I was born in 1949. Throughout my life, it has been feared that mankind would soon destroy its environment either militarily with nuclear weapons or industrially with pollution or global warming. In fact, the latter option is happening now although maybe many people do not realize it yet.
I drew attention to the following works:
Robert Heinlein
"The Man Who Sold The Moon"(1950)
Space Cadet (1948)
"The Long Watch" (1949)
Poul Anderson
"Marius" (1957)
"The Saturn Game" (1981)
There Will Be Time (1973)
- because each of them addresses one of these issues, as we will see.
However, I should also have mentioned that Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire future history presents a far future radioactive Earth, implying a near future nuclear war - although, when Asimov fused the Empire history with his nuclear-war-free Robots future history, he contrived a different explanation for that far future radioactivity. Nevertheless, his novel, Pebble In The Sky (1950), as originally conceived, implied a near future nuclear war.
Next, I will summarize the relevant contents of the three works by Heinlein and the three by Anderson before referring to some horrifying predictions for the 2030s of our timeline. But let's take this process one stage at a time.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I certainly have read "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and possibly "The Long Watch." And all three of the Anderson stories you listed.
Anderson's "Wildcat" shows us a very near future nuclear war (with "Epilogue" as a possible sequel).
The stories linked together by Anderson in TWILIGHT WORLD shows us speculations about what happened after a nuclear war.
I wish Asimov had not tried, in a clumsy, unsatisfactory, and unconvincing way to link together his Robots and Galactic Empire stories. They simply did not MESH well together!
Ad astra! Sean
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