Re: The Future, Space Travel, and Immortality

From: lightning (lightning_at_toadmail.com)
Date: 08/01/04 

Date: 1 Aug 2004 22:13:14 GMT

Xomicron <xomicron@wp.pl> wrote in
news:Xns953284378A991DF@alaska.local:

> Can anyone think of books that has mankind being virtually immortal
> in the far future? The only books I can think of are _The Man Who
> Awoke_ by Laurence Manning, and _Time Enough for Love_ by RAH(which
> I never read in it's entirety).

Just about any "interstellar empire" story (like in Asimov's
*Foundation* stories) where there aren't nasty aliens would imply
that the lifespan of the human race would be at least on the order of
stellar lifetimes.

*Between the Strokes of Night* by Charles Sheffield and Murray
Leinster's short story *The End* have humans going through a "big
crunch" scenario and coming out the other side.

We have a very precarious perch here on Earth. I've seen no serious
political description of what a completely sustainable high-tech
society would look like, and certainly nobody is seriously working
toward one. Also, one nasty interperetation of the Fermi paradox is
that the Galaxy is a dangerous enough place that intellegent life
doesn't last long enough to get really advanced (unknown nasty
astronomical phenomena, Berserkers).

Note -- I find that *Time Enough for Love* is a lot better if you
consider it as a novel, interspersed with short stories that RAH
couldn't sell by themselves. Ending is still silly, IMHO. 

-- 
lightning@toadmail.com                
http://lightningbug.blogspot.com "I no longer want to change the
world.  I want to potty train the world. Then we won't have to change
it any more."

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Future, Space Travel, and Immortality
    ... Just about any "interstellar empire" story (like in Asimov's ... that the lifespan of the human race would be at least on the order of ... one nasty interperetation of the Fermi paradox is ... interspersed with short stories that RAH ...
    (comp.theory)
  • Re: Dragging my feet about the ending
    ... immediate conflict in a reasonably final manner so it feels like ... What if you have a really nasty ... Well, so far, with the two big stories at least. ... (If some supposed hero starts whining instead of chopping off the ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: What an Interesting Three Weeks Visit in Thailand
    ... stories and asked you to post a reply in this forum to show that you ... Funny to see how you show-up every time No is repled in a nasty way by ... Take your time for posting your bullshit. ... So Deckard proves that troglodytes CAN write--after a fashion, ...
    (soc.culture.thai)
  • Re: YASID: Cthulhu fanfic anthology?
    ... stories were by multiple authors. ... some kind, perhaps a giant worm. ... who observed a ritual around a black monolith, ... I just googled it up online, and it's a nasty, nasty piece of ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)