Monday 23 January 2023

Another Future Historical Source

"The Snows of Ganymede."

See Future Historical Sources II.

This story discloses one more Psychotechnic History future historical source, namely de la Garde's Short History of Interplanetary Colonization.  De la Garde describes events similar to those in Robert Heinlein's Future History: lunatic years in the late twentieth century with a religious reaction against social troubles and scientific method. There is a Pilgrim exodus to Mars and a White American Church exodus to Ganymede. By 2100 AD, the Ganymedean colony, having lost its financial support on Earth, is completely isolated. 2100 AD is a significant date in Heinlein's History. The colonists, called "Jovians," not "Ganymedeans," have declared independence from the Solar Union.

In 2220, Planetary Engineers, en route to the Jovian System on a survey trip preparatory to the terraforming of Ganymede and Callisto, read de la Garde but realize that by now Ganymedean society will be unlike any of those on the inner planets:

commercial Luna City;
intellectual Mars;
clannish Venus;
Earth now unfamiliar to Engineers.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I wonder, might it someday actually be the case that a sectarian group, unhappy and frustrated by the dominant society it lives in, emigrate to one of the Jovian moons to live as they believed was best? While I would almost certainly disagree with their theology, I would wish them well and say they should go their own way, as long as they did not threaten their neighbors.

Ad astra! Sean