Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

He is bound to remember that Tchaka the Ruthless was killed by one of his own

bodyguard.

But the less obvious effect has been to take “secrecy” wraps off scientific

research. It is hard to recall that there was once a time when scientific facts

could not be freely published, just as it is hard to believe that our grandfathers

used to wear things called “swimming suits”-secrecy~in science and swimming with

clothes on are almost equally preposterous to the modern mind. Yet clothing never

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hampered a swimmer as much as “classification” hampered science. Most happily,

controlled telepathy made secrecy first futile, then obsolete.(3)

But possibly the most important discovery we have made about ourselves is

that Man isa Wild Animal. He cannot be tamed and remain Man; his genius is bound up

in the very qualities which make him wild. With this self-knowledge, bleak, stern,

and proud, goes the last hope of permanent peace on Earth; it makes world government

unlikely and certainly unstable. Despite the fact that we are (as always) in a

condition of marginal starvation, this fact makes all measures of population control

futile-other than the ancient, grisly Four Horsemen, and even they are not

effective; we finished World War III with a hundred million more people than when we

started.

Not even the H-bomb could change our inner nature. We have learned most

bloodily that the H-bomb does nothing that the stone axe did not do-and neither

weapon could tame us. Man can be chained but he cannot be domesticated, and

eventually he always breaks his chains.

Nor can we be “improved” by genetic breeding; it is not in our nature to

accept it. Someday we may be conquered by superbeings from elsewhere, then bred

according to their notions-and become dogs, rather than wolves. (I’m betting that we

will put up a fight!)

But, left to our own resources, improvements in our breed must come the hard way,

through survival

and we will still remain wild animals.(4)

But we have barely begun to study ourselves. Now that mankind has finally

learned to read and write what can we expect him to accomplish?

We have no idea today of how self-awareness is linked to protoplasm. Now

that we know that the ego survives the body we should make progress on this mystery.

Personal survival necessitates Cosmic Purpose as a “least hypothesis” for

the universe. Scientists are tending to take teleology away from theologians and

philosophers and give it a shaking. But concrete results this century seem unlikely.

As of now, we still don’t know why we are here or what we are supposed to do-but for

the first time in history it is scientifically probable that the final answers are

not null answers. It will be interesting indeed if one of the religious faiths turns

out to be correct to nine decimals.

Since ESP talents seem to be independent of spacetime it is theoretically

possible that we may achieve a mental form of time travel. This is allowable under

the mathematics being developed to describe mind phenomena. If so, we may eventually

establish history, and even prophecy, as exact sciences.

On the physical side we can be certain that the speed-of-light barrier will

be cracked this century. This makes it statistically likely that we will soon

encounter races equal or superior to ourselves. This should be the most significant

happening to mankind since the discovery of fire. It may degrade or destroy us, it

may improve us; it cannot leave us unchanged.

On the mundane side we can expect a population of five billion by the middle

of this century. Emigration to other planets will not affect the total here.

Scientific facts will continue to be discovered much faster than they can be

classified and cross-referenced,

but we cannot expect any accompanying increase in human intelligence. No doubt the

few remaining illiterates will continue to be employed in the subscription

departments of periodicals; the same bigmouths who now complain about rocket service

to Luna (but who can’t thread a needle themselves) will in 2050 be complaining about

service to the stars (and they still won’t be able to thread a needle).

Unquestionably the Twentieth Century will be referred to as the “Good Old