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Step Farther Out/a

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This book, first published in 1984 and updated three times since, is fascinating both as a historical document and for its prescient take on where we would be (or might have been) 30 years further on. Pournelle's crystal ball was and is a lot clearer than most. As a top-tier SF author and political/technology analyst, Pournelle applied his imagination to the real world. Any differences in how things actually worked out are due not to any failures in Pournelle's logic and reason, but to failures of governments and businesses to do what needed to be done. And, as Pournelle (and Niven) point out, even in our current dire straits, there is still time to make this vision of the future a reality.

Among non-fiction books, one of the best is Jerry Pournelle's A Step Farther Out. It contains essays he wrote throughout the seventies. One of the main goals of the book is to show that we can escape the Four Dooms--starvation,
pollution, overpopulation, and depletion of natural resources. How? By developing the resources of the entire solar system; not just Earth. It isn't just a fluffy, "let's go to space" dream, either. Dr. Pournelle goes through the numbers, demonstrating that by developing the natural resources of the entire solar system we can survive, happily and with our high-energy society, for thousands of years. We can't survive if we stay on Earth--we'll run out of natural
resources and starve--but we will survive if we use our
solar system.

Pournelle makes a compelling and entertaining argument in a book so well written you just can't put it down. He also reviews many fascinating scientific and technological breakthroughs and developments. I can't possibly do this book credit here. You'll just have to read it.

As NASA's Shuttle program grinds to a halt with no replacement in sight, Jerry Pournelle re-issues his classic collection of essays defending the merits of space exploration, arguing that for human civilization to thrive, and perhaps even to survive in the long term, we must gain access to the vast natural resources available throughout the rest of the solar system, starting with our next-door neighbor, the moon. This will not only raise humanity's overall standard of living, it will also disperse our species beyond Earth's fragile biosphere in the event of natural or man-made worldwide disaster.

One reviewer has complained that some of the information in this book is outdated. Speculating about future scientific and technological advances is always a dicey business. However, Pournelle's track record at predicting the future is better than most; and his core argument remains just as relevant as it was three decades ago: we can't afford NOT to invest in space access infrastructure and technology.

Pournelle is a realist with insight. We need more - a pity that the "marching morons" are winning. If they weren't Pournelle could win for us all.

You don't know anything about alternative energy until you've read Dr Pournelle. He clearly makes the case for and against various technologies and, given has multiple post-grad degrees in science, engineering and math, one may say his case is authoritative.

One comment I would like to make. Dr Pournelle notes that he has read this book, as lecture notes, to many college students. Most are shocked to learn neither Earth nor the human race is doomed. Dr Pournelle does not give his opinion as to this source, but I will. They believe so because they've bought the low-grade, Marxist background radiation all their lives: profits are unearned, technology is evil and zero-sum, only peasants are moral. (But never to be left in charge; I can't think of anything Marxists hate more than working-class, lower-case "c" conservatism. Unless its working class, small-"l" libertarians, I mean.)

You can't afford not to read this.

Sage words from 30 years ago that are 100% applicable today. Very enlightening reading - logical, sound arguments that now 30 years later bear even more weight.

Buy this one in quantity and give copies to your friends. Read it aloud to them if necessary. This is frankly the best book on what the future can be--energy and prosperity can be widespread and the environment pristine, IF we get going. The human race doesn't have to starve in the cold and dark.

There are ways to produce energy without wrecking (or even harming) the environment. Doom is not an inevitable destiny. Grab this in paperback, Kindle, hardcover--however you can obtain it. Read it. Dr. Pournelle is neither ignorant nor stupid; his facts are facts, his logic impeccable, his narrative interesting, and his illustrations and graphs clear and understandable.

This book is for real. Get it.

«A Step Farther Out» is a collection of thirty articles originally published in "Galaxy", most of them centered on the theme that mankind can «survive with style» and other scientific issues of interest to science-fiction writers, such as black holes, dinosaurs and computers. Some of the articles are just reactions to annual conferences of the AAAS which Pournelle attended, giving snapshots of scientific research in the late 1970s. Most of the articles were already partly obsolete when they were gathered in book format, so one may wonder at their relevance twenty years after the publication of the book. Pournelle's constant marveling at the computing power of his pocket calculator is a reminder of how far we have travelled since the articles were written : much has been learned about the planets of the solar system, for instance, and Pournelle already recognized in 1979 that his schemes for the terraformation of Venus were extremely simplistic. Moreover, given the format the essays were originally published in, the book lacks cohesion and progression, and is often redundant.

The message of the book is very similar to that of Julian Simon's « The Ultimate Resource », except Simon focuses on the Earth's resources, while Pournelle extends the discussion to those of the whole solar system. Another difference is that Pournelle, though obviously sympathetic to free enterprise (twice quoting Freeman Dyson's remark that America was settled by enterprising individuals), is quite tolerant of big government budgets, going so far as to put forward his ideas for a better allocation of government research funds. (As an Objectivist, I am personally in favour of the complete privatization of scientific research.)

He does a good job showing that most sources of «soft energy» popular with the environmentalists, such as wind and garbage, will not fill man's energetic needs, and that nuclear energy is the only solution in the short term. In its defense of nuclear energy, the book echoes the message of Pournelle and Niven's «Lucifer's Hammer», where mankind finds its post-cataclysmic salvation by maintaining a nuclear plant in activity.

At times, Pournelle is extremely naïve, as when he assumes that one day, the acquisition of knowledge will be automated («the computer can squirt the book's contents directly into your mind» p86) or rendered obsolete by instant hook up with world databases. He does not seem to realize the importance of the integration and automatization of knowledge (not to mention filtering !), which cannot be done without extended periods of intense «chewing» of the material (to borrow Ayn Rand's term). Pournelle also gratuitously assumes that there is a «central processing unit» in the brain (p86) - Edelman's mythical «homonculus»- and that the «basis of consciousness» is either «matter or structure» (p308.)

In addition to this occasional scientific naïveté, probably due to the fact that most of what we know about the brain we learned during the last two decades, Pournelle also goes over the edge at times, going so far as to accept the possibility of telepathy (p87) or UFOs (pp101-113). Perhaps more disgusting, because less blatantly pseudo-scientific, are his speculations concerning black holes, which seem to be a haven for the scientists' irrationality. «Time running backward» is a meaningless phrase, and Hawking's idea that «anything» can come out of a black hole is simple nonsense.

All in all, I would rather recommend reading Julian Simon's books, plus up to date speculations about mankind's future in space.