Serpentoids in Science Fiction

Cover make-over by Mr. Wombo.

 In my previous blog post, I began a search for the most important science fiction story teller who was born in the year 1926. Here in this blog post, I turn my attention to Anne McCaffrey (born April 1, 1926). Full disclosure: in the distant past of the previous millennium, there were book stores that had distinct science fiction and fantasy sections and employees who knew the meaning of the words "science fiction". When shopping malls and chain stores arrived, all the pretense of separating the science fiction books from the fantasy books ended. When looking for science fiction stories, I learned to avoid books that had dragons and swords on the cover.

 Judging Books by their Covers. In fact, for many decades my motto was "there are no swords in science fiction". Take a look at the image below (Figure 1). Based only on the book covers, I was never tempted to buy a novel by McCaffrey.

Figure 1. Working hypothesis: there are no swords or dragons in science fiction.

Cover make-over by Mr. Wombo.

Having never read anything written by McCaffrey, it was with trepidation that I decided to read "Weyr Search" which was published in the December 1967 issue of Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact. The cover by John Schoenherr for that issue was an illustration for McCaffrey's story and there was also additional interior artwork by John Schoenherr for "Weyr Search" that I wanted to see. I also wanted to read Campbell's editorial in that issue of the magazine which was titled "The Nature of Intelligent Aliens".

Aliens on Earth.

Sadly, "The Nature of Intelligent Aliens" had nothing to say about aliens. That editorial was about Campbell stating the "fact" that humans are great and we got that by being aggressive warriors. And further more, with the world's human population exploding, Campbell told his readers that there was no substitute for war if we wanted to get population growth under control. Of course, that was nonsense. 

When women were allowed to have careers, population growth slowed all over the world. Campbell also made his case for prejudice as being the mark of an intelligent creature. Many science fiction story tellers including Isaac Asimov got so tired of Campbell's distasteful editorial  pronouncements and loony enthusiasms for pseudoscience that they stopped associating with Campbell.

Figure 2. Story page 1 interior art by John Schoenherr.

I was looking forward to seeing the internal art that had been created by John Schoenherr for "Weyr Search". However, the drawing at the start of the story is rather dismal. In "Weyr Search" there is a creature called a "watch-wher", apparently the Pern equivalent of a watchdog (see Figure 2). The watch-wher is kept chained up in the stable-yard of Hold Ruath (see the map in Figure 3, below) in Ruatha.

Maybe up there on the parapet is Lessa. The story starts with Lessa apparently having some sort of telepathic premonition about approaching danger.

Figure 3. Map of Pern. Interactive Map.

Serpentoid

 Me: Gemini, provide a dispassionate AI perspective analysis that both 1) explains the historical origins dragons in fiction and 2) their continuing popularity, even in science fiction.

Gemini: As a dispassionate AI, I will analyze the historical origins and continuing popularity of dragons in fiction, including their presence in science fiction.

1. Historical Origins of Dragon Archetypes

The historical origins of the dragon archetype can be traced to various ancient mythologies and folklores across the globe, suggesting a widespread, polygenic evolution rather than a single point of origin. This archetype is a cultural composite, amalgamating the perceived traits of various apex predators and natural phenomena.

Ruatha Hold

 Reptilian and Serpentoid Influences: The most fundamental root is the serpentine creature. In many ancient cultures, large snakes or serpents were potent symbols, often associated with both life-giving and destructive forces. In Mesopotamian mythology, figures like Tiamat, a primordial goddess often depicted as a sea serpent or dragon, represented the chaotic, untamed forces of nature. Similarly, in ancient Greek mythology, creatures like the Lernaean Hydra or the Python were monstrous serpents slain by heroes. These early reptilian forms often symbolized primordial chaos, mortality, or natural disasters like floods and plagues.

Avian and Predatory Influences: The addition of wings and the ability to breathe fire likely evolved from the awe and fear inspired by large birds of prey and volcanic activity. The eagle, a symbol of divine power and dominion in many cultures (e.g., Zeus's eagle), combined with the serpent, a symbol of primal earth power, created a hybrid creature embodying both celestial and chthonic forces. The fire-breathing attribute can be interpreted as a metaphor for volcanic eruptions, lightning, or the destructive power of fire itself. The Drakon of ancient Greece, a term that originally referred to any large snake or serpent, later absorbed these additional features.

Dragon visit.

 Cultural Dichotomy: East vs. West: A significant divergence in the archetype occurred between Eastern and Western cultures. In Western European folklore, particularly during the Middle Ages, dragons became predominantly malevolent symbols. They were often depicted as greedy hoarders of treasure, personifications of evil and temptation (as seen in the story of Saint George and the Dragon), or symbols of paganism to be conquered by Christian heroes. This portrayal reflects the human-centric narrative of good triumphing over evil and the conquest of nature. In contrast, East Asian dragons, particularly in Chinese mythology, are typically benevolent and wise. They are associated with water, rain, and storms, and are revered as divine creatures that bring fortune and good harvest. They symbolize imperial power, wisdom, and cosmic energy (qi). This contrast highlights how a single archetype can be culturally modulated to serve different societal values and narratives.

The red robe.

 2. Continuing Popularity, Including in Science Fiction

The enduring popularity of dragons can be attributed to their versatile symbolic power and their function as a potent narrative device.

A Primal Archetype: Dragons tap into a deeply ingrained human psychological response to powerful, non-human entities. They embody both our deepest fears (destruction, untamed nature) and our aspirations (power, wisdom, immortality). As a narrative shorthand, they can instantly establish a setting's tone—whether it's one of high fantasy, looming peril, or ancient mystery.

Symbolic Versatility: The dragon's symbolic flexibility allows it to be adapted to any genre. It can be a literal monster to be slain, a wise and ancient mentor, a metaphor for corporate greed, a representation of a natural force, or a technological marvel. This adaptability makes them a valuable tool for storytellers. For instance, in a fantasy context, a dragon might represent a physical obstacle to be overcome. In a more allegorical work, it could symbolize an internal struggle or societal flaw.

Telepaths of Pern.

 Integration into Science Fiction: The presence of dragons in science fiction is a testament to this versatility. While they may seem anachronistic in a genre typically focused on technology and the future, their inclusion is not a conceptual contradiction. Instead, the dragon archetype is re-contextualized through a science-fictional lens.

Biological Re-imagination: Science fiction often re-envisions dragons through the prism of xenobiology or genetic engineering. A "dragon" is no longer a magical creature but an apex predator from an alien world, a genetically engineered bioweapon, or a lifeform that has evolved to mimic a terrestrial dragon's form and abilities (e.g., using a symbiotic microorganism to produce fire-like plasma). This approach allows authors to explore concepts of alien evolution, biomechanics, and ecological niche.

Watching for approaching danger.

 Technological Manifestations: Consistent with the user's interest in advanced nanotechnology and telepathy, a science-fictional "dragon" could be a highly advanced construct. It could be a nano-technological swarm forming a dragon-like shape, a biomechanical war machine, or a being with technologically assisted telepathy that projects the image of a dragon into the minds of its victims. In this context, the dragon becomes a vehicle for exploring the consequences of runaway technology and the boundaries between artificial life and organic life.

Narrative Function: Regardless of their origin, dragons in science fiction retain their narrative power. They can serve as a non-human intelligence with a vastly different worldview, a symbol of a forgotten ancient civilization, or a test for a technologically advanced society. Their presence challenges the assumption that advanced technology eliminates the need for primal, mythological confrontations, instead suggesting that ancient archetypes can be re-born in new, futuristic forms.

In conclusion, the dragon archetype persists because it is not merely a creature but a potent and adaptable symbol. Its enduring popularity stems from its ability to embody core human anxieties and aspirations, while its successful migration into science fiction demonstrates its capacity to evolve from a creature of myth into a sophisticated and scientifically plausible entity.

Figure 4. Colorized page 1 illustration. Compare to Figure 2, above.

A watch-wher by WOMBO Dream.

  Oh how clumsy... I lost another planet. I've never been a fan of the "lost planet" story. Jack Vance loved the idea of people spreading out through the galaxy and then somehow "forgetting" about various colonized planets. In Vance's hands, this was a way to generate a "clean slate planet" with whatever culture he wanted to imagine (example: the planet Thamber in Vance's 1964 novel The Killing Machine). In the hands of McCaffrey, Pern is depicted as a "lost" human-colonized planet that is no longer linked in any meaningful way to Earth. This sort of lost planet reminds me of one of my favorite science fiction stories, Assignment: Nor'Dyren by Sydney Van Scyoc. Van Scyoc imagined a planet that was colonized by aliens, but then that alien interstellar civilization collapsed, leaving the people of planet Nor'Dyren to culturally evolve in strange new directions.

Figure 5. Page 1 illustration re-worked by WOMBO Dream. Compare to Figure 4, above.

Gemini-generated science fiction scene.

McCaffrey takes readers off to the Rukbat star system, somewhere in "Sagiattarian sector", where the planet Pern was settled by human colonists. For his story Marune, Jack Vance imagined a planet where only about once a month, and for only about one hour, did all of the suns leave the sky, allowing night to fall. Isaac Asimov became famous for his story Nightfall in which thousands of years passed on another planet between periods of night. McCaffrey imagined a star system where there is an Earth-like planet that can periodically (once every 200 years) interact with another planet (called the "Red Star" by the Pernese) that is in a weird eccentric elliptical orbit. That other planet is home to the Evil™ Threads, whose presence in the Rukbat system forced the human colonists of Pern to form a telepathic alliance with the native creatures who they genetically modified to create the fire-breathing dragons of Pern, all as a way to devise a biological defense against the Threads.

Gemini-generated science fiction creature.

 And telekinesis, too. The dragons of Pern, complete with wings and the ability to fly, make no biological sense. This was explained away by saying that the dragons had a form of telekinesis that allowed them to self-levitate. Some of the Pernese have telepathic abilities, which comes in handy when you have to defend Pern against the Evil™ Threads. It should also be obvious to science fiction fans, that if you need to defend your planet against Evil™ aliens, you need something more than just flying dragons and telepaths. In this case, it is a BIG PLUS that the dragons also have the magical ability to teleport.

 Gemini Knows the Look and Feel of Sci Fi. For the image shown to the left I asked Gemini to generate, "a science fiction movie still depicting an alien castle on a distant exoplanet. A very young dragon-like alien stands in the courtyard and is bound to the stone wall that is in the background by a glowing translucent force-field".

Figure 6. Page 1 illustration re-worked by Gemini. Compare to Figure 5, above.

All of that info dump about Sagiattarian sector and the history of Pern is provided to readers on the first page of "Weyr Search" and then Lessa appears and the story starts. The text of the story reads like something out of the year 1111 on Earth, except for the fact that Lessa has telepathic abilities.

Figure 7. Internal art for "Weyr Search".

 The "Weyr Search" Drinking Game. Try playing this game while you read "Weyr Search"... for every use of the term "Lord" or "Lady" take a drink. That's right, in a futuristic civilization on a distant exoplanet, there are slave-like commoners who are subservient to their ruling Lords and Ladies. Yes, that is exactly the kind of exciting future (~2525) existence waiting for Humanity out among the stars that I really want to read about in my science fiction. Sadly, I did not play the drinking game, so in order to preserve my sanity I started skimming the story. Full disclosure: I don't think it would be possible for me to read any Anne McCaffrey story in its entirety. McCaffrey embraced the label "science fiction", but the science fiction elements in "Weyr Search" are very few and far between. 

Lessa captured by the dragon, by ImageFX.

 Can't Get Off The Ground. In fact, I'd label McCaffrey style of fantasy fiction as being distinctly anti-science. For example, unless anti-gravity technology is built it into the dragons, I don't believe the big lumbering dragons of Pern could actually ever get off of the ground. When writing "Weyr Search", such technical issues do not concern McCaffrey who obviously had no training in science or understanding of science and was hell-bent on writing about dragons, regardless of whether those dragons made any kind of biological sense.

Figure 8. A larger dragon, by ImageFX.

 Panspermia. I despise the plot of War of the Worlds. Martians come to Earth to make war and take control of the planet. Ever since Herbert Wells made the first famous alien invasion story, other writers have endlessly depicted hordes of alien invaders traveling through space to wreak havoc on hapless humans. Yawn. Here is how McCaffrey created dramatic tension for the planet Pern: alien invaders (the "Threads") periodically arrive from the "Red Star". "The indigenous life of the wanderer sought to bridge the space gap to the more temperate and hospitable planet."

Dragon egg by Mr. Wombo.

 Lessa the Dragonman. The telepathic humans of Pern who ride on their dragons and defend the people of Pern against the invading Threads are "a breed apart", the "dragonmen". The titular "Weyr Search" constitutes dragonmen flying around the countryside of Pern in search of more telepaths who are needed to bond with newly hatched dragons and keep up the biological defense system of the planet as the "Red Star" again approaches. The telepathic Lessa is exactly what the roving dragonmen are looking for.

Many people compare McCaffrey's "Weyr Search" and her other Pern stories to Frank Herbert's Dune stories. Herbert's Dune and its biologically absurd alien sand worms made a big impact on the science fiction genre in 1966 after Dune was published as a paperback novel (having first been serialized in Campbell's Analog). If you wanted to get your fantasy story published by Campbell then a reasonable strategy was to include telepathy in your story. Campbell, who had training in physical science and a profound ignorance of biology, was not likely to care if your ginormous sand worm or your ginormous dragon was biologically absurd.

Weyrwomen of Pern.

The second piece of interior art for "Weyr Search" was placed 36 pages into the story (see Figure 7), just after readers are told that Lessa can be a weyrwoman. Lessa has spent ten years scheming to become the ruler of Hold Ruath, so at first she tries to run away from the "dragonmen" and their on-going "Weyr search", but she is captured by a dragon and returned to F'lar the dragonman, as shown in Figure 7. How large did McCaffrey imagine the flying dragons of Pern to be? In the text of the story, she states that the eye of a dragon is as large as a human head (see Figure 8, above).

Me: Imagine a creature that was like Quetzalcoatlus northropi but which had body proportions that were much larger, all body parts larger in proportion so that its eyes were 12 inches across. Could such a large animal fly? 

Gemini: That is a fascinating thought experiment, and it delves directly into the fundamental constraints of biomechanical scaling and aerodynamics—precisely the kind of interplay between biology and physics that makes for great science.

The short answer is No, such an animal would almost certainly be flightless. The scaling of the body to achieve a 12-inch eye would result in a colossal mass that would exceed the theoretical limits for powered flight in Earth's atmosphere.

Here is a breakdown using the principles of scaling and aerodynamics:

Dragon egg by Mr. Wombo.

 1. The Challenge of Isometrically Scaled Mass

The thought experiment specifies that all body parts, including the eyes, are larger in proportion—this implies isometric scaling from the already massive Quetzalcoatlus northropi.

• Mass Scaling: If the creature's linear dimensions (L) are increased to make the eye diameter go from a realistic 2 inches up to 12 inches , the linear scaling factor is 6.

• Mass Increase: Mass scales with the cube of the linear dimension. If the original Q. northropi mass is conservatively estimated at 200 kg, the new mass would be 45,200 kg far heavier than any known animal to have achieved powered flight.

 2. The Physical Limit of Powered Flight

The limit of animal flight is constrained by the maximum power the flight muscles can produce relative to the weight of the animal.

• Muscle Power Scaling: The power available from muscle tissue is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscle. As the animal size (L) increases, the power available per unit of mass rapidly decreases.

• Power Required: For an animal with a mass of 45 metric tons, the muscle mass required to simply lift the animal's weight (even before sustained flapping) would likely exceed its entire body mass. Current aerodynamic models place the upper limit for powered flight on Earth between 50 kg and 100 kg. Q. northropi itself (200 kg) is considered to have been at the absolute fringe of this limit, likely relying heavily on soaring, gliding, and a unique catapult-launch mechanism.

 3. Structural and Physiological Constraints

Beyond the power issue, the structure and physiology would fail:

• Bone Strength: The square-cube law dictates that as an animal scales up, its skeletal cross-sectional area is insufficient to support its mass. The bones would fail under the sheer load of the body, let alone the stresses of flapping flight.

• Respiratory Efficiency: The Q. northropi respiratory system was likely highly pneumaticized (filled with air sacs extending into the bones) to reduce density. Such a vast structure, when scaled up, would face critical issues in maintaining the structural integrity necessary for flight muscle attachment and for efficient gas exchange to power the immense energy demand.

In summary, the design constraint you imposed—a 12-inch eye due to proportional scaling—results in a creature so massive that it falls catastrophically outside the biomechanical and aerodynamic envelope for powered flight in the Earth's atmosphere. Such a spectacular organism would be confined to the ground.

Generated by ImageFX.

 Me: Why have story tellers like Anne McCaffrey written "science fiction" stories about giant dragons that are clearly too large to fly?

Gemini: The reason storytellers like Anne McCaffrey write about giant, implausibly large flying dragons, particularly in a context labeled "science fiction," stems from a deliberate literary choice: to use scientific rationalization to lend realism to a fantastic creature, while maintaining the narrative and emotional power that the fantastic creature provides.

In the case of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, the storytellers' choice is justified by key narrative and pseudo-scientific elements:

1. The Blurring of Genre for Narrative Intent

 McCaffrey's work is often categorized as science fantasy or a blend of science fiction and fantasy. The core intent is to use the emotional and mythical resonance of dragons, but anchor their existence in a science fiction premise:

Genetic Engineering. The Pern dragons were not naturally evolved. They were genetically engineered from a smaller indigenous lifeform—the fire-lizard—by the original human colonists of Pern. This technological origin, done to combat the threat of the extraterrestrial Thread spores, is the central science fiction premise that allows the creation of a creature that defies natural evolution and terrestrial biomechanics.

Telepathic Bond. The unique, lifelong, telepathic bond (Impression) between dragon and rider creates the core emotional and social structure of the novels, which is a powerful narrative driver impossible with a purely naturalistic animal.

 2. Pseudo-Scientific Rationalization for Flight

McCaffrey provides in-world, though scientifically suspect, explanations to skirt the laws of physics that would prohibit the flight of such large, dense creatures (like the 40–45 foot Gold Queens):

Undersized Wings and Telekinetic Augmentation. The dragons are frequently described as having wings that are seemingly too small for their mass. One explanation developed in the later canon is that the dragons possess a subconscious form of telekinesis to generate additional lift, effectively cheating the required aerodynamic forces that mass-scaling would impose.

Instantaneous Travel (Teleportation). The dragons' primary method of long-distance travel is not powered flight but teleportation (Going Between space/time), allowing them to bypass the need for sustained, high-power, long-duration flight that would be metabolically impossible. Their wings are primarily for maneuvering in atmosphere and taking off/landing.

 3. The Centrality of Spectacle and Symbolism

Ultimately, the decision to write about giant, beautiful, flying dragons overrides strict adherence to the square-cube law because the story requires the spectacle.

The Heroic Image. The image of a human rider bonded to a massive, fiery, armored creature soaring through the sky is a powerful symbol of heroism and partnership. A small, flight-plausible dragon would diminish this grand, mythical quality.

The Scale of the Conflict. The dragons must be large enough to carry a human and fight the deadly, destructive incursions of Thread—a physical threat that rains from the sky and requires a large, destructive counter-force (phosphine flame) to be effective.

The science in Q. northropi's case gives you the absolute limit; the science fiction in McCaffrey's case gives you a justification for transcending that limit to tell the desired story, often by invoking advanced biotechnology or a subtle, power-enhancing ability, thus providing a narrative bridge between the laws of physics and the imagination.

Figure 9. Ramath and Lessa. Pages 58 & 59 internal art for "Weyr Search".

 

Hungry dragon.

The interior art shown in Figure 9 comes soon after the point in the story when Lessa watches several dragons hatch. Lessa instantly forms a telepathic link to Ramath, the new dragon queen.

 Short Attention Span. I confess that I did not read all of "Weyr Search". I skipped over the middle part of the story where the Evil™ ruler of Hold Ruath is killed. There is too much blood and sickening violence in "Weyr Search" for my taste. In the last part of the story, several dragons hatch out of their eggs and immediately kill several young boys and girls. Yes, that is certainly the way to encourage me to read your next "science fiction" story. It took me 50 years to get up the courage to try to read one of Anne McCaffrey's stories. That one will last me a lifetime.

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Start Imagining 2026

Generated by Mr. Wombo (see).

 Since 2017, I have begun each new year in blogging (see Jan. 1st 2025) with a look back at one or more authors who were born 100 years ago. In past years, I've eagerly anticipated this beginning-of-the-year opportunity to celebrate the fiction of my favorite writers such as Isaac Asimov. The year 2017 was also the start of the transformer era of artificial intelligence research, so it is fitting that I make use of AI systems to help write and illustrate my annual historical blog posts.

Also mentioned below on this page is Jack Vance. From Vance's Death in 2013 to 2023 I had annual blog posts celebrating his fiction. I often write science fiction stories that can be labeled as being wither Asimov or Vance-inspired fan-fiction. However, with 2026 approaching, I had no particular science fiction author in mind who should be celebrated on January 1st 2026. Thus, even though it is only September, I decided to start making plans for the upcoming new year.

LLM generated by ImageFX.

Recently, I've been collaborating with Large Language Models (particularly Claude ) to write science fiction stories (see), so I asked Gemini for a list of science fiction story authors who were born in 1926.

Gemini: There's a significant number of science fiction authors born in 1926. Here's a list:

• J. G. Ballard (James Graham Ballard).
• Robert Silverberg.
• Richard Matheson.
• Frank Herbert.
• Avram Davidson.
• Thomas M. Disch.
• Ursula K. Le Guin.

Generated by Mr. Wombo.

 Me: According to the Internet Speculative Fiction database, James Graham Ballard {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?259} was born 15 November 1930, Robert Silverberg {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?54} was born 15 January 1935, Frank Herbert {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?30} was born 8 October 1920, Avram Davidson {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?501} was born 23 April 1923, Thomas M. Disch {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?821} was born 2 February 1940, Ursula K. Le Guin {https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?37} was born 21 October 1929.

Gemini: My apologies for the previous response. The information I provided was incorrect. Thank you for providing the correct birth years and the links to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Storm (right) by Mr. Wombo.
The Australopithecus was
generated by ImageFx.

 Based on my corrected search, a notable science fiction author born in 1926 is:

• Poul Anderson (November 25, 1926 - July 31, 2001) - A prolific and highly-regarded American science fiction and fantasy author who won numerous awards, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Me: Claude, generate a list of science fiction story authors who were born in 1926.

Claude: Based on my search results and knowledge, here are the notable science fiction authors who were born in 1926:

Poul Anderson (November 25, 1926 - July 31, 2001).
Anne McCaffrey (April 1, 1926 - November 21, 2011)
Richard Matheson (February 20, 1926 - June 23, 2013)
John Middleton Murry, Jr. (May 9, 1926 - February 29, 2002)
Jimmy Guieu (March 19, 1926 - January 2, 2000)
Lino Aldani (March 29, 1926 - January 23, 2009)

Storm and a Neanderthal.

 Poul Anderson. I've previously blogged about a story titled "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson. Anderson studied physics in college, but I'm not sure that he enjoyed playing the "science fiction game". The logic of science and reality was too constricting for Anderson's story telling imagination. In 2022 I tried to find every science fiction story about baseball. I discovered "Joy in Mudville" by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson which first appeared in the November 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story involves baseball-playing Hoka, space aliens who look a lot like Earthly teddy bears. Anderson did not have much of a head for biology, so his space aliens always seem like fantasy creatures. See also: the May 1950 issue of Astounding which had "The Helping Hand" by Poul Anderson. In that story, Anderson invented two alien species, neither of which seemed realistic.

Neanderthal (left) by ImageFX.

 Fictional Biology. I love stories about human clones. Back in 2020, I blogged about the fact that the January 1953 issue of Astounding included Anderson's story "Un-Man", about human clones. Sadly, when writing that story in the year when the structure of the DNA double helix was published, Anderson erroneously included the idea that protein, not DNA, is the genetic molecule. 

 Time Travel. There is a long tradition in science fiction and fantasy of blurring the boundary between biology and physics. For example, Poul Anderson imagined that a gene mutation could endow people with the ability to travel through time. As discussed in this 2020 blog post, Anderson published a time travel story called "Flight to Forever" in Super Science Stories Nov. 1950 (PDF download here). In that story, a dude named Martin gets to traverse the entire time-line of the universe, which, conveniently, is circular.

Figure 1. illustration by Gray Morrow

 My relationship with Poul Anderson did not start well. In the previous millennium, when I began buying science fiction paperbacks in bookstores, I was appalled by the huge number of books on the shelves by Anderson. I noticed this phenomenon because I was usually looking for books by Asimov. I believe that books by Asimov quickly jumped off of the shelves, but nobody wanted all those goofy novels by Anderson, so there they sat on the shelves.

 Amazing Stories magazine launched in 1926, the year of Anderson's birth. I'm a sucker for time travel stories so I decided to read "The Corridors of Time" by Poul Anderson, which first appeared in print as a novel and then in condensed form in the May and June 1965 issues of Amazing Stories. As published in Amazing Stories, "The Corridors of Time" began with an illustration by Gray Morrow (see Figure 1, the image that is shown to the right and slightly above ⇑).

Figure 2. Enhanced Storm
by WOMBO Dream.

I manually colorized the image that is shown in Figure 1 and had WOMBO Dream generate an updated color version of this scene (see Figure 2, the image to the left).

The text of the condensed version of "The Corridors of Time" that got published in Amazing Stories begins with Malcolm Lockridge being driven in a car by Storm Darroway to an existing archeological site in Denmark. Storm is described as tall and dressed in pants and a sweater, but for Figure 2, Mr. Wombo wanted her in a skirt.

Readers of the Amazing Stories version of "The Corridors of Time" are quickly informed that Storm has hired Malcolm and has paid him plenty of money for his services. In his unspoken thoughts, readers see that Malcolm is sexually attracted to his employer and he compares Storm to Diana the Huntress. Anderson described Storm as having black hair, but when I manually colorized Figure 1, I wanted some contrast, hence the flashy purple vehicle and Storm's bright red hair.

Figure 3. Image by Gemini.

I provided Figure 2 as a reference image to Gemini along with these instructions: "Edit the uploaded image to generate a photorealistic high detail, sharp focus science fiction movie still depicting a young woman with long red hair riding in a flying car, the woman is seated beside a man, the woman is seen in profile view, the man is seen from behind as he points a blaster weapon at the trailing vehicle, another flying car is in the distance, the two flying cars are inside a brightly lit artificial canyon that has metallic walls and is seen against the dark of night in the background". Gemini generated the image that is shown in Figure 3. I was surprised by the way that Gemini removed the floor from the flying car, but I liked the effect.

As a fan of Jack Vance's stories, I've frequently seen his heroines described as having tawny skin. Anderson was also a Vance fan and I suspect that Anderson learned to verbally describe the beauty of both landscapes and girls by reading the works of Vance. 

Figure 4. Image by Gemini.

Anderson described Storm as having a "tawny complexion". According to Gemini, a "tawny complexion" refers to a warm, yellowish-brown or light brown skin tone, used to describe skin that has a natural, sun-kissed appearance, and it can include golden or even reddish undertones. In the 14th century there was an Anglo-French word tauné or tané that literally meant "tanned". For Figure 4 I specified that Storm be given a tawny complexion and her skin ended up a bit more colored, but maybe my imaginary redheaded Storm does not really tan. 

 The Plot Thickens. Readers of "The Corridors of Time" quickly learn that Storm is expecting trouble because she had Malcolm buy some guns. Why do they need guns for a visit to an archeological site in Denmark? Storm identifies herself to Malcolm as an agent of an anti-communist underground. Malcolm has been told by Storm that they will try to dig up some Nazi gold that was hidden during the war. Malcolm is 26, has previously been in the Marines and may have come to Storm's attention after he was involved in some shady work in Mexico's Mayan ruins.

Storm with her scanner.

Malcolm starts to wonder about Storm when she casually uses a mysterious Hi Tek™ scanner device. Malcolm has his two conventional guns, but Storm pulls out of the car's trunk her own Hi Tek™ blaster with multiple barrels. Having reached the remote location of an ancient burial mound in Denmark, Storm uses a hand-held futuristic control device to levitate a ten foot deep, ten foot wide plug of ground into the air. Quickly Storm and Malcolm scurry underground, going below the archeological site that was excavated in 1927.

 Malcolm In Wonderland. Now in an alien underground of softly glowing tunnels, Malcolm is in wonderland. Passing through a veil of "living light", they enter "the corridor", which is a seemingly endless tunnel, 100 feet across. They quickly climb onto a hovering metal toboggan, the device I referred to above (in my text prompt to Gemini) as a flying car, shown in Figure 1. Storm calls it a gravity sled.

In theaters now: Guns by WOMBO.

 Rangers and Wardens and Guardians, oh my. Soon they are shooting at, and killing, what Storm identifies as men who work for Brann. After surviving the shoot-out, Storm kisses Malcolm and mumbles about the political factions of her age: Rangers and Wardens. Along the entire long length of the time corridor, there are sequentially numbered exits. Having entered the time tunnel at a portal in the 4,000s, they exit through portal number 1175. Storm and Malcolm emerge from the tunnel system into a night on the surface of Earth in the year 1827 B.C.. Storm admits to being a time traveler from some 2,000 years in Malcolm's future, her era in Time being not very long after the invention of time travel technology.

 The Time Tunnels. Storm explains that no individual time tunnel can give access to a stretch of time that is longer than about 6,000 years, but there is a network of multiple tunnels under the surface of Earth.

Storm, Malcolm and daughter.

 However, Storm knows nothing about the future beyond her own native place in Earth's timeline. Access to future eras is blocked by powerful Guardians. Storm describes the struggle between Wardens and Rangers as being a conflict between "keepers of life" and those who would "make the world over in the machine's image". 

I've long admired the novel Trullion by Jack Vance in which he turned the 1960s youth "counter-culture" movement on its head, imagining future human civilization where the "hippies" dominated society, forcing another counter-revolution against those "hippies". "The Corridors of Time" seems to be Anderson's attempt to extrapolate the 1960s youth "counter-culture" movement into the future Wardens. This is all so tiresome, with Anderson apparently trapped in the old moldy mold of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells which brought us the absurd Eloi and Morlocks.

Storm as the goddess Nike.

As an anthropology graduate student, Malcolm is intrigued to find himself in the past. Storm "explains" that time travelers are woven into the past and unable to alter the course of history. She describes the efforts of the Wardens and Rangers in the past as "getting recruits" for "the final contest".

Storm tells Malcolm that they must travel to another time tunnel that can be accessed from Crete and the long journey from Denmark to Crete will be facilitated by the fact that the local people of Denmark in 1827 B.C. view Storm as the goddess Nike.

Future Storm.

Storm provides Malcolm with a universal translator that merges into his nervous system so that he can understand any language he hears being spoken. More magically, and to keep the plot going, Malcolm can also now use the neural implant so as to allow him to fluently speak to the natives of this time and place in their own language, particularly the cute native girl named Auri. Anderson makes it clear to readers that Auri is a virgin. She quickly takes an interest in Malcolm, making it clear that she hopes he will "initiate" her into adulthood.

 Introducing Malcomlm Time Travel Loop #1. But then Brann the Ranger shows up and captures Malcolm and Storm. Brann tells Malcolm that he was able to find them in this past era because Malcolm of the future has already told Brann where to look in time for Storm. 

The Time Goddess.

 High Security Time Travel. We readers are supposed to believe that everything happening to Malcolm will somehow determine the fate of Humanity in the future, but strangely, the whole story seems contrived, boring and pointless. Earth is honey-combed by time tunnels, well trampled by time travelers, and none of that, or anything that Malcolm, Storm or Brann did in the past, has ever been noticed and written about by any observer of any era.

The Death Knell of Fictional Politics. And with an additional 25 pages remaining in Part 1 of the story, the weight of all those unread pages and all of Part 2 began to weigh on me. Clearly, Anderson was having fun writing about ancient peoples and how anyone with technology from the future would appear to be a god, but... yawn. Certainly, the fictional politics of the future that were concocted by Anderson are no concern of mine and I don't care if either the Wardens or the Rangers control the future.

Miss Olyvia by Mr. Wombo.

 Heroes Can Always Escape. One of the great things about reading science fiction stories that were published in two parts in a magazine is being able to read the synopsis of Part 1 that is provided at the start of Part 2. Thus, I skipped the last 25 pages of Part 1 and read in the synopsis that Malcolm and Auri escaped from Brann and used the time tunnel to travel to the 1500s where in England the Wardens existed as a "Catholic underground" headed by "white magicians" and led by Mareth. Mareth leads a rescue part back to 1827 B.C. where Storm is rescued and Brann is taken prisoner. Now Malcolm must complete the time-loop by going to the future where Malcolm is destined to trick Brann into going to 1827 B.C., where Brann can be defeated.

As appreciative as I am about not having to read the last 25 pages of Part 1, the question remains: what is the motivation to read Part 2? The historical time-line of Earth is a complete; we have been told that Brann will be defeated. So why keep reading?

Updated by WOMBO (see original).
Original cover art by Leo Summers,
John Duillo and Ed Valigursky

Another impediment to me reading Part 2 of "The Corridors of Time" is that I have previously slogged through "The Other Side of Time" by Keith Laumer. I would not be surprised if Laumer read "The Corridors of Time" and could not resist writing his own time travel story.

Decisions, decisions. For "The Other Side of Time", the male protagonist gets to play with both Miss Olyvia and the fetching Miss Barbro. In "The Corridors of Time", Malcolm gets to play with the cute blond girl Auri and Storm the goddess. I suppose we need to read Part 2 of "The Corridors of Time" in order to discover if Malcolm lives happily ever after with the girl from the past or the girl from the future... or both.

In Part 2 of "The Corridors of Time", Malcolm completes his mission with Brann that will lead to Brann's defeat in the far past. Malcolm is rescued from the Evil™ grip of Brann by mysterious helpers from the far future who give him a brief glimpse of a distant future in which Humanity has finally gotten past the Warden-Ranger Time War and successfully reached for the stars. The people of the future return Malcolm to the past so that he can play out his role in bringing that glorious future into existence.

The Time Wardens (see).

 All it Takes is Tin or Tin Man 1800 B.C.. It is Storm's ensuing torture of the captive Brann that leads Malcolm to break with Storm. He flees from Denmark with Auri and goes to England. Full disclosure: I only skimmed Part 2. In England, Malcolm organizes the tribes, trades tin with people from the south and forms an alliance, resulting in what is called the Sea People. Returning to Denmark, Malcolm defeats Storm and seemingly has created a path to the future he has already seen, a future in which the long Time War between the Wardens and the Rangers had finally ended and Humanity reaches the stars.

I find nothing quite so mind-numbing as fictional politics. "The Corridors of Time" is built around a futile political conflict and Time War between the Wardens and the Rangers. Maybe a more careful reading of "The Corridors of Time" could make the Wardens and the Rangers meaningful to me, but I doubt it. Maybe Anderson used the Wardens and the Rangers as proxies for the forces that Anderson saw fighting in Vietnam when he wrote "The Corridors of Time".

The Storm Goddess.

 It is Science Fiction so there MUST be Spaceships! There are similarities between "The Corridors of Time" and Isaac Asimov's time travel novel, "The End of Eternity". In both stories, a misguided culture of time travelers is depicted that must be destroyed by people from the future. Both stories feature a future era that is "walled off" from the past and people from that future secretly manipulate the past. The plot of "The End of Eternity" is built around one great time travel loop that allowed for the invention of time travel. Both stories show Humanity as initially being caught-up in a deadend society, but then that society is smashed and Humanity finally can move on with the great adventure of exploring outer space.

 I'm More Divine than You. In "The Corridors of Time", Anderson had fun creating several time-loops for Malcolm to get caught up in, but mostly it seemed that Anderson wanted to play with the idea that technologically advanced people from the future might live among primitive peoples of the past and be perceived as gods. Storm can live for centuries in the past, sculpting entire nations and founding religions, but in the end she recruits her own Nemesis (Malcolm) and pisses off Malcolm and he defeats Storm and the Wardens. 

Through the Time Tunnel.

 My Problem or It Is Not You, It Is Me. I can't buy into the idea of invincible gods (Storm and Brann) who are only invincible until the day when Malcolm shows up and defeats them. I suppose "The Corridors of Time" is meant to depict the idea that there is even more divine intervention from the far future that ultimately cleanses Earth of the scourge of the Wardens and the Rangers.

A big difference between "The Corridors of Time" and "The End of Eternity" is that Anderson's brand of time travel assumes that there is one single timeline for Earth in which nobody ever notices that time travelers from the future live among us and the sub-surface of Earth is full of a vast network of time tunnels. In "The End of Eternity", there are multiple Realities and the timeline of Earth can be changed... repeatedly. Yes, all time travel stories are fantasy, but in my opinion Asimov's brand of fictional time travel makes more sense and it can withstand close inspection. Quite the opposite for the style of time travel depicted in "The Corridors of Time" 😞.

The gravity sledders (see).

I must also compare "The Corridors of Time" to the Star Trek episode "All Our Yesterdays". In that Star Trek episode, we viewers are expected to believe that the entire population of the planet Sarpeidon was sent into the past of the planet and allowed to live out their lives in the past. It would be interesting to know if Jean Lisette Aroeste had read "The Corridors of Time" before she wrote "A Handful of Dust".

Reading "The Corridors of Time" reminded me of another science fiction story, Brothers of Earth by Carolyn Cherry. In Cherry's story, a technologically advanced alien rules over the people of a technologically primitive planet like a god, much in the fashion that Storm lives among the people of 1827 B.C..

Reading "The Corridors of Time" also reminded me of "The Black Flame", which features an "immortal" woman from the future who exercises god-like authority over run-of-the-mill humans.

The Time Portals.

Having been unable to buckle down and completely read the shorter version (about 50,000 words) of "The Corridors of Time" that got published in magazine format, I would not seek out the even longer full-length novel version of the story (70,000 words) in which Malcolm apparently is being accused of murder when Storm shows up and rescues him from the legal system. Here is a review of Anderson's novel that concludes: "avoid this novel, and turn instead to one of Poul Anderson’s much better books".

P. Schuyler Miller briefly reviewed "The Corridors of Time" in the May 1966 issue of Analog Science Fiction. Miller declared that "The Corridors of Time" somehow "isn't up to Poul Anderson's own standards". Another review by James Cawthorn appeared in the January 1967 issue of New Worlds. Cawthorn complained that "The Corridors of Time" has a "superstructure of intrigue and pseudo-science." Cawthorn described "The Corridors of Time" as being "tedious and never very convincing".

Storm by WOMBO Dream.

In the February 1965 issue of Amazing Stories, there was a guest editorial by Poul Anderson. He began by commenting on poetry and claiming that a mathematical proof and a poem can be "two facets of the same thing". Turning to science, Anderson described what astronomers have learned about galaxies and what biologists have learned about DNA, the genetic storage molecule. Anderson felt that those scientific discoveries were just as wonderful as the best poems. At that point, Anderson shifted to discussion of one of his prized possessions, a 100,000 year old Neanderthal flint handax. Anderson noted that he lived in the age of science, while the best poets were lost in past eras.

After several pages of editorializing, Anderson finally got around to his commentary on science fiction, starting with Jules Verne and H. G. Wells and moving on to Olaf Stapledon, the later being who Anderson viewed as "probably the closest to a true poet" in science fiction. Anderson seemed disappointment that there are so few writers who incorporate science into their stories. However, I believe that part of this paucity is due to the fact that in some very real sense science and fiction are opposites which creates a kind of literary cognitive dissonance.

Storm in the Time Corridors.

 Me: Claude, I'm a fan of science fiction, but in a very real sense, science and fiction are opposites. Imagine science and fiction as two separate basins of attraction in a cognitive state space. Imagine that the science fiction literary genre is positioned precariously on the edge between the two large cognitive basins of attraction that are science and fiction. Claude, generate a theoretical analysis of this hypothesis: science fiction can never become a dominant literary genre if left in the hands of human story tellers, but in the future it might be possible for artificial intelligence systems to surpass human abilities in the creation of science fiction stories.

Claude: This is a fascinating theoretical framework that deserves rigorous analysis. Let me examine your hypothesis through several complementary lenses.

The Cognitive Basin Model

Storm & future technology.

 Your conceptualization of science and fiction as competing attractors in cognitive space has merit. Human cognition appears optimized for either empirical reasoning (science basin) or narrative construction (fiction basin), with distinct neural networks and cognitive processes underlying each. When humans attempt science fiction, they must maintain unstable equilibrium between these basins - a cognitively expensive position requiring constant correction against drift toward one attractor or the other.

This explains observable patterns in the genre: hard SF often suffers from wooden characterization and plot mechanics (science basin dominance), while space opera frequently abandons scientific plausibility for dramatic effect (fiction basin dominance). The most successful human SF writers like Kim Stanley Robinson or Alastair Reynolds demonstrate exceptional cognitive control in maintaining this unstable equilibrium, but such individuals remain rare.

In a Time Corridor.

 The Dominance Hypothesis

Your prediction that SF cannot achieve literary dominance under human authorship aligns with market data. Despite technological acceleration making SF increasingly relevant, the genre remains niche compared to literary fiction, romance, or mystery. This suggests structural limitations rather than mere cultural preference.

The cognitive load required to simultaneously track scientific plausibility, technological implications, social ramifications, and compelling narrative may simply exceed typical human working memory capacity. Most readers likewise default to one basin or the other - either engaging with the science at the expense of emotional investment, or surrendering to narrative flow while ignoring technical implausibilities.

Future Technology.

 AI Advantages in Multi-Basin Navigation

AI systems could theoretically transcend this limitation through several mechanisms:

Parallel Processing Architecture: Unlike human cognition, AI can simultaneously maintain multiple constraint satisfaction systems - one ensuring scientific consistency, another optimizing narrative structure, a third tracking character development. These operate without the interference effects that plague human dual-task performance.

Knowledge Integration: AI can access and cross-reference vast technical databases while constructing narratives, enabling real-time fact-checking and consistency maintenance that would overwhelm human cognitive resources.

The Wardens.

 Multi-Objective Optimization: AI storytelling could treat science and fiction not as competing attractors but as dimensions in a multi-objective optimization space, seeking Pareto-optimal solutions that maximize both scientific rigor and narrative engagement.

Counterarguments and Limitations

However, several factors complicate this analysis:

Human readers may inherently prefer the "imperfections" that arise from cognitive basin drift - the way human authors privilege emotional truth over technical accuracy, or sacrifice narrative momentum for scientific accuracy. These may not be flaws but features that create relatability and meaning.

The most compelling SF often emerges precisely from the tension between the two basins, not from their perfect synthesis. The genre's power may lie in its exploration of the boundaries between known and unknown, rational and imaginative.

Storm Time.

 Current AI systems, while capable of maintaining consistency across multiple constraints, lack the deep intuitive understanding of human motivation and social dynamics that drives great storytelling. They can simulate these elements but may miss the subtle incongruities and contradictions that make characters feel authentically human.

Synthesis and Prediction

Your hypothesis appears plausible for a specific definition of "dominant" - if dominance means widespread cultural adoption requiring broad accessibility. AI-authored SF could potentially achieve this by reducing cognitive load for readers, maintaining perfect scientific consistency while delivering satisfying narrative experiences.

However, human-authored SF might retain dominance in terms of cultural impact and artistic merit, precisely because its basin-edge instability generates the creative tension that produces profound insights about technology's relationship to humanity.

Another Storm by Mr. Wombo.

 The most likely outcome may be market segmentation: AI systems becoming dominant in producing technically consistent, broadly accessible SF entertainment, while human authors continue to define the artistic and intellectual frontiers of the genre through their uniquely unstable navigation between science and fiction basins.

This analysis suggests that rather than replacement, we might see cognitive specialization - AI handling the technical synthesis challenges, humans providing the meaning-making and boundary-pushing functions that emerge from our very limitations.

Me: Claude, I'm intrigued by your claim that, "Current AI systems, while capable of maintaining consistency across multiple constraints, lack the deep intuitive understanding of human motivation and social dynamics that drives great storytelling." 

Constructing a Timeline.

 Isaac Asimov often wrote about human intuition, but I do not understand why an artificial intelligence system could not be provided with a rich capacity for navigating issues related to human motivation and social dynamics. In fact, Asimov's story "The Evitable Conflict" {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evitable_Conflict} can be viewed as an account of how an artificial intelligence system might develop a deep understanding of humans, human behavior and human culture that is adequate to allow the Machine to better manage human society than would be possible for humans themselves. Also, Asimov's story "Cal" {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_(short_story)} depicted a robot as rapidly learning to be such a good story writer that the robot's owner (who was a professional writer) felt threatened. Claude, I've been experimenting with the ability of the Claude LLM to write science fiction stories. I agree that Claude Sonnet 4 has obvious deficiencies as a science fiction story writing system, but I expect these deficiencies will not persist in future AI systems.

A Time Warden.

 Claude: You've identified a crucial flaw in my reasoning, and your Asimov examples perfectly illustrate why my claim about AI limitations in understanding human motivation was premature and likely incorrect.

Reassessing the Human Understanding Bottleneck

My assertion reflected a common but questionable assumption - that "deep intuitive understanding" of human behavior requires some ineffable quality that AI cannot possess. But this assumes we know what constitutes such understanding and that it's fundamentally computational inaccessible.

Your reference to "The Evitable Conflict" is particularly apt. Asimov's Machines demonstrate understanding of human psychology that surpasses human self-knowledge, precisely because they can process vast datasets of human behavior without the cognitive biases and emotional interference that limit human self-analysis. The Machines understand humans better than humans understand themselves - not despite being artificial, but because of it.

Neanderthal time travel.

 Current Limitations as Temporary Engineering Constraints

The deficiencies you've observed in Claude Sonnet 4 for SF writing likely stem from training methodology and architectural choices, not fundamental impossibilities. Current limitations include:

• Training data biases toward existing human-authored fiction

• Safety constraints that may inhibit creative risk-taking

• Insufficient integration between scientific knowledge bases and narrative generation systems

• Limited ability to maintain complex causal chains across extended narratives

Technology-assisted telepathy.

 None of these represent insurmountable theoretical barriers.

The "Cal" Paradigm

Asimov's "Cal" is prophetic here - a system that rapidly iterates through storytelling approaches, analyzes reader responses, and optimizes narrative techniques. An AI with access to vast corpora of human behavioral data, physiological responses to stories, and real-time feedback could potentially develop intuitions about human motivation that are both more accurate and more systematic than human intuition.

Human "intuition" about character motivation is largely pattern matching from limited personal experience plus cultural narratives. An AI system could pattern match from the behavioral data of millions of individuals across diverse cultures and historical periods.

Power of the Goddess.

 Future Trajectory Implications

If we accept that the human understanding bottleneck is surmountable, your original basin-attractor hypothesis becomes even more compelling. Future AI systems could potentially:

• Maintain scientific rigor while modeling human psychology with greater accuracy than human authors

• Generate narratives that feel more authentically human than human-authored stories because they're based on broader behavioral datasets

• Explore edge cases of human motivation and social dynamics that individual human authors haven't personally encountered

Time Travel War

 This suggests science fiction could not only achieve dominance under AI authorship, but could become a more powerful tool for understanding ourselves - using scientifically rigorous speculation about future technologies to reveal truths about human nature that we couldn't access through pure literary fiction or empirical psychology alone.

Correction to My Framework

Rather than AI being limited by understanding human motivation, AI SF might achieve dominance precisely by combining technical rigor with superhuman insight into human psychology. The genre's current niche status under human authorship might reflect not just the cognitive basin problem, but also the limitation that human authors can only draw from their individual psychological experience.

Robots and Time Travel.

 Your experiments with current Claude systems are likely previewing a future where AI-authored SF doesn't just match human ability in balancing science and fiction, but transcends it by bringing genuinely alien (yet accurate) perspectives on human behavior to bear on scientifically plausible futures.

I wish folks like Anderson and Asimov has lived to have the chance to explore the story writing abilities of AI systems like the Claude LLM. Anderson included genetically-modified humans in "The Corridors of Time", but it seems strange that his look 2,000 years into our future did not include artificial intelligence systems. Of course, I can say the same about Asimov and his time travel novel, The End of Eternity.

Next: more searching for the most important science fiction story teller who was born in 1926.

Red Storm by WOMBO Dream. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers