthus but each of them is the third planet of a yellow star. A fourth planet should be colder because:

"The systems of similar stars were usually very much alike - especially where it came to the spacing of planets. Astan could be an exception, sure - but -" (p. 33)

That is what was supposed when we had only a single example to generalize from. Now, as I understand it, newly discovered extra-solar planetary systems confound all expectations with, e.g., large planets close to their primaries.

It is good that all those planets are out there. They might not have been. At least one of the premises of interstellar sf is fulfilled. But are there also interstellar vessels, hyperdrives and interstellar empires out there? There is no evidence of them in the observable universe.

Great Worlds Of The Galaxy

"The Green Thumb."

Joe has never been on Earth or on:

"'...any of the great worlds of the Galaxy." (p. 28)

Working his way along trade-lanes, he has seen only:

"'...obscure and backward planets." (p. 29)

This contradicts the idea that human beings have only recently moved into interstellar space. Instead, Earth is already one of the great worlds of the entire galaxy.

Pete describes Terrestrial civilization not only as satisfactory but even as "'...integrate...'" (ibid.) Have the aims of the Psychotechnic Institute been achieved since the Second Dark Ages? Human beings who have never been on Earth would not be happy there because it is necessary to grow up in an integrate civilization to like it. OK. Some major change has happened on Earth. Is this reflected in later stories? Maybe in The Peregrine.

Extra-solar colonies are for people who need room or endless activity. Social value is regarded as more important than economic value. Is this attitude expressed anywhere else in the Psychotechnic History? Joe, who sounds like a Native American commenting on white men, says that it is self-evident. Joe is clearly spying, asking the child Pete questions even about human populations. (See here.)

Cosmos And Life

"The Green Thumb."

The alien, Joe, contrasts two aspects of reality which he identifies with gods.

Cosmos
all-pervading;
primordial;
incomprehensible;
a machine god;
a mathematician's god;
knowable "Out in the cold great dark of space, between the flaming suns..." (p. 28);
awe;
wonder;
impersonal magnificence;
god "...of flame and vacuum." (ibid.);
meaningless hugeness;
a universe of mostly incandescent gas.

Life
other gods;
the old spirits of a land;
in forests, rivers and winds;
gods of life;
little gods;
concerned with a tree, a flower or a dreaming brain.

Joe thinks that on the last day his gods will speak louder. Which last day? The end of the universe will be a cosmic, not a biological, process. But the last day might mean the end of an individual's life. Then Joe might remain focused on his little gods. My comments are that cosmos generates and sustains life and that aspects of reality are complementary.

The First Four FTL Stories In The Psychotechnic History II

How do these four stories connect with later installments of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History?

"Gypsy" introduces the Nomads who are important later.

"Star Ship" introduces the planet Khazak, which is never mentioned again, and also refers to Galactic Coordinators who schedule expansion into particular regions of space centuries in advance.

"The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb" introduce the planet Nerthus with its single city, Stellamont, both important later.

If Anderson had not used Nerthus and Stellamont in "Virgin Planet" and The Peregrine, then "The Acolyte" and "The Green Thumb" would not have seemed to connect in any other way with the Psychotechnic History.

Uncle Gunnar says:

"'In the early days, men did settle on planets with primitive native races. It only led to conflict in which man, though always the victor, often paid a heavy price.'"
-"The Green Thumb," p. 26.

But these are still the early days, according to the Chronology. The hyperdrive is invented in 2784. "The Acolyte" and "The Green Thumb" are set in 3000. And, even with faster than light travel, we are talking about colonizations and conflicts spread across interstellar distances.

Gunnar also says:

"'I've seen races like his - here and there in the Galaxy -...'" (p. 27)

How much of the Galaxy has he seen?

Interstellar travel is very easy in these two stories. When a woman joins her husband on an engineering assignment on Neptune (Sol VIII), they are able to send their ten-year old son on a space liner to stay with his uncle and aunt on their farm on Nerthus which, we learn from "Virgin Planet," is 300 parsecs away.

The First Four FTL Stories In The Psychotechnic History

"Gypsy"
"Star Ship"
"The Acolytes"
"The Green Thumb"

These four stories present three, not four, discrete narratives because "The Green Thumb" continues the characters and setting of "The Acolytes."

In "The Acolytes," ten-year old Pete remembers the "...psycho-physiological habits..." of his "...training in self-integration..." (p. 18)

This is the only indication in any of these four stories that psychotechnics might be practiced back in the Solar System.

In "Gypsy," the first person narrator swears by Cosmos. In "The Green Thumb," the alien, Joe, refers to the human god as:

"'Your all-pervading primordial Cosmos, whom you do not even pretend to understand.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Green Thumb" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, pp. 21-41 AT p. 28.

According to the Chronology, the Cosmic Religion began in 2130:

10 years before "Holmgang";
40 before the Humanist Revolt;
50 before"Cold Victory";
654 before the invention of the hyperdrive;
685 before "Gypsy"
etc.

However, do any of the pre-hyperdrive, pre-FTL, stories refer to this religion? I have just looked back but not found any references. One Planetary Engineer says:

"'For God's sake...'"
-"The Snows of Ganymede," II, p. 145.

My point is that these four stories do not connect back in any definite way to the STL period of the Psychotechnic History.

All Over The Galaxy?

Poul Anderson, "The Acolytes" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), pp. 3-19.

This story is another total change of pace, narrated from the point of view of a young boy who has traveled from Sol in a spaceship, which has a "steward," to visit his uncle and aunt on their farm on a frontier planet called Nerthus:

"And Uncle Gunnar was an old explorer himself. He'd been all over the Galaxy before he settled down on Nerthus." (p. 3)

Have human beings been "...all over the Galaxy..." this soon? That phrase does not really fit with the idea that this future history series is still in an early period of interstellar travel. Saving the appearances, we can suggest that a young boy's understanding of the size of the galaxy is somewhat vague.

A Two Volume Future History

Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History should definitely be collected in two omnibus volumes, covering the STL and FTL periods, respectively. Thus Volume I would begin with "Marius" and end with "Brake" whereas Volume II would begin with "Gypsy" and end with "The Chapter Ends." Furthermore, if their titles, covers, blurbs and introductions gave no indication that these two volumes comprised a single series, then how soon would a reader realize that the FTL volume was a sequel to the STL volume? Indeed, would he realize it?

The opening FTL stories, "Gypsy" and "Star Ship," make no reference to the earlier history and, if anything, "Star Ship" implies a different Galactic scenario. For previous blog discussion of "Star Ship," see:

Star Ship
Star Ship II
Star Ship III
Early Interstellar Travel
Early Interstellar Travel II
Star Ship In Starship
Lost Starships
Between The Dark Ages

On Another Planet

Poul Anderson, "Star Ship" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic History (Riverdale, NY, 2018), pp. 273-306.

Having moved forward through unidimensional time within the Solar System, the Psychotechnic History now spreads outwards through three-dimensional space in the galaxy. For these few stories, we no longer read a history. The Nomads, having been introduced in "Gypsy," will not reappear for another seven installments.

In "Star Ship," human beings have been stranded on an already inhabited planet. Dougald Anson swears in several languages, including Krakenaui, Volgazanai and "...spaceman's Terrestrial..." (p. 273) Is "Terrestrial" English, which was still spoken by Planetary Engineers based on Luna, or Basic, which had been introduced in the inner Solar System?

The politics on the extra-solar planet where Dougald and his few fellow human beings live are too complicated for me at this time of night. I have other reading to get back to. I hope that we will all meet back here again tomorrow.

"Go roaming - forever!"

"Gypsy."

"'Go roaming - forever!'" (p. 269)

"...we embarked on the long voyage, the voyage which has not ceased yet and, I hope, will never end." (p. 270)

"It was early, the grass was still wet, flashing in the new sun. The sea danced and glittered beyond the rustling trees, crying its old song to the fair green land, and the wind that blew from it was keen and cold and pungent with life. The fields were stirring in the wind, a long ripple of grass, and high overhead a bird was singing." (ibid.)

That third quote shows what they leaving. I would want both: interstellar exploration with periodic returns to Harbor but they want to explore forever. There must be at least two kinds of interstellar traveler. Some come home. Others roam forever.

We are reminded of Nicholas van Rijn:

"'You take the Long Trail with me!... A universe where all roads lead to roaming. Life never fails us. We fail it, unless we reach out.'"
-see here.

But that is his projected retirement, not his way of life. In fact, he takes on major responsibilities before that retirement.

I understand that big name musical performers wind up going on a never-ending tour, which sounds similar.

Interstellar Isolation And Re-Integration

On an interstellar scale, human communities will develop in complete isolation, then possibly re-interact many generations later. Robert Heinlein's Future History, having begun with a short story set in 1952, ends with two stories set inside a generation ship whose crew have lost all knowledge of their mission and purpose and whose fate is unknown back in the Solar System.

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, when the Traveler becomes the first Nomad ship, its crew have no idea where Earth is. However, later in this future history series, agents of the Stellar Union Coordination Service based on Earth know, and also disapprove, of the many Nomad ships that are out there. There must have been a moment when contact was re-established although this is not among the stories that Anderson has told us. However, one lost colony is found in Virgin Planet. Other branches of humanity might remain separate indefinitely, eventually becoming distinct species.

Born In Space

"Gypsy."

The Traveler, carrying colonists to Alpha Centauri by hyperdrive, was flung thousands of light-years off course by an as yet unexplained accident. The crew searched for Sol for over twenty years, then settled on an uninhabited terrestroid planet which they called Harbor. Erling Thorkild, born in the ship, raises sons on Harbor. When Thorkild voted to continue the search for Earth, it was the search itself that he wanted, not a planet that he had never seen. Thus, Nomad culture originated during that search.

Sailing on Earth would be different from on Harbor:

the sea would be full of boats, mostly powered;
aircraft would be overhead;
buildings would be on every shore;
sailors would not have the sea to themselves.

So why go to Earth? Thorkild never wanted to. But a return to space to find and explore new planets is another matter.

More On Harbor

"Gypsy."

The narrator flies his "carplane" low over woods and meadows:

"...the landscape...lay quietly in the evening, almost empty of man, a green fair breadth of land veined with bright rivers. The westering sun touched each leaf and grass blade with molten gold, an aureate glow which seemed to fill the cool air with a tangible presence, and I could hear the chirp and chatter of the great bird flocks as they settled down in the trees. Yes - it was good to get home." (p. 257)

But he will soon be restless. Meanwhile, we notice three senses yet again. Why are we glad that the landscape is almost empty of man?