HG Wells' Time Traveler travels to 802,701 AD and beyond, then returns to the nineteenth century, whereas Envoy travels to an extra-solar civilization, a pulsar and a black hole, then returns to Earth. However, returning to Earth equals traveling to Earth eleven thousand years in the future. Thus, what the Time Traveler finds on his outward journey the Envoy crew find on their return journey: nature conquered by technology and a decadent society. The main difference is that, in The Time Machine, industrial workers have devolved into Morlocks whereas, in Starfarers, they have been replaced by robotics and nanotech. Anderson supersedes Wells in a powerful dialogue about future society.
CS Lewis's anti-Wellsian contribution, That Hideous Strength, argues that technological control of society would be literally diabolical.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with your comments here. Considering how often I argue with you, that's pleasant change! (Smiles)
Your last comment, about CS Lewis, caught my eye. I would argue with HIM that technology, as such, is not diabolic. But technology can be used for evil and vile ends. The abuse of medical technology in abortions being one example.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But Lewis did not understand science and was patronizing toward it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And that is something to be regretted, considering how Lewis did like science fiction and read a lot of it.
I'm nowhere as deeply read in the works of Lewis as you are, so I am not familiar with his views about science.
Ad astra! Sean
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