"The Crystal Spheres" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story by American writer David Brin, originally published in the January 1984 issue of ''

Analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...

'' and collected in '' The River of Time''. It won the

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

1985. In it, Brin presents an explanation for the Fermi Paradox.

Plot summary

Humanity's first attempt at interstellar space travel ends in disaster as the ship is destroyed near the edge of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

by a transparent barrier. They come to realize that Sol and every other Earth-like solar system are surrounded by "crystal spheres", while uninhabitable systems are not. Every attempt to break spheres around other systems from the outside fails. Radio waves and other attempts at communication from the outside are blocked as well. Humanity is thus prevented from expanding and colonizing the universe, as well as communicating with any intelligent life that's inside such a sphere. The main character takes part in an expedition to a newly discovered habitable solar system with a shattered sphere. They discover the remnants of an alien civilization, the Nataral. From studying the Nataral's artifacts and writings, they learn that the only way to break the crystal spheres is from the inside. It appears as if the spheres have been put in place by someone/something to prevent any single civilization from dominating the universe. It is also discovered that the Nataral chose to go into a kind of suspended animation around a

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

, joining two even earlier species, to wait for the other civilizations of the universe to develop interstellar flight capabilities.

Authors notes

In the author notes for this story, Brin outlines both sides of the Fermi paradox. He contrasts the Uniqueness view of Frank Tipler with the Contact view of Carl Sagan, and records some of the acrimony that surrounds the debate on the subject. He says he has won no friends by saying, in effect, “that we might gain more by careful thought and data collection than by yelling at each other.”Brin, D ''The River of Time'' (1987) p24

References

External links

* Science fiction short stories 1984 short stories Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Works by David Brin {{1980s-sf-story-stub