-"The Game of Glory," II, p. 308.
"'The overworked integrators are years behind in correlating information,' he said. 'A thing can grow to monstrous proportions before they learn of it.'"
-Poul Anderson. The Peregrine (New York, 1979), CHAPTER IV, p. 3.
The same thought in two timelines. This same problem is addressed in the Technic History by the Naval Intelligence Corps of the Terran Empire and in the Psychotechnic History by the Coordination Service of the Solar Union.
The Terran Empire emerged from the interstellar Time of Troubles whereas the Solar Union followed the invention of the hyperdrive after the Second Dark Ages in the Solar System. The Empire is followed by the Long Night whereas the Solar Union is followed by the Third Dark Ages.
And I am being interrupted by the problems of Earth Real.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
As we know, Anderson eventually became dissatisfied with the Psychotechnic series. But the stories in that fictional timeline were not an utter waste! They provided Anderson with ideas and experience which were far more satisfactorily worked out in the Technic stories.
And I thought the difficulties in trying to keep up with information and make adequate use of it more convincingly worked out in the Technic timeline (see Chapter II of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS). And we get an example of how an Imperial official like Chunderban Desai used such data in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, in the chapter discussing the official mail from Terra.
Ad astra! Sean
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