XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.science, alt.history

https://greekreporter.com/2025/03/05/first-science-fiction-novel-man-moon-greek/

Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς), a Hellenized Syrian writer,
2,000 years ago.

True History (Verae Historiae in Latin) or Αληθής Ιστορία in Greek, is the fictitious account of man’s journey to the moon.
With descriptions of great detail and an intricate plot, some
scholars argue that this was the first novel of the popular
science fiction genre.

Lucian’s works appealed to casual readers and scholars alike
as he exhibited a keen sense of humor in writing about
serious philosophical subjects such as morality, epistemology
and politics. However, he was very satirical about epistemology
and his best known work is True History, in which he describes
in detail an elaborate fantasy of himself travelling to the
moon in the exquisite company of Greek mythological heroes and
famous philosophers.

"Shortly after leaving the island they are caught in a whirlwind
and transported to the moon, where they find themselves embroiled
in a full-scale war between the Moon King and the Sun King over
the colonization of Venus. Both armies are home to strange hybrid
life forms.

The armies of the sun win the war by creating clouds on the moon
and blocking the sun’s light, resulting in a peace agreement."

. . .

de Bergerac, far far later, wrote two sci-fi like stories
about journeys to the moon and to the sun.

And like Lucian and de Bergerac, "Gullivers Travels" was
also the use of a sci-fi motif for social/political satire.

Of course even semi-practical ideas of the TECH required
to get to the moon did not exist until at least the latter
1850s and the industrial revolution. Even Verne didn't
go with the idea of rockets ... though he DID understand
that rapid acceleration would require some kind of
compensation lest the astronauts be killed.

de Bergerac's spaceship was powered by 'morning dew',
which he'd noted seemed to rise up at sunrise. Some
mechanical arrangement to take advantage was imagined,
but, naturally, never described in detail. The tech was
not very important - it was the story/satire instead.
"Warp Drive" may be just as fanciful.

WHY such obscurations of sociopolitics ? Because they'd
KILL yer ass back in those days for such tongue-wagging.
Had to adequately disguise your critique of the State.

As-per QM ... an elementary particle doesn't HAVE to
be where it is, but CAN vanish and re-appear instantly
anywhere in the universe. They USUALLY do it very close,
practical devices exist, but they don't HAVE to. IF
you could get a LOT of particles - a whole person
perhaps - briefly into the same quantum state then
they could re-appear anywhere in the universe. Maybe
that sleazy trick is how you do space travel ? :-)

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