Notes for "The Ethics of Madness"

No other story in the Known Space series has presented as many difficulties with dating and continuity as this one. Although a number of dates are specified in the story, ranging from "October, A.D. 2514" to "120,000 Approx.", the Timeline in Tales of Known Space specifies "Dates as given in The Ethics of Madness must be regarded as erroneous."

The Timeline itself gives a date of 2425 for "Ethics", but this must also be disregarded. According to the interstitial notes in Tales of Known Space, "The Kzinti had discovered and conquered Wunderland and were on their way to Earth... Sol held off the Kzinti by virtue of two accidents: the timely development of manned Bussard ramjets ('The Ethics of Madness')..." (p. 153).

"Canon for the Man-Kzin Wars" specifically states, in the bibliography section: "'The Ethics of Madness' takes place before the First War with Men" (Scatterbrain p. 295), referring to the First Man-Kzin War. This is a much more recent publication than the Timeline in Tales of Known Space, and thus must supersede the date given there.

In "The Warriors", a manned Bussard ramscoop colony ship, the Angel's Pencil, was launched circa 2355. In the section of "Ethics" where Hooker inspects the Loefflers' ship just before they leave Earth for Plateau, it is stated "Skyhook was now designing a bigger ramship, big enough to carry a thousand colonists in stasis. But the four-man Skyhook exploring model was the only ramship now flying" (Neutron Star p. 182). Therefore, that section of "Ethics" must occur before 2355.

"Ethics" specifies "On Plateau a small ruling class had held the power of life and death over its citizens... Now there were no organ banks on Plateau and no capital punishment" (Neutron Star pp. 192-3). A Gift from Earth, which we date 2342, details the revolution on Plateau, and makes it clear the organ banks would have to continue for a time following that revolution, as the new alloplasty technology could only replace some organs, not all. To fully develop the new technology and subsequently abolish the death penalty, some time had to pass. Furthermore, "Ethics" specifies when Douglas Hooker took off from Earth, he knew "Plateau was the only world of Man that did not impose the death penalty" (Neutron Star p. 194). Plateau is 11.9 light years from Earth (Neutron Star p. 193), so news via laser from Plateau would take nearly 12 years to reach Earth. Therefore the death penalty was abolished at least 12 years prior to Hooker's takeoff.

The revolution on Plateau is mentioned in "Ethics" only as a past event, never as news. It therefore seems most likely that the revolution occurred at least 12 years prior to the first mention of Plateau in "Ethics". That was when Douglas Hooker was trying to argue Greg Loeffler out of emigrating to Plateau (Neutron Star p. 181). It seems the Loefflers would decide to emigrate to Plateau before news of the revolution there arrived. This puts the date of the Loeffler's emigration at no earlier than 2354, and since that same section of the story mentions designing the first "safe" ramscoop colony vessel, it can happen no later than 2355, when the Angel's Pencil was launched. Since the news of revolution on Plateau cannot have reached Earth very long before the Loefflers decided to emigrate, it seems most reasonable to assume such news is what actually inspired them to move there. Assigning a date of 2354 to their emigration puts it 204 years before the date specified in "Ethics". We have therefore chosen to date all events in "Ethics" 204 years earlier than the dates given in the story. See the timeline at the end of this article.

"Madness Has Its Place" (MHIP) states "It hasn't been that long since a guy like me let his 'doc run out of beta-dammasomething. An indicator light ran out and he didn't notice. He tried to kill his business partner by bombing his partner's house, and got some family members instead" (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 24). This appears to refer to some events in "Ethics". However, those events took place on Plateau, and the statement "It hasn't been that long" isn't compatible with news from Plateau taking nearly 12 years to reach Sol system, the setting of MHIP. Also, it would be more correct to state Hooker "torched" Loeffler's house rather than "bombed" it.

So it seems questionable this actually refers to the same events. More importantly, this would mean A Gift from Earth would have to occur a minimum of approximately 42 years before 2375, the date of MHIP Even if the events of "The Ethics of Madness" were telescoped into a much shorter time period, the absolute minimum time between the revolution on Plateau and news arriving on Earth of Hooker torching Loeffler's house, would be as follows: 11.9 years for a laser message carrying news of the revolution to reach Earth, plus at least 0.4 years combined for the Loefflers to make arrangements for moving and for Hooker to later go insane, plus 12.6 years for Douglas Hooker to journey via "safe" ramscoop starship from Earth to Plateau, plus 11.9 years for that news to arrive on earth; that subtotals to 36.8 years. Add to that an undetermined number of years after the revolution for the full development of alloplasty technology. Assuming an approximate five year minimum for that, the total minimum time is approximately 42 years.. This would put Gift in 2333 or earlier. However, the "Interlude" section of Protector, dated 2340, states "Society became repressive on PlateauU", but does not mention any revolution (Protector, p. 104). Therefore Gift must occur after 2340.

Ye Editor is not happy with ignoring the reference from MHIP in dating this story. However, "Ethics" must be shoehorned into the Chronology somewhere, and we have placed it where it seems least disruptive to the Chronology as a whole.

To see how our revised dates for this story fit in with other events of the same period, see the partial timeline at the end of this article.

Notes for A Gift from Earth

The date 2397 is given for the older Matt Keller's death (Gift p. 191), when the younger Matt Keller was 8 (p. 10). The younger Matt is 21 at the time of the events (p. 40). This indicates a date of (2397 - 8 + 21 =) 2410. However, as will be demonstrated, this date must be disregarded.

The Timeline in Tales of Known Space also specifies the date 2410 for this story. Nonetheless, that date still must be disregarded.

Gift takes place before the development of the "safe" ramscoop colony starship, and furthermore must occur before most of the events in "Ethics of Madness", as that story specifies "On Plateau a small ruling class had held the power of life and death over its citizens... Now there were no organ banks on Plateau and no capital punishment" (Neutron Star, pp. 192-3). It's made clear in Gift that even after the revolution, the organ banks would have to continue for a time, as the new alloplasty technology could only replace some organs, not all. To fully develop the new technology and subsequently abolish the death penalty, some time had to pass.

The "Interlude" section of Protector, dated 2340, states "Society become repressive on Plateau", but does not mention any revolution (Protector, p. 104). Therefore Gift must occur after 2340.

It is impossible to fully reconcile the events of "The Ethics of Madness" with the overall Known Space Timeline (see notes for "Ethics", above). The closest fit we can make is with Gift occurring as early as possible. Therefore we have dated it as soon as seems reasonable, which is 2341— the year following the "Interlude" in Protector, which is dated 2340.

"Canon for the Man-Kzin Wars" states, in the bibliography section: "A Gift from Earth... By the end of the novel, kzinti may well be entering Sol system" (Scatterbrain, p. 295). While this seems to support backdating Gift to well before the time specified on the Timeline in Tales of Known Space, we are unable to see how the story could occur after most events in "The Ethics of Madness", as detailed above. In the very same section it is noted "'The Ethics of Madness' takes place before the first War with Men" (meaning the First Man-Kzin War).

Footnotes

Timeline for "The Ethics of Madness" and A Gift from Earth

Notes: The timeline below is our suggestion for how the events of "The Ethics of Madness" and A Gift from Earth should be integrated with events from other stories. Some dates are given in a year/month format; for example "2314/10" means October, 2314.

Plateau dates are given in decimal format, as used in "The Ethics of Madness". Events marked with an asterisk (*) were not specified in either story, but were inferred from other events in those stories. (Events from other stories are noted in parentheses.)