[majormajor]

I think predicting the exact successor societies would be difficult, but there's a lot of SF out there that predicts potential ones. Like the Ousters in the Dan Simmons' Hyperion series or the Drummers in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age or various other flavors of u- or dys-topias.

Or even the Millenia of premillennial dispensationalists, for a religious alternative.

I'd argue some of those are more radical imaginations than much of what actually followed past ages.

[dmreedy]

Yeah I agree completely.

I have been thinking lately about that as a defining feature of science fiction, or I guess speculative fiction more broadly; thought experiments into other "us"es. What it's like to be something else. I don't mean to say that as if it's some novel position, just a particular facet that has been resonating.

The eschatology angle is a super interesting one I hadn't considered. If anything though, especially for the millenarian/apocalyptic flavors, it seems like almost the platonic ideal of being unable to imagine a successor; we are the end, and when we end, the world ends, preserving us forever.

And incidentally, there is still resistance there. "Don't immanentize the eschaton!"

[notahacker]

> Or even the Millenia of premillennial dispensationalists, for a religious alternative.

> I'd argue some of those are more radical imaginations than much of what actually followed past ages.

This. People throughout history have frequently predicted the end of the civilization they lived in, they just tended to get it wrong, usually because their prediction was some fantasy involving superhuman powers ending the world as we know it, and not just dumb culture wars and succession crises and poor resource allocation and the neighbouring civilization being a bit stronger and more adaptable.