Years ago now, I wondered whether Larry Niven had written anything more about the Ringworld. Before leaving work on a Friday afternoon, I Googled "Larry Niven Ringworld" and discovered the then new title, Ringworld's Children. I located a copy of this book in the sf section of the Public Library the following day.
I had thought that we would be having holidays on the Moon by now but we have fulfilled the sf prediction of a worldwide computer linkage and hand-held access to all recorded knowledge.
Is Niven's Known Space bigger than Anderson's Technic History? Not in my opinion.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Anderson did something roughly analogous to me personally over the course of a correspondence extending to 24 letters. That is, he mentioned or recommended a few books to me from time to time. Some of these were: WHAT MAD UNIVERSE (Fredric Brown), POST HISTORIC MAN (Roderick Seidenberg), and THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (Edwad N. Luttwak).
It was because of a letter I wrote discussing his story "The High Ones" which led Anderson to recommend POST HISTORIC MAN, with him stressing he did not agree with Seidenberg's argument. Too briefly, Seidehnberg believed the fate of mankind was to become as empty of mind and consciousness as the Zolotoyans of "The High Ones."
I only wish it was possible for us to be taking holidays not just on the Moon but on Mars as well right now! It's my hope that the work being done by SpaceX and its competitors will lead to that kind of future.
Ad astra! Sean
"holidays not just on the Moon but on Mars as well right now"
Holidays on the Moon seem plausible in the next few decades, trip time a few days each way. On that sort of time scale travel to Mars will be like travelling from Europe to Australia in the days of sail, it's a commitment of months just to go one way.
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