Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History opens during recovery from World War III in the 1960s in a still devastated Europe where street lights have not yet been restored, tattered people dwell in caves in the rubble, Liberators wear patchwork uniforms of a dozen armies, river pirates waylay barges and the Americans will ship a new blight preventative next year whereas the same author's Technic History opens during recovery from the Chaos in the mid-twenty-first century with exploration of the Saturnian System.
So there can be progress in future histories. What a contrast between these two beginnings. In both cases, history eventually progresses to interstellar civilizations unimaginable to those living at the beginnings.
Will we survive the Chaos and avoid World War III?
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