Ed Langley, like HG Wells' Time Traveller, has passed into the future and must learn what has become of mankind. However, the Time Traveller contends only with the class division - and species division - between Morlocks and Eloi whereas Langley faces a galactic diaspora.
Interstellar emigration began slowly in the twenty-first century. During later periods of trouble, successive waves of malcontents and refugees went far from Sol to avoid recapture. Lost colonies are presumably scattered throughout the galaxy.
The Technate resumed colonization as a safety valve and tried to retain control of nearby colonies although this became impossible so that there are now about a dozen independent states still in contact with Sol. Sol and Centauri contend for the mineral resources of Sirius where the government is weak. Valti of the Commercial Society is from Ammon in the Tau Ceti system. There may be more info.
Addenda after an afternoon out:
The Tau Ceti system also includes the inhabited planets, Osiris and Horus.
Langley's companion, Marin, observes that, among the thousands of lost colonies:
"'Surely one of them, somewhere, has become something different.'" (CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 103)
She means something better than any of the known civilizations. Surely... This is one of many sf scenarios that could be extended indefinitely with additional speculations about utopias, dystopias etc.
Meanwhile, on another blog...
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Any planets named "Osiris" or "Horus" makes me wonder if they were colonized by people who still remembered Pharaohnic Egypt.
I would have replied to Marin that it's my conviction that no human society will ever be wholly perfect. But I would have conceded it was possible some will be better than most other "beyond contact" planets.
A scenario like that seen in THE LONG WAY HOME does opens up possibilities for utopian and dystopian stories.
Ad astra! Sean
Tau Ceti being one of the nearer stars, it would be colonized not long after the light-speed drive was invented. Ie: within a few centuries. So the colonization would be done by people who know at least as much about Pharaonic Egypt as we do. Given the way newly discovered astronomical bodies currently get named after the gods of every known mythology, it would be surprising if the names 'Osiris' & 'Horus' did *not* get attached to planets in some nearby solar system.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, the planets of Tau Ceti would be colonized fairly soon after the invention of the superdrive. And by people who still knew as much as we do about Pharaohnic Egypt.
Yes, I can see many planets being given names from literature and mythology. The Technic series has planets named Hermes, Woden, Aeneas, Imhotep, Ivanhoe, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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