Tuesday 5 November 2013

Thermonuclear Warfare

How many of Poul Anderson's futuristic sf works are post-nuclear?

Twilight World
Shield
The Psychotechnic future history
The Maurai future history
Vault Of The Ages
Planet Of No Return

I have found so much depth and wealth in the Psychotechnic History that I am reluctant to stop blogging about it but I may have wrung the series dry for the time being. However, that future history begins in the immediate aftermath of World War III, in the 1960's, with partisans still fighting in Europe, including one who had been involved in World War II.

Therefore, to read a non-fiction work, Anderson's Thermonuclear Warfare (Derby, Connecticut, 1963), is not to leave this subject but rather to delve more deeply into the author's background thinking. Since 1963, the Cold War has ended and the Nuclear Winter has been conceptualized. On the other hand, instruments of genocide continue to be stockpiled  even though there is an urgent need for technology instead to be directed towards addressing immediate needs and problems.

I will read Thermonuclear Warfare for what it discloses both about our world and about the parallel universe of the Psychotechnic Institute.

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