Copied from Poul Anderson Appreciation, 16 July 2014.
Many fictional Venuses, including Burroughs', Kline's, Heinlein's and Lewis', are humanly habitable;
in Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est," Venus, presumably habitable, has been colonized;
in Anderson's "The Big Rain," a desert Venus has been colonized but has yet to be terraformed;
in his "Sister Planet," an oceanic Venus has yet to be terraformed and colonized;
in his Technic History, Venus has been colonized despite incomplete terraforming;
in
SM Stirling's "A Slip in Time," we retroactively learn that the
colonized Venus of "Delenda Est" had been paradisally terraformed -
lawns, gardens, vines, flowers, trees, a canal, bioengineered colorful
singing birds and a cat-dog-chimp hybrid companion-nurse.
Surely
a civilization with the power and wealth to effect this transformation
would be able to solve all socioeconomic problems? Despite this,
conflicts and wars continue for many millennia - although not
indefinitely.
In "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," we
learn that the Time Patrol suppresses the Trazon matter transmuter, able
to transform any material object into any other...
No comments:
Post a Comment