That scientific knowledge becomes myth is acknowledged in the text:
"What little cosmology and cosmogony [Dagny] had learned, for instance, was in the form of vague, probably distorted tradition - latter-day myth. And she was intelligent enough to recognize this." (p. 487)
Nevertheless those who have travelled through space and who know some science remember their cosmic context even while on a planetary surface. On Nike, Yasmin wonders whether this planetary system had formed in the galactic halo, then drifted into this spiral arm. That would explain the lack of metals but would also entail an abnormal proper motion... People who merely live on a planet cannot possibly think in such terms! Maybe not only the planet but also its sun and all the other planets of that sun had just drifted into the galaxy? (But it will turn out that this is not the explanation of Nike's oddities.)
There is a very sharp distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge of science. Yasmin has received some formal education whereas for:
"Practical spacefarers, like [Dagny] and Tom... A rudiment of knowledge was handed down to them, largely by word of mouth, the minimum they needed for survival." (p. 487)
And some spaceships will cease to function for lack of repairs, which nearly happens to Tom's Firedrake.
9 comments:
The fall of the Terran Empire is not really analogous to any previous political collapse on Earth.
Because it's a high-tech society and economy.
There's an old archaeological joke that before the rise of the Roman Empire, Europe was a continent of thatched huts and ox-drawn plows... and that during the Roman Empire, it was a continent of thatched huts and ox-drawn plows... and that after the fall of the Empire it became...
A continent of thatched huts and ox-drawn plows.
This is an exaggeration; some things did change under the Empire.
Europe had a city of 1,000,000 + people under the Empire, which it didn't have again until the year 1800 (when London reached that level).
Roman Britannia's popualation wasn't exceeded consistently by England/Wales until the late 17th century.
Likewise, the overall urbanization rate in the Roman Empire peaked somewhere between 12% and 14%, which was very high for the preindustrial period, and for that whole area (including North Africa and the Middle East) probably wasn't exceeded until well into the 20th century.
But there's a -fundamental- truth to the old joke.
The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions are a sword across the history of the human race (and probably the product of a long sequence of vanishingly unlikely accidents).
That means we can't really use previous historical models on a one-to-one basis.
It's probably only in the 21st century that the majority of human beings stopped being peasants, for instance.
If a "high civilization" collapsed in the old days, the bulk of the poplulation would go right on being peasants.
Likewise, to have a "Long Night" story that doesn't involve utter collapse you need FTL spaceships, fusion reactors, computers, etc.
But that's not compatible with a -real- collapse.
After the Roman Empire, people still fought with bows and spears and swords... just as they had -during- the Empire.
Thank you very much. Life is getting busy here. Not much blogging time. It's good to receive long contributions in the combox.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ditto, what Paul said!
Even so, I can't help but wonder if you might be minimizing too much the bad things to be expected of the collapse of a high tech civilization like that of the Terran Empire. I think mention was made in "The Sharing of Flesh" that colonized planets dependent on technology to even survive came to miserable ends. Think of what would happen on Unan Besar if the antitoxin pills its people needed to live there could not be produced!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yeah, that was what I meant. Either you get a -total- collapse to pretechnological levels, or you get a "collapse" that doesn't affect the overall tech level all that much.
But you can't have both on any particular planet.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
We see that "total" collapse to pre-technological levels on Lokon, in "The Sharing of Flesh."
Nike was more fortunate, I agree, retaining a good deal of technology dating from Imperial times.
I strongly suspect Unan Besar suffered a far worse fate: everyone died there if production of the antitoxin pills needed to live there failed.
Iow, we see gradations in what happened to many worlds after the Empire fell.
Ad astra! Sean
After Flandry's intervention on Unan Besar, the inhabitants might have made sure there were always hundreds of antitoxin factories and immediately used a guillotine on anyone who suggested reducing the number. That might well have insured survival of the population during a partial collapse of interstellar civilization.
Kaor, Jim!
Ha! The guillotine would be a more merciful method of execution than the "cage"!
I did have something vaguely like what you had in mind, as shown by this bit from Chapter XI of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, as Flandry was speaking to Nias Warouw (a born detective), Bandang (a fat fool, but with few illusions), and Genseng (a crazed fanatic): "A molecular synthesizing plant could turn out a year's biological production in a day and sneer at germs."
Biocontrol was using clumsy and antiquated methods of making the antitoxin pills, to cement unshakably its grip on power on Unan Besar.
I can see Unan Besar, after Biocontrol was overthrown, making sure there were at least dozens of these molecular synthesizing plants, to ensure survival.
And we do see mention of there being some planets where mankind died out, because the technology needed for living on them failed after the Empire fell.
Ad astra! Sean
I think Warouw would have been one of those who had a stash of pills and a spaceship squirreled away somewhere.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and Nias might even have been decent enough to take his closest friends and relatives with him.
I recall Flandry cynically suggesting the ruling directors of Biocontrol would do exactly that, if everything crashed!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment