I can’t take much credit, they’re ideas generally in the zeitgeist at the boundary of physics, sci-fi, and speculative engineering.
If you like sci-fi, and haven’t read these already, you may want to check out Asimov’s short story The Last Question, William Olaf Stapledon’s short novel Star Maker, and Clarke’s trilogy A Time Odyssey. All have elements of “What would it take and look like for a civilization to actually survive into the utmost future, long after all the stars have burned out?” They don’t talk about these specific mechanisms (the first two were from before we knew about the CMB!) but I find them really interesting and thought provoking.
I like Asimov, and I love Clarke’s storytelling. Reading his books, it amazes me how he seemingly predicted some of the technology we take for granted today. I can’t help wondering if he may not in part have manefested his predictions, by inspiring the actual inventors. I have never read William Olaf Stapledon. A recomendation, I take it?
I wonder, are you planning to answer these two questions. You have no obligation to do so, obviously. Only if it feels constructive to do so.
Yeah. Stapledon is older—Star Maker was written in 1937, and it builds on the themes of Last and First Men, a book he wrote in 1930. They don’t really have much plot to speak of, they’re more purely exploratory and written as a kind of future history/scifi cosmogony/speculative evolutionary engineering/secular eschatology. But they’re quick reads and I think they’re interesting worldbuilding thought experiments.
I do think there’s some inspiration of that type that goes on, yes. But also, it is often possible for a field to know early on what some of the theoretical limits are for what can be achieved through it, even if it takes decades or more to even start seeing it happen. The great scifi authors are the ones that ask what it will mean when they do.
I really enjoy imagining your last point, by the way ^^. I do not know if you meant to, but you paint a beautiful picture.
I can’t take much credit, they’re ideas generally in the zeitgeist at the boundary of physics, sci-fi, and speculative engineering.
If you like sci-fi, and haven’t read these already, you may want to check out Asimov’s short story The Last Question, William Olaf Stapledon’s short novel Star Maker, and Clarke’s trilogy A Time Odyssey. All have elements of “What would it take and look like for a civilization to actually survive into the utmost future, long after all the stars have burned out?” They don’t talk about these specific mechanisms (the first two were from before we knew about the CMB!) but I find them really interesting and thought provoking.
I like Asimov, and I love Clarke’s storytelling. Reading his books, it amazes me how he seemingly predicted some of the technology we take for granted today. I can’t help wondering if he may not in part have manefested his predictions, by inspiring the actual inventors. I have never read William Olaf Stapledon. A recomendation, I take it?
I wonder, are you planning to answer these two questions. You have no obligation to do so, obviously. Only if it feels constructive to do so.
Yeah. Stapledon is older—Star Maker was written in 1937, and it builds on the themes of Last and First Men, a book he wrote in 1930. They don’t really have much plot to speak of, they’re more purely exploratory and written as a kind of future history/scifi cosmogony/speculative evolutionary engineering/secular eschatology. But they’re quick reads and I think they’re interesting worldbuilding thought experiments.
I do think there’s some inspiration of that type that goes on, yes. But also, it is often possible for a field to know early on what some of the theoretical limits are for what can be achieved through it, even if it takes decades or more to even start seeing it happen. The great scifi authors are the ones that ask what it will mean when they do.