The Growth Of A Future History

Either a short story or a chapter of a novel can be part of a future history. The short story can be published in a magazine or in an original anthology, then republished first maybe in a miscellaneous collection but eventually in a future history volume. The short story must be a complete narrative whereas a chapter of a novel can derive some of its meaning from its position in the novel. Poul Anderson's Starfarers is a novel that incorporates revised versions of two previously published Kith stories and also additional chapters expanding the history of the Kith from their beginning to their decline. Thus, Kith Town has begun in Chapter 10, p. 84, is "...ever dwindling..." in Chapter 44, p. 423 and is "...empty..." in Chapter 48.

In the Prologue, every President of the United States gains a permanent Chief Advisor. In Chapter 10, the Greatman of Mongku is no longer Earth's ruler but a mere figurehead. In Chapter 44, the Coordinator of the Jensui Governance reigns in the Solar System and Seladorianism is growing in North Meric. In Chapters 47-48, when Envoy has returned after eleven thousand years, there is no political power structure left on Earth but Seladorianism remains a major spiritual force and even sends missionaries to Tau Ceti in Chapter 49.

This is a condensed future history of Earth, Envoy and Kith.

Seladorianism

Starfarers, 44.

All existence is unity.

A lifeless universe would be meaningless.

Intelligent life, awareness, is the forefront of existence.

This forefront is to evolve until it is identical with the Ultimate which realizes itself through life.

Humanity has taken a wrong turn.

It is becoming irrelevant or even a threat to the Meaning on Earth.

On its present course, it will become extinct.

Technology is part of intelligence.

However, human beings have adapted themselves to technology instead of to the Meaning.

They destroy nature whereas their duty is to restore and live with it.

Knowledge gained from spacefaring should be used to enrich and enlarge life and mind here and now.

 

Seladorians are opposed by those who want to maintain and extend current uses of technology.

Sounds Familiar

Starfarers, 44.

Britain ruled an Empire on which the sun never set. The Jensui Governance rules the Solar System. The British Empire included India. The Governance includes North Meric, full of migrated populations with their ancient tribes, cultures, faiths and languages. 

Newly commissioned constable Panthos from Thyria is posted to North Meric and stationed in Sansusco where he meets no natives except servants, purveyors and Jensuized gentry. Panthos leads his platoon to trouble spots across the continent and eventually to Tenoya, built on the ruins of Arakoum and before that of Cago, now aswarm with riotous Arodist fanatics.

The platoon comprises:

identical 2.25 meter tall Warriors, adapts;

riflemen;

flittermen, able to rise on jets and hover on whirlyblades.

 

I hope that history will not repeat itself so faithfully.

Entelechy And POV

Starfarers, 44.

Seladorianism has existed for generations before this chapter opens. One of the names of the Seladorian god is "...Entelechy..." (p. 415) A "Prime Entelechy" is invoked in Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy.

The dictionary meanings that I have found for "Entelechy" are:

"actuality"

"distinctness of realised existence"

"a vital principle supposed by vitalists to direct processes in an organism towards realisation of a common end"

I expect that the third meaning is applicable. I had wrongly thought that entelechy implied intellect.

Vitalism is the theory that life depends on a force distinct from either physics or chemistry. It has become evident that a single reality manifests itself physically, chemically, biologically and psychologically without needing any additional vital principle.

Seladorianism is a way to prevent human extinction, not to liberate individual consciousness.

pp. 411-424 are narrated from Panthos's point of view (pov). At the top of the concluding half page of this chapter:

"A rifle barked." (p. 425)

If the narrative had stayed with Panthos's pov, then the chapter would have had to end at the bottom of p. 424 because the immediately following sentence reads:

"He never heard it, nor felt the slug crash through his skull." (ibid.)

The remaining passage describes the aftermath of the shooting without any specific pov.

Genres And The Cosmic Context

An ordinary novel shows individuals as part of human society whereas sf shows us "...as an organic part of the universe." (See the quotation from Brian Aldiss in More Mainstream-SF Interaction.) However, human society is part of the universe. It must be possible to place society in its cosmic context by linking works of different genres without compromising their distinctive genres. Thus, I have begun to read Penmarric by Susan Howatch, a 706-page family saga with five successive narrators covering the period 1890-1945. First, the arrival of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in Cornwall during that period would transform the novel into sf and, secondly, that is the very last thing that any reader wants to happen! However, the Cornish cliff mansion of Penmarric exists in a universe - or in a multiverse - where events like the arrivals of spacecraft can happen elsewhere/when.

Historical, contemporary and futuristic novels could be linked by time travel, provided that the time travelers did not declare their extratemporal status in the non-sf works. Thus, readers might recognize a Time Patrolman blending into a historical period or into contemporary society. Poul Anderson's Old Phoenix Inn is an excellent venue for meetings between characters from different kinds of works. Authors can link genres in other ways. Common characters connect Dornford Yates's social comedies, thrillers and one fantasy novel. Literature and fiction are one and can be seen as such.

Terrestrial Future History

Starfarers, 44.

Starfarers presents three interconnected narratives:

Earth;

Envoy;

Kith.

 

44 is fourteen and a half pages of Terrestrial future history. Will there be future religious figures like the Buddha and Christ? Yes: 

 

in Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men, the Daughter of Man and the Divine Child;

 

in Starfarers, Selador.

 

Seladorism is an off-shoot of Arodism. Selador's father was a Kithman who left his ship to marry an Arodist. Cast out by the Arodists, the couple lived in Kith Town but Selador's mother took him to Arodia after his father had died young. Selador was martyred. Seladorianism is partly technophobic and its extremists are mechanoclasts. Expanding their area of cultivation, the Seladorians come into conflict with their neighbors and retaliate to killings by destroying some Arodist robots. A later Seladorian leader, Houer Kernaldi, is a former Kithman and convert who evangelizes and organizes while maintaining contact with the Kith. Much must be summarized in few pages.

Change On Tahir

Starfarers, 43.

Fourteen hundred Tahirian years elapsed during Envoy's round trip to the black hole. Weather and growth have erased the human base on the planet and have even changed its site beyond recognition. A river has replaced a stream. Trees are sparser and of a different kind. The planetary axis is shifting and the poles are shrinking. 

By their original arrival and now by the new information that they have brought from the black hole, the Envoy crew have disturbed Tahirian civilization. One Tahirian says that the human race is mad. Nansen replies:

"'(Maybe. And maybe that is why we voyage.)' 

"The wind blew, the waves ran." (p. 410)

 

Wind and waves show natural processes continuing despite the Tahirians' resistance to change.

Two Further Discoveries From The Holont

Starfarers, 42.

It is possible that both holontic and organic life impose a permanent pattern on the vacuum, thus that consciousness lasts, but this is extremely vague. Zeyd thinks that such questions "'...will always be matters of faith." (p. 403) But surely he means that they will remain matters of faith until after death. However, the idea that, immediately after death, it will become evident that Islam or Catholicism or Evangelical Protestantism or Spiritualism or something else is a matter of fact strikes me as highly unlikely.

Secondly, the zero-zero drive does not threaten but strengthens cosmic stability. Transfers of virtual particles created the forces that hold the atoms together. Similarly, the zero-zero energy transfer makes a bond that moves the universe away from metastability toward permanent stability. The Holont:

"'...has had word from the future about what this can mean to the future.'" (p. 404)

Interstellar travel should continue. And Holontic communication is like James Blish's Dirac transmitter.

Virtual Reality And More On The Holont

Starfarers.

Nansen adventures in virtual reality and wishes he hadn't because his companion in the adventure is the dead Jean Kilbirnie. We also notice that:

"Two condors wheeled on high." (41, pp. 396-397)

See Birds Of Prey.

The Holont receive a message from their future selves.

Hawking thought that, since contradictions are impossible, time travel must also be impossible. However, although a time traveler cannot change the past, his "'...actions can be part of what did happen.'" (42, p. 398)

Kerr, Thorne and Tipler described time machines consistent with relativity but physically impossible, e.g.:

a torus as massive as a giant star with an impossibly large electric charge and magnetic field, rotating at near light speed;

an infinitely long cylinder denser than a nuclear particle, spinning at near light speed.

The Holont:

form massive but stable nuclei;

use electromagnetic forces to spin such nuclei at a required speed, density and field strength;

with this miniature Kerr smoke ring or Tipler cylinder or whatever it is, generate a space-time warp;

send energetic gamma-ray photons through the warp;

modulate the photons to bear information;

instruct their earlier selves in how to communicate with human beings;

know how to communicate with human beings because they remember the instruction that they received.

Quantum Life

Starfarers, 41-42.

A holont:

is embodied in a quasi-stable quantum state;

is a differentiation of an original unity;

lives individually but also re-merges and re-emerges, altered;

thus, gives its experiences to the underlying whole;

interacts with other individual quantum states;

acts on its own and other states by controlling, moving or altering electrons, photons and nuclei;

perceives the universe outside itself as a concrete environment, not as a set of abstractions;

detects and responds to communications from organic beings;

receives messages from its future selves.

Holontic evolution and history resemble memes in organic minds.