Banished to the future
Banished in the future (English original title Expedition to Earth ) is a collection of science fiction short stories by the British author Arthur C. Clarke from 1953. The stories had already appeared in various American magazines from 1946 to 1953. A German translation of Tony Westermayr's collection of stories appeared in 1960 and was last reprinted in 1983.
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Exiled to the future (Nemesis, also Exile of the Eons)
Two men travel through time from different epochs of human history and meet far in the future, when humanity has already ceased to exist on planet earth.
The first time traveler is a dictator (Der Große, in the original: the Master) who loses the world war he instigated and gathers his troops in an underground fortress in the Himalayas. This scene has similarities to fascism and Hitler, who sends everyone to total war. But while Hitler committed suicide in the face of defeat, Der Große has a perfidious plan. He is the only one to flee into a prepared room. There he wants to put himself into a 100-year cold sleep. In 100 years, he believes, his deeds will long be forgotten and he can start all over again. The last torpedo bombs destroy the counting mechanism that is supposed to add up the days that have passed. The big one sleeps far longer than the planned 100 years. Its spherical space, reinforced with special materials, will withstand geological changes in the earth over the next million years, as a result of which the space sinks under the oceans and is pushed up again by mountain building processes.
The philosopher Trevindor is born when about half of the great man's cold sleep is over . At that time, humans had long since spread across the galaxy. They have developed further, are peace-loving and can, for example, communicate telepathically. They rarely visit their home planet Earth. But the lateral thinker Trevindor is in conflict with the gentle philosophical culture. Since the Judicial Council does not impose any penalties and Trevindor is one of the 16 most important intellectuals in the galaxy, he can choose his own punishment. The execution he initially proposed is rejected, as is brainwashing. However, the Council accepts banishment to an age from which it is certain that civilization will no longer exist. Together with a supply station that guarantees him a carefree life, he ends up in a future in which the earth and the sun have already changed noticeably.
Trevindor explores the dying earth with an airship . The only evidence of biological life that he finds is a small patch of grass. Later he discovers the spherical space of the big one and wakes him from the cold sleep. When the big one wakes up, he realizes that his plan has failed. Trevindor reads the great man's mind . Greed for power, cruelty and hatred in these thoughts and memories hit him so hard that Trevindor kills the great with his telepathic powers.
The last message (Expedition to Earth, also History Lesson)
The story first describes the migration of a group of people fleeing the spreading snow and ice masses of the next ice age. The scattered remnants of human civilization find their last refuge in a mountain range. They keep some mementos from the Golden Age that will soon become sanctuaries. This includes an auxiliary fuse from the engine of the Morgenstern spaceship, which flew to the moon in 1985, some books from 2021, a radio transmitter and a flat, round box.
Five thousand years later, an expedition spaceship from Venus reaches the now deserted, frozen earth. While humanity perished on earth, an independent civilization of intelligent reptiles developed on the neighboring planet Venus. Thanks to the still working radio transmitter, you can find the sanctuaries. With this, the scientists of Venus want to decipher the lost culture of the people. There is a roll of film in the can. They watch the movie in a reconstructed projection machine: a Mickey Mouse movie by Walt Disney. So the most advanced forms of life on earth must have been mice with two legs and two arms.
Hide And Seek (Hide-And-Seek)
A secret agent's spaceship is pursued by an enemy space cruiser. The situation seems hopeless, but the agent flees to the Martian moon Phobos as a last resort . He hides on the moon, which measures 20 kilometers in diameter. The cruiser is too heavy to maneuver on the little Phobos, so that the agent always has time to look for a new hiding place. When help finally arrives, the cruiser takes off. In the framework of the story, the cruiser's commander tells the story. Since he couldn't do anything with his mighty ship against a single agent in a spacesuit, he has to accept a career break.
The superior (superiority)
Two powers are engaged in an arms race in space. The one opponent who is currently at an advantage does not trust in the constant improvement of established weapon systems. Scientists should invent completely new weapons, in a sense miracle weapons . The researchers present three new developments: a bomb that dissolves all matter in the vicinity, a computer for three-dimensional warfare strategy in space and a kind of invisibility cloak for spaceships that can hide behind artificial distortions of space-time. But the miracle weapons are too complicated in practice. The technically superior power falls behind because it gets bogged down with the new developments. She is losing the war. Arthur C. Clarke alludes to the story of the Nazis' miracle weapon , who put considerable resources into their V2 rockets . The role model for the chief scientist who believed himself to be superior was Wernher von Braun .
Encounter at dawn (Encounter in the Dawn)
The three space researchers Altman, Bertrond and Clindar find intelligent humanoid creatures on a planet as part of a research expedition. The degree of civilization corresponds to that of an earthly Stone Age culture. Bertrond succeeds in winning the trust of a hunter called Yaan by offering him freshly hunted game every day. The researchers would like to deepen the contact, but are soon called back to the doomed "Galactic Empire". They leave Yaan with some technical artifacts. At the end of the story it is revealed that the planet visited is Earth. The place of the visit is the Mesopotamian , where a few thousand years later the first high culture on the planet will arise. It is a surprising twist and a game with the expectations of the reader, since he had to assume that the three researchers, but not the inhabitants of the planet, are humans.
The 1953 story of the contact between two civilizations was, according to Arthur C. Clarke, the model for the first chapter of the 2001 novel and film : A Space Odyssey .
The Return (Second Dawn)
Two related animal species have evolved into dominant species on a planet. The planet is similar to Earth in vegetation and geology. However, two suns appear, one bright white and one faint red. The dominant species have a powerful tail that they use to pounce, two forelegs armed with sharp hooves, and a unicorn on their foreheads. Like animals, they live from what nature brings, but have extremely developed their intellectual abilities: they sound out the abstract worlds of mathematics and devote themselves to philosophical problems. They can exchange ideas with one another by virtue of their thoughts. Since resources are scarce for both animal species, they are often at war with one another.
A hominid species is discovered after one of the great wars. Their individuals have the stature of humans, although evolution has given them three eyes and other hand shapes. One of the masterminds of the “unicorns” is convinced that by combining the intellectual power of the “unicorns” with the craftsmanship of the hominids, he can quickly advance the technical and cultural development of both species. The leap from the Stone Age to bridge building and seafaring succeeds in just a few decades. Soon new continents will be discovered, so that land and food shortages as causes of war should be a thing of the past. The story ends with the prediction that nuclear energy will also be used in a not too long time.
On the horizon - die Erde (If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth)
At the age of ten, Marvin is taken to the surface by his father for the first time from the moon settlement. In a reconnaissance vehicle, they drive through the landscape - at least at over 150 kilometers per hour. For Marvin it is breathtaking: for the first time he sees the stars. They drive on into the night when they see the hemisphere rise over a flat surface. His father reminds him of the radioactive aftermath of the nuclear war that took place on earth. Nobody survived there. The colony on the moon is the refuge of the last people. Then the meaning of this pilgrimage becomes clear to Marvin: he will never be able to set foot on earth himself, but should pass on his longings to children and grandchildren until they dare to step back.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote this story at Christmas 1950. As he later wrote in a note, astronauts saw an Earthrise for the first time 18 years later at Christmas 1968 - with Apollo 8 in orbit around the moon .
Space travel prohibited! (Loophole)
A series of conversation notes documents the Martians' reaction to the atomic bombs at the end of World War II. The President of the Mars, the Scientific Council and the Chief of Defense are startled and wonder whether the people of the Martians - of whose existence they do not yet know - can become dangerous as soon as they develop long-range missiles. The Martians are building a space fleet, demonstrating their strength and threatening acts of war if humans develop long-range missiles. Humans hold still, but the Martians worry remains: They think about how to get rid of humans. This ends the documentation of the Martians' conversation notes and moves on to the conversation notes of the people: A military reports from Mars that the civilization there has been destroyed.
The Right To Survive (Breaking Strain)
Astronauts Grant and McNeil steer a cargo ship from Earth to Venus. A meteorite impact destroys the oxygen supply. They only last twenty days for both of them. The journey takes another thirty days. A single astronaut could do it. There is an argument between the astronauts. Only one of them ends up being saved by other spaceships. In the story, Arthur C. Clarke describes how civilizations on Earth and Venus can exchange goods via space transport. The transporters only move between the orbits of the two planets using ion drives, while the connection to the surface is established via classic rockets. According to Clarke, the story, which appeared in 1949, was also the model for the film and novel 2001: A Space Odyssey .
The Inheritance
Test pilot David survived an accident with his rocket: the second rocket stage in which he is sitting does not detach from the first booster stage . From a height of 250 kilometers, the rocket falls back to the surface of the earth. At the last moment, David manages to release the booster and land the wing-equipped second stage. His colleagues are amazed to find David safe and only with a broken arm. He is in good spirits and tells of a dream that nothing will happen to him. However, David had a fatal accident on later test flights with nuclear powered missiles. When his family colleagues want to express their condolences, they meet David's son, perhaps fifteen. He is confusingly similar to his father and seems to know the visitors - probably also through a dream, which is why he wants to follow in his father's footsteps professionally.
In the story published in 1947, AC Clarke describes a rocket design that is very similar to the later space shuttle concept with a booster and a second stage attached .
The Sentinel
In late summer 1996, an expedition explored the Mare Crisium on the moon. The chief geologist discovers a metallic flash on the mountain range when he is frying sausages for breakfast in the galley of a reconnaissance vehicle. He climbed the mountain with a companion to solve this glittering riddle. On the mountain they discover an unnaturally smooth rock slab around 30 meters wide. In the middle of the plate is a pyramid, twice as high as a person. After the initial shock and the assumption that they had discovered the remnants of a civilization on the moon, the explorers realized that no dust or stones could be seen in a circle around the pyramid. This makes it clear that they have discovered an alien legacy.
It took twenty years for people to break open the invisible shield of the pyramid. But they do not achieve an understanding of the technology. The device was destroyed using nuclear power. But this also makes the meaning of the pyramid clear: The aliens have roamed the solar systems to discover planets with life. Where they saw good conditions for life to arise, they left a pyramid as a guard post. The place on the moon ensured that it could only be reached by more developed civilizations. Due to the destruction, the builders are now informed about the existence of humanity; An answer can be expected in a short time.
The short story The Sentinel appeared in 10 Story Fantasy magazine in 1951 . Clarke wrote it for a BBC writing competition back in 1948 . The story is a starting point for the 2001 film : A Space Odyssey .
literature
Arthur C. Clarke: Banished to the Future . Goldmann Wilhelm 1987, ISBN 978-3-442-23054-9 .
Web links
- Banished to the future in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d A.C. Clarke: Collected Stories . Gollancz 2001, ISBN 978-1-85798-323-4 .