"From Sol to the vaguely defined Sagittari frontier of the Union was a two months' voyage even in the fastest hyperdrive transport." (CHAPTER VI, p. 38)
Apparently, in Poul Anderson's Technic History, the equivalent journey, from the Solar System to the border of the Terran Empire, takes two weeks. See the combox here. Either the Stellar Union is smaller or the Technic History hyperdrive is faster.
"'There are approximately a million stars which have been visited by man, and the number grows almost daily. Many of these stars have one or more planets inhabited by beings of intelligence comparable to ours...'" (CHAPTER IV, p. 28)
For the equivalent numbers in the Terran Empire, see:
It seems that the Stellar Union has regular contact with more intelligent alien species than does the Terran Empire.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think we should understand the Stellar Union of the Psychotechnic timeline as as being larger than the Terran Empire. And the Psychotechnic hyperdrive seems to be faster than that of the Technic version. My view is that Anderson gave far more careful to the Technic hyperdrive than to Psychotechnic.
Also, the Union seems larger because it had not yet bumped against another interstellar civilization which RESISTED becoming part of it. I don't think the Lorinyans really count because they were acting against the Union in secret.
If intelligent races seem fewer in the Technic timeline than in the Psychotechnic, my thought was that, after due consideration, Anderson decided it was more plausible to scale back the numbers. After all, Technic civilization still knew of thousands of intelligent races!
Ad astra! Sean
I think Poul would be delighted by the current research which indicates most stars have planets, including ones (like red dwarfs) where it was thought unlikely in his day.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm convinced Poul Anderson would have been exactly that: delighted! One of the oddities I noted about the recent exoplanet discoveries were "hot Jupiters," hydrogen gas giants very close to their stars. Even in his very last years we see Anderson speculating about what was coming to be known. In "Pele," one of his last stories, we see a hot Jupiter.
Ad astra! Sean
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