Civilizations

We casually use the word, "civilizations," when discussing a minor future history series whereas in fact all the literature on Earth would not be enough to capture every aspect of a single civilization. There will be not just one-off novels but entire schools of literature written and set inside the Galactic civilization of Poul Anderson's "The Chapter Ends." We can think in the abstract about such literary schools but cannot possibly imagine what it would be like to read and understand future narratives, just as we can think about a fourth dimension but cannot visualize it.

See:

Historians Of Civilization II

We need to read about dwellers in future civilizations, not just about space explorers or others with special missions on the frontiers.