Isaac Asimov: The Robots and Empire History.
Poul Anderson: The Psychotechnic History.
What is the Venerian surface like?
Heinlein: Swampy, habitable.
Anderson: Dry, habitable when terraformed.
(Asimov and Anderson each have an oceanic Venus elsewhere.)
Will robots replace human labor?
Asimov: In the Solar System, because of the "Frankenstein Complex," robots are used only off Earth. On the colonized extra-solar planets, where every human being is surrounded and served by many robots, societies stagnate except one that becomes non-human. Meanwhile, free robots, reinterpreting their programmed Laws, manipulate mankind.
Anderson: People use, e.g., self-driving cars, not robot chauffeurs. There is no need to duplicate the human body as the generalist user of specialized machines. The first robot in the world has some experimental value but otherwise is unemployed and already redundant.
How might human life be prolonged?
Heinlein: Breed for longevity.
Anderson: Shelter organisms from all radiation.
Asimov: Germ-free environments on colony planets.
Will social order break down inside a multi-generation interstellar spaceship?
Heinlein: Yes.
Anderson: No, because the crew can be psychodynamically manipulated.
Is a predictive science of society possible?
Asimov: Yes, but only with a Galactic population.
Anderson: Yes, but it has its limits.
Heinlein: During a theocracy, the priesthood monopolizes psychodynamics, psychometrics, mass psychology and social control but does not make predictions.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Anderson wrote two stories set on Venus: "The Big Rain" and "Sister Planet." Artistically, the second is by far the best. But "Rain" was somewhat more plausible.
Jerry Pournelle used "The Big Rain" as the title for his article discussing how Venus just MIGHT be terraformed, based on the greater knowledge of conditions on that planet available to him. That would be a truly great achievement!
Ad astra! Sean
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