In his February 2006 story, “Under the Graying Sea,” Jonathan Sherwood imagines a future where, for a short time, “the world was at peace, economies were expanding, and generosity chic.” This temporary stability gives the Earth the opportunity to attempt to build a “star bridge.” While the star bridge is an enormous project that will take at least two hundred years to come to fruition, the successful completion of this task would give humanity instantaneous travel to a nearby star system “a perfect first stop on the journey into the stars.” Although the star bridge runs into problems, it is clear that the author put a lot of thought into exactly what sort of civilization could engage in such a magnificent undertaking. “Under the Graying Sea” was written during an economic upswing. In our own turbulent times, it’s interesting to look at the influence of certain outside events, such as the Second World War, the space race, and previous economic cycles on past science fiction. When our economy is on the upswing, it seems as though some authors are more willing to engage a big idea and expand the science fiction universe and when our economy is contracting and options in the real world appear more limited, many are more inclined to look inward, to focus on life on Earth and our inner landscapes.

According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, a number of the field’s commentators believe that the American “Golden Age” of classic science fiction lasted from 1938 until 1946. These dates include the waging of the Second World War, and the research and technological developments that that entailed, and the beginning of John W. Campbell’s reign at Astounding/Analog. It is interesting to note that during this time, the United States moved from an economic low point in June 1938 and to a peak in February 1945. Works published during this period include Isaac Asimov’s Robot and Foundation stories, Robert A. Heinlein’s Future History series, Clifford Simak’s “City,” and A.E. van Vogt’s Weapon Shop books. The era almost seems to close with Arthur C. Clarke’s exuberantly optimistic first sale, “Rescue Party.”

Many of the stories from this period are unsettling and they don’t all have happy endings, but they often present big-picture ideas about the future of humanity. Stories that appeal to our sense of wonder don’t end after 1946, but darker works such as Jack Williamson’s 1947 depiction of good intentions gone wrong, “With Folded Hands,” Judith Merril’s 1948 look at fallout from the atomic age, “That Only a Mother,” and books like Nevil Shute’s 1957 On the Beach, which predict that the arms race will lead to the end of life as we know it, gain a foothold, too.

The space race to put a man on the Moon, which coincided with a period of economic growth that rose from a low in February 1961 to a peak in December 1969, was another fertile time for big idea fiction. Dune was serialized in Analog from 1963 to 1965. Viewers were able to suspend their disbelief in faster-than light-travel and a universe rife with humanoid lifeforms, and enjoy watching the original Star Trek from 1966-1969. Of course, the sixties were a turbulent time and there are plenty of counter examples of books that focus on the problems we had at home, such as John Brunner’s projections of overpopulation in The Sheep Look Up and Philip K. Dick’s exploration of what it means to be human in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Still, the space program coupled with a growing economy seems to have contributed to an optimistic time for many science fiction readers and writers.

For all its accomplishments, though, one thing the space race had shown us was that a viable space program took an enormous amount of effort and money. Gone now were the days when one could easily be convinced that a tinkerer could build a spaceship in his backyard or a time machine in the basement. The seventies certainly saw its share of books like Larry Niven’s depiction of the awesome Ringworld and Frederik Pohl’s Gateway. Yet, while these books have the same kind of scope and grand ideas that are found in “Golden Age” fiction, they may also indicate that our earlier dreams of conquering the universe without outside help are unrealistic. The upheavals of the Viet Nam War, Nixon’s resignation, the energy crisis in 1974, and another downward economic slide that bottomed out in 1975, are concurrent with the publication of evermore introspective books such as Robert Silverberg’s exploration of a man’s interior landscape in Dying Inside and the grim microscope that James Tiptree, Jr. brought to bear on so many of our human failings.

There isn’t enough space in this editorial to look for the anecdotal evidence that will take me through the events and economic cycles of the eighties and nineties, but I can note that the most recent economic boom time also saw a renaissance of the grand space opera tradition. I’ll be very happy to immerse myself in Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan’s The New Space Opera 2 this summer and I’m looking forward to reading Jetse de Vries anthology of positive SF stories, Shine, which is scheduled for publication early next year. In our current economic climate, I’m sure I’ll be encountering a number of darker works as well. Still, while I attempt to avoid thinking about the state of my 401(k), I will find the time to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of our first Moon landing. I know that it will be hard for writers to resist turning inward and that there is a great value in holding a mirror up to our lives, but I’d also like to see stories that uplift us, show us some ways out of our current circumstances, and offer us some grand new vistas of the future.