This post was first published on the Poul Anderson Appreciation Blog because it followed from other posts there although it is also of more general science fictional significance. Some blog readers might notice that I am not familiar with more recent sf writers. Comments to that effect are welcomed.
Wells'
and Stapledon's future histories culminate in mature civilizations.
Heinlein's Future History Time Chart culminates in "...the end of human
adolescence, and beginning of first mature culture..." (The Man Who Sold The Moon, London, 1964, p. 7), although I dislike Heinlein's idea of that culture in Time Enough For Love.
Asimov's
Second Foundation works towards a Second Empire to be based on mental
science, not on physical force, but this Plan is superseded by the
telepathic robots and their planetary organism working to make the
Galaxy a single collective consciousness.
In Blish's
Cities In Flight Tetralogy, history is interrupted by the end of the
universe. In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Third Dark Ages and
the interstellar Empires are followed by a multi-species galactic
civilization based on mental science and on individual control of cosmic
energy. In Anderson's Technic History, the Terran Empire and the Long
Night are followed by the Allied Planets, then by the Commonalty.
Six
of these seven future histories express the aspiration towards a saner,
better organized society. This aspiration is practicable, not utopian,
although we cannot know in advance what such a society will be like. As
Arthur C Clarke said, any civilization that has had a high technology
for a long time must have solved its problems and resolved its internal
conflicts because otherwise it would have destroyed itself long ago.
When
there is abundant energy and technology, there will no longer be any
need to compete in order to survive, to accumulate wealth, to exercise
power or to win prestige although creative competition might continue in
other forms.
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