{"id":9749,"date":"2025-09-10T00:02:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T05:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=9749"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:49:13","slug":"celebrating-the-45th-prometheus-awards-economist-and-novelist-david-friedman-on-anderson-heinlein-vinge-and-how-science-fiction-influenced-the-development-of-his-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/celebrating-the-45th-prometheus-awards-economist-and-novelist-david-friedman-on-anderson-heinlein-vinge-and-how-science-fiction-influenced-the-development-of-his-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Economist and novelist David Friedman on Anderson, Heinlein, Vinge and how science fiction influenced the development of his ideas\u2028\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

David D. Friedman added excitement and intellectual stimulation as the guest presenter at the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
David Friedman (Photo provided by Friedman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A leading libertarian theorist (The Machinery of Freedom),<\/i> economist (Price Theory: An Intermediate Text) <\/i>and law-and-economics professor (Law\u2019s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters), <\/i>David is also a Prometheus-nominated sf\/fantasy novelist (Harald, Salamander, Brothers).<\/i><\/p>\n

Friedman presented the Prometheus Hall of Fame category for Best Classic Fiction during the Aug. 30 ceremony. Here is the text of his speech, which followed an introduction by LFS President William (Bill) Stoddard.<\/p>\n

By David D. Friedman<\/p>\n

Bill mentioned my friend Vernor Vinge, who is in part responsible for my writing my second novel.<\/p>\n

I described to him my idea for that and for the alternative, a sequel to my first novel (Harald, <\/i>a 2007 Prometheus Best Novel nominee). He thought Salamander<\/i> would more interesting, so I wrote it. He was right.<\/p>\n

I thought I\u2019d start by saying a little about what I\u2019ve learned relevant to libertarianism from science fiction.<\/p>\n

As some of you may know, Vernor’s story \u201cThe Ungoverned\u201d<\/a> (inducted in 1994 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame) is about a stateless society, modeled on my ideas, being invaded by an adjacent state.<\/p>\n

Seeing that society through the eyes of a novelist rather than an economist showed me things about it that would not have occurred to me….<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… What it might feel like to live in it, how the way its inhabitants would look at the world and differ, would not have occurred to me without that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vernor Vinge at an SF con (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OATH OF FEALTY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another story I learned from was Oath of Fealty<\/i> coauthored by another friend Jerry Pournelle, along with Larry Niven.<\/p>\n

A central lesson of that story is that when <\/span>a private organization replaces the core functions of government, its customers will relate to it as citizens relate to their government.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence the title: Oath of Fealty.
\n<\/i>
\nIf that is true, and it well might be, it is important for anyone trying to construct a stateless society or figure out what such a society would be like.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jerry Pournelle in 2005 (Creative Commons license,\u00a0<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Pournelle, Niven and Michael Flynn co-wrote Fallen Angels<\/a>, <\/i>winner of the 1992 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As Bill \u00a0mentioned, Heinlein\u2019s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress<\/i><\/a> (Editor\u2019s note: one of the first two works inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1983) was a major influence on my views.<\/p>\n

Before I read it, my view was that the free market, voluntary exchange, was the right way to produce things, but that it required a legal framework produced and enforced outside the market – a government.<\/p>\n

That view was in tension with my moral intuitions, which found no basis for taxes, government authority, no obligation to obey the law merely because it was the law.<\/p>\n

Right and wrong are not made by act of Congress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Heinlein in the 1980s (Photo courtesy of Heinlein Trust)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Heinlein\u2019s book was set in a society where the legal order was endogenous – produced from within the society. So far as I could tell, it was an internally consistent picture.<\/p>\n

If the society he described existed, there was no reason why it could not have functioned as he described.<\/p>\n

If that society could function as described, it could not be true,<\/i><\/b> as I had believed and thought I could prove, that all societies required a legal framework produced by government.<\/p>\n

A theorem is refuted by a single counter example – in this case, a fictional counterexample, but one that appeared to me to be internally consistent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If a stateless legal order was not impossible, it was worth trying to imagine what such a thing could be like in something closer to the real world.<\/p>\n

That was the origin of the model of anarcho-capitalism, a stateless legal order in my first book (The Machinery of Freedom.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Enough about me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I am here to award a prize.<\/p>\n

The finalists are:<\/p>\n

One song, \u201cThe Trees\u201d<\/a> by Rush<\/p>\n

One story, \u201cAs Easy as A.B.C.,\u201d<\/a> by Rudyard Kipling, which I might mention has been qualified for this award for about a century now. Unfortunately, the (Libertarian Futurist) Society did not exist that early.<\/p>\n

I have to suppress the urge to recite all of McDonough\u2019s song from that story, my favorite anarchist poem. I like to tell people that it\u2019s an anarchist poem by Kipling, and give people bizarre ideas about Kipling.<\/p>\n

And two novels: <\/i>Singularity Sky<\/a>,<\/i> by Charles Stross, and Orion Shall Rise,<\/i> <\/a>by Poul Anderson.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And the winner is Orion Shall Rise<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A FRIEDMAN FAVORITE: POUL ANDERSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anderson has been a favorite of mine for a very long time.<\/p>\n

My SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism) persona was inspired by a character I first encountered in one of his books, and later in the medieval chanson de geste<\/i> the book is based on.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the things I appreciate about Anderson\u2019s writing is that he plays fair.<\/p>\n

Almost none of his characters, none that I can think of, are true villains – the cartoon version of evil, wanting bad things to happen to people – and few are stupid.<\/p>\n

He writes antagonists, not villains.<\/p>\n

There are four very different societies in Orion<\/i>, sometimes at war with each other. Each of them is presented in a way that shows why people love it.<\/p>\n

In the story <\/span>\u201cNo Truce With Kings\u201d<\/a> (inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2010), he plays so fair between two societies in conflict that, well into the story, the reader is likely to think the good guys are the bad guys and vice versa.<\/p>\n

A second thing I like is that he thinks like an economist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My standard example is \u201cMargin of Profit,\u201d\u00a0 one of the Nicholas van Rijn stories. Central to the plot of that story is the insight that to stop someone from doing something you don\u2019t want him to do, you don\u2019t have to make it impossible, just unprofitable, that you can leverage his rationality.<\/p>\n

In Van Rijn\u2019s words: “Revenge and destruction are un-Christian thoughts. Also, they will not pay very well, since it is hard to sell anything to a corpse. The problem is to find some means within our resources to make it unprofitable for Borthu to raid us. Not being stupid heads, they will then stop raiding and we can maybe later do business.”\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Anderson not only teaches that lesson, he teaches it three times in the one story \u2014 with three different examples.<\/p>\n

Van Rijn and his allies could win a war with Borthu, the empire that is blocking their trade routes, attacking their ships, brainwashing the crews into Borthu\u2019s navy.<\/p>\n

But the war would cost more than the trade route is worth, so they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

They could arm their ships to defeat attacks on them.<\/p>\n

But a warship cannot carry enough cargo to pay for itself. So they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The solution Van Rijn comes up with, arming one ship in four, costs less than the value of the trade route.<\/p>\n

So It\u2019s worth doing, and it raises the cost of attacks to Borthu enough to make raiding unprofitable to them, so they will stop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The enemy are not \u201cstupid heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as an economist would put it, are rational.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the real world, Estonia\u2019s defense strategy is based on that insight.<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t defeat a Russian invasion but they might be able to make invading expensive enough so the Russians won\u2019t think it worth the cost.<\/p>\n

That is why their national hobby is \u201cMilitary Sport,\u201d training the civilian population in guerrilla warfare.<\/p>\n

Something I expect Poul, in the SCA known as Sir Bela of Eastmarch, would have approved of.<\/p>\n

And now Astrid Anderson Bear, Poul Anderson\u2019s daughter, will accept the award for Orion Shall Rise.<\/i><\/p>\n

WATCH THE 45TH PROMETHEUS AWARDS CEREMONY
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

* <\/i>Watch the full 45-minute video of the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, which was recorded Aug. 30, 2025 with six eloquent, thought-provoking, occasionally poignant or amusing speeches by David D. Friedman, Astrid Anderson Bear, Kevin Flynn, LFS President William H. Stoddard and LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg. The ceremony is posted on YouTube and available to see here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
David Friedman (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

* For more about David Friedman, read these Prometheus Blog articles about his interests and achievements<\/a> and why he should be better known as an sf\/fantasy novelist.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David D. Friedman added excitement and intellectual stimulation as the guest presenter at the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony. A leading libertarian theorist (The Machinery of Freedom), economist (Price Theory: An Intermediate Text) and law-and-economics professor (Law\u2019s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters), David is also a Prometheus-nominated sf\/fantasy novelist … Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Economist and novelist David Friedman on Anderson, Heinlein, Vinge and how science fiction influenced the development of his ideas\u2028\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2080,31,2218,1861,1860,2021],"tags":[853,17,2700,2162,6,2701,268,21,1036,83,69],"class_list":["post-9749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-presenter-speech","category-awards-news","category-economics-in-fiction","category-poul-anderson","category-robert-heinlein","category-vernor-vinge","tag-david-friedman","tag-jerry-pournelle","tag-oath-of-fealty","tag-orion-shall-rise","tag-poul-anderson","tag-prometheus-ceremony","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-the-machinery-of-freedom","tag-the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress","tag-vernor-vinge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2xf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9749"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9870,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions\/9870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}