Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site h-sc1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!h-sc1!friedman From: friedman@h-sc1.UUCP (dawn friedman) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Time control stories Message-ID: <435@h-sc1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 18:37:25 EDT Article-I.D.: h-sc1.435 Posted: Tue Jul 9 18:37:25 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 04:30:08 EDT References: <2544@topaz.ARPA> Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center Lines: 35 > From: ncoast!bsa (Brandon Allbery) > > Expires: > > Well, what about the ``farmers'' in the future in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY? > (Come to think of it, didn't they come back in the last few pages of > CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE? :-) > > They pulled stunts like causing ``kettles'' to not be able to go beyond > the 100,000th century, and the work at the end that caused the future to > be changed (and, according to latest rumor, replaced aliens with even stranger > humans (i.e. Second Foundationers))? > > --bsa Yow! I waited and waited, but no one cleared this up; was it entirely a joke? Anyway, I was going to mention this book, one of the most control-oriented of all the time control stories: _The End of Eternity_, by Asimov, which discusses the moral and long-term (100,000 centuries) effects of editing reality. The hero is an Engineer for the people who have displaced themselves from the timestream to a 'place' called Eternity, from which they manipulate events for the utilitarian good. Realities are simply deleted if they work out badly, replaced by some alternative. The hero's job, which is actually implementing the grandfather-killing operations (usually more subtle changes than that are all that are necessary), is somewhat stigmatized because no one can quite deal with the fact that they are eliminating the works and dreams and thoughts of millions of people whenever they make one of these changes. ("A billion personalities changed -- just a Technician's yawn" goes one Eternity catchphrase.) Very interesting ideas, slightly waxen characters, some less than believable situations -- typical very good Asimov. dsf (the Speaker)