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

let children develop so fully as individuals and at the same time provide them with a cultural heritage of such enormous richness.

There are few adults in the cybernated environments of the children. The adults who are there have chosen to spend time with children for one reason only—they enjoy it. They never act as disciplinarians since the cybernated environments are so designed that no child can hurt himself or others. A relaxed companionship of a quality that never existed before between parents and children develops between these adults and the children.

The Greatest Research Program

“Previous centuries were eras of scarcity,” Scott’s associate reasons, “and this scarcity was not only in material goods. Few children in the past felt enough love, warmth, security, feeling of worth, and freedom to develop in their own way. They were stifled by criticism, comparison, and censure. Only in the twenty-first century has the creative intelligence of man solved these problems. At last, little children appear to have their needs met. But each decade shows that further improvement is possible.

“One of the most continuous needs of a child is that of a feeling of security, of human closeness, and of rapport with a friendly world.” Scott watches a group of young infants in their cybernated cribs as his companion leads him through the nursery. “The most intensive research program in human history was launched to give effective solutions to the enormous problems in designing cybernated environments for young children that were superior in all respects to the traditional family and home. How can a soothing cybernated voice establish rapport with an infant? How can a three-dimensional, teletactile arm that is felt by an infant in his crib be activated to give even more security and feeling of constancy than a mother’s arm of the previous century? How can cybernated mechanisms be designed to give children more warmth and more of everything they need than even a superior mother could give in previous times? How can machines form the link between words and things so that language habits are created? What types of situations do these twenty-first-century infants and children need to develop a tolerance for frustration—to develop patience and calmness when things do not go as expected? To what extent can the older children be relied on to act as models for younger ones? To what extent are adult models needed in the environment of infants and children at various ages? What is the best way to give a child experience with the adult environment so that he can acquire an independence and feel at home in the world? Bit by bit, research yields answers to these and countless other problems.

“No twentieth-century answers to these questions are applicable in our world. Overall conditions have changed too much to use the old ‘wisdom.’ For the first time in the history of man, creative, scientific intelligence is applied to the problems of giving children the maximum of everything they need to develop satisfying, purposeful lives. It took decades to arrive at the preliminary patterns of the cybernated nursery. But perhaps even greater change awaits us in the future, for the nurturing of the young is the foundation of every civilization.”

An Age of Individuality

On the wall in the conference room, a large portrait appears. Below the frame Scott reads the words of the scientist that founded this laboratory in 2014:

Our society is patterned for individuals. All social structures and physical arrangements are designed to meet the needs of individuals and accommodate almost any diversity. We do not feel that children should do anything other than what they select themselves. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” applies equally to children.

The tour of the cybernated nurseries is almost over. Scott is impressed by the changes that have occurred in the nurseries since he was a child. “Learning is a lifetime process that starts at the time the supplementary brain is implanted in the growing nervous system of the embryo,” his co-worker points out. “Education is only stopped by death. There is no graduation or diploma that artificially chops up the learning process.

“The only thing comparable to graduation usually occurs when a child is about five years old. When the child’s interaction with Corcen shows that he can safely be permitted to leave the nursery area, he is welcomed as a full member of society. He is then entitled to his own apartment. He begins to make his own choices of what he wants to do and where he wants to live.”

“Youngsters are amazing,” agrees Scott. “There are eight-year-old girls that travel to the moon and live there several years. I knew a seven-year-old boy who was invited to join the crew of a space ship.”

“Children, however,” Scott’s associate continues, “are not motivated to develop into adult roles at any particular age. When it happens, it happens. No one is watching them. No one measures them. No one compares them. No one is worried if they lag. No one pushes them to ‘get ahead.’ Each individual feels completely free of all pressures to do anything.” He flashes a knowing smile, “And, you see, this makes them want to do everything!”

11. A Visit to Corcen

While Scott is in India, Hella remains at the underwater apartment in the Exumas. There is so much to explore, both inside her brain and outside. Her supplementary brain has been programmed by Corcen with a Ph.D. level of information on oceanography and marine science. Her life has been so busy in other areas that she has never used this information except in a peripheral way. She is swept up in the fascinating correlation between the facts and theories that were quietly stored in her brain and the marine world around her. She asks Corcen to send her data to bring her up to date. By using her own inner resources and through discussions with others who have backgrounds in depth in this area, Hella spends the better part of a year in one of the keenest of human