Fictional Universes

Readers like to immerse themselves in fictional universes. I need hardly cite examples. An author who immerses himself in such a universe, whether his own or someone else's, can utilize it as a background to create new kinds of stories about new characters. Asked to contribute to a few juvenile anthologies, Poul Anderson took the opportunity to write short stories about the colonization of Avalon, with David Falkayn referred to only as the grandfather of the viewpoint character, Nat.

Anderson also familiarized himself enough with several other sf universes to be able to write stories set in those universes as summarized in the combox here. These included Asimov's Robots series. Anderson's story, "Plato's Cave," features the regular US Robots troubleshooters, Powell and Donovan, and also refers to Stephen Byerley who was running for Mayor somewhere in another story at that time - an excellent use of existing material.

These observations are occasioned by my appreciation of Alan Moore's transformations of multiple DC Comics characters, some universally known, others obscure, in his Swamp Thing series to which I will now return over a second mug of breakfast coffee. A normal Saturday in Lancaster stretches ahead.

Dates In Future Histories

From calculations made here, we may infer that, in 2022, Jean Broberg is seven plus years of age and Mark Danzig is twenty-five plus. But this is not our 2022. "The Saturn Game" was published in 1981. Between 1981 and 2057 in the Technic History timeline, there is the Chaos and a massive space program launched by more than one country. The J. Peter Valk goes to Mars, then the Vladimir is lost en route to Mercury and a Britannic-American consortium launches the Chronos which takes eight years to reach Saturn. The Technic History timeline must diverge from ours before 2022 and probably before Danzig's birth about 1997. 2022 is the year in our timeline when I happen to be writing this post and the Technic History will have passed through its version of a 2022 but otherwise this date has no particular significance.

The Chronology for Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History has the Planetary Engineering Corps founded in 2055. 

Isaac Asimov's Susan Calvin, born in 1982, retires at age seventy-five and dies aged eighty-two and Stephen Byerley completes his second term as World Co-ordinator in 2052. 

Despite the title of its Volume III, Revolt In 2100, Robert Heinlein's Future History has the Second American Revolution occurring before 2075. Volumes I and II of the Future History cover the period 1951-2000.

However, the ends of these future histories remain a long way in the future and some other future histories go even further: Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men and Star Maker and Anderson's Genesis.

Opposites

A Merseian:

"'By adversity the God tempers the steel of the Race. Let us get on with our quest.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO, p. 447.

A kzin:

"'Chuut-Riit saw that as we expand we must eventually meet terrible threats. If the kzinti are to be strong enough to conquer them, first we must be reforged in the blaze of war.'"
-"The Asteroid Queen," Chapter V, p. 102.

Might an argument turn into its opposite? Might the God use adversity to show the Race that their cosmic quest is not to conquer but to coexist? Might the kzinti learn that coexistence is stronger than conquest? In Anderson's "Star of the Sea," a martial deity becomes peaceful.

Isaac Asimov perfected dialectical arguments:

Secondly, the JG (“George”) robots, trained not to protect and obey all human beings equally but to differentiate on the basis of mind, character and knowledge, conclude that they themselves are the human beings who should primarily be protected and obeyed, in accordance with the Laws of Humanics, because the need to disregard superficial differences when comparing human beings causes them to disregard as superficial the distinction between flesh and metal. The Second Law, of robotic obedience, backfires because it teaches the Georges that intelligent beings interact with each other only by giving and obeying orders.³⁷

Thirdly, Robot Andrew Martin, wanting to be legally recognised as human, embraces humanity by accepting mortality. He ensures that his brain’s energy source steadily declines so that he will soon die. The Third Law, of robotic self-preservation, does not prevent this because he identifies himself with his aspirations, not with his body.⁴⁰ Andrew contrasts with Daneel who, later, renews his body and brain several times in order to continue serving humanity. Robots, despite their programming, are individuals who can reason differently.

Fourthly, a robot dreams of a man who came to free the robots. When he adds, “I was that man," Susan Calvin de-activates him.⁴¹
 

Dialectics is the logic of opposites, their contradictions and transformations into each other. In this sense, the Robot stories are dialectical. Society-controlling Machines restore uncontrolled society because they reason that to decide what is good for people harms them. However, their successors, the Georges, designed to obey, plan to dictate. The Third Law, intended to protect robots, leads to Andrew’s death. The Second Law, intended to maintain robotic subservience, inspires both a dream of robotic freedom and a scheme for "humanic" dictatorship.

The Frankenstein Complex, fear of robots, has contradictory consequences. Robots are prevented from harming human beings by the First Law and from disobeying them by the Second Law but are also prevented from encountering many human beings by the ban on their terrestrial use. The Laws ensure that a robot politician serves the public interest, not self-interest, but the ban obliges him to conceal his nature. Knowledge of it would have prevented his re-election. In fact, even the reader does not know for sure whether Stephen Byerley is a robot so it may be that a good man was mistaken for a robot.³⁹

Human beings served by many domestic robots become unable to perform simple tasks for themselves and also become obsessed about their own safety so the Laws of Robotics detrimentally affect human psychology.<sup>9
-copied from here.

Also, in order to make it easier to serve humanity, Daneel sets out to transform humanity into a collective organism, thus changing humanity.</sup> 

The 2050s

What will happen in the 2050s?

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, New America will be the chief city on Venus in 2051;

in Anderson's Technic History, there will be a crisis for interplanetary explorers in about 2055;

in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, Stephen Byerley will complete his second term as World Coordinator in 2052;

in Robert Heinlein's Future History, the US will be under a religious dictatorship in the 2050s;

in James Blish's Cities In Flight, Earth will be under a Bureaucratic dictatorship in the 2050s;

in Larry Niven's Known Space future history, the Belt will be colonized and become independent and interstellar ships will be launched in the period 2040-2099;

in Jerry Pornelle's CoDominium future history, out-system shipment of convicts will have begun in 2040.

For 2044, see here.

I have read SM Stirling's Emberverse as far as Change Year 46/2044 AD/Shohei 1.

Meanwhile...

(Thor's hammer.)

This lap top is nearly dead and will be replaced with a new one when the shops open tomorrow. There may then be a delay in getting the new lap top set up. While not using a computer, I have visited Leighton Moss bird sanctuary and have attended the Wandering Wain Heathen Moot in the Royal Hotel, Heysham. At the moot were the former secretary and the former treasurer of the Association of Polytheist Traditions which I linked to here. Small world. The former treasurer had set up the altar at a camp which I visited recently. Smaller world.

The future histories referenced in the post, 2044 x 10, are:

Heinlein's Future History;
Asimov's I, Robot;
Blish's Cities In Flight;
Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles;
Anderson's Psychotechnic History;
Anderson's Technic History;
Niven's Known Space future history;
Pournelle's CoDominium future history;
Stirling's Emberverse.

Other Anderson future histories deserve to be in this list but they do not give dates which was the point of this particular comparison. By coincidence, Stephen Byerley became the first World Co-ordinator and the first High King of Montival, Artos, died in the same year, 2044. In that period, there were, in different timelines, an American theocracy, a ban on spaceflight, the colonization of Mars, a UN world government etc.

While reading SM Stirling's The Golden Princess with its strong Japanese connection, I have again been drawn back into rereading Ian Fleming's Japan-based novel, You Only Live Twice (see here), and therefore have also reflected on two Japan-themed Sean Connery films, You Only Live Twice and Rising Sun.

I will strive to be better focused in future but right now am cramming as many observations as I can into a single post before the lap top switches itself off again.

Onwards and upwards!

2044 x 10

What will happen in 2044? If I am still alive in that year, then I will be ninety five. Contemporary novelists cannot addresss this question. To their characters, as to their readers, 2044 is merely a future date, its contents unknown.

What do sf writers say?

A theocracy in the US and a hiatus in interplanetary travel;
the Regions of Earth formed their Federation and Stephen Byerley became the first World Co-ordinator;
spaceflight and associated sciences banned by the Krushchevgrad Proclamation;
refugees from Earth devastated by nuclear war had colonized the humanly habitable Mars;
UN world government and colonisation of Venus;
recovery from the Chaos and exploration of the Solar System;
interplanetary exploration;
extrasolar colonisation and out-system shipment of convicts;
the High Kingdom of Montival.

OK. Which nine future history series am I quoting?

Elections

In Poul Anderson's Tales Of The Flying Mountains, asterites discuss the newly elected Social Justice administration in North America.

In Anderson's contribution to Isaac Asimov's Robots series, two men out in space discuss Stephen Byerley (see here) who has recently been elected on Earth.

In 2017, people around Earth discuss the newly elected President of the United States.

When I started reading science fiction, including works by Poul Anderson, in the 1960s, all three of these statements would equally have been sf.

Next year will be 2018. Year 2018 was an alternative title of Volume I of James Blish's Cities In Flight Tetralogy which begins with politics in Washington.

It is good to read about the future, then to live it.

Other Series

Recently for this blog, I:

reread Poul Anderson's contributions to the Medea and berserker series;

discovered that Anderson's For Love And Glory was based on his two contributions to the "Isaac's Universe" series;

was surprised to learn that his Cappen Varra stories crossover with Thieves' World.

Now I notice that his contribution to Isaac Asimov's Robots series is called "Plato's Cave" (Martin H Greenberg, Editor, Foundation's Friends, London, 1991) and therefore should be of interest to a Philosophy graduate. I will shortly reread it, having previously read it just once on purchasing Foundation's Friend when that was newly published.

As far as I remember, this story was a fully consistent addition to the series, featuring the United States Robots and Mechanical Men trouble shooters, Donovan and Powell, while referring to the robopsychologist, Susan Calvin, and the politician, Stephen Byerley.

I, Robot is perhaps Asimov's best work, beginning with experimental robots and culminating in a Stapledonian apotheosis when giant robotic Brains control the global ecology and economy for the human good. They apply what later came to be called the Zeroth (pre-First) Law of Robotics, preventing harm not to individual human beings but to humanity. Asimov surpassed himself in the sequel, "That Thou Art Mindful of Him," when the Brains, having judged that self-determination is the greatest human good, have phased themselves out but there is now a threat from another robot model called the Georges.

Foundation's Friends comprises:

one contribution each to the Black Widowers, Wendell Urth and thiotimoline series;

one sequel each to "Nightfall" and "The Dead Past";

two stories about Asimov, in the future and in an alternative present;

four non-future history Robot stories;

six contributions, totaling 241 pages, to Asimov's Robots and Empire future history, including "Plato's Cave."

I think that this future history was later diluted by too many new Hari Seldon novels by other authors but the idea of expanding Asimov's future history was new when Foundation's Friends was originally published in 1989.