Independence Days

Will colonists of planets, asteroids or space habitats have to fight for their independence from Earth? It is to be hoped not. I am conscious of not having read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy although I have found a lengthy summary of it on Wikipedia. Wars of independence occur in that trilogy, in three novels by Robert Heinlein, in Poul Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains and no doubt in other sf works. When cities escape from Earth in James Blish's Cities In Flight, the Bureaucratic State collapses. However, cities and colonials must then overthrow the Vegan Tyranny which has been ruling this galactic sector, fortunately without knowing what has been happening in the Solar System.

All of these narratives project our past onto our future and I think that we can expect the future to be different - and unpredictable. Maybe someone could write a novel about what is likely to happen on Earth over the next few centuries? Will space travel continue and become more important? Sf narratives focus on that whereas the bulk of mankind - if, indeed, there continues to be a "bulk" - are likely to remain on Earth. But we do not even know that.

The only thing that is certain about sf is that its authors need to keep thinking of new premises which Poul Anderson did continue to do.

This post is occasioned by rereading Tales Of The Flying Mountains even though it lists that book among several works by other authors. Sf is really a collaborative enterprise.