Windjammers

"'Any [kzinti Swift Hunters] that remain in service will certainly be phased out as hyperdrive comes in, because it makes them as obsolete as windjammers.'" (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 220)

The change from slower-than-light to faster-than-light in space must be like the change from sail to steam at sea. Future histories feature this change from STL to FTL. Poul Anderson's Technic History began with FTL interstellar exploration but Anderson later added an earlier story of interplanetary exploration by light sail ships. In his earlier Psychotechnic History, the STL period involves interplanetary travel and an interstellar generation ship. Heinlein's Future history had introduced the generation ship idea and showed the start of FTL travel.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, the transition from STL to FTL is an important part of the history. In Poul Anderson's Known Space/Man-Kzin Wars story, "Inconstant Star," an interstellar expedition departed from Alpha Centauri thirty years ago and never returned. It would have taken ten years to cross five light years and the crew, kzinti with one man, Peter Nordbo, would have been in stasis. Now an FTL ship with Peter's daughter, Tyra, in the crew will investigate. For Tyra, those thirty years are "...the dark backward and abysm of time..." (see here) but the FTL ship will cross five light years in almost no time.

"'...what are we trying on this voyage but to probe the past and learn what happened long ago?'" (p. 222)

"The Shadows, Like Life..."

ADDENDUM: To read something new, see here and HERE.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
I am borrowing Ketlan's lap top because the second hand computer that I have been using has died and there will be a delay before it is replaced. Consequently, blog activity will become sporadic although hopefully will continue. Thank you for recent page views and comments.

I hope that recently I have inspired or revived in some blog readers an interest in future histories. I have been fascinated by this sf sub-genre for decades and it just gets better. Parts of the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space future history are mini-histories within the longer history, as are the early Imperial and post-Imperial ages of Poul Anderson's Technic History.

Remember that Wells and Stapledon wrote future histories before Heinlein but did it differently and that Anderson, following Heinlein, made immense and unique contributions - but I have demonstrated this repeatedly.

I am continually reminded of the comprehensiveness of Sean M Brooks' contributions to this blog (see here) and hopefully these also will continue.

Future Catholicisms

(St Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster.)

There is:

a Jerusalem Catholic Church in Poul Anderson's Technic History;

a Neocatholic Church in Anderson's For Love And Glory;

a Reform Catholic Church in Anderson's Starfarers;

a Reformed Catholic Church on Wunderland in Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's "The Hall of the Mountain King";

an Imperial Church, recognizably Catholic, in Pournelle's CoDominium future history.

Anderson and Pournelle present the inner thoughts and points of view of characters who subscribe to their future versions of Catholicism whereas Pournelle & Stirling, at least in the passage to which I refer, merely mention that there is a Reformed Catholic church in a town among the Jotun Mountains. Nevertheless, this is enough to establish the existence of such a Church.

"The Hall of the Mountain King" is an installment of the Man-Kzin Wars sub-series of Larry Niven's Known Space future history. Thus, this single reference establishes the existence of a Reformed Catholic Church in the Known Space timeline. This denomination may never be referred to again. Alternatively, some contributor to the series could build a story around it. How was the Church "reformed"? Might a kzinti Kdaptist, believing that God made Man in His image, seek admittance to a Terrestrial religion? Etc. See here.

Some Parallels II

"'The shadow of the God lies on us... We will go to Him together, the hunt will give Him honor.'"
-Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, "The Children's Hour" IN Larry Niven, Ed, Man-Kzin Wars III, pp. 35-166 AT p. 164.

This sounds like a mixture of Merseian ("...the God...") and Ythrian ("The shadow...," "...the hunt will give Him honor...") However, it is a kzin.

Niven's Thrints' Power is Asimov's Mule's Power. The Mule was like the single alien in a humans only galaxy until we learned that he was a rebel Gaian - and that the robots were behind Gaia. Robots are like artificial protectors.

The Mule, Gaia and robots are in Asimov's Galactic Empire future history;
Merseians and Ythrians are in Anderson's Technic History;
kzinti, Thrintun and protectors are in Niven's Known Space History.

I have gained a new perspective of looking sideways across these future histories instead of chronologically along each in turn.

The conclusion of "The Children's Hour" is the turning point between the STL and FTL periods of Known Space. Poul Anderson showed STL interstellar warfare in "Time Lag," which is, perhaps, the culmination of his ninth future history.

Some Parallels

In Poul Anderson's Technic History:

one Chereionite telepath works for the Merseians;

a dying Marine says, "'...don't eat me, mother...'" (Captain Flandry, p. 306);

the Ardazirho remind Flandry of wolves;

he interrogates one by sensory deprivation.

In Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's "The Asteroid Queen":

the kzinti are feline;

a few are telepathic;

Harold interrogates one by sensory deprivation;

when allowed to speak, the interrogated kzin says, "'DON'T EAT ME MOTHER...'" (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 133).

Thus, a few parallels between two future histories. If we assume parallel universes, whether as a fictional premise or as a scientific theory, then there must be some laws governing the parallels. L Sprague de Camp suggested that periods when many world-lines intersect might be periods when it is easier to be transported into the past. Similarly, parallel events might occur at moments when it is easier to travel between universes.

Inter-universal travelers will expect other worlds to be like theirs. A DC Comics super-villain, when told that there was one Earth where no one had acquired any superpowers, thus that in that world the only place to read about superheroes or super-villains was in comic books, not in newspapers, remarked, "Seems unlikely..."

Sensory Descriptions

Currently, this blog contemplates multiple future histories of three kinds: Wellsian, Heinleinian and later Andersonian. See here. Future historical issues range from the ultimate fate of the universe to the details of military strategy. In Anderson's Technic History, Aeneans ambush Terrans whereas, during a Man-Kzin War, human guerillas ambush kzinti.

On Aeneas, the ambushers see many-colored leaves while their leader shivers, hears a rustling tree and flowing water and smells the faint odor of the native equivalent of grass. On Wunderland, the guerillas feel cold, see native squidgrass growing under imported roses and orange kzinti raaairtwo among green mutated alfalfa and smell the roses.

Thus, when presenting the viewpoints of individual conscious beings, Anderson and Pournelle & Stirling sustain the literary technique of appealing to at least three of the senses. At the opposite end of the spectrum of future historical writing, Stapledon summarizes historical eras in a few sentences and Anderson recounts millions of years of Solar history on a single page. See here.

STL Or FTL

We, or at least I, think of interstellar future histories as either FTL, e.g., Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic and Technic Histories, or STL, e.g., Anderson's Maurai, Flying Mountains, Rustum, Kith, Harvest Of Stars and Genesis histories or Larry Niven's Leshy Circuit series.

(The mostly Earth-bound Maurai History goes interstellar in the time travel novel, There Will Be Time.)

However, some future histories have an STL period followed by an FTL period:

Robert Heinlein's Future History has generation ships, then Libby's FTL drive;

the Psychotechnic History has a generation ship, then the hyperdrive;

in Larry Niven's Known Space History, the Thrintun had FTL but the Pak did not;

also in Known Space, the early Man-Kzin Wars were fought at sub-light speeds but men won decisively when they had acquired the hyperdrive.

In an STL period or history, interstellar journeys last for objective decades or centuries but the travelers benefit from time dilation which alters perceptions of aging and of social change.

Two kinds of -

- imaginative fiction: fantasy and sf;
- sf: hard and soft;
- future history: British and American;
- interstellar travel: STL and FTL;
- time travel: circular causality and causality violation. 

Alternative Pasts, Presents And Futures

Whereas a future history becomes an alternative history as it recedes into the past, an alternative history becomes a future history if it is extended into the future. Thus, SM Stirling's Protracted Struggle between the Alliance for Democracy and the Domination of the Draka parallels the various UN/US-USSR/Cold War/World War III scenarios that we listed recently. In Stirling's The Stone Dogs, as in James Blish's They Shall Have Stars, Earth becomes a dictatorship but a few political refugees escape from the Solar System.

In fact, various other discontented groups also leave the Solar System in:

Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children;
the Breakup period of Poul Anderson's Technic History;
Anderson's Rustum History, The Boat Of A Million Years and Harvest Of Stars;
the Great Exodus period of Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium History.

Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers is an alternative history novel set in 2025 but does not feature space travel because, like Anderson's Maurai History, it recounts recovery from a global disaster.

The Ransom Trilogy, CS Lewis' reply to Wells' and Stapledon's future histories, also addresses the history of the future. Issues concerning the future of mankind on Earth are resolved in Volume III. In Volume II, the future is prophesied. Ten thousand years hence, Maleldil, Malacandra, Tor-Oyarsa-Perelendri and many hnau and eldila will descend, destroy the Moon and liberate Thulcandra (Earth) from its present hidden rulers -

- and you cannot get any more alternative than that.

Mankind In Spacetime And The Universe

HG Wells describes:

the experiences of space traveling and time traveling;

the far future of mankind and Earth;

Selenites in their environment;

Martians invading our environment;

political and military conflicts;

in one future, the transcendence of social problems and the emancipation of humanity but, in an alternative future, devolution into Morlocks and Eloi.

Poul Anderson describes:

many experiences in space;

the experience of time traveling;

the far future of AI on Earth and in the galaxy;

political and military conflicts on Earth and between interstellar empires;

imaginative alien life forms, e.g., in the Terran Empire.

Too much emphasis just on political and military conflicts is not really sf - maybe? Characters in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium future history have such conflicts on Earth - and export them to space. Nuclear exchanges on a single planet are suicidal so let's have them between planets instead? Some people will draw the lesson that they need to build a society free of such conflicts and will use the Alderson drive to travel far enough away that they can make a fresh start without Imperial interference, like the McCormac rebels in Anderson's Technic History.

SM Stirling

See here and here.

We discuss SM Stirling's works on this blog because:

aspects of Stirling's and Poul Anderson's works are comparable (see the above links);

Stirling contributed to Anderson's Time Patrol series;

like Anderson, Stirling has contributed to Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium future history, one of several such series that in some ways parallel Anderson's Technic History;

Stirling has developed alternative histories further than Anderson did.

I expect shortly to begin reading the first of the two CoDominium novels co-written by Pournelle and Stirling. While discussing such works, it is usually possible to keep touching base with Poul Anderson and other future historians.

I should also track down Anderson's single contribution to the CoDominium History.

Barrier

I have been comparing Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium History to Poul Anderson's Technic History and to relevant works by Robert Heinlein and James Blish. So far, I have:

reread The Mote In God's Eye (with Larry Niven) although not agreed with Heinlein about it;

enjoyed rereading King David's Spaceship, which is recommended by Anderson;

appreciated the Prologue of The Mercenary and the future politics in the opening chapters.

However, I have encountered a barrier. The narrative suddenly jumps to Falkenberg, now a mercenary, on a colony planet with complicated social problems that I have not been able fully to engage with or get involved in. Pournelle is creating a political conflict so that Falkenberg will be able to apply military force to it. But, as CS Lewis and Brian Aldiss both said in different ways (see here), we do not go to other planets to find "The same old stuff we left behind..."

I remember a previous reading of The Mercenary and have also googled here and here. From these sources, I gather that:

the Falkenberg series has been collected and re-collected and now comprises a single compilation co-written by SM Stirling;

there are Patriotic Wars, Formation Wars, Secession Wars and a sub-series called "War World," which is longer and more complicated than I had realized;

the selling of military services becomes a major part of the interstellar economy;

unemployed populations make unreasonable demands on resources;

the view is expressed that such populations should be left to sink or swim;

Falkenberg orders a massacre.

I believe that the employed in an industrial/technological society can redirect production and resources away from warfare towards welfare which would mean the elimination of poverty whereas "Welfare" has come to mean its perpetuation and institutionalization! I might find myself too out of sync with the assumptions and ethos of Falkenberg and his colleagues to continue reading their history.

Singhs In Space

I was pleased to find a Sikh in Poul Anderson's Terran Empire.

It is easy to increase our knowledge of a fictional world. The author needs only to write something new. Anderson's last novel to feature Dominic Flandry reveals for the first time the prior existence of two communities, the Dakotians and the Zacharians, and also tells us how earlier events in the Technic History had affected a man named Magnusson. Thus, earlier history is recapitulated and re-presented from a different perspective.

So far, I had found only three religions in Jerry Pournelle's Second Empire of Man. However, nowhere in the texts was it stated that there were only three religions and the sudden appearance of a man named Singh raises the possibility that this history also incorporates Sikhs. But not necessarily: googling the surname (here) reveals that it is not after all exclusive to Sikhs. Thus, although Pournelle has raised a possibility, he remains free to develop the hint in any direction he wants. (He probably does not intend to pursue the issue of Singhs but you never know!)

Succession And Simultaneity

Future histories sometimes convey not only succession but also simultaneity, not only events occurring successively over historical periods of time but also some events occurring in different places simultaneously:

in Robert Heinlein's Future History, "Gentlemen, Be Seated" is a background event in "The Black Pits of Luna";

in Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Poul Anderson's Technic History, stories featuring van Rijn, Falkayn and others overlap in the 2420s and 2430s;

in Jerry Pournelle's King David's Spaceship, characters on Prince Samual's World know that something important is happening in the Trans-Coalsack...and, if we read Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye, we know what.

Succession, or chronological linearity, generates series whereas simultaneity adds three dimensionality. Their combination confers narrative substantiality.

The Technic And CoDominium Histories

Approximate Parallels?

(i) The hyperdrive; the Alderson Drive.
(ii) The Breakup; the Great Exodus.
(iii) The Solar Commonwealth; the CoDominium.
(iv) Falkayn; Falkenberg.
(v) The Time of Troubles; the Great Patriotic Wars.
(vi) The Principate phase of the Terran Empire; proclamation of the Empire of Man by Leonidas I of Sparta.
(vii) Civil war; Secession Wars.
(viii) The Dominate phase; proclamation of the Second Empire by Leonidas IV of Sparta.
(ix) Isolated colonized planets like Altai and Makassar.
(x) Fall of Empire, Long Night and later civilizations; no equivalents as yet.

Having enjoyed the Technic History, but also reread it several times by now, it is good to find something similar and enjoyable. Of the CoDominium History volumes that I have read so far, my definite favorite is King David's Spaceship.

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.

Effects Of Isolation

On different planets in Poul Anderson's Technic History:

the meanings of words have changed so that communication problems cause conflicts with a newly arrived spaceship crew;

biology has changed so that, until they receive dietary help, males in one population can reach puberty only by practicing cannibalism and another population, exposed to high radiation, has become unable to interbreed with the rest of humanity;

psychology has changed so that an entire planetary population is saner than the human norm but goes collectively mad once a year.

"The Longest Voyage" and "Memory" are stories about isolated planets set outside the Technic History. In the former, a stranded astronaut is killed so that the isolated planetary population will be able to rediscover space technology for itself instead of losing its identity by being instantly absorbed into the interstellar civilization.

In Jerry Pournelle's King David's Spaceship, technology has declined so that a kingdom on Prince Samual's World must acquire a spaceship in order to be admitted to the Empire at a higher level.

Thus, four issues addressed are language, biology, psychology and technology.

Isolated Planets

How likely are faster than light interstellar travel and a galaxy full of habitable but uninhabitable planets for human beings to colonize? I think that both ideas are extremely unlikely. However, these improbable premises underlie two standard sf scenarios:

an interstellar civilization or "Empire";

a post-Imperial period during which colonized extrasolar planets, isolated for several generations, are gradually rediscovered and recivilized by the few worlds that have retained or regained the capacity for interstellar travel.

This second scenario, Star Trek without the absurdity of identically humanoid beings independently evolved on innumerable planets, exists in:

Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation;
James Blish's Cities In Flight;
the Long Night and Allied Planets periods of Poul Anderson's Technic History;
Jerry Pournelle's A Spaceship For The King, expanded as King David's Spaceship.

Poul Anderson describes fictional planets in detail and always makes clear that human colonists would require dietary supplements, imported ecologies, biological readjustments etc. Another planet is not just another continent.

Space Age Theology

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, Christian characters speculate about Ythrian theology and about the Universal Incarnation. In James Blish's A Case Of Conscience, a Jesuit biologist wonders whether God or Satan created the intelligent Lithians.

In Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye (London, 1959):

"It was [Chaplain Hardy's] job to determine if Moties were human. Horvath's scientists only wondered if they were intelligent." (p. 161)

I am not clear about how Hardy is using the word "human" here. Obviously, Moties are not of the same species as homo sapiens.

"...it was quite possible that [God] had created intelligent beings with no souls..." (ibid.)

Not in the Christian doctrine I was taught! We were told that Cartesian mind-body dualism was both revealed truth and philosophically provable.

"They might even be a form of angel..." (ibid.)

No. Angels are meant to be immaterial.

If I had Hardy to debate with, I would need first to clarify his understanding of Christian theology and secondly to articulate my disagreements with it.

Addendum: For discussion of the theology of aliens, see here and here.

Imaginative Aliens

Which of the future histories in the American sequence that we have been discussing presents the most imaginative aliens? It was clever of Niven and Pournelle to make their Moties asymmetrical. However, apart from that single important difference, a Motie's body is recognizably a humanoid form with two right arms and one right ear.

Niven's three-legged Puppeteers with their brains inside their bodies are definitely not humanoid. Nor are Poul Anderson's less well known Smokesmith the Reardonite or Rax.

One of Anderson's Didonians comprises three temporarily linked bodies. Although each of these bodies is comparable to a Terrestrial animal - rhino, goose and ape - their transient tripartite consciousnesses are entirely alien. See here.

Thus, here are five interesting alien intelligences appearing respectively in four future histories:

Pournelle's CoDominium series;
Niven's Known Space series;
Anderson's Psychotechnic History;
Anderson's Technic History.

Master Of Future Histories And A Few Questions

Poul Anderson wrote not only a robot story in his Psychotechnic History but also a US Robots story for Isaac Asimov's future history. Thus, of the seven future histories mentioned in the previous post, Anderson:

wrote two (Psychotechnic, Technic);
contributed to three (Asimov's, Niven's, Pournelle's);
addressed issues from two (Heinlein's, Asimov's) -

- and also wrote several other future histories. This gives Anderson a preeminent position as a future historian.

Regarding the issue that I raised concerning the locations of Alderson Points in Niven and Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye (London, 1979), maybe the giant star had expanded to encompass the Point? However, the star is merely as big as the orbit of Saturn whereas the Points are described as located far from either stars or large planets.

Mote contains unexpected humor:

"'Let's go make first contact with an alien, Mr Renner.'
"'I think you just did that,' said Renner. He glanced nervously at the screens to be sure the Admiral was gone.'" (p. 110)

Is it appropriate that, as human beings approach first contact, some italicized passages present an alien pov? Is it appropriate that, in one such passage, the omniscient narrator informs us:

"The Engineer knew enough about the warship already to scare the wits out of Captain Blaine if he'd known." (p. 114)?

A passage on pp. 59-61 presents Blaine's pov:

"...Rod thought..." (p. 60);
"...Rod felt a wild internal glee..." (p. 61).

However, the same passage also informs us:

"...[the scanners] also showed several odd black silhouettes against that white background. Nobody noticed..." (p. 59)

Nobody, not even Rod, noticed? So this is the omniscient narrator again. Is his presence appropriate?

(Yet again: a large round number of posts near the end of a month. Do I take a break till Mar 1st or maintain the pace with the posts? We will find out.)