

(view spoiler) [He kind of answers it in a qualitative sense: things didn't get so bad that they lost the technology/expertise/will to collect the Beatles from outer space and take the Taumoeba to Venus.īut I think part of the point of the story was that Ryland developed such a close relationship with Rocky ("my only friend", I think he says at one point?) that he's far more concerned about getting his friend home and then enjoying his company and learning about his culture than he is about whatever has happened on earth in the time he was gone, or what will happen there in the future.
