Technogical changes drive the relationship between humans and aliens, and aliens and other aliens. The dark forest theme is expressly tied to resource availability. The deprivations of one era influence the politics of the next. The surpise generation ships that attack each other for resources are about as anti-idealist as you can get, to the point where there's a ton of discussion among characters about how they might no longer be considered part of humanity. At the beginning of the Crisis Era, when world politics are closest to what they are now, characters discuss how peripheral states are concerned that core states will use the crisis to perpetuate their advantages.
Certainly not the most ideologically sound book possible (especially on a few social/relationship plot points), but better than a lot of sci-fi out there.
long-term scientific progression (highly variable advancement creates a strong incentive for interplanetary first-strikes to deter competition), the innate hostility of extraterrestrials laid out with a rational basis and leading to Dark Forest Theory, and the views on space-time as a finite resource whose consumption defines modern physics and drives intergalactic competition
are all relatively novel, well laid-out, and presented as a kind-of sociological challenge to the reader.
He's not painting a Utopian view of the universe. But neither is he writing everything off as a forgone conclusion. The end of the final book alludes to the possibility of better worlds to come.
There's a sense that it doesn't have to be this way. And there are definitely ideologues who argue to the contrary and who struggle to pursue a better world even in the face of a grim logical truism. I don't know if I'd call it an issue of ideological soundness so much as a pessimistic outlook on current human behaviors extrapolated outward onto an intergalactic stage.
There's a decent amount of materialism in it.
spoiler
Technogical changes drive the relationship between humans and aliens, and aliens and other aliens. The dark forest theme is expressly tied to resource availability. The deprivations of one era influence the politics of the next. The surpise generation ships that attack each other for resources are about as anti-idealist as you can get, to the point where there's a ton of discussion among characters about how they might no longer be considered part of humanity. At the beginning of the Crisis Era, when world politics are closest to what they are now, characters discuss how peripheral states are concerned that core states will use the crisis to perpetuate their advantages.
Certainly not the most ideologically sound book possible (especially on a few social/relationship plot points), but better than a lot of sci-fi out there.
The outlooks on
spoiler
long-term scientific progression (highly variable advancement creates a strong incentive for interplanetary first-strikes to deter competition), the innate hostility of extraterrestrials laid out with a rational basis and leading to Dark Forest Theory, and the views on space-time as a finite resource whose consumption defines modern physics and drives intergalactic competition
are all relatively novel, well laid-out, and presented as a kind-of sociological challenge to the reader.
He's not painting a Utopian view of the universe. But neither is he writing everything off as a forgone conclusion. The end of the final book alludes to the possibility of better worlds to come.
There's a sense that it doesn't have to be this way. And there are definitely ideologues who argue to the contrary and who struggle to pursue a better world even in the face of a grim logical truism. I don't know if I'd call it an issue of ideological soundness so much as a pessimistic outlook on current human behaviors extrapolated outward onto an intergalactic stage.
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