I will quote a passage from a work of fantasy and cite a common sf response that could be based on Poul Anderson's works but then assess the sf response.
"Ever since Audrey was killed, he's felt a deep wanderlust: the desire to leave, to get away, to start anew.
"The trouble with six centuries of travel, he ponders, is that there are too few places he hasn't been. He wants to go somewhere, not to return somewhere."
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Wake (New York, 1997), p. 32, panel 5, captions 2-3.
The standard sf response is that Hob Gadling, the immortal Englishman in the above passage, travels on the surface of a finite globe surrounded by infinite space so go up and out instead of back and forth.
But go where? Does our sf response assume FTL travel in a galaxy full of terrestroid planets as in Poul Anderson's Technic History? How plausible is that? Well, many exoplanets have been detected and, if FTL remains impossible, then maybe other works by Anderson are a better model? -
The Boat Of A Million Years
the Kith History
the Rustum History
Tau Zero
How far can we wander with fast STL, time dilation and prolonged lifespans?
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you should have included THE HARVEST OF STARS tetralogy. Even tho those books don't have the kind of "immortality" seen in examples like BOAT.
And I hope FTL won't be impossible! Think of real world speculations like the Alcubierre FTL drive.
And even without FTL, the Solar System alone should keep human beings busy for centuries as it's explored and developed. And we can hope practical means of STL interstellar travel will become possible.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
HARVEST OF STARS does not have regular STL human interstellar travel.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I think THE FLEET OF STARS shows the beginnings of that regular STL interstellar travel.
Ad astra! Sean
Maybe.
Also, "you can't go home again".
I haven't been to Paris since I was a child; I'd be very surprised if it wasn't an extremely different place now.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Well, some things or places you might have seen in Paris will still be there. One being the Expiatory Chapel dedicated to the memory of Louis XVI, to name a less well known example.
Ad astra! Sean
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