As science provided sufficient material wealth to remove the need for war, people would forget primitive and atavistic impulses, along with poverty, hunger, homelessness, and suffering. While the best science fiction of the era offered some cautions and warnings, the most popular saw the future as being “just like today, only better.” The airport would become the spaceport the vacuum cleaner, the robo-maid and the commonplace automobile would sprout wings and take to the skies. In one generation, mankind went from the horse and buggy to the jet plane, from muddy dirt roads to super-highways. A single pill could cure illnesses that had once meant a slow and painful death. Once-incurable diseases were being wiped out. These tales come from a time when science offered boundless possibilities with no consequences or compromises, whenĮurope and the United States experienced an unparalleled science-driven rise in the standard of living that seemed to have no end and no long-term costs. Worldshaking inventions are put together from bailing wire and aluminum foil one week and forgotten the next, and technological change does not mean social change. Voice-command robots coexist alongside punch-card and paper-tape computers, and no one questions the apparent inconsistency. Space travel, though risky, is commonplace and comparatively inexpensive. In this setting, much of what is now known about science is cheerfully tossed out the airlock: Many of the planets of the Solar System are inhabited. The world of the future presents its dangers and hardships – it is not a utopia without cares – but it is a world where problems are solved and where there exist choices besides the lesser of two evils. The focus is high adventure and excitement, with a special emphasis on uncynical optimism. In terms of inspiration, Tales of the Solar Patrol draws from the films, stories, comic books, and radio shows of the 1930s to the 1950s, bracketed by Buck Rogers on one end and Forbidden Planet (and the launch of Sputnik) on the other. That time – the future of the past – forms the setting for GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol. People looked to the future and thought it would work. The heroes were heroic, not self-aggrandizing. The villains were evil, not misunderstood victims of propaganda. The exploration of a new frontier was noble and glorious, not an excuse to exploit the natives and despoil the environment. Technology offered solutions, not new problems. No giant megacorporations or corrupt tyrants ruled the world. tomorrow! There was a time when the future seemed bright. INTRODUCTION Journey now to those thrilling days of. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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