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alexxkayI recently read, for the first time, John Varley's _The Ophiuchi Hotline_. It forms a third example of a kind of SF story that I now want a word for. The other examples I'm thinking of are Charles Stross' _Accelerando_ and Greg Egan's _Diaspora_ (all highy recommended by the way). The settings for all of these stories (at least, by the *end* of all these stories) share a lot of significant details.
On the dystopian side:
* Billions of humans are killed.
* Earth is no longer habitable by humans.
* Humanity finds that, far from being the pinnacle of evolution, they are, to use Stross' metaphor (in his blog) barley able to outthink the equivalent of gut bacteria when playing on the galactic scale. Humanity is forced to find a viable ecological niche that is *way* down the food chain.
* Following from the above, humanity is in great risk of extinction at any time.
On the utopian side, however:
* More humans are alive than at any previous point in history.
* Humans are more widely dispersed throughout space than ever before.
* Following from *that*, we see that, while humanity may be at great risk of extinction, that risk is actually lower than ever before, and decreasing.
* Humans have more access to energy than ever before, and can manipulate that energy in more ways than ever before. In physical terms, the ordinary person haa a degree of luxury and leisure that a 20th century multi-billionaire would envy.
Are there any more stories like these out there? And does anyone have a suggestion for what one might call them, collectively?
On the dystopian side:
* Billions of humans are killed.
* Earth is no longer habitable by humans.
* Humanity finds that, far from being the pinnacle of evolution, they are, to use Stross' metaphor (in his blog) barley able to outthink the equivalent of gut bacteria when playing on the galactic scale. Humanity is forced to find a viable ecological niche that is *way* down the food chain.
* Following from the above, humanity is in great risk of extinction at any time.
On the utopian side, however:
* More humans are alive than at any previous point in history.
* Humans are more widely dispersed throughout space than ever before.
* Following from *that*, we see that, while humanity may be at great risk of extinction, that risk is actually lower than ever before, and decreasing.
* Humans have more access to energy than ever before, and can manipulate that energy in more ways than ever before. In physical terms, the ordinary person haa a degree of luxury and leisure that a 20th century multi-billionaire would envy.
Are there any more stories like these out there? And does anyone have a suggestion for what one might call them, collectively?