"The Chapter Ends."
See blog search result for "psychohistory."
Psychotechnics as it is presented in the opening instalments of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History is both a predictive science of human societies and a practical science of human psychophysiology. However, those are too very different projects and only the latter is mentioned in "The Chapter Ends." Therefore, it is not certain that the earlier and the later psychotechnics are identical. After all this time, that is a new realization at least for me.
We may have exhausted "The Chapter Ends" at least for the time being. Who knows what we will contemplate next?
3 comments:
I think Poul became convinced that predictive social sciences just didn't work.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Human beings are simply too chaotic and unpredictable for any such "science" to work. Nor do I believe in any transhumanist mental super-powers.
Ad astra! Sean
I don't believe in such super-powers either, but it is still fair to write stories in which they exist. Just think through what can and can't be done with the power(s) to make the story self-consistent. Also think through the "required secondary powers"
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RequiredSecondaryPowers
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