The War of Judgment destroys civilization in the Northern Hemisphere. A new Southern civilization develops biological technologies and opposes nuclear power. A twentieth century time traveler, Jack Havig, visits this Pacific Federation and describes it to his family doctor, Robert Anderson, who relays this future scenario as a fictional premise to his distant relative, Poul Anderson. This second Anderson names the Southern civilization the Maurai Federation and writes several stories about it. In one of these stories, the Maurai mount an undercover operation against a secret fusion generator. Havig later discovers that this in fact happens. However, Poul Anderson has changed names and other details and has:
"'...guessed wrong more often than right.'" (p. 129)
The stories never circulated widely and were soon forgotten. Havig comments on sf and its occasional lucky guesses. Much food for thought in the 2022 of our timeline.
2 comments:
SF occasionally gets the future right, but mostly on the "machine gun" or "stopped clock" model.
Kaor, Paul!
Aside from agreeing with what Stirling said, I would add that Anderson's Maurai stories have not entirely been forgotten! I read them decades ago and more recently, maybe, a couple years ago.
Ad astra! Sean
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