Not only the omniscient narrator but also the Planetary Engineers compare the Psychotechnic Institute to the Christian Church. The latter began with the ideal of universal brotherhood and wound up burning dissidents. The former tried to remake man scientifically and wound up manipulating populations and falsifying data.
Heinlein's Future History Chart begins with technical advances but mass psychoses, has the First Human Civilization after the Second American Revolution and ends with the beginning of the first mature culture. Anderson's Psychotechnic History contrasts technological advances with human psychological limitations and describes a long adolescence of Technic civilization.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
IOW, these men behaved like human beings: flawed, imperfect, all too corruptible, prone to folly and fanaticism. NOT a surprise to me!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment