Another Problem And The Fate Of Cities

Orbit Unlimited, part three.

This is yet another story built around:

a seemingly insurmountable technical problem;

what I have come to call an Andersonian moment of realization - in this case, one character leaps up, startling another, when he suddenly realizes what the solution must be;

a later disclosure of the solution to the readers;

meanwhile, a human problem that must also be recognized and overcome before the technical solution can be implemented.

However, since, in this case, both the technical problem and its solution are even more complicated than usual, I will not attempt to summarize them here but instead will advise blog readers to read or reread the story - which I always do anyway.

Meanwhile, in parallel reading, in the "FIRST TALE" in Clifford Simak's City, rapid transportation for commuting, replacement of agriculture by hydroponics and new easy building techniques enable populations to move to the countryside, making cities redundant. In Poul Anderson's The Peregrine, a similar situation is described as making the entire Earth a single city.

(If City continues to display such parallels, then I might continue to reread it.)