Standard Wolfean riddle

António Pedro Marques · 12 Aug 2010, 18:03 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:03:46 +0100
Subject: (urth) Standard Wolfean  riddle
In-Reply-To: <701706.88994.qm at web84105.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <701706.88994.qm at web84105.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4C643782.4040902 at gmail.com>

DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote (12-08-2010 18:41):

> (...) one can conclude that the race who made the Hieros were human
> beings like ourselves with our physiology and history---but whether they
> are in "our" future is unknowable. Whether they were in our iteration or
> a 99.9999999% identical one, past or future, is unknowable.

I think it's only that:
- Urth is similar but not quite like Earth:
   + the name
   + the apparent history
   + the geography
   (some of those may be explained by being far in the future, but to me it 
rings more of a parallel though very similar universe)
- Wolfe presents Urth as a possible, bleak future for Earth. I don't want 
Earth's future to be Urth; I think the presentation is a warning - see what 
may happen - and that warning is given in the form of what happened to some 
who started off pretty much like us.

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