Saturday, 4 April 2020

Differences Between Three Timelines

Our three timelines are Heinlein's Future History, Anderson's Psychotechnic History and Earth Real.

The Future History
There is regular contact with Jovians, Martians, Titans, Venerians, Callistans etc.

The Moon, Mars and Venus are colonized.

"Grace Cormet's telephone buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and said, 'Yes?'"
-Robert Heinlein, "'-We Also Walk Dogs'" IN Heinlein, The Green Hills Of Earth (London, 1967), pp. 92-115 AT p. 105.

The Psychotechnic History
There is some knowledge of Martians.

The Moon, Mars and Venus are colonized.

"Calling Prior from a public communibooth, even using a scrambler, was risky too, but it had to be done."
-"Un-Man," VIII, p. 62.

Earth Real
We seem to be alone in the Solar System.
There is one space station.
We have mobile phones.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, it's pretty plain ours is the only intelligent race in the Solar System.

It makes me furious, that all we have off Earth is that one little space station! I hope VERY much Elon Musk founds his hoped for Mars colony.

Heinlein was prescient, thinking of those pocket phones of his. I'm sorry we don't see them in Anderson's Technic stories.

Ad astra! Sean