Micromegas: Cosmic Perspectives: An Interstellar Inquiry into Humanity

Micromegas by Voltaire begins on a world orbiting Sirius, where an extraordinarily large and curious young scholar finds himself in trouble for asking questions. After his writings offend the authorities, he is banished from court and turns exile into an opportunity to travel among the stars. His journey eventually brings him to Saturn, where even a being of immense size discovers that everything looks different when viewed from somewhere else.

Voltaire fills the story with playful exaggeration. Micromegas measures miles in height, planets become stepping stones, and the inhabitants of entire worlds seem enormous or microscopic depending on who is doing the looking. Beneath the comedy is a sharp attack on human arrogance, especially the confidence of philosophers who believe they can explain the universe while occupying only the tiniest corner of it.

Born François-Marie Arouet in Paris in 1694, Voltaire became one of the defining writers of the Enlightenment. A novelist, playwright, historian, essayist, and relentless satirist, he repeatedly challenged religious intolerance, political authority, and intellectual certainty, sometimes at considerable personal cost.

Micromegas first appeared in the eighteenth century and is often regarded as an early ancestor of modern science fiction. Long before interplanetary travel became a familiar literary idea, Voltaire sent visitors across the Solar System and used their encounters with Earth to make humanity look wonderfully, absurdly small.