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/lit/ - Literature

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4838133 No.4838133[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Are there any sci-fi books that have a really far time horizon? Like 200,000 or 1 million years into the future?

Do I have to be the first to write this masterpeace?

>> No.4838138

The Scientology opus has a few trillion year timeline, but it goes into the past.

>> No.4838141

>>4838133
From the New World is pretty far into the future.

>> No.4838145

Boat of a Million Years is primarily set in the future, but it starts by running through history for maybe the first half

>> No.4838147

>>4838133
there is no fucking point

it's all the same after like 2000 years... it's a completely uninternalizable time jump... it's the difference between a 1000 foot fall and a 10000 foot fall.

>> No.4838149
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4838149

>>4838141
>From the New World

>chinese cartoons

fuck off

>> No.4838153

>>4838147
>it's all the same after like 2000 years

>implying vast amounts of human evolution can occur in just 2000 years

it's like you don't want to open your mind to all the possibilities

>> No.4838158

>>4838133
>>4838133
In that amount of time humans wouldn't even look the same anymore. The point of science fiction is to comment on society as it is now, 200,000 years is too far removed for any real relations to be made.

>> No.4838172
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4838172

>>4838158
>200,000 years is too far removed for any real relations to be made.

this is where you are absolutely wrong. It's like someone has lobotomized you.

Only if we look absurdidoodily far into the future can we understand the absurd present.

>> No.4838242

>>4838172

I with this, except for the "only" part.

If a book is set far in the future and discusses how humans have evolved, that alone could be a pretty obvious commentary on modern society and where we could end up as a result of our poor habits

>> No.4838270

>>4838133
You're looking for Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

Now go forth and be merry.

>> No.4838277
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4838277

The Dying Earth series is mostly fantasy, but it takes places billions of years in the future.

>> No.4838311
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4838311

>>4838133

Book of the New Sun is in the distant future. It's not stated clearly but it's at least a billion years into the future when the Sun has begun to exhaust its fuel and turn red.

>> No.4838312

>>4838270
>>4838277

Then why do those books seem like they could've happened 1100 years into the future? Truly pleb tier.

>> No.4838313
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4838313

>>4838311

>Far distant future
>maybe billions of years

>people still riding in carriages and fighting with swords

the fuck outta here with that cryptic Jesus shit

>> No.4838316

>>4838312

>2 of the greatest sci-fi series ever written
>pleb tier

Negro are you serious?

>> No.4838320

>>4838316
>>2 of the most popular sci-fi series
>popularity a sign of anything

McDonalds is popular too.
Real gourmet quality five star dining!

>> No.4838326

>>4838312
4 u

>> No.4838328
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4838328

>>4838313
>The thinks the "carriages" were carriages
I bet you thought the "spears" were spears too.

>> No.4838329

>>4838313

Don't forget the energy lances, laser pistols, jets, spaceships, aliens, heavy artillery, blatant genetic manipulation, cloning, space/time manipulation. Ya know, standard fantasy fair, and nothing at all to do with science fiction.

>> No.4838331

Warhammer 40,000. Which is of course in and around 40,000. It is scifi/fantasy battle porn but it is at tes very fun.

>> No.4838348

Manifold: time extends into the distant future when the universe has underwent heat death but most of the 'action' happens near to our time.

>> No.4838352

>>4838133
>http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

I think dune has a pretty long timescale too.

I've heard something similar about The Culture novels, but I haven't read them.

>> No.4838359

the time traveler goes pretty far
to the end of time I think?
or the end of sentient life anyways

>> No.4838374

>>4838133
Human had the first civilization 10 000 years ago and look what humans can do today.

It's just too ludicrous to start thinking about what humanity will achieve in the next 200k to 1 million years in the future, assuming human technological advancement didn't experience a huge backpedaling.

>> No.4838403

>>4838374
>huge backpedaling.
Or simply stops.

What if once we have all the answers, the answer is we're stuck on this rock with much the same civilization we'll have in a hundred years, for the rest of our sun's lifespan?

>> No.4838416

itt a bunch of pleb fag nerds who haven't read last and first men

rereading it with my gf and i can see her ass right now. she's putting away pencils

>> No.4838422

>>4838403
>What if once we have all the answers

hahahahah wut m8? wut did u just fucken say?

>have all the answers

jesus christ, you didn't even get any dubs

>> No.4838462

>>4838422
check those dubs

you're a big guy

>> No.4838477

>>4838331
Honestly, this.

>> No.4838511

>>4838312
How can we even comprehend technology and society in 200k years? Almost anything could be said to be not high tech enough for 200k years. Almost everything could be said to not be high tech enough for 1100 years, if you think that our current rate of technological development would continue. The whole "singularity" theory puts the technological singularity within the next century. If that theory were correct, it would be difficult for us to conceive what life 100 years after the singularity would be like, let alone 1000 years or 100,000.

You could hardly go back 100 years and have people conceive of the world we have now. If you went back 1000, you'd sound like a raving lunatic.

I think usually books that involve long timescales assume that technological advancement severely slows at some point, and there would be no singularity-type event. They generally seem to use a long-distant date as a setting device used to have a blank slate and say whatever they want about the history of humanity. After a certain point, that goal can be accomplished within a couple thousand years at most, and then the difference between a setting 5000 or 500,000 years in the future becomes fairly arbitrary, since any genetic distinctions you wanted to make could be explained technologically, and humans in that time would likely have some degree of control over their genome meaning evolutionary adaptation to things like microgravity environments probably wouldn't happen naturally anymore, unless you want to make humanity's progress cyclical with periods of build-up and then collapse, and you have a timeline one million years in the future where we have technology hardly greater than today because of a self-destructive cycle like that, but have changed genetically somewhat.

>> No.4838518

>>4838511

>predicting

It's not about predicting accurately. Its about making so alien and so bizarre and interesting that people would say "this could only happen 100,000 years into the future"

the exact figure doesn't matter neither do your predictions.

>> No.4838545

>>4838518
It's fantasy at that point, not science fiction.

>> No.4838549

>>4838133
The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
>year 802751

>> No.4838555

>>4838311
Worst book I have read in years.

>> No.4838557

>>4838545
>It's fantasy at that point, not science fiction.

implying there is a clear cut distinction.

it would still have a scientific foundation. it would just be so advanced.

>> No.4838560

>>4838555
>Worst book I have read in years.

I guarantee your top 3 favorite books are worse than those 2. Go ahead list the top 3.

>> No.4838569

>>4838557
The distinction is that science-fiction has a predictive element to the story, where as fantasy is pure imagination. Being so far in the future would render any speculation nigh impossible, thus being fantasy

>> No.4838574

The Last Question, by Issac Asimov.

Short read too.

>> No.4838578

the foundation series?

>> No.4838588

The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke is set a billion years in the future. The original version of the story, Against the Fall of Night, is set 10 billion years in the future.

>> No.4838601

>>4838569


As long as you provide a possible scientific explanation for the word and its technology then it enters the realm of sci-fi.

It doesn't have to predictive, it's not actual science. It can be extremely speculative, that is the whole point.

>> No.4838613

>>4838147
>the big bang is the same as evolution

>> No.4838666

Dune seems the obvious one

>> No.4838706

>>4838666
Does Earth exist in the Dune setting? I wasn't aware of that (but I haven't read much Dune).

>> No.4838709

Read yr god damn AE Van Vogt and get your fucking sense of wonder you fucking cockless marvel

>> No.4839132
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4839132

Good God the Plebs are out in force tonight. Not one mention of Olaf Stapledon, the man who all but invented Science Fiction.

Check out "Last and First Men" and "Star Maker", widely considered to be two of the finest works of science fiction books ever written.

>> No.4839167
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4839167

>>4838133
thanks for the idea
i just stole your conpect and i am now writing away like a mad man

you are now in a race against time

once i publish, your book will be nothing but a copy of my bestseller

>> No.4839168

Arthur C Clarke's "The City and the Stars" takes place a few billion years into the future.

Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question" details humanities journey to the end of the universe, many trillion years in the future.

Learn to scifi, OP.

>> No.4839170

>>4839132
this

>> No.4839339

Time Machine by HG Wells goes pretty far into the future - towards the twilight of the planet's existence.

>> No.4839360

>>4839132
>Last and First men one of the first recommendations
>Here come Captain Autism who's certain that he is better than everyone in the thread, having never opened it

You are probably fat as hell

>> No.4839366

>>4839360
what's wrong with last and first men? not read it myself either but it sounds like exactly what the OP is looking for

>> No.4839372
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4839372

>>4839360
>fat as hell
Just a little bulgy...

>> No.4839376

>>4839366
Are you actually autistic and not just 4chan autistic? Can you read english?

>> No.4839383

>>4839376
Why not both?

>> No.4839772

Maybe you would like the Foundation series by Asimov, Op.