KSR's books are such great tales of humanity. Again and again and again they resist great man theories of history & immerse us in such long views of how slow th

KSR's books are such great tales of humanity. Again and again and again they resist great man theories of history & immerse us in such long views of how slow the tide of opinion is, how glacially humanity as a whole moves. The science fiction of KSR's books is more a backdrop, if often feels to me, to exploring social dynamics at varying scales. Rightly calling out non-terran colonization as futile without earth seems like a basic sensible lock I'd expect from this master of the genre, because while most of their books are going deep on intersocial dynamics, KSR hammers in a bunch of great sci-fi mini lessons, & this one seems fairly obvious.