Cosmic Time Scales

In the previous post, I skipped past Olaf Stapledon because he did not quite fit the sequence. However, Stapledon's Last And First Men is a single-volume future history that transcends Wells because it recounts the entire future of mankind, not just a single historical turning point. Wells' The Time Machine takes us to the end of life on Earth but skips past most of the intervening events. Last And First Men begins mundanely with European wars in the early twentieth century but later records subsequent human species mastering interplanetary travel and migrating first to Venus, then to Neptune. 

Stapledon is relevant here because he is the master of fictional narratives with cosmic time scales. Indeed, his Star Maker is a trans-human cosmic history. In this respect, Poul Anderson is Stapledon's direct successor both in Tau Zero and in Genesis. Stapledon's works have become dated whereas it will be a long time, if ever, before Genesis dates, at least technologically.

Having said that, it is a premise of Genesis that life is rare. Post-organic intelligences spreading from Earth at sub-light speeds have the galaxy and surrounding space to themselves. Maybe that rarity of life is being refuted right now.

Future histories always have to start from present knowledge. They generate the paradox of a history of future histories.