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 Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First printing, October 1979
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN-13: 978-0-4910-2941-4
ISBN-10: 0-4910-2941-1
Copyright© 1979 by Jerry Pournelle
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com
Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com
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Dedication
For Jim Baen,
an extraordinarily good friend and editor.
Acknowledgments:
Chapters of this book have been previously published (in substantially different form) in Galaxy magazine as follows:
"Survival with Style": March 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Blueprint for Survival": May 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"How Long to Doomsday?": June 1974, copyright © 1974 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"That Buck Rogers Stuff": December 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Here Come the Brains": Published as "Here Come the Brains," November 1974, copyright © 1974 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc., and as "Science and Man's Future," September 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"The Big Rain": September 1975, copyright © 1975 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Flying Saucers, " as "Guess What? Flying Saucer Research is Respectable": August 1975, copyright © 1975 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc. "Building The Mote in Cod's Eye": January 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Gravity Waves, Black Holes, and Cosmic Censors," as "Intro: Cosmic Censors": December 1974, copyright © 1974 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc. "Fuzzy Black Holes Have No Hair"; January 1975, copyright © 1975 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Crashing Neutron Stars, Mini Black Holes, and Spacedrives": November 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"In the Beginning . . .": October 1975, copyright © 1975 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Halfway to Anywhere": April 1974, copyright © 1974 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Ships for Manned Spaceflight": October 1974, copyright © 1974 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Life Among the Asteroids": July 1975, copyright © 1975 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"What's It Like Out There?": May 1977, copyright © 1977 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"A Potpourri": June 1977, copyright © 1977by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc. "Highways to Space": September 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Come Fly With Me": May 1978, copyright © 1978 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"The Tools of the Trade": June 1978, copyright © 1978 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Fusion without Ex-Lax": October 1976, copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"Can Trash Save Us?": July 1977, copyright © 1977 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
"The Moral Equivalent of War": March 1978, copyright © 1978 by UPD Publishing Corporation, Inc.
Research for this book was supported in part by grants from Pepperdine University and the Vaughn Foundation, to both of whom the author gives respectful thanks. Opinions in this work are the sole responsibility of the author.
It is obviously impossible to thank all those who have significantly contributed to a work this size. However, special thanks are due to Ejlar Jakobssen, who first encouraged me to do a regular science column; to Jim Baen, his successor as editor at Galaxy, who became invaluable for his topic suggestions and who unarguably improved the result; to Freeman Dyson, who generously granted ideas and interviews; to Dr. Gerald Yonas and Dr. John Penitz of Sandia Corporation; Dr. Petr Beckmann; Russell Seitz; A E. van Vbgt and Robert Bloch for their encouragement; Edmund Clay; and Larry Niven. Thanks are also due the members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc., who were hardy enough to listen to my readings of these essays before they saw print.
It is also traditional for an author to thank his wife for putting up with him while he went through the emotional storms so often associated with writing. In my own case the thanks are for reasons considerably more valid than tradition.
JEP Hollywood, 1978
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"I want to show you marvels. Dreams, in technicolour, with sharp edges. I want to tell you something of the wonder and excitement of science: of the birth of the universe: of black holes, and cities of the future; of how man and computer may forge between them something greater than both; of worlds transformed, and how man may direct the evolution of stars. I want to show you a world that might be made."