Looking Forward by Kenneth Jr. (reading diary .txt) 📕

The Miracle Ahead has shown us the type of thinking that will enable man to achieve a maximum of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Dr. Gallup asks:

Can man perform the miracle of lifting himself to a higher level of civilization?

The answer is Yes—unequivocally. Man is clearly in charge of his own evolution; he can proceed at a pace that he himself sets.

He can solve any problem that comes within his purview—even the problem of war. The great advances made in physical science can be paralleled in social science. Man now has the procedures for dealing with the problems arising out of his social existence—problems that the methods of physical science can not adequately explore or illuminate.

Man has scarcely begun to make use of his almost limitless brain power, either individually or collectively. Lack of progress in dealing with the affairs of mankind can be traced to a simple truth: man has never made a concerted and persistent effort to solve his social and political problems. His inventive genius has been confined almost exclusively to the production of better tools and instruments.

The next great move forward can now be taken. All that is required is a firm belief in man’s great potentialities and a readiness to accept change.

Man is still young on the face of the earth; civilization is still in its infancy. Homo sapiens has not yet realized his strength and his greatness; nor does he see, except dimly, the heights to which civilization can reach.

George Gallup, The Miracle Ahead (New York, Evanston and London: Harper & Row, 1964), p. 203.

Mankind today is in a period of challenge and opportunity. Fascinating, unexplored territory lies before us. The explorations of Columbus will seem like child’s play in comparison. By joining the forces of science and technology throughout the world in a common endeavor, we can eliminate man’s inhumanity to man. We can reconstruct the whole of the world environment to give every person on earth what he needs to live a fulfilled, abundant life. We can build a new society with sufficient flexibility to correct its own errors and to meet any challenge that lies ahead. In the future no individual will ever stand alone. The unlimited horizons of the humanistic-scientific-cybernated future will be the most exciting adventure in the history of mankind.

9. A Multi-Dimensional Life

For some time Scott and Hella have been planning to visit an underwater resort in the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas. The cybernator automatically notifies the Correlation Center of their plans. Scott and Hella have no frenzy of last-minute packing to get ready for the trip. They simply leave with nothing in their hands. The entire world is their home, and they have no need to take anything with them. Food and drink will be available in the aircraft. Travellers in previous times were heavily burdened by baggage, but anything Scott and Hella need will be available wherever they go. Their important papers, photographs and mementos are fed into the Correlation Center. They can be instantly retrieved any time or any place in the world. Soon retrieval on the moon will be possible.

On Hella’s command the cybernator calls for a 1,000 mile-per-hour ion-propelled craft. Within minutes the pilotless craft stops on the landing area on top of their apartment building. They enter and by vocal command give coded directions for the apartments in the Exumas. As the craft races at supersonic speed over the highest clouds, Scott and Hella relax in contour chairs and watch the unfolding panorama of the cloud formations.

“Clouds are like hypotheses,” muses Scott. “They’re always changing.”

“I find change exciting,” Hella reflects. “I wouldn’t want to live in a static society, where things are regarded as absolute and final.”

“Well, I was thinking of the way men confused their notions of the world with reality,” says Scott. “We know today that no theories are true or false—they are only more or less useful. They have more or less predictability.”

“Didn’t Einstein recognize this in his Theory of Relativity?” asks Hella.

“Exactly,” says Scott. “Although it was fully accepted by scientists, he never said it was ‘true.’ He simply suggested that we use it if it has greater predictability than anything else. We’ll throw it out if we can devise a theory that explains more facts and has greater predictability.”

“We can only use our creative imagination to think up ideas and hypotheses,” adds Hella, “and then we must quietly measure and experiment to see which verbal garment best clothes the world around us. It’s a never-ending process.”

As they lie on a responsive lounge discussing this aspect of scientific methodology, they are brought back to the here-and-now by the ten-minute landing signal. Now they begin to watch the water below. The coast of Florida with its silver lining of beaches recedes. The vibrant colors of the Bahama reefs appear, and, almost too soon, they arrive at their Exuma resort.

The blue-green panorama is interrupted as their craft lands on the top of the Exuma City in the Sea. This building is a spectacular engineering achievement. A large ring, or circular dam, rises from the bottom of the sea, which is fifty feet deep at that point. The structure projects 100 feet above the surface. The top of the circular city automatically slides open in dry weather to uncover cybernetically maintained recreation areas and tropical gardens with dining facilities offering a variety of delicacies from the Exuma Sound.

Scott and Hella select a room that is twenty-five feet below the surface. Large windows look out on the colorful underwater reef. When they enter their room, they instruct the cybernator for that unit to pick up the living patterns they have developed over the years with other cybernators in every place they have ever lived. Their preference for humidity, heat, light, music, food, and teleprojection program material are instantly available in their new home.

No Price Tags

Nothing in the twenty-first-century world of Scott and Hella has a price tag. Prices were a distribution mechanism that was inevitable in the scarcity cultures