The Dutch sociologist and historian Fred Polak (1907-1985), inDe toekomst is verleden tijd ["The Future Is Past Time"] (1955 2vols; trans Elise Boulding asThe Image of the Future1961 2vols; trans cut1973), identifies two distinct categories of images of the distant future, which he calls the "future of prophecy" and the "future of destiny". Prophets, although they refer to the future, are primarily concerned with the present: they issue warnings about the consequences of present actions and demand that other courses of action be adopted. Their images are images of the historical future which will grow out of human action in the present day (seeNear Future). To the second category of images, however, present concerns are usually irrelevant; these are images of the ultimate future, taking the imagination as far as it can reach. Such visions are related toEschatology and often feature theEnd of the World; others depict a world where everything has so changed as to have become virtually incomprehensible, or a world which has attained some ultimateUtopian state of perfection.

Scientifically inspired images of the far future could not come into being until the true age of the Earth and therefore the scope of possible change were understood – an understanding first popularized by Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) inPrinciples of Geology (1830). Even then it was not until the establishment of the theory ofEvolution that writers found a conceptual tool which made it possible for them to imagine the kinds of changes which might plausibly take place. W HHudson'sA Crystal Age (1887), which belongs to the utopian school, embraces an evolutionary philosophy of a curiously mystical kind, and such traces of mysticism are retained by very many representations of the far future. Most early images of the far future accepted estimates of the likely age of the Sun based on the tacit, natural but false assumption that its heat was produced by combustion; the far-future Earth is thus represented as a cold, dark and desolate place, ravaged byEntropy, from which life is slowly disappearing. We find such imagery in H GWells'sThe Time Machine (1895), George CWallis's "The Last Days of Earth" (July 1901The Harmsworth Magazine) and William HopeHodgson'sThe House on the Borderland (1908). Hodgson'sThe Night Land (1912) is bizarre as well as bleak, offering a phantasmagorical vision of a decaying world inherited by frightfulMonsters while humanity has retreated behind the defences of aKeep, the Last Redoubt. The optimistic far-future vision which concludes George BernardShaw'sBack to Methuselah (1921; revs1921-1945) is predicated on the assumption that mind can and will cast off the confining shackles of matter. More elaborate but no less striking imagery is featured in the concluding section of GuyDent'sEmperor of the If (1926), in which our insane descendants are no longer human in form or ability but remain all too human in psychological terms. S FowlerWright'sThe World Below (incorporatingThe Amphibians [1924];1929) is equally ambitious, and contrives to transcend the images of decay and desolation associated with so many other visions. These works were quickly followed by OlafStapledon's monumental attempt to track the entireEvolutionary future of mankind,Last and First Men (1930), partly based on a blueprint provided by J B SHaldane in "The Last Judgment" (inPossible Worlds, coll1927). Other than millennarian fantasies, which claim that the future of destiny is imminent, very few novels link the two images of the future defined by Polak within a coherent historical narrative;Last and First Men is by far the most outstanding example, although CamilleFlammarion'sOmega (trans1894) had earlier brought the two into rather awkward juxtaposition.

The early sfPulp magazines featured several far-future visions of the end of the world, but had little to compare with the imagery of the UKScientific Romances, though there were occasional exceptions. Echoing Stapledon's vision if not his scale, Frank BelknapLong produced several "Last Men" short stories showing evolved humans as slaves of once-lesser species; the vivid "Green Glory" (August 1934Astounding) reflects issues of totalitarian conflict. One notable story that presents the extinction of mankind's remote descendants as one more stage in a continuing process of change is "Seeds of the Dusk" (June 1938Astounding) by Raymond ZGallun, in which a much-changed Earth is "invaded" and "conquered" by spores from another world. Gallun's "When Earth is Old" (August 1951Super Science Stories) has time travellers (seeTime Travel) negotiating with sentient plants to assure the rebirth of the species. The quest for some such rebirth is a common motif in far-future stories, and time travellers from the present frequently contrive to turn the evolutionary tide that is sweeping humanity towards extinction, as in such stories as John WCampbell Jr's "Twilight" (November 1934Astounding) as by Don A Stuart. The idea of reigniting a senescent Sun in order to give Earth and mankind a new lease of life is poignantly deployed in Clark AshtonSmith's "Phoenix" (inTime to Come, anth1954, ed AugustDerleth) and extravagantly developed in GeneWolfe'sThe Book of the New Sun (1980-1983 4vols). Such notions arise from false analogies drawn between the life of an individual and that of a species, alleging that species may "age" and become "senescent". The popularity of such ideas in sf is not surprising, given the influence of similar analogies between individuals and cultures in the work of philosophers of history like Oswald Spengler. Spengler's ideas were a strong influence on JamesBlish, whose most memorable accounts of the far future are "Watershed" (May 1955If) andMidsummer Century (April 1972F&SF; rev1972). Images of an aged world that has returned to its "second childhood" are sometimes as affectionate as rose-tinted images of human retirement; the classic example is JohnCrowley'sEngine Summer (1979).

Clark Ashton Smith set the most lushly exotic of all his series in Zothique, the "last continent" – a bizarre andDecadent world in whichMagic flourishes. The stories, all written in the 1930s, were eventually collected inZothique (coll1970). Zothique offered Smith more imaginative freedom than his distant-past scenario Hyperborea precisely because it was irredeemably decadent. A similar but less fervent series of fantasies is JackVance'sThe Dying Earth (coll1950); later sequels includeThe Eyes of the Overworld (fixup1966), which contains a stronger strain of picaresque comedy; Vance's setting if not his comedy was a strong and acknowledged influence on GeneWolfe's already-citedThe Book of the New Sun. AMerritt never used the far future as a setting, but his lavish descriptions of exotic landscapes influenced a number of far-future fantasies; HenryKuttner and C LMoore, who wrote a series of Merritt-influenced novels in the 1940s, offered a Merrittesque far future inEarth's Last Citadel (April-July 1943Argosy;1964).

The classic pulp sf story of the far future is Arthur CClarke's Stapledon-influencedAgainst the Fall of Night (November 1948Startling;1953; rev vtThe City and the Stars1956). Its imagery is stereotyped – a bleak, derelict Earth withCities whose handsome, incurious inhabitants are parasitic upon theirMachines – but its perspectives widen dramatically to take in the whole cosmos, where mankind may yet seek a further and more glorious destiny. This was to become a central myth of sf, and many images ofGalactic Empire include nostalgic portraits of stagnant backwater Earth. These are not, of course, images of the future of destiny but rather attempts to perpetuate and magnify the historical image – as is obvious in the many epics which construct galactic history by analogy with Earthly history.

Images of far-future Earth became more varied in the sf of the 1950s; notable examples include a number of highly stylized and semi-allegorical vignettes by FritzLeiber, including "When the Last Gods Die" (December 1951F&SF) and "The Big Trek" (October 1957F&SF), as well as many fine stories by Brian WAldiss, including the later items inThe Canopy of Time (coll1959; rev vtGalaxies Like Grains of Sand1960), "Old Hundredth" (November 1960New Worlds), the stories making upThe Long Afternoon of Earth (stories February-December 1961F&SF; fixup1962; exp vtHothouse1962), "A Kind of Artistry" (October 1962F&SF) and "The Worm that Flies" (inThe Farthest Reaches, anth1968, ed JosephElder). As with all the stories in this category, these tend towardsFantasy, and some controversy was stirred up by a particularly memorable image inThe Long Afternoon of Earth, in which gigantic cobwebs stretch between the Earth and the Moon, whose faces are now perpetually turned to one another. Other innovative uses of far-future settings can be seen in CordwainerSmith's mythically resonantInstrumentality of Mankind sequence, JohnBrunner's elegiac adventure storyThe 100th Millennium (1959; rev vtCatch a Falling Star1968), Samuel RDelany's exotic romanceThe Jewels of Aptor (1962), Jack Vance's elegant political allegoryThe Last Castle (April 1966Galaxy;1967 chap dos), MichaelMoorcock'sangst-riddenThe Twilight Man (1966; vtThe Shores of Death1970) and CrawfordKilian's exotic romance of maturationEyas (1982).

Michael Moorcock's fondness for far-future settings encouraged him to break new ground in hisDancers at the End of Time trilogy (1972-1976) and various other works associated with it. In this series, whose tone ranges from extravagantSatire to perverse sentimentality, the ultimate future is inhabited by humans with godlike powers who must perpetually seek diversion from the tedium andDecadence of their limitless existence. Other writers who have made frequent and significant use of far-future imagery in the later twentieth century include RobertSilverberg, in such works as the surrealSon of Man (1971) and "This is the Road" (inNo Mind of Man, anth1973, ed RobertSilverberg), DorisPiserchia, in such works asA Billion Days of Earth (1976) andEarth in Twilight (1981), and Michael GConey inThe Celestial Steam Locomotive (1983),Gods of the Greataway (1984) and other associated works.

Space Opera, on those occasions when the constraints of relativity are observed, can convey its protagonists across significantTime Abysses into remote futures when the cosmos may have significantly changed: PoulAnderson takes hisStarship to the end of the universe and beyond inTau Zero (June-August 1967Galaxy as "To Outlive Eternity"; exp1970), and vast time-spans are similarly skipped over in AlastairReynolds's approach to New Space Opera – in particular hisInhibitors sequence opening withRevelation Space (2000), and the standaloneHouse of Suns (2008). Other authors, like GregBear inCity at the End of Time (2008) look farther ahead to theEnd of Time itself (see alsoOmega Point).

For many years there were noAnthologies dealing specifically with this theme. An early example isThe Ends of Time: Eight Stories of Science Fiction (1970) edited by RobertSilverberg; but HarryHarrison's attempt to compile a companion volume to his near-future anthologyThe Year 2000 (anth1970), to be entitled «The Year 2,000,000», failed to attract sufficient suitable submissions. Later, however, came such relevant anthologies asFar Futures (anth1997) edited by GregoryBenford,The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures in the Far Future (anth2000) edited by GardnerDozois,Earth Is But a Star: Excursions Through Science Fiction to the Far Future (anth2001) edited by DamienBroderick,Millennium 3001 (anth2006) edited by RussellDavis and Martin HGreenberg andOne Million AD (anth2006) edited by Dozois. Many new stories of JackVance'sDying Earth (which see) appear inSongs of the Dying Earth (anth2009) edited by Dozois and George R RMartin. [BS/DRL]

see also:Devolution;Mythology.

further reading

• Fred Polak.De toekomst is verleden tijd ["The Future Is Past Time"] (Amsterdam, Netherlands: De Haan,1955) [published in two volumes: hb/]
  • Fred Polak.The Image of the Future (Leydon, Netherlands: A W Sythoff/New York: Oceana Publications,1961) [nonfiction: published in two volumes: trans by Elise Boulding of the above: hb/]
    • Fred Polak.The Image of the Future (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier,1973) [nonfiction: cut version of the above trans: hb/]

anthologies

• RobertSilverberg, editor.The Ends of Time: Eight Stories of Science Fiction (New York: Hawthorn Press,1970) [anth: hb/Barry Martin]
• GregoryBenford, editor.Far Futures (New York: Tor,1995) [anth: hb/BobEggleton]
• GardnerDozois, editor.The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures in the Far Future (New York: St Martin's/Griffin,2000) [anth: pb/ChesleyBonestell]
• DamienBroderick, editor.Earth Is But a Star: Excursions Through Science Fiction to the Far Future (Crawley, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press,2001) [anth: pb/Anders Sandberg]
• RussellDavis and Martin HGreenberg, editors.Millennium 3001 (New York: DAW Books,2006) [anth: pb/uncredited]
• GardnerDozois, editor.One Million AD (New York: Science Fiction Book Club,2006) [anth: hb/BobEggleton]
• GardnerDozois and George R RMartin, editors.Songs of the Dying Earth (Burton, Michigan: Subterranean Press,2009) [anth: JackVance: hb/TomKidd]

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