About 20 years ago I read a book by Robert Heinlein. IIRC, it was mostly a collection of short stories, but there was some non-fiction thrown in - at least one was a look at the Soviet Union.
For the life of me I can’t remember the title…Help!
Expanded Universe?
It is a collection of short stories and essays. I had read it years ago and one that stuck with me was how ‘easy’ it is to travel to a nearby star which included calculations. Also included was an essay on how the space program is valuable due to the spinoffs the benefit everyone (miniturization is one that I recall).
I’m fairly sure it’s Expanded Universe. The Soviet stories are “Pravda means ‘Truth’” and “Inside Intourist,” which are both humorous nonfiction.
This reminds me of a question that I’ve been meaning to ask for ages. In Expanded Universe, one of the stories is Heinlein’s vision of how American society can fix itself and become perfect. It’s pretty naive, although interesting. Anyhow, one of the things is the reinstatement of something called (I believe) the “Pauper’s Law”.
Anyone know what this is?
I don’t remember the story in question (which is surprising to me) but it certainly sounds like something the old man would say.
Could he have meant the Pauper’s Oath?
Just for completeness’ sake, Expanded Universe is an expansion of an earlier Heinlein collection, The Worlds of Robert Heinlein, originally published by Ace Books. Apparently it wasn’t selling very well, so circa 1981 Heinlein punched it up with more reprints and some new material. I’ve seen it on store shelves recently. Every time I picked it up, I get hooked again.
Somebody should update his list of predictions – he wrote that piece “Where to from Here” back in 1950, updated it in 1965 for TWORH, updated it again in 1980 for EU. The next fifteen year update shoulda been in 1995, but RAH had died by then. Heck, we’re coming up on the next revision, 2010.
“If This Goes On–” seemed stupid in 1974, but now seems eerily prescient.
Expanded Universe it is.
Thanks to all.