Earthbound

Haldeman, Joe. Earthbound. New York: Ace/Berkley-Penguin Group, 2011 (see copyright page for details).[1]

Third book in the Marsbound trilogy or series (so far: Marsbound [2008] and Starbound [2010] preceding). Relevant here for what we might call "the Long Tomorrow motif" of life in a once high-tech world, now gone: almost entirely gone in The Long Tomorrow itself, suddenly gone (with brief restoration) in Earthbound as the almost god-like Others turn off Earth's electrical power: chemical reactions remain, but the cut-off goes down to the level of batteries. The interest in Earthbound is how humans cope when interfaced (our word) at best with machines from the ages of most of human history, i.e., operating with power and in systems not requiring electricity. The general answer is, of course, It varies (and largely not too well).

Note that Starbound ch. 15 sets up a philosophical conflict on Earth between those calling themselves "realists" — with the "real" from "virtual reality — vs. "humanists." An extreme case of VR realism is that of a Californian who was on near-total life-support, including "a complete computer backup for his brain and associated nervous system"; who then lets his body die, after having "first essentially willed everything to himself — the computer image of his brain, which was technically indistinguishable from the original organic one." It's weeks before anyone notices when the man's body dies "because the computer image has long been in complete charge of his complex business affairs and investments. And it was a person," with "a corporate identity independent of Cranach himself." This can be interpreted as a dead person who "could be legally immortal, at least in California, as long as his brain is not brain-dead. Even though it's a machine" (p. 262). The humanists just use VR, without going to such extremes (Earthbound p. 263).

For a variety of afterlife in "gigabyte space" (or cyberspace), cf. and contrast Frederik Pohl's The Annals of the Heechee; for conflicts on the posthuman, note Bruce Sterling's Mechanist/Shaper stories.

This realist/humanist motif is significant only in the Epilog to Earthbound, with Haldeman spending much of his time on quasi-military encounters (as in gunfights) in a world becoming violently dystopian with the loss of electrical and electronic technology. Student's of Haldeman's development might want to look at the textual variations in different versions of The Forever War, with the most commonly read version having a mildly negative somewhat futuristic dystopia while an earlier version shows a violent world: the textual issues are discussed in detail by R. Erlich in "Haldeman's Variations on a Theme: Forever War and Forever Peace."

Earthbound is reviewed by Russell Letson, Locus #612 (January 2012).[2][3]

RDE, finishing, 5Feb21