Teleportation/Transportation/Transference

While we are paralleling future histories, we should include Star Trek. Merseians, kzinti and Klingons are obvious parallels. However, Star Trek has transporters and Known Space has transfer booths whereas the Technic History does not have teleportation.

An alien interstellar empire does have teleportation in Poul Anderson's "Interloper." However, the human societies in his Technic History do not develop such a mode of travel. But this makes the Technic History more plausible. How could a physical object or a human being be transported from one place to another without traversing the intervening space? Is it destroyed at the first place and reconstructed at the second? In that case, it is not transported - and could surely be duplicated at several places?

A civilization with sufficient knowledge and energy to practice teleportation would surely be capable of feats for beyond those that are otherwise displayed in either Star Trek or the Known Space History? In Clifford Simak's City, men in a dome on Jupiter can transform one of their number into an organism that can survive on the Jovian surface, then return him to human form. With that much knowledge and power, why do they huddle (Simak's own word) in a dome?

I think that Anderson's limited use of teleportation as an sf prop is a sign of his carefulness as an sf writer.

Planha And Eriau

Fantasy and science fiction feature characters speaking languages that are unknown to us:

Tolkien has Elvish, Orcish etc;

CS Lewis tells us a few words of Solar, e.g., hnau and eldil;

some Star Trek fans have invented Klingon;

the kzinti "Hero's Tongue" has unusual consonant combinations like "Kdapt," "kzin" and "sthondat";

Poul Anderson does not tell us any Temporal or Anglic but does impart a few words of Planha and Eriau;

Planha-speaking Ythrians live in choths whose Wyvans can call Oherran;

Olaf Magnusson knows Eriau and two other major Merseian languages;

Max Abrams, introduced to Brechdan Ironrede, responds in fluent, accented Eriau, "'The Hand of the Vach Ynvory is my shield...'" (Young Flandry, p. 94);

when Flandry and Tachwyr meet, Flandry inquires about Tachwyr's wives and children in polite Eriau and Tachwyr must ask whether Flandry is still a bachelor in Anglic because the Eriau equivalent would be an insult.

Single Or Multiple Authorship

Poul Anderson's future histories are written entirely by Poul Anderson whereas Star Trek is written by many script writers. These are two ways to generate fiction: basically, quality as against quantity. Anderson's output is enormous for a single author but, of course, he did not confine his attention to just one series and, in any case, could not have matched the sheer volume produced by multiple authorship.

The few Superman stories written by Alan Moore are part of the vast Superman canon but are also part of Moore's complete works and have been collected as such. Needless to say, they are way ahead of most other superhero fiction.

There is an intermediate position. Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium future history is additionally written or co-written by:

Larry Niven;
SM Stirling;
Jennifer Pournelle;
the contributors to the War World series, including Anderson.

This probably makes for unevenness in the quality of writing. There is unevenness in Anderson's Technic History because it was written over such a long period but multiple authorship almost certainly increases unevenness. However, I have yet to read the War World volumes. SM Stirling managed to pull together a consistently high quality for the Drakas! anthology.

Technological Levels And Prime Directives

How do human societies of different technological levels interact? An idea common to Star Trek, the Okies series and the CoDominium future history is a Prime Directive against interference in lower level societies although the only way to ensure no interference would be to prevent any interaction. By contrast, the Allied Planets of Poul Anderson's Technic History assess isolated planets in order to determine whether the attempt to recivilize them is worth the effort.

In King David's Spaceship, Jerry Pournelle shows the high tech Second Empire interacting with two isolated planets of different levels. The main difference seems to be that men on Prince Samual's World fight with guns whereas the inhabitants of Makassar use swords. The planets differ in other physical and sociological details and are realized in commendable detail.

I get the impression that the CoDominium History primarily comprises:

the Falkenberg series (4 vols);
War World (5);
the Second Empire (3) -

- which in turn correspond to three historical periods:

the CoDominium;
the Old Empire;
the New Empire and First Contact.

It is like a shorter alternative to the Technic History.

Star Trek And The Future Histories

David Birr explains this bizarre cover image in a comment here.

Star Trek TV series, films and novels have become a future history and a cultural reference point. When I told a friend about a "reality storm" in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, he remarked that that sounded like something out of Star Trek, then laughed when I told him that one of the characters had said that that sounded like something out of Star Trek.

A narrator in Robert Heinlein's The Number Of The Beast compares the bridge of Lazarus Long's spaceship to the bridge of the Enterprise - although I would prefer not to refer to The Number Of The Beast.

Isaac Asimov scientifically advised Star Trek. James Blish adapted episodes as short stories and wrote the first Star Trek novel. At a Memorial evening for James Blish in London, Charles Monteith of Faber and Faber described Blish's Cities in Flight future history as "a higher and greater Star Trek."

Larry Niven adapted a Known Space story as a Star Trek animated episode. Niven and Jerry Pournelle place a Chief Engineer from New Scotland on a Navy spaceship and say that this ethnicity is common among Engineers.

If Kirk were in Intelligence and Vulcan were in the Klingon Empire, then Star Trek would parallel Poul Anderson's Flandry series. Many sf stories about spaceship crews exploring extrasolar planets could be adapted as Star Trek episodes.

Addendum: Are Moties like intelligent tribbles?

"Men Make Their Own History..."

"Men make their own history but not in circumstances of their own choosing."

Whereas SM Stirling's John Rolfe accidentally opened a Gate to an alternative Earth where he founded the Commonwealth of New Virginia, Poul Anderson's Manuel Argos led a slave revolt and founded the Terran Empire. The Empire is incomparably vaster than the Commonwealth. However, this is because Rolfe was a World War II veteran whereas Argos was born in a later age of faster than light interstellar travel: "...not in circumstances of their own choosing."

Further, we are shown several centuries of the Empire but only two generations of the Commonwealth. How vast might the latter later become? At the end of Conquistador, the Commonwealth begins to expand not out into space but sideways onto a third alternative Earth. Since at least one of Argos' predecessors has already traveled between universes, there is the possibility, however remote, of a meeting between Commonwealth and Empire, maybe in a second Anderson-themed anthology? But, meanwhile, we have many already written works to read or reread.

Apparently, hypothetical crossovers are a regular fannish debating topic:

Batman and Captain America fight - who wins?;
the Federation of Star Trek and the Empire of Star Wars meet - which wins?;
etc.

(I have the uneasy feeling that this post has descended from the sublime to the center of a black hole.)

Films

A visit to the cinema can simultaneously update us on several familiar series. The other day:

a showing of Star Wars VII;

trailers for Star Trek, Captain America and X Men;

a poster advertising Batman v Superman.

While watching Star Wars, I tried to imagine that we were instead watching a film dramatization of Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return. In fact, imagine a serial adaptation of the entire History of Technic Civilization from "The Saturn Game" to "Starfog." There would have to be two actors for Dominic Flandry because he changes his face by biosculp between his second and third novels. Earlier, I posted suggestions for filming two small parts of the Technic History. See here and here.

The Star Trek and Star Wars series prove that hard sf series like Anderson's Technic History or James Blish's Cities In Flight could be filmed without encountering any insuperable technical difficulties. So let's see it.

(See here and here for discussion of proposed films based on works by Blish.)

Interstellar Fiction

Poul Anderson's The Peregrine, about the interstellar Nomads, was originally called Star Ways. Two of the Nomad spaceships are called Trekker and Voyageur. Anderson wrote this novel decades before the existence of Star Wars, Star Trek or Star Trek: Voyager. However, certain words and terminologies recur in an interstellar sf context.

We recognize the scenario from Star Trek and from other sf works, e.g., by James Blish. A large spaceship with a crew of hundreds or thousands enters a planetary system and goes into orbit around an inhabited or colonized planet. Crew members shuttle to the surface in ship's boats. Star Trek introduced the transporter (teleporter) in order to avoid scenes involving boats. Extrasolar planets are either colonized from Earth or inhabited by surprisingly humanoid natives. One Nomad "marries" (not legally) a very beautiful native woman with white skin and long silver hair.

Thankfully, at least, the Nomad and his new wife are not interfertile - although Star Trek does allow even that in the case of Vulcan. The Vulcans should have been a separated colony, not the result of independent evolution, just as the Time Lords should have been not aliens but future humanity.

Poul Anderson is able to write convincingly and to address significant issues despite such sf cliches, which he later transcended.

Just Beginning

One way to end a story is to show that another story is just beginning. At the end of Satan's World by Poul Anderson, the trader team sets off on a new mission. Their lives have significantly changed in that they are now rich enough not to need the work but they do it because they want to. And, while they are outward bound, they play poker. They remain in character and their lives continue.

A later Star Trek film ends with Kirk and his crew taking a new Enterprise out of the Solar System, "thataway." The second and last Doctor Who cinema feature film ends with the TARDIS crew not back home but attacked by Roman soldiers...

SM Stirling found an appropriate ending for his alternative history novel, Conquistador. A sabre-tooth is routinely going about its business eating a giant sloth when a new Gate between worlds opens before it... This scene could lead to a sequel but does not need to. We can turn to other novels by Stirling - and also by Anderson or Turtledove - in order to read more about alternative histories.

Non-Interference

SM Stirling, The Sky People (New York, 2006).

Good morning. A new month and a new post.

"...Non-interference as far as humanly possible was official doctrine..." (p. 208)

Sounds familiar - Prime Directive, Starfleet, Time Patrol, Okies. It is as if this principle has proliferated between universes. However, Poul Anderson also presents the opposite perspective. His Allied Planets set out to re-civilize human populations that had been isolated during the Long Night and, in at least three different Anderson stories that have been discussed on this blog, aliens among us secretly manipulate Terrestrial civilization for good or ill.

Which stories? This time, instead of listing titles or giving links, I invite page viewer participation in remembering three - or maybe more? - stories that fit this description. Meanwhile, SM Stirling's "Lords of Creation" series - a designation bestowed on the mysterious planet designers by the viewpoint character, Marc - continues to be an enjoyable read. I have yet to finish reading the first of the three installments.

The Technic History And Star Trek

If Kirk were in Intelligence instead of Starfleet and if Vulcan were in the Klingon Empire instead of the Federation, then Star Trek would parallel Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. Both Spock and Aycharaych are humanoid telepaths with pointed ears - although Spock's telepathy would have to be extremely enhanced before it could rival Aycharaych's.

To anyone who likes Star Trek but is unfamiliar with the Technic History, I would say that:

Merseians, Chereionites and Ythrians are more imaginative aliens than Klingons, Vulcans or Romulans;

Flandry and Aycharaych are better characterized than Kirk or Spock;

Star Trek achieved future historical status by spreading from the original series into one prequel, three contemporaneous sequels and three time travel films whereas the Technic History became a future history by seamlessly blending two interstellar series either of which could have stood on its own.

On this last point, either van Rijn versus the Borthudians or Flandry versus the Merseians is more than a match for Kirk versus the Merseians, as indeed are Philippe Rochefort versus the Avalonians, Roan Tom struggling through the Long Night or Daven Laure navigating the Cloud Universe.

A greater and higher Star Trek as, years ago at a Memorial Evening for James Blish, Charles Monteith of Faber and Faber described Cities In Flight.

A New Eon IV

Greg Bear, Eon (London, 2002).

The Stone is, possibly, a time machine larger inside than out. That sounds familiar from a BBC science fiction perspective. As Huckleberry Finn might say, I don't take no stock in Doctor Who. However, like Star Trek and Superman, it could be reconceptualized as worthwhile science fiction:

the Time Lords should be our descendants;
Vulcan should be a separated human colony;
for two possible explanations of the Kryptonians, see here.

Greg Bear does some of this kind of work in Eon:

explorers of the Stone find that, whatever the explanation, this mysterious object is a human artifact;
to understand its apparently infinite seventh chamber, they engage a mathematician whose works include Non-gravity Bent Geodesics of n-Spatial Reference Frames: An Approach to Superspace Visualization and Probability Clustering (p. 24).

That sounds as if it just might have something to do with extending a chamber to infinity. Non-gravity bent geodesics and superspace might even explain Superman's flight and other powers. I honestly believe that a reconceptualized Doctor Who would benefit from this kind of treatment but, be that as it may, we can in any case appreciate serious science fiction like this novel by Greg Bear.

Spaceship Stories

How many science fiction (sf) stories begin as a spaceship approaches, or has just reached, an unknown planet? Many entire series have existed on this basis, most obviously Star Trek. James Blish not only adapted Star Trek episodes as short stories but also, more importantly, wrote several original "spaceship stories," including the Cities In Flight Tetralogy, described by Charles Monteith of Faber and Faber, speaking at a Memorial Evening for James Blish, as "...in many ways, a higher and greater Star Trek."

Poul Anderson wrote every kind of sf, including "spaceship stories." I am currently contemplating the "bookends" of his History of Technic Civilization, i.e., the first four and last four works in the series:

"The Saturn Game"
"Wings of Victory"
"The Problem of Pain"
"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson"

"A Tragedy of Errors"
The Night Face
"The Sharing of Flesh"
"Starfog"

Seven spaceship stories and one, "How To be Ethnic...," about a young man still on Earth just beginning spacefarer training. These stories:

either precede or succeed the major historical processes of the series;

present space travelers' adventures in widely different spatial volumes and historical periods.

"The Saturn Game" takes place about 2055 in the outer Solar System whereas "Starfog" begins five thousand years later near the northern verge of another spiral arm and its action then moves to beyond the Dragon's Head Nebula where no one, except the mysterious Kirkasanters, has been before.

That, unfortunately, is as far as the Technic History takes us. 

"Beam Me Up"

"...another creature flashed into sight on a metal plate and stalked toward the room beyond."

- Poul Anderson, "Interloper" IN Anderson, Fantasy (New York, 1981), pp. 178-210 AT p. 195.

"Interloper" was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1959, when I was ten. Children of a later generation can hardly read the half sentence quoted above without thinking, "Star Trek! Transporter!" - although the original sf term would have been either "teleporter" or "matter transmitter." (The Justice League of America even came up with "transmatter.")

We might also think, "Beam me up, Scotty!" That phrase was used ironically at the end of a realistic British TV drama about redundancy and unemployment. There was no way that the character saying it was going to disappear. But, if he had disappeared from Liverpool Docks to reappear in the transporter room of the Starship Enterprise, that would have been a crossover.

In "Interloper," the viewpoint character, Beoric, surprised to see the creature flashing into sight, immediately deduces that his hosts have "'...somehow managed to apply the interstellar drive principle to short distances.'" (ibid.) He is told that, "'The true minimum distance is about a hundred miles...'" (p. 196) So this "transporter" or "teleporter" is an application of the faster than light (FTL) drive. Teleportation is far less common in sf than FTL and, when it does occur, it is not usually an application of the latter.

Beoric is also surprised to learn that his hosts can communicate telepathically across interplanetary distances. They are powerful indeed.

Update

I have been away from this blog for a while, first posting on other blogs, then away from computers for most of a week. Rereading and blogging about Poul Anderson got me into rereading and blogging about James Blish and I am still currently focusing on Blish.

The newest post on the James Blish Appreciation blog, "Sequel, Serial, Series," compares Blish (quality), Anderson (both quality and quantity) and Star Trek (much greater quantity but at the expense of quality).

I will probably reread and comment on Blish's The Star Dwellers and Mission To The Heart Stars before returning to Anderson maybe with Twilight World.

Four Series And Poul Anderson

Several times on this blog, I have referred to Isaac Asimov's Foundation, and less often, though in the same vein, to Star Trek, Star Wars and Frank Herbert's Dune. (EE Smith's very badly written Lensman series is perhaps in the same category but let's leave that out of the discussion.)

Star Wars is films with book and comic spin-offs. Star Trek is multi-media but primarily TV and film. Dune moved in the opposite direction. First, it was famous, at least among sf fans, as a long novel with several sequels. Then, it was adapted for both cinema and TV. Of the series mentioned so far (outside brackets), only Foundation has not yet appeared on screen but is well known nevertheless.

Both Asimov and Herbert present a humans-only galaxy but add altered human beings and artificial intelligences. (Asimov has one Galactic Empire story where non-human intelligences flee the galaxy and Foundation And Earth ends with the threat of extra-galactic intelligences.)

All four series present the rise and fall of interstellar civilizations, usually "Empires," with FTL travel. In other words, as I have said before, they do what Poul Anderson's less well known History of Technic Civilization does far better. Thus, a good way to present Anderson's main future history series is to say precisely this.

Compare:

Anderson's Terran Empire with the Galactic Empire(s);
Dominic Flandry with James Kirk;
Merseians and Chereionites with Klingons and Vulcans;
Chunderban Desai with Hari Seldon;
Hans Molitor with Paul Atreides;
the Polesotechnic League with Foundation Traders;
Aeneas with Arrakis;
the sincere religious beliefs of Adzel and Axor with the cynical manipulation of popular religion by the Foundation, Bene Gesserit and Atreides - as well as by Anderson's Aycharaych; 
the Long Night with Asimov's post-Imperial period;
etc.

...Better Than Star Trek

Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization" has its "Star Trek" period: the Grand Survey.

"Our service had one law, which was its proud motto: 'We come as friends.'...After five years the survivors would meet and compare experiences." (1)

Thus, a Prime Directive and a five year mission. Further:

"We always made initial contact with three..." (2)

In this story, the drama is generated by disagreement and conflict between two of the three about whether the winged creatures encountered on a new planet can be intelligent. They are and are welcomed into Technic civilization with later consequences in the History. This story introduces Ythrian biology. The following story, also about planetary exploration but in a later period, introduces Ythrian psychology and theology.

The Grand Survey could have been the basis of an entire series but instead appears just in this one story which provides background for the developing History. The previous story, "The Saturn Game," pre-Grand Survey, is set in the Solar System but nevertheless shows problems encountered by interplanetary explorers and thus is also Star Trek-like without being formulaic.

(1) Anderson, Poul, The Van Rijn Method, compiled by Hank Davis, Riverdale NY, 2009, p. 81.
(2) ibid., p. 82.