"Life-Line" was:
Heinlein's first published work of fiction;
published by John W. Campbell in Astounding, August 1939;
the opening story of his Future History;
set in 1951 -
- and, although not a time travel story, it presented a temporal paradox.
Thus, this single short story prefigures much. Heinlein wrote the Future History; Anderson wrote eight future histories. Heinlein wrote three works about the circular causality paradox; Anderson wrote three works about that paradox and a series about both causality paradoxes. Anderson's culminating future history, Genesis (2000), re-presents the Frankensteinian theme on a Stapledonian scale.
Heinlein and beyond.
(And what a half-century to have lived through. I was born in '49.)
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Now I've thought of rereading THE ANUBIS GATES.
I am rereading Christian Davenport's THE SPACE BARONS (2018). Inspirational, reading of how visionaries like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have been jump starting long stagnant efforts to get off Earth!
Ad astra! Sean
Heinlein put his future history far too early -- it turned into alternate history, soon enough.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Too absolutely true, what you wrote about RAH! I only wish his Future History could have been more prescient.
If I can go by what I've read elsewhere, Musk/SpaceX plan to send ships to Mars by 2028 (I wish it was this year!). If so, the long demoralizing stagnation we have been enduring about space since 1972 may finally be ending!!!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: It's already ended. Before Falcon 9, it cost about $10,000 a pound to put something in orbit. Falcon 9 cut it to $1,500 -- SpaceX charges $2,500. They launch about 83% of global mass to orbit.
Starship will cut it to air-freight levels.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, I was trying to be a bit cautious because of all those bitter years of frustrating stupidity and short sightedness about space after 1972.
I'm overjoyed by what SpaceX has achieved in so drastically cutting the costs of shipping people and cargo into orbit! And I hope Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin manage to achieve similar results.
Elon Musk deserves to become a trillionaire for what he has achieved in space!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: He deserves to be a trillionaire because of what he's doing with the money -- financing SpaceX and keeping it laser-focused on reducing costs of launch to orbit.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! You expressed more precisely what I had in mind!
Btw, have you read Ben Bpva's amusing Sam Gunn stories, collected in SAM GUNN UNLIMITED and SAM GUNN FOREVER? In many ways Sam Gunn reminds me of D.D. Harriman, Anson Guthrie, and Nicholas van Rijn. A somewhat rascally but basically good hearted space entrepreneur. All of these are exactly the kind of men we need now
Ad astra! Sean
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