Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity

What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?

https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
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My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On 2023-05-22, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/

"Disregard the Issue"
I think in all fairness we should distinguish between those that
simply ignore relativity and those that handwave some hyperdrive/
wormhole solution. Apart from Doc Smith, I seem to recall A.E. van
Vogt in _The Voyage of the Space Beagle_ as an offender of the first
type.

"Time Dilation"
Not so practical, between the energy required to accelerate to the
necessary relative speeds and the trouble then caused by anything
in your way, like, solitary atoms.

"Increase Lifespan"
Greg Egan is big on this. The protagonists in his corresponding
novels are post-biological entities anyway, so they are virtually
immortal. Feel bored during a trip between galaxies? Just clock
down the processor your mind is running on.

I think Vernor Vinge's _Marooned in Realtime_ added a solution not
included in James' list: stasis fields. Just wrap yourself into a
bubble where no time passes on the inside and peek out periodically.
Actually, I don't even remember whether Vinge's interstellar
traveler(s?) relied on this, but it fits in with the overall use
of stasis fields in the novel. Never mind that stasis fields don't
exist.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

James Nicoll wrote:

>Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity

In the Chronicles of Solace trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen, there are
wormholes, but they are strictly time-travel mechanisms. So you do FTL
travel by a combination of STL travel in sleep/stasis and wormhole
travel to go back in time. The Wormhole Patrol or whatever makes sure
ships use them properly, like no going forward in time (for regular
folk). I'm not sure that scheme helps anything, but it's an interesting
twist.

Brian

On Monday, 22 May 2023 at 19:30:12 UTC+1, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2023-05-22, James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
> "Disregard the Issue"
> I think in all fairness we should distinguish between those that
> simply ignore relativity and those that handwave some hyperdrive/
> wormhole solution. Apart from Doc Smith, I seem to recall A.E. van
> Vogt in _The Voyage of the Space Beagle_ as an offender of the first
> type.
>
> "Time Dilation"
> Not so practical, between the energy required to accelerate to the
> necessary relative speeds and the trouble then caused by anything
> in your way, like, solitary atoms.
>
> "Increase Lifespan"
> Greg Egan is big on this. The protagonists in his corresponding
> novels are post-biological entities anyway, so they are virtually
> immortal. Feel bored during a trip between galaxies? Just clock
> down the processor your mind is running on.
>
> I think Vernor Vinge's _Marooned in Realtime_ added a solution not
> included in James' list: stasis fields. Just wrap yourself into a
> bubble where no time passes on the inside and peek out periodically.
> Actually, I don't even remember whether Vinge's interstellar
> traveler(s?) relied on this, but it fits in with the overall use
> of stasis fields in the novel. Never mind that stasis fields don't
> exist.

It's coldsleep without the... inconveniences.

Someone mentioned the political speeches of the Fenachrone.
This may be a method to make time stand still.

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>

As always, thanks for providing on content discussion points with these.
Not sure if/where these rather facetious ones fit in your categories:
- The Bloater Drive in Harrison's Bill the Galactic Hero (The Bloater Drive
expands the ship to larger than galaxy sized, then shrinks it so that you
end up lightyears from your starting point.)

- The Infinite Improbability Drive in HHGTTG (The IID alters the laws of
probability to allow/force the spontaneous relocation of all the particles
in a ship to some other place.)

Tony, now wondering about Quantum Entanglement, too

On 5/22/2023 7:18 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/

Ignore it of course!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 8:10:56 PM UTC-5, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 5/22/2023 7:18 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> >
> > What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
> >
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> Ignore it of course!
>
> --
> I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
> dirty old man.

That's a completely viable approach, if the means of FTL travel have no direct bearing on the story. That is, the FTL travel method is just part of the background, never explained or detailed. That can work fine if the main story is all set on a particular world, say. For ex, FTL travel is possible in McCaffrey's Pern stories, but it doesn't affect the events _on Pern_, so the details don't matter.

Pern is a low-tech setting, but the same principle could apply equally well if all the story action happens within one star system, the way the people arrived in that system doesn't necessarily matter to the ongoing story once they are there. Just as there's no need to explain air travel or jet engines or airports if a story is set entirely in a modern city.

James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/

PR achieves FTL travel via Ouspensky's fifth dimension, the non-Euclidean
curved spacetime postulated by Einstein.

"Curved spacetime tells matter how to move and matter tells
spacetime how to curve."

"The resulting Einsteinian description of the world is that
of a unified /spacetime/, whereas Newton's theory keeps
time separate and distinct.

_Time Machines_ (Nahin)

Where does science fact end and science fiction begin?

It is argued that because we "spatialize" Time, we draw wrong
conclusions about reality, as for example that the past still
exists.

_Man and Time_ (Priestley)

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

In article <u4h3me$2aboe$1@dont-email.me>,
Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>On 5/22/2023 7:18 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>
>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>>
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
>Ignore it of course!

(Hal Heydt)
Pretty much that. Dorothy and Astrid Anderson (Bear) wrote a
bunch of Star Trek fanfic back in the day. Later, they made an
effort to file the serial numbers off and turn the stories into
something both longer and saleable. Eventually, Astrid drop out
of that effort while Dorothy carried on. (Didn't ultimately work,
but there's a manuscript somewhere in the house.) At one point,
Dorothy needed an FTL drive, so I invented one for her--Tachyon
Conversion.

At some point, Astrid asked her father about that drive.
Somewhat later, I ran into Poul and he asked me about it on
Astrid's behalf. I told him that I would be happy to explain how
the Tachyon Conversion drive worked just as soon as he could do
the same for the Quantum Microjump drive worked. There was a
pause and one could almost see the lightbulb turn on over Poul's
head. His reply was, "Ah! Yes! Now I understand."

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 3:20:30 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> --
> My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

Another way to sidestep the problem of relativity is to find a way to tell the same sort of stories without FTL. To me, the point of FTL is to have stories which include multiple nations which don't currently exist, and travel between different nations. One way to organise this is alternate universes, such as in S.M. Stirlings "Conquistador". Another way is to notice that the solar system is actually a pretty big place, and if e.g. asteroid colonisation is possible, there are is a lot of available real estate. I think this covers Van Stry's "Summer's End" and Sarah Hoyt's Darkship series.

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>

Aha! This article is another one[1] that shows up in
the Science section of the news.google.com
newsfeed. It's the 38th item down currently for me,
but I suspect it was higher yesterday afternoon/evening.

Tony
[1] The April 3 article on smashing rocks into Earth
also showed up there.

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 2:30:12 PM UTC-4, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2023-05-22, James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
> "Disregard the Issue"
> I think in all fairness we should distinguish between those that
> simply ignore relativity and those that handwave some hyperdrive/
> wormhole solution. Apart from Doc Smith, I seem to recall A.E. van
> Vogt in _The Voyage of the Space Beagle_ as an offender of the first
> type.
>
> "Time Dilation"
> Not so practical, between the energy required to accelerate to the
> necessary relative speeds and the trouble then caused by anything
> in your way, like, solitary atoms.
>
> "Increase Lifespan"
> Greg Egan is big on this. The protagonists in his corresponding
> novels are post-biological entities anyway, so they are virtually
> immortal. Feel bored during a trip between galaxies? Just clock
> down the processor your mind is running on.
>
> I think Vernor Vinge's _Marooned in Realtime_ added a solution not
> included in James' list: stasis fields. Just wrap yourself into a
> bubble where no time passes on the inside and peek out periodically.
> Actually, I don't even remember whether Vinge's interstellar
> traveler(s?) relied on this, but it fits in with the overall use
> of stasis fields in the novel. Never mind that stasis fields don't
> exist.
>
> --
> Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de

Indeed they (she) did. If I am recalling the details correctly, the events of the novel take place about 50 million years post singularity, and Della Lu had spent a good portion of that time traveling interstellarly, and had accumulated something like 9000 years in realtime.

--
-Harold Hill

On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/

The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an alternate universe/dimension/whatever
where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the mapping is different between this universe
and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other weird stuff thrown in)

- Tim

In article <f2901d2e-308a-415f-a466-3bd85823efe0n@googlegroups.com>,
Tim McCaffrey <timcaffrey@aol.com> wrote:
>On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>
>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>>
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
>The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an
>alternate universe/dimension/whatever
>where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the
>mapping is different between this universe
>and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other
>weird stuff thrown in)
>
> - Tim

It's not clear that there *is* hyperspace in the Arena universe.
There *should* be hyperspace, but whenever anyone tries to access it,
it triggers an interrupt trap in the Arena which grabs the ship.

So maybe there is hyperspace and the Arena keeps it from being accessed,
or maybe the universe is constructed to *look* like hyperspace exists
so the Arena can trap it..

Note also that the Arenaverse also has "just ignore relativity" FTL, at
least for Marc Duquesne.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:46:52 PM UTC+1, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <f2901d2e-308a-415f...@googlegroups.com>,
> Tim McCaffrey <timca...@aol.com> wrote:
> >On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> >>
> >> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
> >>
> >>
> >https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> >
> >The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an
> >alternate universe/dimension/whatever
> >where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the
> >mapping is different between this universe
> >and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other
> >weird stuff thrown in)
> >
> > - Tim
> It's not clear that there *is* hyperspace in the Arena universe.
> There *should* be hyperspace, but whenever anyone tries to access it,
> it triggers an interrupt trap in the Arena which grabs the ship.
>
> So maybe there is hyperspace and the Arena keeps it from being accessed,
> or maybe the universe is constructed to *look* like hyperspace exists
> so the Arena can trap it..
>
> Note also that the Arenaverse also has "just ignore relativity" FTL, at
> least for Marc Duquesne.
> --
> columbiaclosings.com
> What's not in Columbia anymore..
If there is no hyperspace in the Arena universe, the Arena itself will do until some comes along - instead of taking a short cut via hyperspace, you take a short cut between worlds by travelling from world A to the Arena, across the Arena, and then departing the Arean for world B.

In article <f2901d2e-308a-415f-a466-3bd85823efe0n@googlegroups.com>,
Tim McCaffrey <timcaffrey@aol.com> wrote:
>On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>
>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>>
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
>The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an
>alternate universe/dimension/whatever
>where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the
>mapping is different between this universe
>and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other
>weird stuff thrown in)

(Hal Heydt)
I recall one story where the eager young researcher tells those
he's working for that he has discovered a way to get into
hyperspace. He is told that he's the Nth (for some considerable
value of N) person to do so and that it's worthless because
travel in hyperspace is *slower* than in our universe.

On Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 3:21:10 PM UTC-4, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <f2901d2e-308a-415f...@googlegroups.com>,
> Tim McCaffrey <timca...@aol.com> wrote:
> >On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> >>
> >> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
> >>
> >>
> >https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> >
> >The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an
> >alternate universe/dimension/whatever
> >where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the
> >mapping is different between this universe
> >and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other
> >weird stuff thrown in)
> (Hal Heydt)
> I recall one story where the eager young researcher tells those
> he's working for that he has discovered a way to get into
> hyperspace. He is told that he's the Nth (for some considerable
> value of N) person to do so and that it's worthless because
> travel in hyperspace is *slower* than in our universe.

Yes, I remember that story.
Another where the "hyperspace" was actually the young universe.
The basic idea was travel back in time, move, and come back forward in time
and the distance moved would be amplified by the expansion of the Universe.
IIRC, they kept losing ships and finally figured out some of them went back
too far to when things were extremely hot. oops.

- Tim

In article <rv6Fz3.1GI3@kithrup.com>,
Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@kithrup.com> wrote:
>In article <f2901d2e-308a-415f-a466-3bd85823efe0n@googlegroups.com>,
>Tim McCaffrey <timcaffrey@aol.com> wrote:
>>On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>>
>>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>>>
>>>
>>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>>
>>The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to an
>>alternate universe/dimension/whatever
>>where the speed of light is higher (or non-existent) and/or where the
>>mapping is different between this universe
>>and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand Central Arena, with other
>>weird stuff thrown in)
>
>(Hal Heydt)
>I recall one story where the eager young researcher tells those
>he's working for that he has discovered a way to get into
>hyperspace. He is told that he's the Nth (for some considerable
>value of N) person to do so and that it's worthless because
>travel in hyperspace is *slower* than in our universe.

It seems like there should be some way to exploit slow hyperspace. Maybe
not for travel [1] but for something.

1: I do remember a Disco-era book where starflight was 1/2C but involved
a lot more time dilation than it should have.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Wed, 24 May 2023 20:08:01 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

<snip>

>It seems like there should be some way to exploit slow hyperspace.

Charge its inhabitants for the use of our universe to travel faster?

>Maybe not for travel [1] but for something.

--
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

On 5/22/2023 9:18 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>
> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/

This is why I favor wormholes. Of course, the gravity effects will
probably rip your body into its base molecules but other than that ...

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>
>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>>
>> https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>
> This is why I favor wormholes. Of course, the gravity effects will
> probably rip your body into its base molecules but other than that ...

An Ackermanesque advert:

4 ADVENTURES FROM NOW

Perry's "fist" manipulates gravity

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

Tim McCaffrey wrote:

>On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 10:20:30 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>>
>> What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?

>The other, now out of favor, way to get FTL is hyperspace. Switch to
>an alternate universe/dimension/whatever where the speed of light is
>higher (or non-existent) and/or where the mapping is different
>between this universe and hyperspace (Sea Wasp did this in Grand
>Central Arena, with other weird stuff thrown in)

In the books by Becky Chambers, it's sort of a mix as I recall. There's
hyperspaces, but most ships need a pre-drilled tunnel to make use of
it. That's the job of ships like Wayfarer in the book.

Brian

On Tuesday, 23 May 2023 at 05:47:13 UTC+1, Andrew McDowell wrote:
> On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 3:20:30 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> >
> > What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
> >
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> > --
> > My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> > My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> > My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> > My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
> Another way to sidestep the problem of relativity is to find a way to tell the same sort of stories without FTL. To me, the point of FTL is to have stories which include multiple nations which don't currently exist, and travel between different nations. One way to organise this is alternate universes, such as in S.M. Stirlings "Conquistador". Another way is to notice that the solar system is actually a pretty big place, and if e.g. asteroid colonisation is possible, there are is a lot of available real estate. I think this covers Van Stry's "Summer's End" and Sarah Hoyt's Darkship series.

Ahem. James did cover the Solar System setting.

On Friday, May 26, 2023 at 2:38:31 PM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On Tuesday, 23 May 2023 at 05:47:13 UTC+1, Andrew McDowell wrote:
> > On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 3:20:30 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> > > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
> > >
> > > What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
> > >
> > > https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
> > > --
> > > My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> > > My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> > > My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> > > My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
> > Another way to sidestep the problem of relativity is to find a way to tell the same sort of stories without FTL. To me, the point of FTL is to have stories which include multiple nations which don't currently exist, and travel between different nations. One way to organise this is alternate universes, such as in S.M. Stirlings "Conquistador". Another way is to notice that the solar system is actually a pretty big place, and if e.g. asteroid colonisation is possible, there are is a lot of available real estate. I think this covers Van Stry's "Summer's End" and Sarah Hoyt's Darkship series.
> Ahem. James did cover the Solar System setting.
Well spotted - I got that wrong. But I am going to claim that James's examples don't cover the full scale possible within the solar system. In theory, if you made massive use of asteroid colonisation and habitat building you could support the total population and variety of different cultures within the solar system that you would normally associate with an interstellar empire based around FTL travel.

In article <08c551ea-b161-412d-bc72-417d847883c2n@googlegroups.com>,
Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> wrote:
>On Friday, May 26, 2023 at 2:38:31 PM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 23 May 2023 at 05:47:13 UTC+1, Andrew McDowell wrote:
>> > On Monday, May 22, 2023 at 3:20:30 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
>> > > Five Ways SF Writers Sidestep the Problem of Relativity
>> > >
>> > > What are hardworking SF author to do about the light-speed limit?
>> > >
>> > >
>https://www.tor.com/2023/05/22/five-ways-sf-writers-sidestep-the-problem-of-relativity/
>> > > --
>> > > My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
>> > > My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
>> > > My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
>> > > My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
>> > Another way to sidestep the problem of relativity is to find a way
>to tell the same sort of stories without FTL. To me, the point of FTL
>is to have stories which include multiple nations which don't currently
>exist, and travel between different nations. One way to organise this
>is alternate universes, such as in S.M. Stirlings "Conquistador".
>Another way is to notice that the solar system is actually a pretty big
>place, and if e.g. asteroid colonisation is possible, there are is a
>lot of available real estate. I think this covers Van Stry's "Summer's
>End" and Sarah Hoyt's Darkship series.
>> Ahem. James did cover the Solar System setting.
>Well spotted - I got that wrong. But I am going to claim that James's
>examples don't cover the full scale possible within the solar system.
>In theory, if you made massive use of asteroid colonisation and habitat
>building you could support the total population and variety of
>different cultures within the solar system that you would normally
>associate with an interstellar empire based around FTL travel.

Not in that essay, but I've written almost 400 tor essays since 2017.

https://www.tor.com/2019/06/19/single-star-system-space-opera-or-those-pesky-belters-revisited/
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My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll