Micromegas

Micromegas is a philosophical novella by Voltaire, first published in 1751. Its journey from Sirius to Earth makes it an early work of science fiction as well as a satire on human assumptions.

Micromegas is a gigantic, long-lived scholar whose scientific book brings him into conflict with religious authorities on his planet. During his exile he reaches Saturn and befriends a much smaller secretary of its academy, so scale becomes a comic instrument.

The two travelers visit Jupiter and Mars before arriving on Earth, which initially seems uninhabited. Only with a diamond used as a microscope do they detect a ship and begin questioning its philosophers, viewing human certainty from the outside.

Voltaire uses the encounter to test metaphysics, sectarian confidence, war, and the belief that the universe was made for humanity. The vast differences among worlds make knowledge answerable to proportion, while curiosity remains more valuable than dogma.

"On one of the planets that orbits the star named Sirius there lived a spirited young man, who I had the honor of meeting on the last voyage he made to our little ant hill. He was called Micromegas[1], a fitting name for anyone so great. He was eight leagues tall, or 24,000 geometric paces of five feet each."

This edition uses Peter Phalen's English translation.