Talk:Tau Zero

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This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 10:04, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Themes[edit]

"Incidental to the main themes is the political situation on the Earth from which the protagonists set out: a future where the nations of the world entrusted Sweden with overseeing disarmament and found themselves living under the rule of the Swedish Empire."

That is not strictly true, in that there is no Swedish Empire (the word "empire" itself is found nowhere in my copy of the book). What happened was that Sweden was seen as the only country that could be trusted with overseeing the general disarmament of the world, which led to the establishment of "the Control Authority" and over time:

"you [Sweden] become the richest country on Earth, with all that that implies. And the diplomatic center, goes without saying. And when every reactor, spaceship, laboratory is potentially dangerous and must be under the Authority, that means some Swede has a voice in everything that matters. And this leads to your being imitated, even by those who no longer like you. Ingrid, my friend, your people can’t help turning into new Romans."

I suppose it's that final bit that led to the comment about the "Swedish Empire." Idontcareanymore (talk) 23:11, 7 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Something odd[edit]

First paragraph: "Tau Zero follows the crew of the starship Leonora Christine, a colonization vessel crewed by 25 men and 25 women aiming to reach a distant star system. The ship is powered by a Bussard ramjet, which was proposed shortly before Anderson wrote the book."

NO! Robert Bussard published his 'Interstellar Ram Jet' in 1960, Anderson did not use the idea until 1970, that is ten years later. The original paper is : Robert Bussard, “Galactic Matter and Interstellar Flight,” Astronautica Acta Vol. 6 (1960), pp. 179–94 — Preceding aajacksoniv (talk) 02:14, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on what one considers to be "shortly before". Circa 2016, I personally don't think one decade necessarily amounts to a very lengthy stretch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.223.130.32 (talk) 19:30, 10 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]