Robert Heinlein's future historical themes: longevity and a generation ship;
Poul Anderson's first future history series addresses all four.
In Anderson's Psychotechnic History:
the first robot is not a threat to human labour but is himself unemployed;
the predictive social science channels conflicts within a generation ship, preventing Mutiny;
immortality is a dead end.
Having addressed these themes in his Psychotechnic History, Anderson then presents a theory of historical cycles in the Technic History but acknowledges that these cycles are not predictable in detail. His last two future histories address AIs superseding humanity.
Thus, four comprehensive future histories with four shorter histories between them.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It's my belief Asimov was at his best as a short story writer. In that medium his colorlessness and flatness at fleshing out characters did not matter so much. Meaning, e.g., his Robot stories are still worth reading.
Ad astra! Sean
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