Looking Forward by Kenneth Jr. (snow like ashes .txt) 📗

in reconstructing biological organisms that roamed the earth in the distant eons of the past. Sonji is part of a team devising electronic means to propel rats, flies, and other undesired forms of life from a five-mile belt surrounding all of the cities of the globe. They excitedly exchange ideas—pro, con, back, and forth.

Creative Recreation

There are many games with physical or intellectual challenge from which to choose. This evening Scott suggests they play a game of Intellectronics. The three-dimensional, teleprojection mechanism is turned on, and they eagerly don headsets with sensitive electronic pickups. The teleprojection area comes alive with a visual representation of the innermost feelings of each individual, somewhat similar to the oscilloscope projection of vocal sounds. The screen is filled with a three-dimensional, infinitely varied spectrum of color. By interacting with each other, they make sprays of color that extend and dance in space before them. The forms blend with one another and merge as totally different and exciting patterns.

“What a novel thought! Who projected that? How surprising that this projection is so similar to mine.” The game explores the innermost feelings of each participant. These electronic translations of the operation of the human mind are very meaningful to Scott, Hella, and their friends. If someone from previous centuries were to see them, they would appear abstract and meaningless. But to people who have had years of experience, this new imagery represents a sophisticated form of communication. Somewhat as an electroencephalogram operator in the twentieth century interpreted two-dimensional wavy lines, the participants of the new imagery are sharing a form of communication, involving the integration of motion and color interwoven in a symphonic sensorium.

Home Movies

After a pleasant evening with their friends, which has lasted until around four in the morning, Scott and Hella retire to their sleeping chamber. Suddenly, Scott remembers some three-dimensional color recordings he and Hella made in their sleeping chamber on a recent visit to the moon. Since the moon has only one-sixth of the gravitational pull of the earth, they weighed only about 20 pounds. With the full muscle strength designed for earth’s gravitation, they were able to interact sexually with each other in ways that would be impossible on earth.

Upon command the cybernator projected these movies on the screen of their sleeping chamber while Scott and Hella enjoy again their previous delights. As the movie draws to a close, the cybernator uses its repertoire to enhance the sexuality of Scott and Hella. The whole spectrum of their sensations is keyed to this undisturbed act of love. The music keeps pace with their physiological activities and sensations. Temperatures are automatically maintained to meet their needs. All of their innermost feelings are accentuated and coordinated toward the gripping climax.

As they drift away into a restful sleep, the cybernator with its thousands of inputs throughout their entire apartment, maintains a constant surveillance over the well-being of Scott and Hella. They are the pioneers in a new age of social and individual symbiosis. It is an age in which a purposeful existence and a fulfilling life is shared equally by all. In six hours they will go to one of the fascinating underwater apartments built on a colorful Exuma reef. They sleep deeply to meet the opportunities of an exciting tomorrow.

7. Away We Go!

In the next section we will leap into the twenty-first century. In previous chapters we have found that man escaped from the jungle a relatively short time ago. As might he expected he brought with him many primitive habits of thinking and feeling that still plague us today. We have discussed in detail the triple foundation on which we are making a projection of our twenty-first-century civilization. If you can accept our value system, if you feel that the scientific method of thinking will play a dominant role in the future, and if you understand the impact of a cybernated technology that will produce goods and services with practically no human labor, then we feel that you will find our projection thought provoking.

We do not believe it should necessarily take one hundred years to accomplish the technological and sociological changes that will provide mankind with this cybernated Garden of Eden. Some of the things we are anticipating may be well under way by the time this book is published. If the improvement of our society were given the same priority that the development of the atomic bomb was given during the last war, it would be possible to achieve most of the features we project for the twenty-first century in time for us to enjoy them during our lifetime. U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations, said:

The truth, the central stupendous truth, about developed countries today is that they can have—in anything but the shortest run—the kind and scale of resources they decide to have. ... It is no longer resources that limit decisions. It is the decision that makes the resources. This is the fundamental revolutionary change—perhaps the most revolutionary mankind has ever known.

Books and articles describing the future usually deal with space ships and other technological marvels and gadgets. They wisely stay away from upsetting the reader’s values or challenging the age-old patterns by which he lives. People are not usually threatened by technological change but they get emotional when someone proposes a social change. A twenty-year-old farm boy will join the Air Force and fly jet planes faster than the speed of sound. His grandparents below will hop into their 350 horsepower chrome-plated monster and speed over the expressways. But it took over a century for a good part of the people in the United States to recognize that we should respond to human beings as individuals, instead of on a basis of race, creed, or color. And that battle, unfortunately, is still going on.

As we leap into the future, we must make every attempt to avoid being bogged down by tradition and the “wisdom” of the past. It is useless to try to fight change. It is much