Poul Anderson's Nomads with his Kith and tinerans and with James Blish's Okies (see also tinerants);
the post-organic intelligences in Anderson's Harvest Of Stars Tetralogy, Genesis and The Boat Of A Million Years with each other and with the different approach to artificial intelligence in his Starfarers;
the long relativistic space journeys in Starfarers, Boat... and Tau Zero;
STL with FTL;
mutant immortality in Boat... with artificial indefinite longevity in World Without Stars and the Time Patrol series;
Anderson's Kith "heart stars" with Blish's "Heart Stars":
mutable with immutable timelines in time travel narratives by Anderson and others;
British and American future history models.
There have probably been other comparisons. Sf writers share an imaginative space in which common ideas are developed in different directions. Poul Anderson occupies a vast volume of such an imaginative space.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
There's also the periodic rejuvenation we see in FOR LOVE AND GLORY which extends human life spans. Maybe every forty years?
Ad astra! Sean
Right.
"periodic rejuvenation"
Another options is treatments that continually repair the damage of aging about as fast as it occurs. This would require a person to keep the machinery and medicine for the treatments always nearby. If the repair can be done a bit faster than aging damage occurs, someone who has been away from access to the treatments could then slowly unage when s/he gets to where the treatment is available.
I'm not sure if this is an option mentioned in Anderson's work. Boosterspice in Niven's Known Space series is something like this suggestion.
Kaor, Jim!
Your alternate option sounds good but it has the disadvantage of patients making use of those medicines and machines always living nearby. It might as well be like having weekly sessions of dialysis to cope with kidney failure. Unless this suggested option only needs to be used every six months.
But I don't any true anti-aging treatments of any kind to be soon practical. Persons aged 65 or more are almost certainly out of luck!
Ad astra! Sean
I'm speculating more about what options might actually work rather than what people would prefer to use if multiple options were available. I can see either the periodic rejuvenation or the continuous treatment working while the other does not.
A writer like Poul could write stories with either or both option as part of the background assumptions
Kaor, Jim!
Understood, but I don't recall any story by Anderson in which he examined something like what you suggested.
Ad astra! Sea
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