Standard Sci-Fi History: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Back in the Golden Age of science fiction, a rough outline of the future began to form. It was largely hinted at in various stories that shared many common attributes. Whether or not this was done consciously is unknown, but the fans noticed the trends in the stories and pieced it together. Thus formed the
The Standard Sci Fi History is a broad template, which hinted to a future history. At the time, it allowed writers to hint at a common reference readers would understand. The savvy reader would notice these hints, and understand the background to the setting. This avoided bogging the tale down when trying to explain everything.
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* [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''Terro-Human Future History'' is cyclical, going through at least five Empires after the Terran Federation falls. Piper's timeline was a little more detailed than Asimov's, and was also influential in codifying the trope.
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''Psychotechnic League'' stories has World War III occur at the begining, a brief Interregnum which results in exploration of the Solar System and the formation of the Solar Union, which plays the role of the First Empire. However, things go bad, and another Interregnum occurs, until the discovery of FTL travel, which leads to the formation of the Stellar Union, in the role of a Second Empire.
** A second series of his fits this pattern as
* Donald Kingsbury's ''Psychohistorical Crisis'' follows the trope fairly closely and is set during the ''Second Empire'' Phase. It's no surprise, since the books are a [[Homage]]/[[Spiritual Successor]] to Asimov's [[Foundation]] trilogy.
* [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'': The background of the series follows this closely: Exploration leads to Mars being settled, World War III frags earth, Interstellar Colonization occurs, with the Formation, Apex, and Fall of an Empire. There's a short Dark Age, and the League (in the Second Empire role) forming. Unusually, Alien Contact happens at the end
* [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' universe falls squarely in the idealistic side of this history. Earth unified, started slower-than-light exploration, then developed [[FTL Travel]] that resulted in a three-way [[First Contact]] between them, the [[Bee People|thranx]], and the [[Proud Warrior Race|AAnn]]. As the latter were incurably antagonistic, the thranx and humans formed a reluctant [[Enemy Mine]] arrangement that developed over time into a full-fledged alliance, which eventually became the title [[The Federation|Humanx Commonwealth]]. Atypically, there has been no World War Three scenario or interregnum, and with the vanquishing of the [[Ultimate Evil|Great Evil]] in ''Flinx Transcendent'', no sign that the Commonwealth is headed anywhere but [[Crystal Spires and Togas]].
* Arthur C.Clarke's "Childhood's End" bizarrely jumps from Stage 1 to Stage 4 and then horrifyingly to Stage 7 without any gaps in between. His short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" is even worse, ending at Stage 7 {{spoiler|for the entire Universe}} without any hint that humans have even reached Stage 1.
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', this cycle has been continuing for millions of years with many different species in the past, enforced by an extremely ancient species of robotic [[Eldritch Abomination
* ''[[Escape Velocity|EV Nova's]]'' [http://www.ambrosiasw.com/assets/files/graphics_products/evn/preambles/nova_preamble_1.pdf official timeline] only goes back as far as stage 3. The Colonial Council colonized much of the galaxy. Then it began to crumble due to a string of wars. The deathblow was the Armetis terrorists' destruction of the Sol [[Warp Whistle|hypergate]], which caused many of the others to be destroyed, cutting the member systems off from each other. The Renaissance began when physicists rediscovered how to build hyperdrives, allowing humanity to reform interstellar governments. Things have since solidified into a fairly [[Standard Sci Fi Setting]].
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