A Man Who Saw Humanity from Two Billion Years Away

justin66

The last I checked, it was weirdly difficult to buy a copy of Last and First Men and be certain you were getting the complete book as it was intended to be read by the author. Oddly, this article is "adapted from Matthew De Abaitua’s introduction to Olaf Stapledon’s "Last and First Men," which says "abridged" on the cover. I wonder what that's all about.

Primer81

Love these kinds of stories. Reminds me of the novel series "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.

simianwords

I'm not impressed with the article - boring and treats the book as an archeological study instead of attending to the immensity of the book's contents and predictions. "Huxley" this, "Wells" that. Ugh! It is hard to make this book look boring but this article's author has done it. Apologies in advance for the curmudgeonly tone.

nuclearsugar

The book that he wrote next, Star Maker, is a wonderful read and is quite early for the genre of scifi. Incredible scope and I still think about it often.

simianwords

> “Last and First Men” is not progressive strange thing to claim if you have read the book when there's a clear trending line in a specific dimension. what its not is monotonic.

hoppp

I loved the book. It was great.

xelxebar

There is also a brilliant and ponderous film adaptation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqDBlBKlbDA . It is one of my favorites in the "sublime" genre.