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E. M. Foner on Writing Science Fiction

The case for interstellar trade.

I just finished the rough draft for the fourth book in my EarthCent Metaverse series which deals primarily with how interstellar trade from little acorns grows. I've never been a fan of tech-equivalence in SciFi, not for wars, which I avoid writing about altogether, and not for trade.

The tunnel network at the heart of the infrastructure in my EarthCent series (plural - serieses, as in, 'What has it got in its pocketses,' which Tolkien may have borrowed from Marryat since he used the same suffix in Peter Simple which was published in 1833) is pure handwavium, but the purpose of the tunnel network is not. It provides a discounted way for members to conduct interstellar trade and tourism.

In the absence of trade, there's not a lot of reason for contact between alien species that have all advanced to the point where they developed their own handwavium methods of interstellar travel. I have friends in academia who might argue for scientific curiosity, or at a minimum, grist for the dissertation mill, but allowing a primitive species to clomp around you planet asking silly questions and studying your sewage only make sense from the perspective of the Ph.D. student.

In answer to a question from the EarthCent Ambassador, the Stryx librarian of Union Station revealed that the top trade category on the tunnel network was entertainment, while off the tunnel network (where the books rarely stray) it's weapons. The species all have their specialties, Verlocks with magnetic monopoles, Frunge with wing sets and smith work, Dollnicks and large engineering solutions like space elevators, etc. But the most recent members of the tunnel network prior to humanity had interstellar travel for a half-million years before Earth was invited to join. So what could they possibly want from us, other than clever kitchen gadgets that they likely invented a thousand times themselves but have forgotten?

The bigger question is what the aliens need from each other. The answer is, nothing. They've all developed ways to be in the galaxy that work for them, but the tunnel network also offers a mutual defense alliance with a peace dividend, backed by the Stryx. Tunnel network members can save energy that would otherwise be spent defending themselves from those aggressive empires that can't let go of competing with force, rather than, as J. Zachary Pike might say, settling for the path of the aggressive salesman.

While it may sound counterintuitive, the main reason for encouraging trade and tourism among the members of the tunnel network is to create friction, which necessitates permanent diplomatic contact (the station ambassadors) to resolve. The universe of the Stryx was reverse engineered to create an optimistic future that makes sense to me, and that rules out utopia. Just getting started here.