mw'-p

THE REAL BIONIC MAN

EXCLUSIVE: INTERVIEW WITH ALVIN TOFFLER PLUS: ALL NEW FICTION UNSEEN WORLDS- COMPUTER LIB BATTLESTARGALACTICA JOHN LILLY ON DOLPHINS

oonrui
November 1978
EDETOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: FRANK KENDIG ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO EUROPEAN EDITOF I." BERNARDDIXON DIRECTOR OF ADVE3* S: V3 3E EPLEV WARDALE EXEZ.-TVEVICE-^E: DE', V -r.VI'J E B:L_VA.\
.

CONTENTS
FIRST

PAGE
Publisher
s

WORD

:~ace

6 8 10 12 18

OMNIBUS COMMUNICATIONS
EARTH
SPACE
LIFE

Contributors

Corresooncieroe

Environment

Astronomy
Biomedicine

22 24
26
31'

STARS

Comment
Media
Report

THE ARTS

UFO UPDATE

CONTINUUM
THE REAL BIONIC MAN
THE WEARIEST RIVER

Data Bank
Article Fiction
Pictorial

35
DickTeresi
Lloyd Biggie.
Jr.

44 SO
53

NATURAL PACKAGES

COMPUTER

LIB

Article Article Fiction Article

Pictorial

Ted Nelson
Timothy Bay
Leigh Kennedy
Tabitha M, Powledge

58 64 70
76

SHORT-LIVED

PHENOMENA

WHALE SONG
TEST TUBE BABIES

UNSEEN WORLDS
LANGUAGE, EMOTION AND
DISEASE

82

Article

Wallace Ellerbroek

92 96 100
104

ALVINTOFFLER
THE CHESSMEN

Interview
Fiction
Article

Bob Guccione
William G.

Shepherd

DOLPHINS
EXPERIMENT
LIFETIDES

John

Lilly

Fiction
Article

RickConley
Lyall

110
112

Watson

EXPLORATIONS

Travel

Stuart

Diamond

115 142 144

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Phenomena
Diversions

Roman Vishniac
Scot Morris

GAMES
Tiie

cover

art for this

month's
in

OMNI is an imaginative portrait

entitled
Li 1.

Painted

1974 by the

Swiss
it

'fantastic realist' H.R. Qiger,

in Giger's first

appears

book
where S30.0Oone
Ltd.

Nec'cnon-icon. p'-ioiished last

month by Big

O Publishing,

OMNI

-contact,

In last month's OMNI, science writer Aiton Blakeslee reported on astronomers' efforts to detect intelligent signals from outer space. The implications of such and the dialogues that must inevitably follow, are enormous, almost too staggering to conceive. Imagine the questions we could ask a visiting extraterrestrial: Do you have a cure for cancer? is there life after death? Are the physical laws in your part of the universe the same as in ours? Is there a way to overcome the burden of gravity, prolong

Russians were there iirsL with Sputnik and that while the Soviets a.-e regularly

sending men into space, we remain about as. airworthy, as a prize Kentucky swine with paper wings. The arguments behind this depreciatiqnof the Space program are
:

simple

thepfogram

itself is

too expensive,
:

we

get too little for the money spent, and, 'besides, it-could. be better deployed

on such things as medical research. The arguments are. o> course,

'

specious.
Firsi,
i:

".,
:

youth,

exceed

the

speed

of light

.?

is diifiC'u

fomakeacasefor

Think of the things we could learn, among them, as Carl Sagan put it, how "possibly' to avoid the dangers of the period of
technological.- adolescence

we

are.

now

passing through." Yet despite the obvious benefits to be reaped from such contact, there exista vociferous few who appear to oppose any

itWfao can put a

dollar value

on the
uplifting

tremendous
of the
that

and all efforts to make it. Most notable, of course, is Wisconsin senator William 'Proxmire, who this winter gave one of his infamous Golden Fleece awards to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; which, "riding the wave of popular enthusiasm for Siar Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is proposing to spend $14 to-$1 5 million over the
next'

spending toomuch money- on the -space program since' the Department'of Health, Education and Welfare spends the equtv-r alent bfihe total NASA budget every eight days: Second, wo gn', 3 great deal for the ., money we do. spend. The development of tes alone, art advance that has-done more for human understan ding, than all Unsocial welfare projects funded to date, would seem worth the cost. Moreover, who. can put a * dollar. Value on the tremendous, uplifting ofthe human spirit that occurred on July 20, 1969, when Nei! Armstrong walked On
i1 ' .

the surface of the

Finally,
it

moon?
money

is

foolish to think that

human spirit
when

seven -years

to try to find intelligent

.life

in

outer space. In

my view," said

Prox-

occurred on

mire, "this project should

for.

be postponed

July 20, 1969,

Neil

a million light-years. Following this attack on

cur from the space-program will actually to better the quality of life here Lumped under the general cate-" gory of "defense," more than 60 percent

be used

on earth.

NASA, a sub-

Armstrong walked on the surface

committee of the House Commilr.ee on Appropriations (chaired by Representative

budget for research and development,. for example, sril: goes io th.e creation of newer and more' sdphistiof the federal
.

...

ofthemoon?^
'

thai the fiscal year

Edward RBoIand) recommended 1979 budget for NASA's search for extraterrestrial inielligence (SET! proiect) be cut from $2 mil$600,000. (The
ft,

cated means of destruction.

Similarly,

we
: .

the equivalent of NASA's enbucget to- develop the conventional " methods of generating nuclear energy, an
tire

now spend

lion/to

final

decision

is

enterprise that
offi-

is risky at

best.

''
.

""".
."

cial

now before the House.) As one NASA "This is not enough even to put

design work on the antennae." The SET!.project is not the only golden space opportunity to be fleeced by Proxmire. Funds for the Solar-Polar Orbiter (a
start

Yet the budgets continue to be cut , and Senator Proxmire continues to dispense. his. Golden Fleece awards in what seems, to.bea propensity for buffoonery, It may

be

entertaining- if not vote fetching

to

spacecraft designed to fly over the poles ofthe sun) were. cut as were funds slated
to outfit .[he Enterprise {the space shuttle (hat flew from a 747 in recent atmospheric tests) for space. As one writer put the cuts left "barely enough to keep the Enterprise from, being cannibalized for
it,

award the Golden Fleece to ah FAA study unfortunately titled "The Anthropometry of Airline Stewardesses." Prdxmire gave such an award in 976. The fungpes out
1

Proxmire vigorously opposed the Apollo- Soy uz rendezvous on the ground that the Russians were somehow inferior- to us in aerospace. He seems blind to the fact that the
parts.". Similarly,

spare

it, however, when you learn how many attendants have been killed or incapacitated because of outdated equipment described in that same FAA" study. The existence of such things as. Proxmire's Golden Fleece awards poses one of the .most profound and enigmatic

of

flight

questions of our tfme. Is there, gent life on. the .planet earth?
. .

intelli-

DQ

NTRIBUTOR

onnruiBUi

can never speak with you again." That's what Dr. Willem Kolff, head of the University of Utah's artificial organs our reporter Dick Teresi after reading a pre-publication copy of "The Real Bionic Man" [page 44], Kolff was upset because he believes that some of never before the information in the story published is too revealing and could be used against him by his competitors in the fight for government grant money. The battle for funds in the bionic world is particularly fierce. There are four major building artificial hearts research centers and a whole slew of universities, clinics, and hospitals hard at work developing artificial limbs, eyes, ears, skin, blood vessels, and other organs. But at the top of the bionic heap is the

Ellerbroek's office.

She was

prudish,

3,

of the

Hastings Center's

division, told

sexually inexperienced, and the glands in her neck were chronically swollen. Then she met a man. and her swollen glands disappeared. Then she found out
.
.

Institute for Society.

Ethics

and the

Life

the

man was

married.
It

And

the swollen

glands returned.
Ellerbroek,

is

the theory of

who

is

both a surgeon and a

woman is not unusual. All of us, he says, get sick or stay

psychiatrist, that this

healthy

because

of

how we
think,

feel

emotionally,

how we

and how we

talk. His strong case for the connection of "Language, Emotion and Disease" begins on page 92. (Dr Ellerbroek is a staff

Sciences, tells her side of the story beginning on page 76. And speaking of short-lived phenomena, we sent writer Timothy Bay up to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to check out the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena [page 64], The Center has correspondents all over the world reporting on hurricanes, earthquakes, bird kills, frog wars, "rogue waves," and anything else unusual, catastrophic,
or.
, ,

short-lived.

psychiatrist at Metropolitan State Hospital

Our key book excerpt this month is "Communicating with Dolphins" [page
104] by the dolphin-man himself, JotmUlfy.

Norwalk, California, but the ideas he expresses in Omni are not necessarily those of the California State Department of
in

What's Alvin

Toffler

been up

to lately?

Omni
well

wild

bunch at Salt Lake City, headquarters of the University of Utah. The school has snared $8.4 million in grants for 1978, thanks to Kolff and a staff of profoundly creative bioengineers. Too creative, say

Health.)

some of the university's critics, who feel that many Utah projects are too far out and
that Kolff's

hopes

for

them, too optimistic.

Yet when Teresi, an award-winning public affairs reporter, visited Salt Lake, he

"There are human vampires," writes Watson, an animal behaviorist who in biology and anthropology. But his statement doesn't mean what you probably think it does. Watson is a legitimate scientist trying to make sense out of the supernatural. He talks about ESP, ouija boards, reincarnation, psi-trailing, and how we are
Lyall

editor and publisher Bob Guccione of Future Shock alive and and still predicting the future. Among other things, Toffler says we'll be taking a

found the author

also holds degrees

giant step into the

ocean soon

not only

growing our crops there but building our

with Gregory Peck.

own custom-made islands [page 96]. And don't miss our exclusive interview He talks about cloning
and
his role in the

movie The Boys from

,

Brazil with
tv critic.

James Delson Omni's film and

is

found the Utah group to be a sober team of researchers with realistic goals, the technology, and brilliance to accomplish them. Their stories will convince you that the creation- of "bionic people" is not as crazy as seems. Several years ago, a charming young woman walked into Dr. Wallace

it

vampires in "Lifetides" [page 112]. Test tube babies have dominated headlines for the past several months, but Tabitha Powledge thinks they'll prove to be a short-lived phenomenon and deservedly so. "Too much fuss about making babies." she says, "and not enough effort to take care of the kids we've
all

Delson

a screenwriter and

owner of one

of the largest private film

research archives in the U.S. Writing on books is Robert Anton Wilson, author of Cosmic Trigger and co-author of the llluminatus trilogy, currently being staged for the theater. Read both Delson and Wilson in "The Arts" [page 28], OO

BOBGUCCIONE
editor

& publisher

KATHY KEETON
associate publisher

OMNI INTERNATIONAL LTD. THE CORPORATION

aoo Guccions (chairman and president)
Kalhy Keetor. (senior vicn-prnsitteni) -win R li'.an lexecu'ive vice-president) XnthonyJ. Guccions (s^crera'y-'reasurer)
i

'W
CDrmnnuajicATiarus
Strategic

EDITORIAL

:.J:'.5.^m,'I

Suzanne S-'.-iSPSF: Olrs-ne PJ;a. C;y:',-Mors Carol/- Giaealana. Gk'-a E. Gran!;

Gases

onlributing Ediiory.

vans,

Dan Fabun, Dr

Morris,

Barbara Seaman, William

Won'? Davis, Dr :>n=ic|jlier Patrick Moore OBE, Scot K. Stuckey

ART
n Dirrctir. F.'ank jevinr.- '^sociaie A;i Dnec'.cr v:la Chv-ai: .Oss'O.'^r Penny SJLi.erran; P/;o:c
i;

Staff

Phob

was one of those passing through Kansas in August near McDonnell Air Force Base, when saw that mile-long orange cloud ot gas blowing across the sky. barely escaped being poisoned by the which later found out was nitrogen tetroxide leaking from a Titan misI

mammalian species, especially subspecies maintained in captivity. Zoologists have successfully crossed tigers with lions (thus obtaining a "tigron" or "tiglon") and jaguars with leopards. Please run some photographs of these animals.
Gail
St.

toxic stuff,

Schwartz
Louis.

MO

ADMINISTRATE

the people they are

see an article in Omni on strategic arms affect our daily lives and the dangers these missiles present to supposed to protect. Marcus Littlefeather
sile silo. I'd like to

how

Omni is planning a feature on future animals coming up soon. Ed.

Boulder,

CO

Ripped Off I'm pleased that there's a new science magazine on the market, but do hope
I

Urban Desires As an urban designer, would like to know what concepts and ideas are being developed for the future of cities; what explorations are being made towards designing cities that are more workable, functional
I

you'll

avoid a

common

mistake. I'm talking

ADVERTISING OFFICES
Vort Beverley Wardale;
itional Ltd.,

Omni
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Publications In-

909 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. r'olux no. 2371 28. {212i 593-333 (Norm Kamikow> Omni Publications mterWacKer Drive. Suite 2036, Chcaoi... i;-ois 60601 -- 13'.*; 565-0466; Detroit:
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""
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Tel.

-est

Disney World with its superetficient inwhat the technical posare of expanding human personal space, both habitats and work places.
like

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nal Ltd., 111 East

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Homer Bruce

(Chrisline Meyers) Tel. (313) B55-B427; Omni Publi:aiions Ini^'nsiir.ns' iii V/en; Coast (Robert J.
I.

New York, NY
Running
Into the

about giving credit to the wrong people. I'm a research chemist working in the lab of a large university On no fewer than six occasions over the past five years, my colleagues and have been ignored in news releases about projects we gave our hearts and souls lo (not to mention our evenings and weekends). Credit is always given to our department head, who frankly never visits the lab unless he wants to bum a cigarette. Most of us who "do science"
I

do

it

because we
publicity.

love
it

it,

not

because we

=riedman)OmniP'j&lica;iorElnt&rrialionalLld.,

Future

want

But

1904 3-roadway, San Franc-sco. Giiromia 94104. Tel. (415)929-7575. U.K. & Europe; (Peter Goldsmith) Omni Publications Led, 68 Uppei Bcicicv SI.. LonrVIH 7DH, Enqland. Tel. (01) 262-0331 Telex no. 919B65.
.

Why not run a story on jogging as it applies to physical maintenance programs

in

when our work is ripped someone else's career.

hurts sometimes off to help make

the year

2000?
John
Bartlett

Name

withheld by request

Boston,

MA

our policy
involved

EDITORIAL OFFICES
Tel.

York 909 Third Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10022. (212) 593-3301 Tele* nc 337128. West Coast

Look

for a story

upcoming
More
to

issue.

on "Future Sports" Ed.

in

an

developments.
Ballpark Cult

We're well aware of this problem and it is to go directly to the researchers when reporting on new Ed.

8732 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90069. Tel. (213) 662 S3 TO London 2 Bramber Road, West Kensington. London W14 9PB, England. Tel (01) 385-6181. Telex no. 919865 Omni Publications Ltd. (U.K. S European Editions! Managing Director: Gerard Van der Leun; Advertising Director:

Come

Omni

in promotional material about your new notice that you are printing stories by Theodore Sturgeon, James B. Hall and Ron Goulart all in one issue' All three are
I

When

archaeologists of the future dig up one of today's sports pages and read, "Star sacrifices with fly in infield," will
they think that our ballparks were religious centers?

c Re/a;

terrific writers.

And Ron
I

Goulart, creator of

Star

BUREAUS

Washington, D.C.: William R. Corson, 1707 H Sirs /., Washington. Berlin: Hans-Hotw Enz'i sse 1 Berlin 45 Herz'.< P.,'ih ponai c Si.--David Hamelech St., HwzBa Wu IS Una de

DC

is just as powerful behind a piece of prose fiction. hope that this kind an SF lineup is a promise of things to

Hawks,

New
Omnivorous saw the advertisements
I

Frank Gambardelo Brunswick, NJ

of

come.
Bill Grant Los Angeles, CA

I'm looking forward to

month from now

to the

Tigronsand Jagards have heard is possible to bring about hybrids between the large, closely related
I

for Omni, and buying every year 2000. Salvador Gonzales Taos, NM
it

it

Why do you

plan to slop then?

-Ed,

WHALE PILOl

EARTH
By Kenneth and David Brower
I

fly whales," said Charles Hubbard, shaking hands. 7 fly spitfires," said his manner and dress, which were devil-

n London, where the 30th annual meeting of the Interna-

Whaling Commission (IWC) was about to convene. Hubbard was one of those types that whale conferences draw. Slight, blond, and bearded, he had a patch over one eye and a flask of brandy in his hand. He wore what could have passed for a flight jacket. The emblem on the shoulder said "Flo." Flo is the largest of the whales that Hubbard flies. She is, he explained to me fondly, a humpback 33-meters long and five-stories high, and she carries a gondola under her belly. Deflated and crated, she is much more compact than that but still too large to send trom California to London. Hubbard brought along several smaller models instead. Made of Ripstop
tional

excess pressure are vented, and Hubbard, in directing the venting, gains a small measure of control. The flights are tethered, and all his effort goes to keeping the whale's head to the wind. The last thing a whale-pilot wants, he said, is to have his ship swinging broadside to the
breeze and
igates
trial
is

Hubbard worked fast clearly he was good at this paper aspect of his work
but after five minutes the romantic
rebelled.
in

at

him

He looked up

me.

In

the

comall

ing week, he confided,

he would do

the flying legally permitted him, then

maybe a

"kiting.

"

Hubbard has no

training as a pilot or balloonist. All

he navwhales, and he has learned by

more. What else? wondered. Buzz Parliament? Buzz the Queen? Hubbard
bit
I .
.

and

error.

He had been

invited to

fabric, they are

pumped

full

of

com-

London to fly missions at various savethe-whale demonstrations to be held around town. Hubbard sat and unfolded a map of -London, With his thumbnail he traced the course he planned to fly the next day down the Thames, his thumb dipping three times to indicate passage under bridges. Then he folded the map again. He sighed and set about filling out flight plans. To fly whales legally in London, one must complete a stack of forms and applications. Dirigible whales may soar, but
not high

smiled and wouldn't say. About real whales Charles Hubbard was poorly informed. In the fin of a whale, he told me, there are five bits of gristle where fingers once were strong evi-

dence that whales once were land animals. The truth is even better than that, Charles. There are finger bones in the
fins of

some

whales. And no one, unless it's ' fundamentalist jury in Tennessee, doubts that the ancestors of whales once lived on land. In sleep, Charles Hubbardwas a tooth-

grinder.

pressed air, the air is heated, and the whales rise. Fumes from the heater and

enough

to slip the tethers of

bureaucracy.

know, because we were roommates a night; Hubbard kept me awake for hours. What, wondered, is he dreaming? Then, suddenly, saw it, as clearly as if it had been my own. An enormous whale, a humpback the size of the Hindenburg, swung slowly, slowly broadside to the wind, and Charles Hubbard the pilot, frantic at the controls but unable to turn her, felt her begin to kite. Hubbard's copilot in London was Steve Sipman, a former dolphinkeeper. Sipman, like Hubbard, is American. On first arriving in England, Steve Sipman was aggressively low-browed, as if to discourage the British from roping him into tea and crumpets or tinkehng with his accent. When first saw him, he was sprawled on a sofa in southeast London, conspicuously scratching himself and discussing his criminal past. Sipman's crime was grand theft. On May 29, 1977, on the island of Oahu, he and another dolphinkeeper, Kenneth LeVasseur, drained the tanks of their two charges, Puka and Kea, Atlantic bottlenosed dolphins, the subjects of language experiments at the University of Hawaii. On the night of the "liberation," the
I

for

I,

bcaoh

provide*.

:t':e

dac^-d-op

to:

;/-,.

s a.'is.' 9

graveyard, strewn

'->

ijr.nc tr.?rn

end

to

end.

moon was

full.

The Milky Way bridged the

OMNI

subtropical sky. "We ate peanut butter and honey, and drank black, black cotfee," Sipman remembers. "Puka was pretty hep. She just lay back and said, know I'm going someplace, and it's got to be better than the tank.' We got to this secluded beach on the tar side of the island, and we carried them down to the
'I

limited the Inupiat

Eskimos

of

Alaska

in
kill,

the

number of bowheads they could

water,

swam
I

out on a surfboard to say

good-bye.

didn't get

so much as a

thanks, even."

and

He and LeVasseur returned to the van, for the rest of the night they just drove around the island, figuring it would be their last chance for a while. Then they

turned themselves in. LeVasseur has been convicted of grand theft and is ap-

Sipman has yet to be tried, in London, a year affer the "liberation," a delegate to the IWC approached Steve Sipman in the lobby and asked about the minds of dolphins, "There's no doubt in my mind thai dolpealing.

1 978 at 1 8 whales struck or 12 taken, whichever came first. The Eskimos were appalled. They are accustomed to striking and killing far higher numbers. (In the spring hunt of 1977, which had concluded several weeks before that momentous Tokyo meeting, they had struck 82 bowheads and had taken 26.) So this year they came to London in force. Some were official members of the U.S. delegation, others were observers, but all were dedicated to revising the quota upward. Few environmental issues have had the divisive power of the debate on bowhead whales. The controversy has divided Eskimos and environmentalists, two groups whose sympathies normally would be

setting the quota for

group, the younger Eskimos, were almost invariably rude. "The questions you ask show how ignorant you are," Billy Neakok told me in the hotel coffee shop. "It is impossible to explain
it

to you."

Neakok is a young whaling captain from Barrow. IrrLondon he wore a white parka, a bone necklace, and dark glasses. His hair was long and parted down the middle. His opinion of me was lower than usual, for yesterday the IWC technical committee, most of whom owned Nordic faces like mine, had recommended a bowhead quota of 24
whales, a number unsatisfactory to the Eskimos, who promptly walked out of the conference declaring themselves free of

IWC jurisdiction.
Neakok had a low
opinion, too, of the U.S. scientists who conducted this spring's bowhead census. The scientists

phins have a high sense of ethics," Sipman said. "I had the opportunity to live with two dolphins for two and a half years.

had counted 1 734 whales and had estimated the population at between 783 and 2865, but they had spotted only 1
1

calves, from which they extrapolated a

total of

They have a sense

intelligent.
I

of ethics
It's

and

they're

29

an alarmingly low recruitment

1st cutoff of the

know

it.

hard

to explain,

figure.

though, to someone who hasn't had direct experience. It's like trying to explain to a blind person what rainbows look
like."

"There was a May

for
lik,

Steve Sipman has known cetaceans two and a half years, then John Oktolanother observer at the conference, has known cetaceans for half a century. Oktollik saw them in an entirely different
If

count, just when the calves start through," Neakok told me, having decided to try to explain after all. "The mothers and calves usually come by when it's most difficult to hunt them. It's hard then because the ice is dangerous. The ice is rotten, disintegrating from the
It's shaved by the current. Sixtycentimeter-thick young ice can get shaved to two centimeters in an hour. We can live on the ice when it's only ten centimeters, and you can see through to the waves underneath. For a hundred thousand years we've been compiling information. We don't have to use figures. The language has names for all these ice con-

coming

heat.

light.

John

Oktollik

is

an Eskimo, a veteran

whaling captain from Point Hope. He is a stocky, gentlemanly, bespectacled man who is missing most of his lower incisors. Sometimes back home, Oktollik takes

Eskimos on hunts, and he listens as their first bowhead whale breeches nearby. "They say, 'Aaahhhhhh,' " he reports. "That's their expression, you know, at the bignovice
ness." Yet then, with Oktollik directing, they pursue this object of their wonder and do their best to kill it. "I'm fifty-eight," Oktollik told me, as we sat together in the lobby outside the conference hall. "I've been exposed to whaling since
I

from inland villages out

Whales dismembered to be sold commercially

mutual.
It

ditions.

We

evolved
it.

in that

manner.

We

can't express

It's

racially

uncommuni-

movement
dation
Inc., is
is

for

has divided the environmental itself. The Greenpeace Founan immediate end to

cable.

bowhead

was

seven year
It
I

old. At first

was cold the was getting snow to first part of April. make water, or cutting up some blubber for fuel. Later, when was twelve or fourhad
to stay in the tent.
I

whaling. Friends of the Earth, foralimited subsistence hunt. Friends of the Earth, Ltd., the British branch of the organization, is against such a hunt. The controversy has made

"The people doing the count were from National Marine Fisheries. They had brand-new snow machines and gear. But
they didn't

know how to live on the ice. They didn't understand the danger. We had to tell them when to go inland.
"After they finished the land count, they started a half-assed aerial count. Airplanes are noisy. Everyone knows every Eskimo, even a child that a mother and calf react to noise. Of course they didn't

strange alliances, as well. In London the Eskimos found themselves on the same side as the Russians, their old enemies from the days of Baranov. The Rusfor

teen,
ing.

started getting a
first
It's

little bit

of train-

When you

very exciting.
ter that

go out in the boat, it's sort of scary going af-

monster in a small boat five to six meters in length. Sometimes, when we take people from the outlying villages, and they see the whale, before they know it they're paddling backwards."

sians are whalers too; newer at it, but conducting their operations on a much larger scale. And the controversy has made for happy reunions. The Japanese and the Koreans, two whaling peoples

count many calves. "We have our own research program. We're going to educate the scientists. The Eskimos and the whales are here because of the success of Eskimo

who share with Eskimos

racial origins in
in in

management."
Later, as we got up to leave, asked Neakok how he liked London. For a moment he didn't answer. Clearly he found
I

the north of Asia, were reunited with cousins they last had seen
Paleolithic times.

London

The problem of the bowhead whale was one 'of the most difficult facing the

it

IWC

this year.

Last year, at the annual meeting in Tokyo, the Commission for the first time had 16

The Eskimos in London had two distinct approaches to international diplomacy. John Oktollik's group, the older Eskimos, were unfailingly polite. The second

a foolish question. "It's like any white man's town," he said, finally. "More barbaric than the place we

comefrom."

DO

OMNI

M
Pi
verse

ZERO

ByMarkR.Chartrandlll

the tone, the

will

age of the unibe 14.5 billion years.

meter of space. Most of that material is gathered into galaxies, of which our Milky is just one. A major unsolved ques-

we

are

in

some

kind of preferred center

Way
tion

That figure was obtained by astrophysicists Demosthenes Kazanas, David N. Schramm, and Kern Hainebach in a recent study that, they think, represents the best estimate so far of the elapsed time since our universe was formed in an explosion commonly called the "Big Bang." Previous estimates, reached by using a methods, have ranged from 8 billion years to 20 billion years, Now Kazanas and Schramm, of the Enrico Fermi
variety of
Institute of the University of

is how much matter is diffused throughout space between the galaxies.

As we look outward beyond the Milky Way, we see distant galaxies flying away from us. This motion of recession causes the famous "red shift," so called because
the spectral lines of receding astronomibodies shift toward red wavelengths. thing is that the more distant
cal

of the universe. Astronomers in any other galaxy would see the same thing as if they were at the center. But there is no center. The illusion is caused by the geometry of the universe.) We also know that the chemical com-

position of the universe

is fairly

simple.

The curious

Chicago, and

Hainebach,

of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, have put together all available evidence in a consistent way. They

believe that the true

is

age

of the

universe

galaxies are rushing away faster than the nearer ones. There is a constant ratio between speed of recession and distance, called the Hubble Constant after Edwin 'Hubble, whotirst discovered the effect. A galaxy recedes at a speed of about 1 kilometers per second for each million
light-years
it

There are 92 natural elements, but about 75 percent of everything is hydrogen, the simplest element, and about 25 percent is helium, the next simplest. Only about one atom of every thousand to ten thour sand is a heavier element. (Because of their scarcity, astronomers often call these heavier elements "metals," even if they are not metallic. It is a convenient
shorthand.)
Finally,
in

we

live

surrounded, immersed,

within a billion years of their

estimate

is

distant.

The most

distant

a mere blink of the eye viewed from the perspective of cosmic time. The universe we now inhabit is mostly empty, with an average density of about one hydrogen atom for every cubic

things

we have seen are 1 to 1 5 billion away and are retreating at 91 percent of the speed ot light. (By the way, when we see all galaxies receding from us, it does not mean that
light-years

a sea of gravitation and radiation. In addition to starlight and other forms of racosmic bodies, all of space is suffused with a whisper of radiation left
diation from

over from the tremendously energetic genesis of the universe. Detected first
1

in

965, this fossil radiation

shows

that there

indeed was once a Big Bang.

the

Some 14.5 billion years ago there was cosmic egg. Some have called it the primeval fireball. What came before and how large it was are not known and are

perhaps unknowable. It explPded, if so tame a word may be used for the beginning of all we know. Temperatures and
densities of this beginning are inconceivable but not incalculable. We can calculate what the conditions were at a time about a hundredth of a second after T=0, For a while the universe was mostly energy, but as it expanded it cooled, and matter formed from the energy (remember E=mc 2 ). After about half an hour the primordial chemical elements, mostly hydrogen and helium, formed. In addition, a small amount of deuterium, hydrogen with an extra neutron (sometimes called "heavy hydrogen"), was formed. The temperature then was some 300 million degrees

Kelvin.

Slowly the universe cooled

Exploding galaxy (above)
1

off,

and

not

is

thought

to

give birth to

new solar systems, much like or

Then,

much happened for about 700,000 years. when the temperature decreased

OMNI

to a few lens of thousands of degrees, complete atoms began to form. (Above these temperatures only atomic nuclei can exist.) The amount of deuterium and helium formed in fhe universe's first few minutes would depend on the exact temperature and pressure of the fireball. By measuring the amounts that exist now and extrapolating backwards, cosmologists get an idea of what the birth pangs of the universe were like. The earliest stars to form were those we now see in the vast spheroids called globular clusters, which are found in the

We must look back to the globular clusanswers. Their evolution depends on their original amounts of helium and heavier elements. These abundances are some ot the data that Kazanas, Schramm, and Hainebach used to find out how long the universe has been around.
ters for
*

can measure their speed with respect to one another and thus infer the amount of
material
in

them.

The same sort of thing is done for the universe as awhole. A major question is whether the universe is flying apart forever or whether it will eventually stop and
contract.
is

One number determines which

AN OPEN UNIVERSE
Another important factor in the discovits age was the present density of is difficult to determine, but some idea can be gained from "weighing" galaxies in clusters. If a galaxy is not to fly away from its cluster there must be a certain amount of matter in the galaxies to bind them gravitationally. We
ery of

the case: the average density of the universe. The critical density, the dividing
line

between an open, ever-expanding

the universe. This

outskirts of galaxies. In forming, they

used up all the primordial gas in those regions, and so star formation stopped long ago in globular clusters. These stars presumably retain in their outer layers the
composition of the universe. Deep in the interior of stars, however, nuclear fusion "cooks" hydrogen to form helium and other heavier elements, up to
original

universe, arid a closed universe that will eventually contract is about 3 hydrogen atoms per cubic meter. Current estimates of matter within galaxies show that the present density is between 6 percent and 30 percent of the critical density, so the universe is open. It will continue to

expand.

the atomic weight of iron. This occurs only in the core of stars whose temperatures reach millions of degrees. A few extremely massive stars, at a later stage of their evolutionary life spans, explode and flare briefly into supernovas, each as bright as the entire galaxy of which it is a part. Elements heavier than iron are then formed and spewed outward into space. In the flat disk of our galaxy, as well as in other galaxies, there is still a fair

amount of primordial gas

later stars

left. It

has been

enriched by the supernovas, and so

are also enriched. Our own sun is a second or third-generation star and so cannot be used to study primordial abundances.

Kazanas et al used these estimates to help pin down even further the age of the universe. They essentially drew a graph of age versus the primordial amount of helium. Then they plotted on the graph the best estimaies of the amount of heavy elements in the universe and the average density found from studies of galaxies. Putting all this data together led them to conclude that the best estimate of the age of the universe is between 1 3.5 and 15.5 billion years. They claim that if in the future the measured age of the universe turns out to be outside this range, we will have to seriously examine our standard models of the Big Bang. The only major potential source of error is the possibility that there^ is a lot of unseen material not in galaxies but between them. Some of the first evidence showing intergalactic material came from the
uhuru
satellite,

superclusters clusters of clusters of galaxies showed intense x-ray emission. Astronomers at the Center for Astrophys-

which found that some

Cambridge, Massachusetts, think come from an intensely hot gas lying between the galaxies. They estimate that the amount of gas may be five to ten times the amount of material in
ics in

that fhe x-rays

the galaxies themselves. That may, if confirmed, raise the density above the critical
point and necessitate a reevaluation of our age estimates. As is true in every branch of cosmology, more observations

are needed.

So far, though, the estimate

lion

of

14.5

bil-

years, plus or minus a billion years or

is

so,

tions
sult

and

is

consistent with our best observatheories. One check on the rethat it provides an estimate of the

Hubble Constant of 18 kilometers per second per million light-years. For the
field of

cosmology, that

is in

amazingly

close agreement with previous observations.

But
'.';.."

third of the

more amazing yet is that in the last age of the universe, certain

Sag:U-snvs

am

cioij.-Jaop}

r,

a densely p:.:p-iiri:^d req

or, u!

!?;,?,-

3 i:jund

iC'V,-,ird

the center

Dumbbell Nebula (below), located on the farther outskirts of the Milky W&y h thought to be an expanding cloud ol gas originating from a star In later stages of its evolution. The gaseous shell is formed by the star expelling its outermost layers into-space.
the Milky Way. The

chemicals have combined in hospitable places to produce creatures, perhaps not unique, that can look up into the sky and

contemplate

their origin.

OQ

UNREASONABLE LEAPS
By
Dr.

Bernard Dixon

^^n abiding fascination

Mm^^is
its

of

science

mdoes

propulsive creativity. Why the occasional lone genius

simply by watching water dripping that the droplets are spherical. The concept of surface tension and the bizarre idea of

quencing"

succeed where a lavishly funded,

mission-oriented project has failed? Even odder, why should Alexander Fleming, half a century ago, have made his mightily

an

elastic

bag must have come from

mature. But the white scavenger cells are nucleated, and as the business of "seDNA becomes increasingly sophisticated, there seems little doubt

significant discovery of penicillin

its

yet leave

consummation

to

Howard

Florey and Ernst Chain more than ten years later? Part of the explanation, part of the dramatic contrast between what Thomas Kuhn terms "normal science" and the scientific revolution,

scholastic instruction, not from earnest observation. Worse was to come. When Stansfieid asked 1 3 students whether, since doing "O" level exams at school, they had written about what they had observed in the laboratory
(in

that tomorrow's genetic monitors will find

out a good deal about the living bodies from which they came. Antigens on the same cells will betray much about our ancestry and identity. Crimes may be solved many years after the event.

contrast to writing

down

must

lie in

freedom
of

of

the mind. Despite their

tists, like

command

con-

ently,

ventional knowledge, some great sciensome great artists, remain intellectually unfettered, able to take giant leaps of unreason. One of the most intriguing insights into

what some authority had told them they ought to see), not one claimed to have done so. Learning the correct answers from teachers and textbooks still, apparcounts for more than direct observation. Could this simple, unpalatable factthis discouragement of native wit and senses explain the closed minds of

DECRYING ORTHODOXY
Speculating thus brings an apt moment welcome Speculation in Science and Technology published by the Western
to
,

Australian Institute of Technology. This a splendid effort, within the format of

is

>

so

many

scientists

when confronted

with

the

unexpected?

closed and open minds appeared in a survey presented to the British Association by Ronald Stansfieid of the City University, London. Its conclusion was grim: many trainee scientists already suffer from "trained incapacity," such that theoretical, learned attitudes dominate and even eclipse natural talents for original observation. Ronald Stansfieid did something very simple. He asked 75 university science students to "look at a tap slowly, dripping water into a bowl and write a description of what you see as you watch the water coming out of the tap and joining the water in the bowl below." That was all. When the results came in, Stansfieid found that about half of the undergraduates had written imaginative rather fhan factual sentences. One of them reflected upon the Chinese water torture, images of which had passed through his head as he watched the tap dripping. Really disturbing, however, were several of the reports by students who genuinely set out to write objective accounts. Many contained material that could not possibly have been gained by simple observation. For example, "The droplet assumes a spherical shape, surface tension providing an elastic bag to contain the water as it falls." It is, in fact, impossible to see

lo seduce orthodox heterodox risks of to hell with the consequences. "Archaeological chromatog-

a learned journal,

scientists into taking

thought and
raphy"
is

BLOODPRINTS
that will
tions.

pieces us be exploited by future generaA substantial number, however, do provide samples of another bodily maleof tissue
rial

Few of

bequeath

one bizarre discipline that makes its appearance in the first issue. Chromatography is a well-established method of separating different materials from a mixture. The simplest demonstration of is when one end of a piece of
it

retained for decades in laboratories. Blood, particularly that which we give to help diagnose an illness, and that can thus be identified by name, is a vast
that
is

blotting

blue ink
rises,
it

ent dyes from the

different rates

store of potential information. Epide-

paper carrying a dried spot of is dipped into water. As the water separates out two or three differink, which migrate at and thus appear as distinct

miologists have already applied "serologthe search for tellical archaeology" to trace the natale antibodies in blood ture and spread of past plagues such as the 191 8 influenza pandemic. Decades hence, technicians may be able to use the same method to find out whether you or suffered measles, tuberculosis, or ve-

bands

of color.

Professor John McCarthy of Stanford

University applies the

same

notion to ar-

chaeology. A castle crumbles to pieces, and the site is rained on. The water dissolves materials from the building and deposits them in the ground beneath

nereal disease.

Subsequent rains move them farther down. Thus the earth underneath a ruin

Looking for chemical clues in his own blood (preserved by freezing), Dr. Robert

may

contain well-ordered information

Shope established that part of the "Shope papillomavirus" had been incorporated
into his
first,

DNA 30 years earlier one of the

experiments in genetic engineering. What, then, could future scrutineers learn from the hereditary material in stored blood samples? Nothing from red cells they are unique
albeit unintentional,

about substances and even objects the building contained. In principle, we could retrieve this information by analyzing material from different depths below the site. John McCarthy's idea is not, believe, as barmy as it will sound to some. Conservationists lamenting the glory that was Greece might do well to engage heteroI

in

that they lose their nuclei

when they

dox chemists, not just excavationists.to study the ground beneath their feet. DO

TMRS
By
Patrick

Moore

our present phase

of

In lightenment,
gest that
all

it

would be wrong

post-Apollo ento sug-

faint

the mysteries of the

moon

noes. Modern observers have described glows, sometimes red, which are now generally known as TLP Transient

have been solved. Curious things, seen

now and
lights,

then

Lunar Phenomena
myself).

(a

term

coined

faint

glows, flashing

patches

of "mist"

enclosure over 1 1 kilometers in diamewith a central mountain and a system of cracks or 'rills' on its floor. Suddenly, Kozyrev saw a red patch not far from the central peak. It did not last for long, but
ter,

still

provoke

ar-

gument and continue to enlist scientific inquiry and speculation. Men have been to the moon, brought back samples of rocks, monitored the recording devices left behind; absolutely no trace of life has been found. We are confident the moon has always been biologically sterile. We had expected a total lack of atmosphere on the moon, but were disappointed to detect no "watery" material in the rocks. Lunar surface eruptions of volcanic proportion, possible sources of the moon's craters, would have to be consigned to ancient history: the moon looks much the same today as it did when the first telescopic observations

the moon with powertelescopes have reported these elusive glows or local obscurations. have done so myself on several occasions, though the procedure requires many hundreds of hours of fruitless searching beful
I

Many who study

he was able to obtain definite proof that something had happened. It was not the first time strange phenomena have been seen in Alphonsus. Even more interesting
is

Aristarchus-, a 36-kilometer crater

the

fore

even a glimmer can be spotted.

Fol-

lowing the War, most TLP reports came from amateurs but this was understandable enough. Professional astronomers were not then particularly interested in the moon; it was regarded as somewhat dull and parochial. Far more important were the stars and distant star-systems (no doubt true enough). When the Space Age drew near, however, opinions changed, and the moon, in its
accessibility,

brightest object on the moon which can even be seen when illuminated only by light reflected from the earth. Reddish glows have been seen here too, and the

reports are too

easily.

numerous to dismiss

These odd lights are not confined to Alphonsus and Aristarchus. They appear

'

were made of it in 1-609. Even so, and however quiet, many astronomers readily concede that the moon is not so inert as was once thought. In fact, can we be sure that nothing ever happens there? Historically, bright lights have been
described on several occasions.
Sir Wil-

once more became

newsworthy. At the Crimean Observatory in the U.S.S.R., Nikolai Kozyrev was using the 50-inch telescope to observe the moon.

elsewhere on the lunar surface, and most astronomers (though not all) are now convinced that the color spots are genuine. They are not always red. Some merely take the form of blurred patches, temporarily hiding the surface features beneath. Observers found that the lights were most

common when the moon was closest to

the earth (perigee), so that
its

crust

He was
I

interested
in

in

the

TLP

reports,

and

was under maximum

gravity.

strain

from earth's

had been

correspondence

with him
at
Is

liam Herschel. in 1787, saw several points he believed to be active volca-

about them. Once he was looking formation Alphonsus, which

the

an

In 1969, the first manned landings left recording equipment behind on the lunar

moonquakes do occur most frequently at the

surface.
It

was found

that mild

time of perigee, which

may

between moonquakes and the phenomena.

indicate a link transient

Still, what then causes the lights? We can certainly rule out conventional volcanic eruptions. Violent cataclysms on the moon ended at least a thousandmillion years ago, when life on earth was still at a primitive stage. But there have been suggestions that such glows are due to the escape of trapped gases from beneath the lunar crust, an entirely credi-

ble theory. sional

Meantime, observers both profesand amateur are continuing to

keep a close watch, searching for the strange, will-o'-the-wisp lights that appear so timidly from the density of lunar
rocks.
of
its

The moon has yielded up some

secrets, but by no

means

all.

DO

'FILM/BOOK!

THE ARTS
TELEVISION
Battlestar Galactica
is

beyond the visuals, among them the use costume-drama, dialogue, props, and the central characters, who clearly paralof

the most expenIts

sive series ever created for television.

price tag averages nearly a million dollars

lel Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and even R2-D2. SiarWars, of course, wasegually guilty of "adapting" images and ideas from a score of films, including Buck

per hour for the episodes seen this fall. for a big budget series are inspired move from creator/writer/execulive producer Glen Larson. In signing John Dykstra, multiple Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor for Star Wars, Larson hired a formidable talent. Dykstra created the dazzling array of effects that highlight this

The usual fees

compounded by an

Rogers and Flash Gordon, Japanese samurai films, The Time Machine, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and
The

Dam

Busters.
is

As can be expected, Larson

hoping

to attract the fanatical "Trekkies,"

who

reli-

giously follow the oft-repeated Star Trek

otherwise pedestrian program, making Galactica the hottest new series of the season. "Certainly nothing like this has ever been attempted before in television," Larson told me. "We fried to get the best people in the business to create our images, ihe most creafive minds in the field, including Dykstra and a bunch of other people who've been involved in everything from 2001 and Silent Running to Star Wars." This "bunch" includes Dykstra's production team at Industrial Light and Magic (the special effects unit

episodes. Larson is hoping to attract fhem but not counting on them for, despite a mass mail campaign to save Star ' Trek from cancellation by NBC, the Trekkies didn't constitute a large enough audience to keep on the air.
if

"Galactica is an all-time challenger," Larson figures, "because Ihe kids are

naturally going to compare us with everything from Star Trek to Star Wars. Then

Star

Wars special

effects iw:

John Dykstra.

to

Says Dykstra:"The challenge of this show was do something realty exciting tar tv."

most advanced special effecis sfudio

the world. There we'll create
to

in

assembled for Star Wars), which was kept more or less intact for Galactica. didn't want to do episodic tv," "Initially, Dykstra commented, "but the challenge of the shows be working on was to do something really good for television."
I

keep that aspect

of the

new effects show as fresh

there are the dyed-in-the-wool science fiction fans. We aren't going to do enough in that area to please them, either. We didn't want to limit ourselves, because that would result in instant oblivion, Although the television version of Logan's

I'll

Although he :s leaving Galactica after seven episodes, Dyksira has created a "library" of special effecfs footage that can be endlessly rearranged. "I'm a little burnt out on this now," he told me, "but rather than simply walk away from it, set up Ihe fhree thousand individual elements that we shot of individual ships moving in individual directions so they can be put together in different combinations as long as the scripts are
I

as Ihe rest." Both Larson and Dykstra are aware of the dangers in trying to create anything new in prime time television. Regardless of the show's visual imagery, ihe series must survive on the quality of ils characters and stories. Judging from the pilot

Run came on television in the wake of Star Wars, and at the same time as Close
Encounters, the excitement of the films didn't doit any good. Our concept is wide open. We can go in any number of directions with it, adapting it as we see fit. But regardless, a lot is riding on Battlestar Galactica. With our budget and talent, if we go under we'll set the TV sci-fi field back a long way." The elements that make up Galactica are not merely drawn from mainstream science fiction. One observes bits and pieces of everything from Davy Crockett and Prince Valiant to The Bridges at
Toko-Ri, War of the Worlds, even Mod Squad. The dialogue is fairly reeking of

and

where one of the early hour-long episodes was in production, Galactica recalls a number of tv shows and feature films and fhus will be very much in the mainstream of television
a visit to the set

drama.

time to do anything." Producer Larson is planning to take the effects work "even further. "We're not looking to do a good pilot and just cannibalize it forever," he said. "We've taken over a building in which we plan to build the
out
in

An old hand at adapting popular film subjects for television, Larson produced such series as Mas Smith and Jones (its original episodes reminding one of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Switch (The Sting), McCloud (Coogan's Bluff), and It Takes a Thief (from the film of the same name). There are similarities between Batticsisr Galactica and Star War's

supercilious self-importance, but Dirk

Benedict, playing the Han Solo-ish Lt. Starbuck, has the talent to harpoon the most leaden scenes, "You certainly have a way of cutting through the felcagarb," he quips to the "sociolater" with a heart


he rescues her from some passengers in the pilot episode. One almost expects her to ask him, as he draws her to a dark spot for some preaction romance, "Will you still respect me in the next solar system?" Having experienced a great deal of creative freedom on Star Wars, Dykstra must have felt more than a" bit confined at times on Galactica. Even with the posiof gold after
visiting

fellow

and
the*

distribution

was able

Universal Studios (production company for the series), to see the film by invitation of

FILM
Given Hollywood's exhaustive
efforts to

tion of line producer, an

added induce-

ment

to his regular tasks as director of special effects, he still came up against the bottom-line decisions of the executive producer. "It's Glen Larson's show, his story," Dykstra conceded. "I did whatever

Company, which is merchandising a line of toys and model kits based on the series. Having spoken to Dykstra and Larson before seeing the film, was aware of its shortcomings. Made for television, it's unfair to judge the visuals on a big screen, but the quality of Dykstra's work is evident throughout. Those faults he mentioned in our converMattel Toy
I

mirror our times, a new blockbuster about cloning comes as a surprise to no one. Cloning caught the human imagination months ago and for good reason: it suggests personal immortality. So defines the driving force behind The Boys from Brazil from 20th Century-Fox, starring Gregory

sation

were barely noticeable.

Dykstra said,
"It's

Peck, Laurence
son.
In his

Olivier,

and James Ma-

"I'm very dissatisfied with the quality

for theatrical release,"

51st

bothersome. The scope of a show with

special effects material is a forty-foot screen format. There's a myriad of things that are sophisthis quantity of

the Nazi

could to support him when we agreed and argued with him when we disagreed. He wrote it. He supervised the ediling. He was there for the dubbing. was there as much as could be to say, 'Oh, this is really terrible' or 'That's good,' and anytime came across anything that smacked of Star Wars tried to get rid of it. But some of the things are just part of the genre, and there's no way to get rid of them. Once
I

could whenever

the cloning of
to establish

not

made for

film, Peck plays Dr. Mengele, war criminal who masterminds 94 little Hitlers in an attempt a Fourth Reich. As we began

tications for television.

They make
a feature

it

work

on

tv

but are

wrong

for

release."

James Delson

Star Wars,
to

they were in the film just said, 'Well, screw it.' That's not really a rip-off from it's really just part of the same gents, and it's important to the show for it
I

our interview, he explained the cloning process, including the way it was used in The Boys from Brazil: "In laymen's terms, which are the only ones can use to describe the process, a human cell is taken from the donor." He is careful with his words, thinking out the sentences one at a time to make things as clear as possible. "The cell can be from a blood sample, a tissue sample, or from bone marrow. The cell is inserted into a female egg that has been 'hollowed out,' which means the genetic characteristics of the
I

be there." The areas of Galactica where Dykstra's hand is most evident are those where he
lefl

mother have been removed. The egg

then implanted

is

produces an embryo

was

relatively tree to

pursue

his

own

comes a
donor.
child
is
It

personal tastes and visions. The remarkable flying sequences fulfill the promise Where the starfighters seemed confined to very strict maneuvers in the film, they appear more realistic here, able to dip, glide, and turn in exceptionally fluid flight, Although it was produced for U.S. television, Battlestar Galactica was edited down to two hours and released as a feature film in Europe, and Canada. While
of Star Wars's "dogfights."

in the female womb. It that eventually bechild, entirely the product of the is not artificial insemination; the a true clone, the genetic duplicate

of the donor."
"It's

cellular xeroxing,"

respond, draw-

ing a smile from Peck. "That's it, yeah," he says. "Doctor Derek Bromhall, the technical adviser on the film, has actually done

some incredible work in the field. We used his lab equipment in the sequence where I'm in my secret laboratory in Paraguay performing some terrible operation on one of the women who serve as 'incubators' for the Hitler clones."
In reality, cloning has been carried to completion only on lower orsuch as axolotls and frogs; but Bromhall gained worldwide recognition work in Oxford, England, where he cloned a rabbit through to an embryonic

through
ders,

for his

state.
of

Unable
of

to finish his

work because

a lack

proved the

funds, Bromhall nevertheless viability of the experiment,

Peck is certain that it's the most advanced cloning work that's ever taken
place.

"Since

had

to simulate this operation

on screen," Peck reassured me, "Bromhall was there to see that everything was as it should be." But how did
this

cloning

scheme

arise? Instantly

changing his posture, straightening up to sit on the edge of the couch, Peck transforms himself into Mengele, "The Angel of
Death," affecting a convincing German accent with a clipped, formal, lifeless
voice.

John Dykstra's special

28

effects for Galactica bring

space

to life (below); a

"On a certain day

in

943," Peck/

OMNI


Mengele says, each word as brittle as if it were chipped off a marble block, "he allowed me to take halt a liter of his blood and some skin tissue. We preserved and protected the samples for twenty years,
the technique was perfected! Until was sure could make the clones propuntil
I

when the boys

are fourteen. The fathers must die, just as Hitler's father died when he was fourteen. The clones must undergo the same psychological trauma as their genetic father. Under Mengel.e's plan.it is necessary to organize and exe-

BOOKS
One year after the introduction of the antiaging pill, traditional religions warn against death control a campaign similar to the earlier crusade against birth control; the economy is destabilizing as employees desert their jobs; government has moved in to monopolize distribution
of the
ing.
is
pill;

cute 94 assassinations

in

Austria, Holland,

am growing visibly uneasy. Seeing Peck drops the accent and continues. "Twenty years later, Mengele has
erly,"
this,
I

England, Germany, America, and so forth. The deaths must appear accidental. They

94 women brought to his laboratory in Paraguay. He plants the Hitler-impregnated eggs in them to be brought to term, the acting as incubators until the children areborn." Creating life is one thing, but how do the infant Hitlers get a proper start in life? "Once they 're born," Peck explains, "they're distributed to Nazi agents around the world by means of a secret organization of adoption agencies. The infants are

must leavethe children fatherless and, one would assume, a burden to their
mothers."
This year we've already seen rumors and a book about supposed human clone experiments, but all have been unsupported byfactual evidence. Regardless of the truth, however, the amount of publicity generated by newspaper stories, interviews, and other material available to the public has created a kind of "clone fever" in the U.S. The release of a film with cloning at its core is amazingly well timed. "Oh, it's all to the good, "Peck admits. "Johnny Carson has a cloning joke almost every night now. Everybody's talking about it, so

and

the.

divorce rate

is

increas-

women

Ten years later, organized religion disgraced and disbanded, virtually everyone is taking the pill, divorce rates
soar, the
of
is staggering because absenteeism, and all dangerous sports are phasing out as people everywhere reorient themselves to the quest for physical immortality, This is not the plot of a new SF novel; it is part of a Scenario developed by 31 graduate students in the department

economy
in

an increase

shipped out of Brazil, hence the film's title. The agents have sought out childless, but "decent" married couples who would like to adopt but can't because the father is too old. This worts for the Nazis, because the families cannot tell anyone of the adoptions for fear of having their children taken

of future

studies at the University of

away.

"The families have been chosen because they fit into a specific profile

designed by Mengele

to duplicate, as

closely as possible, Hitler's home situation. The fathers are 52-year-old civil servants, and the mothers, 34-year-old
'

housewives. In addition, the households, all hand-picked by Mengele, provide the same economic, religious, and social environment as Hitler had. The couples receive these black-haired, blue-eyed healthy babies from what they take to be a black-market ring. They're happy. They have a child. They don't have a clue that this is a little clone of Hitler. "The diabolic nature of the. scheme is revealed right at the beginning of the film,

hoping it'll help us out." Peck's forthright image, the man of conscience forever struggling to uphold the best traditions of honor and decency, might finally be broken with his portrayal of Mengele. Still at large and living in relative luxury In Paraguay, fhe unrepentant Nazi was responsible for the deaths of 300,000 people at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Now under the protection of the Paraguayan government, Mengele is currently advising them on
sure, we're
their internal affairs, most notably the extermination of their indigenous Indian tribes. The character is not unlike what we imagine Hitler might be like today if he were still alive. Mengele's name was not changed. As Peck says: "We would be delighted if he would start a lawsuit

Houston given the assignment of predicting how a longevity pill would change
our society. Although Omni does not regularly review articles, it is worth making an exception for "The Impending Society of Immortals," by Jib Fowles, in the June

against us. Nothing could please us James Deison more."

1978 issue of The Futurist, where this is described and the group's predictions are given for 20 years and 50 years after the introduction ol the lifeextension pill. It has become as stale as King Tut's socks to repeat Alvin Toff let's warning that since there are mote scientists alive today than in all previous history, we should expect more sociotechnological change in fhe- next generation than we saw in all previous centuries; but Fowles's summary of the University of Housion study gives one a gut-level feeling of how one possible breakthrough
study

can produce in just a few decades more social upheaval than Galileo, the Industrial

Revolution, the Wright Brothers,

and

atom bomb did in three centuries. That such a longevity pill (or some is imminent the thesis of Albert Rosenfeld's Prolongevity (Knopf, New York). Ros'enfeld, science editor of the Saturday Review, has done his homework: the bibliography lists over 500 scientific papers, and he seems to have personally interviewed nearly every important researcher of life extension in the United States. While the degree of optimism varies among the authorities cited, there is a solid consensus fhal we already understand a great deal about what causes aging and are close io understanding how to reverse, the process. Some of Ihe investigators have already achieved an impressive amount of lite extension and rejuvenation in laboratory animals, and they all expect to achieve much more
the
alternative antiac.no, device)
is

perhaps not by next Tuesday but certainly

in

Peck as a

mad sciential

vjhc attempts to clone Hi

the foreseeable future. No More Dying, by Joel Kurtzman

and

Phillip Gordon (Dell, New York), makes a good companion piece to Prolongevity, since each book includes a few areas of

Arts, Millbrae),

research thai the other inadvertently overlooks. The jolting difference between the titles does not reflect any real disagreement between authors; both texts deal mainly with those who are seeking longevity, rather than with the ultraradicals who admit they are aiming for

and both authors agree immortality thatantiaging research will eventually

go beyond
In
'of

longevity to immortality.
useful to

attempting to guesstimate the liming

it

the longevity revolution,

1

is

think

a scenario for the opening of the Space Age? Obviously, only the most radical would have predicted that Sputnik would be aloft within a year and that the first
the moon within 1 years. Similarly, going back 40 years, it clear to many scientists in 1938 that

back 20 years to 958 and ask, What would have seemed reasonable

Harrington is also raising ultimate questions in The Immortalis! (Celestial which carefully considers every argument in favor of death offered by philosophers or theologians and then tears them apart with relentless logic and savage sarcasm. Originally published in 1 969, The Immortalist received several rave reviews (including one by Gore Vidal) but then sank into oblivion because was simply too far ahead of its time. This new edition, nine years later, may finally attract the audience deserved by a book that dares to open with the mindboggling sentence, "Death is an imposition on the human race, and no longer acceptable." Even further out is another book with
it

One can only wonder why there are no American playwrights dealing with such
important scientific-social issues. Woody Allen obviously speaks for most the churchless and faithless when he "Some people want to achieve immortality through their works or their descendants. prefer to achieve immortality by not dying." Robert Anton Wilson
of

says,

SPACE + INTELLIGENCE EXTENSION

LIFE

man would walk on

was

Is

it

the Atomic

Age was coming, but few indeed would have expected the first chain reaction in five years and the first nuclear bomb in seven. Of course, the life-extension problem may be harder to
crack than the atom or space flight, but Dr. Benjamin Schloss of the Aging Research Institute in Van Nuys, California, has already adopted the slogan, "An End to Aging by 1 989." He seems radical now; might he seem conservative by

ticism to

nucleic-acid myssuggest that current

"Microbiology and genetics are deciphering the DNA code,thus providing the possibility of rejuvenation and indefinite Life Extension. Biochemists assure us that there is no scientific reason why a healthy person cannot extend her-or-his life span several years ... All of the religious and philosophic systems constructed by human beings have concerned themselves with the basic issue of
death. The Western religions have offered immortality in a post-mortem, heavenly realm to be attained by the socially virtuous. The Oriental religions, addressing

breakthroughs in life-extension sciences are inevitably synchronous with the emergence of space technology?
Life extension is unthinkable without space frontiers.^

themselves soberly
that

vidual

1981? The possible chaos resulting from a quantum jump to immortality is the theme
of the

to the gloomy fact human life ends inevitably in sickness, senility and death, have offered passive resignation and a detached indiyoga .... Life Extension, however, without Space Migration and Intelligence Increase is

clearly

an impossible nightmare.

Until

now
the same title: Heathcote Williams's The Immortalist (Open Head Press, London). Williams, generally regarded in England as one of the most brilliant dramatists alive but not yet widely known over here, has written The Immortalist as a script
equally suitable for theater, tv, or even radio, since there are only two characters and all they do is argue. The Immortalist claims he is 278 years old; the reporter
skeptically challenges him; the debate is as resonantly ambiguous as Waiting for Godot and often as screwball as the Marx Brothers. The Immortalist may be a mad imposter, a clever put-on artist, or exactly what he claims to be: the audience can never be quite sure. The methods of extending life urged by the Immortalist range from ancient alchemical and occult ideas through recent scientific proposals right out of Rosenfeld, Kurtzman, and Gordon to a kind of anarchist metaphysics reminiscent of William S. Burroughs. (We only die, according to this argument, because we allow capitalists and governments to take time from us: this is presented with the same mixture of intensity and absurdity as all the rest of the debate.) At the end, the Immortalist is blatantly inciting the audience to demand further antiaging research, and his last words to the presumably reeling reporter are: "There are people alive now who are never going to die. Put that on the news."

it

most disturbing

satiric

novel of the
!

pausal

year, Alan Harrington's

Paradise

(Little,

ies off the

was necessary for postmenohumans to die and get their bodscene to make room for the

Brown, Boston). The predicament Harrington has imagined is indicated by these figures: roughly 67 people die every minute; about 1 00,000 every day;
approximately 36 million a year. What

to

happens

if

a group

of brilliant but politi-

arrivals. Is it nucleic-acid mysticism suggest that current breakthroughs in life-extension sciences are inevitably synchronous with the emergence of space technology? Surely life extension would be unthinkable without space fron-

new

cally naive scientists

announces a suc-

tiers.

And

with limitless

space available

im-

cessful immortality pill but have only a limited supply for the first few years? In Harrington's mordant novel, every spe-

mortality becomes a migratory tool, No rejuvenation without migration! could well be the motto to protect us from the horrid
possibility of

group and every conniving scoundrel on the planet attempts to steal the formula; the government staves off anarchy by establishing a monopoly on distribution (as in the University of Houston projection); but charges of governcial interest

Sinatra at

John Denver and Frank age 500 still re-appearing at

Las Vegas. Extended

quire a

efficiency, the

mental corruption and favoritism lead

steadily rising insurrection, until until the next twist of a plot that it
.
,

to

imprint realities, to create

to

life span will obviously resudden quantum jump in neural knowledge of how to re-, new identities,

well,

absorb new mental

. . .

styles, to learn

would

new tricks
If

be unfair to reveal in full. Harrington writes with an eloquent wit superior to

a gift for black comedy comparable to Vonnegut, and with an obvious sense of urgency. It is no secret that the scientists in this fable are based on real researchers alive today (whom you might recognize under their real names in the books of Rosenfeld and KurtzmanGordon); everything Harrington imagines just might happen, if we stumble into immortality backwards, philosophically unprepared for the death of Death.
Mailer, with

space and millenniathe expansion time." from Neuropolitics by Timothy Leary

in

there is any goal beyond narcissism for the new generation of hedonic consumers freed from the constrictions of the work- aesthetic and the old-time religions, if there is any social or genetic purpose to this new, self-conscious individualism perhaps it is in preparation for the greatest challange our species has faced
of

with Robert

Anton Wilson and G.A.

Koopman, DO

30

OMM

UFD UPDATE
By James Oberg

^^ m^A

mong

the most influential and widely known UFO incidents is the story of Barney and

Betty Hill, a middle-aged New Hampshire in 1 961 were returning from vacation. Driving late at night through the

couple who

encountered a UFO whose alien occupants reportedly took them on board and subjected them to a thorough medical examination, Several factors seemed to argue
White Mountains, the
Hills

strongly

in

case.

First,

favor of the authenticity of the the narrative of the abduction

revealed And, of course, any corroborative testimony on the part of other possible witnesses would lend further credibility. Indeed, as reported in the books and magazines that cover the Hill case, all these criteria have been satisfied. But have they really been? Hypnotic regression (or abreaction) can be a useful tool in psychoanalysis and has been gaining wider acceptance as an interrogative technique in police investigations. Cooperative witnesses
in

Mrs.

Hill's "star

maps" was

leading questions about a nonexistent

valid.

UFO abduction that the subjects were led

to

assume they had just undergone. They responded with a wealth of details conjured up from their imaginations. The stories sounded no different from any of the classic abduction cases already on record, including Betty and Barney Hill's. Dr. Benjamin Simon, the Boston psychiatrist

who conducted
1

sions with the Hills

story

convinced that the entire

the hypnosis ses5 years ago is still UFO abduction

was

this kind of

phenomenon, an

was

remembered by the was extracted by a psychiatrist using hypnosis. This fact seemed to rule out any chance of a deliberate hoax.
not consciously
Hills

can

recall details

but

may have
actually

forgotten or

about an eventthey may never

Second, one particular piece of information (similarly relrieved from Betty Hill's subconscious) was a "star map," which was subsequently deciphered by experts
to indicate the alien ship's

have noticed consciously. But the technique has its pitfalls. A subject in the highly suggestible state

may

actually concoct fictitious details or an entire imaginary theme to please the subconsciously sensed desires of the interrogator.

innocent fabrication based on subconscious anxieties and vivid imaginations. Dr. Simon, whose psychoanalytic expertise is generally portrayed as the backbone of the Hill case's authenticity, does not believe the incident as reported ever took place!
tern of dots, lines,

home

solar

Under hypnosis, Betty Hill drew a patand circles that she

system.

Over the years, the "Barney and Betty

Hill UFO Abduction" has become accepted as a "classic" close encounter of the third kind. Since then, dozens of similar cases have been reported. A bestselling book (Interrupted Journey by John Fuller) and a made-for-tv movie (NBC's UFO Incident) have boosted the case's fame. Betty Hill (Barney died in 1 969) has become a popular feature at

Researchers in California recently hypnotized subjects with no previous UFO

experiences or interests and asked them

was a star map shown to her by the UFO commander. Several years later, an
said

UFO conventions
ing this
really
ity

nationwide.

Two questions come to mind concernfamous case. First, can anything

of the original incident?

be concluded about the authenticSecond, have

in

UFO organizations and the news media

generally handled this case ble fashion?

a responsi-

While no final conclusions can be drawn (as in most UFO cases there is enough uncertainty and doubt to hide the

Seventh Fleet), some very interesting insights about the UFJD phenomenon can be gained by examining the Hill incident. The case would almost have to be
labeled authentic if the hypnotic interrogation of the Hills had turned out to be

amateur astronomer in Ohio produced of nearby stars that seemed to match Betty's drawing. Astonishingly, the map's viewpoint was from deep in space, looking back at our solar system. Most of the identified stars on the map were similar in size and brightness to our own sun, although such stars (the only kind likely to have planets with intelligent life orbiting them) are a distinct minority in the galaxy The alien home system was identified as a double star called Zeta Reticuli, Skeptics claimed that an "identification" of the alien world could be made with any random collection of dots and lines and that the predominance of sunlike stars on the decoded map should not have been surprising since to shorten the work all others had dropped from consideration. Some sun-type stars should have shown up but didn't; the remaining dots on the drawing were assigned to handy non-sunlike stars or dismissed as "background" decoration. With that, any number of different (and
a view
mutually exclusive) map interpretations could be made. And so they have. At last count, four different interpretations had surfaced, all very convincing,

based on

true

subconscious memories

of

BettyH

ir

of itie third

real events. Also, the case would be very strong if the astronomical information

kind made UFO history, holds star map that depicts solar system of her alien hosts.

It's

also

odd

that Betty

Hill

recalls her

UFO abductors telling

off

rarely visited.

her that earth is the beaten galactic track and is Where are all those other
Hill's ability

heavily biased in favor of its unsolvability, even to the extent of deliberately helping the case stay "unsolvable" by slanting key pieces of evidence and omitting
others.

UFOs coming from?

Mrs.
to accurately recon-

struct events

and

there, the

pect when UFO Sheafter showed that she was unable to reliable chart of the alleged UFO's position in the sky. In place of the moon and two bright planets that were actually Hill account shows the moon, a bright planet, and the "starlike" UFO. Sheaffer concludes that the original UFO sighting, which so frightened the sleepless Hills, was a not uncommon "car-

susinvestigator Robert
details

became

draw a

As long as this remains the standard approach to UFO documentation, so will UFOIogy remain an unborn science. The Betty Hill case is an excellent touchstone against which such standards of behavior can be measured.
Ex-astronaut
with his tv talk
L.

Books and magazines are full of detailed accounts of Cooper's encounters with UFOs in space during the Mercury and Gemini programs. An exciting and provocative UFO revelation attributed to the astronaut appears on the package of a "Close Encounters Alien Doll," distributed by Columbia Pictures Industries as part of the commercialization of the famous UFO movie. Says the quotation, "Intelligent beings

Gordon Cooper has beof a celebrity recently

of

come something

show accounts
in

personal
in

UFO sightings
the
1

Europe and

California

950s and

his

present cooperation

chasing UFO" phenomenon oaused by the sporadic appearance of the bright planet Jupiter from behind clouds.

with international

UFO investigators.

from other planets regularly visit our world in an effort to enter into contact with us. NASA and the American government know this and possess a great deal of evidence. Nevertheless, they remain silent in order not to alarm people. ... am dedicated to forcing the authorities to
.

As for the current credibility of Betty Hill, she has become something of an embarrassment to the UFO movement. Her latest stories tell of a secret UFO
landing
field, of

end their silence." The problem is, claims Cooper, he never said that and never even attended
the

Mew

which he

York City UFO conference at is alleged to have made those

to

comments. And

express

his

profound

her car being blasted

by a UFO's heat ray, of UFOs with their undersides painted to look like ordinary
airplanes, of the local plunderings of a supernatural chicken mutilator, of her neighbor's levitating cat, of her own precognitive and clairvoyant ESP powers, of her continual harassment by sinister government agents, of the visit to her home = 3 by the capricious poltergeist of a dead six-year-old orphan, and other equally | unbelievable tales. UFO buffs find these fables hard to swallow, but they swallow f hard and point to the details of her origi- | = nal testimony. Skeptics suggest these new stories simply underline her vivid | imagination and her propensity for fan| I tasizing whether conscious or under

displeasure at having his name exploited by Columbia, he is suing them for two
million dollars.

Columbia, meanwhile,
buff

refuses to

comment on which UFO

gave them the alleged quotation and why

they never tried to verify it. Nor did Cooper see any UFOs on his space flights, it turns out. "Complete fabrications," he calls the stories that for more than 1 5 years have enlivened

UFO literature.
Cooper does remain intrigued by the UFO problem, he maintains, and his own UFO experiences remain uninvestigated and unexplained. But the UFO
real
,

movement

evidently

was

with the honest realities of

unsatisfied an astronaut's

UFO stories and

piled fantasies

and

fab-

hypnosis. 1 Moreover, studies critical of many | aspects of the original Hill abduction have reportedly been circulating among pro-UFO groups for several years. According to people who claim to have seen these documents, they are stamped with the UFO equivalent of top secret, That is, there are embarrassing facts about the
original Hill

rications upon them. Cooper's legal action against Columbia may help de-

case

that
is

some UFO groups

believe the public

better off not

knowing.

Defenders of the original Hill abduction case dismiss Dr. Simon's incredulity by
suggesting that the Boston hypnotist was
of other similar reports and thus believed the Hill testimony was an anomaly. Proponents defend the legitimacy of

unaware

decoded star map (but they disagree onwhich interpretation is the legitimate one), They believe there were many corthe

roborative radar reports of UFOs that night, though the reporter who revealed
that information in a local

newspaper has | c lost his notes and cannot now say where he learned those facts. So there is adequate uncertainty to
since
warrant further study of the
Hill

encounter.

The

UFO phenomenon

has produced thousands

c!

pnotcg'apns Typical ol the more stunning

v:-:J

What is apparent, however, is that the most publicized accounts of this case are
32

i'ar.b

UFOs flying side by s/tie in

controversial} arc. top, a -ne: ;he ragn: shy

in '74

una

baicnv

i,\-o

above Santa Ana.

California.

OMNI

termine just
in

UFO

how (ar the media can go carelessly perpetuating profitable frauds.

Navigation

fortune-tellers.

love to read thrilling predictions

future sightings,
firmations,

People interested in UFOs about imminent final con-

feed the world's hungry, and end war."

and impending diplomatic

WRONG ENCOUNTERS:

across the vast gulfs of interstellar space would require the most precise computations imaginable. If UFOs are coming to us from hundreds or thousands of lightyears away, their location-finding skills must be honed to a sharpness unimaginin contemporary terms. But the UFO pilots of Steven Spielberg's epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind must have become lost in a galactic fog bank when they attempted to make contact with human representa-

recognition of aliens. So a continuous stream of new predictions distracts the public from ever checking up on the old. Jeanne Dixon, billed as "the world's most phenomenal seer," made such a prediction in the summer of! 976. Said the famed psychic, "I know that these

These are certainly beautiful forecasts, and one might be forgiven if one hopes will come to pass. But, sad to say, the deadline is more than a-year past, Nor is there any secret planet "on the opposite side of the sun, " a favorite gimmick of UFO buffs and science fiction writers
they
alike. Its natural gravitational forces on other planets would have made it abundantly evident centuries ago. Well, UFO devotees can respond, perhaps Jeanne Dixon's predictions did come true but the government is hiding it from us. This theory (and of course ft is but better still, it barely conceivable cannot be disproved by skeptics) is the motivation behind the recurring cycle of predictions that "this year" or maybe "by next year" the government will finally ad-

able

who are really just better developed humans from a planet on the oppoaliens,
their secrets to
will begin transmitting us no later than August 1977, They will also land by then. Their help will enable us to eventually cure everything from cancer to heart disease,

site

side of the sun,

tives at Devil's Tower,

The
Ihe

latitude

Wyoming. and longitude given

in

UFO movie were grossly in error.

aliens

asked to be met at 1 04-44-30 by 40-36-1 0, a location near Lone Tree Creek, about 80 kilometers north of Denver, Colorado. Devil's Tower, where the spectacular ending of Close Encounters

The

took place,
north.

is

451 kilometers farther

Presumably, the

UFOs swooped

over

Lone Tree Creek and found nothing bul a few hungry coyotes and a lost reporter. They then frantically circled the entire Rocky Mountain area until they just happened upon the human base camp at
Devil's Tower.

has been in contact with UFOs. Understandably, UFO clubs and authors have been the main source of such reports, which began as early as 1 952. But from time to lime a more reputable (presumably more responsible) press source stumbles on the story again. The latest reincarnation of the government secrecy story appeared in US News and World Report early last year, Said a brief note in the "Washington Whispers" page, "Before this year is out, the governmit that
it

The
,

rest is history
it

or,

if

you

will,

hyste-

But was the biggest navigation error since Columbus thought he had hit China.
ria,

ment will make unsettling disclosures about what knows about UFOs." But once again, the time limit ran out, and nothing showed up. As turned out, Jody Powell had made some incoherent and poorly researched remarks about the
it

it

Any popular mystery attracts all sorts of solutions and insights, usually contradictory. The UFO phenomenon has had more
ihan
the
its fair

most

common

share of opportunists, among being the psychic

ongoing declassification of the old. Air Force "Bluebook" files. By the time this present column is in print, readers should be able to judge the accuracy of some additional predictions.

A year
listed

ago, various tabloid newspapers the following prognostications: "Top psychic" Clarisa Bernhardt told

December 1 977 one year, sightings by government officials will be made public." Also, famed Miami psychic Mickey Dahne told
the National Enquirer in
that "within

the tabloid that "the first real concrete evidence that there are such visitors from outer space will be with us next year," Top UFO expert Leo Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming was even more hopeful last Januarywhen he announced that "we expect 1 978 to be the year that mankind takes its biggest step forward to solving the mystery of the UFO, We will learn more about UFOs in 1978 than everything we have learned about this phe-

nomenon in the last fifty years." As 1 978 draws to a close, these

psychics and UFO experts are running out of time to be proved right. Sadly, the repeated failure of such predictions never

tions,

Microscopic blowups of
pattern, which rules out

experts

call a rare,

UFO photographed nver Bri^i 'top: ;, darkroom retouching- Could Oe gonoir, needienke doud formsiion photographed m

qually distributed grain

<nlike the

seems to prove anybody wrong. There is be a new spate of predicand "informed sources" for 1979 being the "big UFO year." And if these
surely going to

below UFO, which

in

White Sands, N.M..

1957.

guesses, too. fail always next year.

to materialize, there
.

is

OQ
33

iragriiaw

Eli ,ere may still be places on eiffm where Grand Marnier isn't of fered after dinner.
I
L

coruTifuuunn
WHO CWNS
#^^^^ gedebate has arisen: Should the products patentable? m netic engineering, new forms
political

LIFE
CCPA
rejected the

J^^^nant DNA research slowly simmers, a new but related

of of
life,

^^k

s the

controversy over safety measures for recombi-

PTO's decision and awarded the patent. The

be-

distinction between living and nonliving matter as irrelevant to the question of the culture's patentability, arguing that it was "illogical, .that the existence of life in a manufacture or composi,

aspects recombinant DNA techniques has built.up at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), but the outcome of these cases will have to await the Supreme Court's ruling on two earlier cases reviewed before an appeals court late last year. Besides the philoAlready, along
list

of patent applications for various

of

sophical ramifications involved

in

permitting patents for living or-

ganisms, the court's decision

the

development

ot industrial

will have an important impact on processes using biological tech-

niques. The issue of whether a living organism is unpatentable perse first raised by Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty, a microbiologist for General Electric, who developed a strain of the bacteriapseudomonas that is capable of degrading all the different

was

working

blends of

oil in

an industrial

spill.

Chakrabarty imparted

this

new

ability, absent in naturally occurring strains, tothepseudomonas by incorporating extrachromosomal rings of genes, or plasmids, into individual bacterial cells. Despite the novelty and obvious invention, the PTO turned down the patent on the grounds that the. bacteria were "products of nature" and, as such, were unpatentable, and that as living organisms the bacteria were nonstatutory subject matter and hence did not qualify for a patent under existing legislation. In a second case concurrently appearing before the PTO, a group of scientists working with the pharmaceutical manufacturer Upjohn Company sought a patent for a "biologically pure culture," nonexistent in nature, o! the microorganism Streptomyces vellosus, which had been isolated to produce high yields of the antibiotic lincomycin. Again, the PTO rejected the patent application but significantly focused on the fact that this is a "living" organism as the sole basis for its classification as unpatentable. The PTO argued that if Congress had intended living organisms to be covered by patent legislation, then it would not have passed a separate Plant Patent Act in 1 930, making an exception for certain types of plants. Upjohn appealed to the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA), which, in a widely publicized verdict, reversed the

removes it from the category of subject matter tion of matter ." which canbe patented. On similar grounds, the CCPA subsequently awarded Chakrabarty a patent for his oil-devouring strain of bacteria, but in June, the Supreme Court ordered the CCPA to reconsider its decision to allow the Upjohn patent, thus bringing the-dispute back to square one. The intention behind the Supreme Court's ruling has been hotly debated in Washington, but one interpretation is lhat since existing patent legislation is not explicit about the patentability of living organisms, the matter should be decided by congressionnal committee rather than in the courts, In preparation for this event, Congress has already begun to discuss under whose jurisdiction the case should fall and will probably seek assistance on the case from the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
. ,

utility of his

With companies investing millions of dollars inbiotechnical research, the outcome of this issue may have important consequences on the future funding of this developing industry. Denying theowner or creator the protection and economic benefits of the patent system may prove a deterrent to the development of useful technologies in this field. Under existing legislation, patents on biological processes afford some protection for new technologies, but patenting living organisms would further safeguard against others profiting from their commercial usage. In this regard, the Plant Patent Act of 1 930 was introduced' to

remedy what was then seen as a deficiency

that

hindered progress

in

pose was described

reports to

in

in the patent system the botanical sciences. The act's purboth Senateand House committee

be

to "assist in

placing agriculture

.on

a basis

of

eco-

nomic equality with industry" and to "remove the existing discrimination between plant developers and industrial inventors." Congress may soon be facing a similar issue of "discrimination"

against the biological sciences. But elaboration or outright

addition to existing patent legislation will noibe easy, for the very crux of this issue is that Congress may have to address the prob-

lem of defining

life itself.

KATHLEEN MCAULIFFE

CDfUTirUUURJl
PICTUREPHONE
Whatever happened
the 1964 World's
callers
to the

tween
cisco),

New

York

and San Fran-

WOMAN OF THEYEAR
RosalynYalow, last year's Nobel Prize winner for work on
the development of radioimmunoassays, has turned

ANTI-AGING
The drug
H3, and
in
it

DRUG

Picturephone? Introduced at Fair, AT&T's

television-telephone thai lets see each other while Ihey talk had been generally

costs S400

An hour's business meeting from coast to coast less than one

is

called Gerovital

may be instrumental
even reversing the

person's roundtrip

airfare,

halting or

rooms are

Picturephone meeting like small tv broad-

aging process

down the Ladies' Home Journal

dismissed as a prohibitively expensive gimmick born before

ever,
its

time.

The Picturephone, howis alive and well in a different form: The Picturephone
Meeting Service. Quietly, for almost two years, hundreds of people have been using the service, which allows a group of people in one cily to meet face to face with a group in another city-

casting chambers. They have three automatic cameras and two viewing screens one to receive incoming images and another to monitor your own.

Woman of the Year award because she feels that is "init

Everything

is

controlled

by the

participants: there are no technicians present. Cus-

tomers can show slides, documents, and other objects

J0\ mm #1 it*
*

The rejuvenating qualities of GH3 were first discovered in the early 1950s by Ana Asian at Rumania's Institute of Geriatrics in Bucharest when she

was treating

elderly patients.

suffering from rheumatism. Asian found that injecting her

and

**m F-'^M,
1

patients with the

common

local
in

anesthetic procaine (known

with two other ingredients

the U.S. as Novocaine), along

instantly transmit

photoi

copies of them from one end

of the

hookup

to the other.

The

entire

meeting can be vid-

benzoic acid and potassium salts notonly reduced pain but alleviated a wide range of

Hookups are
tween two
of

available becities:

any four

New York, San

Francisco,

eotaped for future reference. The service will be offered in color within a year, and AT&T
is

Chicago, and Washington,

D.C. The rates range from $2.50 per minute (between

increasing the

number of
in

cities in the network.

Picturephone

the

home?

% *i 1 Ik
.

old-ageailments. At a scientific meeting held

1956 at Karlsruhe, West Germany, Asian presented the

in

results of five years of intensive

New York and

Washington, D.C.) to $6.50 a minute (be-

The

Bell

they'll

System predicts have by 19S1.

it

Prize-winner

and woman-ot-the-

elderly patients.
that

yearYalow: Told she'd "better get " her nose out of a test tubs.

research on more than 2500 She reported

consistent
to

and unwise
to

to

have
or

GH3 eliminated depression, helped to restore mental awareness, produced muscuand reduced hyperand angina pectoris. In addition, had regrown hair on some patients and recolored hair on others.
larvigor,

awards restricted

women
not

men

in

fields of

endeavor
is

tension, arthritis,

where excellence
According
ception held

it

clearly sex-related."
to the

Washing-

ton Post's account of the refor

Further positive results from

the ten

successive tests led the

awardees (among them was First Lady Rosalyn Carter), Yalow's stand was met with

some annoyance.
of a test tube,

"I

think

Rumanian government to set up treatment clinics all over the country. By 1 975, more than 100,000 elderly patients had
received GH3 treatment in these clinics, including such world-renowned figures as

she'd better get her nose out " said Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson. And Lenore Hershey, the magazine's editor,

MaoTse-tung,

Nikita

expressed the opinion that "when 51 .3 percent of the Nobel Prize winners are women, will agree
!

Khrushchev, Saudi Arabia's King ibn-Saud, W. Somerset Maugham, and former U.S. Vice-President Henry Wallace.
In

the U.S., there has

been

A group of businessmen
office in

in New York hold a meeting with their branch San Francisco using the Picturephone Meeting Service,

that the

Woman of the Year

award is old-fashioned."

considerable controversy over GH3. However, a recently pub-

"

lishedbook,GH3 Wilt It Keep You Young Longer?, by

science writer Herbert Bailey, presents a formidable amount evidence from both Euro-

of

Comparative Zoology
o.ut.

is try-

ing to find

So far,

he's dis-

covered that lizards of the species Anolis carolensis do

not naturally favor

Crews intends to find out what happens when a female with only one ovary tries to mate with a male castrated on that

SMILING BOWLERS
Bowlers are
likely to

much more

smile when talking

lot

of

one
other.

same side.

with other bowlers than they

lizards

pean and American studies

that corroborate the beneficial

hemipenis over the

And

Why do snakes and

effects of the drug. Moreover,

when Crews surgically removed one hemipenis, the

lizards simply
to

none of the studies have

vealed any harmful side
fects of

reef-

ing posture that allowed

chose the matthem

GH3.

1!

further tests

use

their

remaining organ.

have two penes? Is there an evolutionary advantage? No, says Crews, who points out thatsingle-penised animals have survived in similar envito

are after knocking down a of pins. In a bowling alley, says psychologist Robert

Kraut, friendly interactions

confirm its positive effects, the Federal Food and Drug Administration
its

may eventually

lift

ban onthe manufacture and

tended
that

But when Crews halfcastrated the animals, removing just one testis, the lizards to favor the hemipenis
still

ronments. He says it appears be just a random biological

curiosity.

'

saleof GH3 making itavailableforthe treatment of old-age ailments in thiscountry.

KieranColman
forthe

had

itstestis intact,

Crews thus concludes that sensory feedback from the

testis
is

BIRTH CONTROL FOR

DOGS
This
pillis strictly

DOUBLE PENIS
Male lizards and snakes have not one penis but two, called hemipenes, each of which is connected to its own
testis.

important

in

helping

How does an aroused snake or lizard decide which hemipenis to use? David Crews of Harvard's Museum

these reptiies decide which hemipenis to use. Wary of taking a sexist approach, Crews is now studying the female lizard's rale in mating behavior. The female produces its eggs on alternate sides and the male always appears to mount on the side with the biggest follicle.

dogs. The FDA recently approved Upjohn s oral canine contraceptive, and now Fido can have sex withoutfear. Trade-named Cheque, this planned parenthood for pups is dispensed by veterinarians for about five cents a day and is claimed to be 90 percent ef:

fective in stopping eStrus

This bowler finds nothing to laugh at here. But wait until -he

gets back with his companions.

(heat)

in

bitches of all sizes

and descriptions.

Cheque contains mibolerone, a non-progesterone former progesterone-based dog contraceptives, has virtually no
steroid, which, unlike

produce more smiles than accomplishments.

letic

ath-

At the.annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Washington, Kraui showed videotapes of bowlSeattle.

harmful side effects. Although the U.S. has a

birthrate of up to 1 0,000 pups an hour, most dog owners do not spay their pets because of

ers reacting to strikes

and

Iheirreversibililyofthe

^&L
,

Tifvaata.

"j,

...

Jh 5

'

surgery.

Now Cheque-mated

canine couples can breed a reasonable number of pups a few months after being withdrawn from the drug.

'*!%

"The actual building of roads devoted to motor cars is not near

for the

with other bowlers. Kraut and Robert E. Johnston, both of Cornel! Unichecked the reactions of 350 bowlers. The. bowlers laughed 37 times when facing friends, but only four times when facing the pins. This may indicate that it's more likely that people smile
versity, to

spares with stony faces, then breaking into smiles during conversations

promote

friendly interac-

future, in spite of

tions than to celebrate

Lizards mating: The male has two sex organs. No one yet knows how he-or any male snake or lizard-decides which one to use.

many rumors to that effect.

Harpers Weekly, 1902

thing

somegood that's happened. Barbara Ford

37

COfUTinJUURJl
ENERGY BEAM
A radio-wave beam that
does the job of a laser has already found a wide range oi appllcalions in industry and
research. Energystics Inc. of Toledo, Ohio, calls its new device the Energy Beam and

temperatures of 19,5O0C. Laboratory tests have

WHY BATS HANG UPSIDE DOWN

be
Bats hang upside down to reduce the strain on their slender hind legs, or so believes Purdue University
biologist

that bats

may have evolved

shown the Energy Beam

ahighly versatile device,

to
it

can be used

to cut,

drill,

weld

surface alloy steel, and im-

skinny femurs as a result of their feeding habits. A bat must snare insects on the wing, and heavy bones would be a deterrent to agile, darting
flight.

pregnate and heat-treat a wide range of materials. Other potential uses of the Energy

Donna J.

Howell.

The

biologists found

one

Generally, the thickness of leg

expects
electron
of

it

to

beams

replace laser and for a number

it

Beam include spectroanalysis of chemicals, space,

heating,

bones
in

purposes because is more compact, less expensive, and more efficient than competing devices. The Energy Beam may look and function like a laser, but it
is

and

pollution control.

in mammals increases proportion to body weight. Bats are an exception to this

One of the most

effective

an "entirely

new phenome-

applications of the Energy Beam, however, involves using it as a modulator for a large laser beam. This patented system is called the

notable exception to the slender-femur rule: The infamous vampire bat has thighbones 30 percent thicker than those of other bats. Because vampires go for bigger game, they have evolved sturdier thighbones to support themselves so they can
stealthily

approach

iheir vie-

non," according to Thomas E. its inventor and Energystics's seniorvicepresident of research and deFairbairn,

Laser Energy

Beam (LEB)

tims from the ground "almost

and combines the best of

both technologies, A millionwatt laser normally requires a million-watt laser modulator. But when the Energy Beam is used instead, a much smaller energy input is necessary. The Energy Beam also enhances the laser's power, and since its cost per watt is one tenth that of the laser's, the result is a very powerful beam
atreiativelylowcost.
India
fruit

as

if f

hey were on

tiptoe,

"ex-

plains Howell.

velopment. Lasersget their power from a concentrated beam of coherent light, but the Energy Beam works by focusing high-powered radio waves Ihrough a column of conductive gas. The electromagnetic energy in the gas is then transmitted to the targetmaterial, producing

MEMORY TRANSPLANT
ory" from

The transfer of "time memone honeybee to

anofher by means of a brain transplant operation has recently

been reported by Gerat the Instiof

man researchers
tute of Zoology,

U ntversity

Rontgenring, according to
bals

assume

the time-

honored upside-down position.

Their thighbones are too slender
to

New Scientist

Afier training

magazine. bees to re-

support their body weight

Howell and biologist Joe Pylka of Princeton University

ceive food at the hive at a set time every day, the German research team cut off the

heads

of

donor bees and

measured the femurs

(thighbones) of the skeletons of 167 bats representing 45 different species. They found that "according to engineerthe bats are "too long and slender support their weight." Hanging upside down apparently reduces the strain on the hind legs. The tension
ing
to

transplanted a part of the brain known as the mushroom bodies into the brains of untrained recipients.

Two fo

models"

femurs

of

three days later, the new owners of the extra set of mush-

room bodies began to approach the feeding site at the donors' feeding time. In fact, over 60 percent of the bees' visits lo the hive during the
day occurred
in this

(stretching) of

hanging
of

is

short

easier to bear than the

com-

period. Neither

sham-operated

pression stress
Energy beam solders a brick back together with a Not a laser, it's a beam powered by radio waves
upright.

standing

bees (whose brains were opened up but with no new

structures implanted) nor

Howell and Pylka speculate

38

OMNI

"

bees receiving the mushroom

bodies
of untrained
this

by goats, which love

tortoises.

to eat

donors
in their

THE CHANGING SHAPE OF WOMEN

The explanations for these changes in shape range from

poor eating habits
to.

showed

change

Nevertheless, five years

hor-

feeding habits. Once the experiment was completed, the scientists examined the bees' brains and discovered that no nerve connections between the
donors'

ago Lonesome George suddenly appeared from behind a rock and was safely carted
off to

leading manufacturer of

mushroom bodies

and the brains of recipients had been made. Something was transmitted that made the
bees' biological feeding. clocks change their pace, but what it is and why It takes two to three days to work still re-

a protective pen. by local women's undergarments, has come to a rather startling scientists. Since then, the Charles Darwin Research Sta- conclusion women are .becoming tube-shaped! tion on the island has been Berlei found that British searching in vain for signs of a female. Now, according to women have not only become New Scientist, the station has- taller during the last 25 years put out an appeal to zoos all over th& world asking for a rePinta female. A.S1 0,000

monal abnormalities caused by additives in food. Whatever the cause, the traditional hourglass shape is no longer symbolic of today's woman Berlei believes a more accurate representation of
cal
its

typi-

customer would be "something rather like a thickened broomhandle."

ward

is

offered to

anyone who

main

elusive.

can find George a mate.

LONESOME GEORGE
Find a mate for Lonesome George and win 10,000! Lonesome George is the last known surviving- member
of the Pinta

"Manmasters nature not by

force but by understanding.

why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked
This'is

subspecies

of the

for

Galapagos tortoise. Several decades ago, his subspecies

no spetl to cast on nature. Jacob Bronowski

was declared extinct. seems thai Pinta. a tinyisiand

It

in

the

Galapagos group

off

the western coast of South

"The Russians have put a smail ball up inthe air. That does not raise my apprehensions oneiota."

America, has been overrun

Dwight D. Eisenhower
but they've also developed smaller breasts and hips along with thicker waists.

the

"One might even say they're becoming man-shaped, a Berlei spokesman said, These findings, reported in London Observer, support
"

those

a similar investigation in the United States by Sears Roebuck. Sears found thai American women were experiencing the
o(

conducted

same

"straightening of the

curves" phenomenon as their British counterparts, with one

marked difference: the American hip has been

Lonesome George: Find him a male and $10,000 Is
yours. This

in-

member ol the

Pinta-

Galapagos

tortoises taces imminent extim

creasing, rather than diminishing, in size over the years.

cofUTiruuufin
VIDEODISC
long-awaited videodisc may be here by Christmas. A silvery plastic platter resembling an LP record, the videodisc is played on a special device hooked up to your television. It lets

The

home-

you watch movies

right at
Inc.
of a

home.

MCA Video-Vision,

promises that videodiscs

vides the home viewer with several professional features, including slow motion, fast forward, freeze-framing for in-depth study, and two discrete audio channels that can be jacked into a home stereo sound system. The Magnavox player will sell for $500 and the MCA discs, for about $1 2 apiece. Not all the videodiscs are movies. Of the 300 already recorded, half are in the areas of opera, ballet, symphonic music, as well as "how-tos," sports, hobbies, educational aids, and cooking.

neers at Yale University reinquished their more scholarly pursuits to get

services,

more jobs, and perhaps even spacetourism

Already$1 billion in worldwide revenues has been grossed from space-related business. By 2000, this figure could escalate to $20 million, according to a recent study by Rockwell International and Science Applications, Inc. for NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center. n the plans laid
I

down to the

tor the elite.

dirty ordeal of laundering.

They washed, dried, and when necessary, ironed cotton, polyester, and blends
shirts while

monitoring the

amount of energy consumed n every cycle. Emerging from the washroom 50 launderings later, the Yale team concluded
that while
this

lessenergy

is

needed to make a cotton shirt,

advantage is far outweighed by energy required
in

down

in

the

NASA
in

report, a satellite solar-

maintenance.

In

the long

haul, polyester

and blends
energy about

COTTON VS. POLYESTER

The energy issue has permeated almost every facet of modern life right down to the

shirts not only are less

consuming but last 50 percent longer.

power system would be built the 1 980s. By 2000, these satellites would be providing solar power for factories and homes on earth as well as
powering factories
in

space.

SPACE INDUSTRY
Space exploration is now
business. are in the race to conquer and exploit this last great frontier, and by the year 2000 "Asbig
1 1

And very shortly we may be able to talk to anyone anywhere on the globe with wirenations
less pocket telephones that would operate via satellite. Other planned satellite services are a worldwide medical-advice network and a

on your back, Not surprisingly, the question of whether

shirt

Over 1

cotton or polyester is less "energy cosily" to society has set the stage for a major confrontation between the manufacturers of natural and synthetic
fibers.

troBusiness" should result in new sources of energy, innovative products, new public

national information service provided by the Library of

Congress.

Over 300 video recordings

will

be on

sale before year's end. of

wide assortment

movies

The battle of one-upmanbegan when the Mational Cotton Council produced impressive figures showing that
ship
the energy requiredto produce cotton fiber is
fifth

including old cinematic hits by Charlie Chaplin. W.C. Fields, and Mae West, along wiih more recent films will be sold in stores before the

one

that needed to produce polyester. To counter this

claim, the

Man Made Fiber

Inc. arIf

end of the year. The videodiscs run 60 minutes per side, in black and white or color, with sound. The player, to be made available

Producers Assoc,

gued

forcibly that

the main-

tenance and "replacement energy" for the cotton garment (which wears out before
the synthetic) is taken into account, the synthetic garment

same time under the brand name Magnavox, uses

at the

a solid-state laser beam, rather than a stylus, to pick up the sounds and Images from the discs. Besides eliminating needle scratch, the laser pro40 OMNI

requires only 65 percent as much energy

as cotton. In an attempt to resolve

this
|

crucial question, four engi-

shuffle hauls solar collectors into orbit. NASA hopes to build extensive satellite solar-power system by the 1980s.

Space

According

to

NASA, space
is

industrialization

also ex-

pected to improve America's balance of trade (by as much as $50 billion by the year 2010)

the mind' but in the physical brain," says Bridger. "Suggestion is not just psychological but also biological,"

and create as many as

lion

.9 mil-

new jobs.

BLOWING UP CHOLESTEROL
Heart patients whose coronary arteries are severely

This allows more room tor the blood to flow freely and doesn't significantly stretch the artery. Thirty U.S. patients have been treated with the balloon catheter, the majority of cases

TALKING BIRD
The Indian
Hill

mynah (Gra-

cularellgiosa) has long enjoyed a reputation as the

AT THE SOUND OF THE

BUZZER

clogged with cholesterol or

other plaquelike material

The sound of a buzzer may be as goad as a shot of amphetamine.

rats,
In a Pavlovian conditioning experiment with researchers at Albert

must often submit to coronary bypass surgery to save their

having been performed by doctors Simon Stertzer and Eugene Wallsh ot Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Results have been good; and no one has died because of the procedure.

world's best-talking bird. Now the mynah has added another feather to its cap. Animal behaviorist Thomas H.

New Mexico Tech has trained an Indian Hill

Turney of

mynah to say

"hello" to photo-

Themethod was developed

by Swiss cardiologist Andreas Gruntzig.

Einstein College of Medicine New York City have demin

onstrated that external events or signals can trigger chemical changes in the brain, mimicking the effects of psychoactive drugs. Stanley Schiff and his associate Wagner Bridger paired amphetamine injections in the rats with a buzzer

CLONE ZOO
will

To assure that people a thousand years in the future know what a white
rhinoceros looks
like, cell

graphs of people and to remain mute when presented with photographs of trees. No matter what the context in which people appear alone, in crowds, wearing sunglasses the mynah seems to have no trouble recognizing them and respond-

ing "hello."

A few other birds,

the pigeon
jects
in

including

biologist Dr. T.C. Hsu has established a 300-animal zoo

right in his

and blue jay, have been shown to recognize obphotographs, but

is

own

laboratory.

over several conditioning On the tenth day they injected the rats with a harmless saline solution when the buzztrials.

er

sounded. The result? The

"I have everything from aardvark to zebra," boasts Hsu, And they're all neatly tucked away in a small freezer on the fifth floor of the M.D.

Turney's

the first laboratory

rats scurried frantically

Anderson Hospital
ton, Texas.

in

Hous-

demonstration of the ability of a bird to associate a visual concept like "person" with a learned vocalization. Barbara Ford

around
trials

their cages just as done on previous when amphetamine had been administered. Schiff went on to show that the rats' bizarre behavior had been caused by increased

they had

Actually,

it's

a clone zoo,

and to relieve agonizing pain called angina. A bypass operation costs $1 2,500 and requires two to three weeks
lives

and scientist Hsu claims he can preserve the cells of various animals forever in his
freezer,

special liquid-nitrogen capable of maintain-

activity of the brain transmitter

of hospitalization.

dopamine, evidently brought on by the saline injectionbuzzer combination. Amphetamine has the same effect as dopamine on the nervous system. These findings shed new light on the so called "placebo effect," The expectation of a drug's effect, it seems, may be sufficient in itself to bring about biochemical changes. "What happens is not 'just in

Now a new procedure

called balloon catheterization

can accomplish the same thing at one tenth the cost and requires a hospital-recovery period of only two
days.

ing a constant temperature of -240C. "Atthat temperasays Hsu, "the cells are neither dead nor alive. You might say they're sleeping for
ture,"

awhile." The plan? Should the day ever arise when the process
of cell differentiation, or cloning, is perfected, the scientist

Surgeons insert a small,

flexible balloon-tip catheter
into the
tery.

clogged coronary arThe balloon is then inthereby flattening the

hopes

that his future col-

flated,

leagues will use his zoo lo breed animals that have

plaque against the artery wall.

become

extinct.

coruTiniuunn
LEVITATING TRAINS
Magnetically levitated may become the preof the

induced

in

a conducting

Corporation. The estimated

MAGNETIC BACTERIA
teria migrating

aluminum guideway. The retrains

cost for the system, including

dominant form of longdistance transportation

pulsive levitation acts against the force of gravity, raising the vehicle one foot above the

equipment and'tunneling, is approximated at $30 million

per kilometer. Although
price high,
this

Nothing about the mud bacacross the

slide

microscope

toward the

future, leaving the airplane

behind as an outmoded vehicle of the past.

trip

A21-minute

from Los Angeles to New may sound like science fiction now, but the technology for using electromagnetic fields to levitate and propel
York

guideway. A separate superconducting system achieves propulsion the train is pulled forward by attraction to the magnetic field in the guideway ahead of it while a repul-

may seem prohibitively Rand projects that the

will

revenue derived from longhaul domestic travel

northwest laboratory window Was that unusual. It could easily have been explained as an
affinity for

make

sive force

pushes the vehicle

the underground maglev system a profitable endeavor. Indeed, economics may permit

Yet

when

the incoming light. microbiologist

Richard Blakemore examined

the

phenomenon more
he discovered the

from behind.

passenger trains may be only

ten years away.

Several different systems designs for magnetically levitated, or maglev, trains have been explored by Ford Motor Company, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Rand Corporation, and the Mitre Corporation. The best syserful

tem to emerge employs powsuperconducting magnets along the bottom of the vehicle to create a repulsive force against current

The advantage of "electromagnetic flight" over winged speed. Aerodynamic drag increases with an airplane's speed, but magnetic drag reaches a peak relatively quickly and then decreases with speed, Once air resistance is eliminated, a cruising speed of up to 22,400 kilometers per hour is attainable. Building underground semi-evacuated tunnels of little or no air resistance for the maglev system has already been researched by the Rand
flighi is

the lowering of one-way, coast-to -coast travel fare io as little as 50.

closely,

bacteria had no interest in the window but were in fact swimming toward the earth's

magnetic north pole. Blakemore, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts, later found he could get the microbes to change direction merely by moving a small magnet close
to the slide,

Using an electron microscope, Blakemore discovered that several species of bacteria found in the sediment bottoms of fresh- and
response to a widespread scarcity of rhesus monkeys, the Indian government banned their export on March 31, greatly decreasing the number available for scientific research. As our closest primate relatives, rhesus monkeys are indispensible experimental models in biomedicine. Their shortage threatens the continuation of many essential health
In

ponds contain chains of iron-rich particles.

saltwater

These

particles,

he believes,

act like miniature bar magnets. Working with biophysicist

AdrianusJ. Kalmijn, Blakemore found that by subjecting the creatures to a strong magnetic pulse, they could

cause the

strictly

northbound

programs.

bacteria to reverse their polarity and swim south. Though

the biological use of this

"Even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel, it would be found altogether useless in practice, because of the power being applied in the stern it would be
absolutely impossible to make the vessel steer."

magnetism remains a mystery,

it

scientists speculate that

may

direct the bacteria to

to

sediments favorable
growth.

Kenneth Jon Rose

Sir William

Symonds,

Magnetically levitated and propelled trains might someday up to 22,400 kilometers per hour in semi-airtight tunnels.

hit

speeds

Surveyor of the
British

"The man with anew idea a crank until that idea succeeds."
is

Navy, 1837

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

He's more expensive than the $6 Million Man

and he lives in

Utah.

THE REAL

BIONIC

MAN
BYDICKTERESI
when The was
borg
borg
into the
in 1972. That's SF novel Cypublished. The rumor when ABC turned Cypopular television program Man. The hero of the tv series, Steve Austin, is an astronaut whose body was almost destroyed in a rockel-sled accident. But by using bits of plastic, titanium, sophisticated electronics, and a nuclear power pack, medical scientists put him back together again. Moreover, not only was old Steve restored to peak condition, he was given superhuman capabilities. He now leaps over buildings, hears conversations half a mile away, sees with zoomlens accuracy, and resists physical assaults that would fell a water buffalo.

rumor began

Martin Caidin's

intensified

Six Million Dollar

It

all

adds up

to

good fun on the

tube,

But the rumor is this: Many people speculate and it's even been reported in the press that the basic story line of Steve Austin is true. That somewhere perhaps in a supersecret Houston laboratory.or hidden among the serpentine I medical facilities of the National Insti| * tutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland there exists a team of scientists who are 2 churning out Cyborgs at an assembly- 2

line rate.
In

f
of the real S\y, Million Dollar

search

<*The Utah team won't build Cyborgian

robots. "Our aim"

says
to restore

Kolff, "is

peopled

Right: Willem Kolff attaches

ventricles of artificial heart to each other. Velbro holds them together. Opposite page: Close-up ot blind subject's wiring (top left). Cables attach to graphite button, which is the outlet lor an implant that runs directly into the brain. Craig, the subiec; Has had the implant for three years. At top right, Craig shows Michael Mladejovsky what he is "seeing" by making marks on a blackboard. Mtadejovsky
:

built the computer equipment that stimulates Craig's visual cortex. Alexander (bottom left) is one of

many Utah

calves that have survived long periods with air-driven

plastic hearts. Dr, Kolff (bottom

right)
will

holds electric heart he hopes

someday be implanted in man.

less than a year, according to Jacobsen, Right now it is still being tested in the Project and Design Lab. Several amputees have used the arm, but never outside the lab. Jacobsen and his staff fit a dozen or so electrodes to each subject. They then use a. computer to adjust the arm's movements to
in

Lake City, home of Ihe University of Utah, which has the most comprehensive bioengineering program in America. Utah has in fact already outclassed the Six Million Dollar Man in at least one respect cost. This year the uniMan,
I

went

to Salt

focused on understanding how the body works and how to duplicate its physiology. The university entered the field 14 years ago and in 1 967 hired one of the pioneers
of
its

bioengineering, Willem
artificial

J. Kolff, to

organs

division.

head The Dutch-

versity

will spend S2.4 million more than was spent on the theoretical Steve Austin, a total of $8.4 million, on bioengineering, the application o( space-age technology to the repair and maintenance ot the human body. And Utah employs more than 360 engineers, medical scientists, and

born Dr. Kolff invented the first artificial kidney during World War II. Working under near-secret conditions in the Nazioccupied Netherlands, he saved the lives of end-stage kidney patients who, before
his invention,

picks up electromyographic (EMG) signals. "Every time you flex a muscle, electrical activity is produced on the surface of your skin. It's crawling all over you." A wire led from the sensor on my forearm to a one-kilogram (2.2 pound) artificial arm, which Jacobsen held just above the elbow by its stump socket. held my arm straight at my side with my wrist relaxed. But when flexed my wrist and raised my hand, the arI I

them control the arm," explains Jacobsen. "He doesn't have to do anything unnatural,
like

wink

to

close his hand."

In effect, all
if

the

amputee must do is think and act as he had a real arm and use his muscles as he did before amputation. The Utah arm does
the
cal
will

rest.
in

Jacobsen believes
devices

developing medi-

the

to the point

tificial

Today

at

would have been doomed. Utah his mission remains un-

technicians who work directly on what are popularly called "bionics" projects. talked to Stephen C. Jacobsen, director of the university's Projects and Design Lab and inventor of many outrageously futuristic devices, including a "thinking" artificial arm. He had a simple response to the claim that the government has a secret
I

changed.
"Our aim," says Kolff, "is to restore peoAnd there are few places where a it is being done, Utah boasts spectacular programs in artificial vision and hearing, the most successful artificial heart project in the world, a new polymerimplant center that's developing plasticlike blood vessels, bladders, testicles, and other organs, and a whole assortment of other bioengineering marvels aimed at improving medical care. But for you Cyborg fans, let's begin with the device that's the most suggestive of science fiction the Utah arm, "I'm not trying to be obnoxious," said Stephen Jacobsen as he clipped an electronic sensor to my forearm, "but this is the best artificial arm ever made." The electrode on my arm, explained Jacobsen.
ple."

better job of

arm also moved upward, bending at the elbow. When dropped my hand, the Utah arm dropped. Crudely speaking, the electrode had picked up the EMG signals on my forearm and transmitted them to a minicomputer in the arm, which in turn commanded the arm's electric motor to flex
I

want

to pick

where companies them up and sell them to

musl be electronically tailored

for the

amputee's EMG signals. Each arm to its wearer. But recently, while working out equations

cause the discs in the computer didn't spin right," The effect of this kind of publicity is an illusion that amputees fitted with these new devices will be bionic supermen, Those people expecting a Cyborgstrong arm have a long wait ahead of them. The Utah arm can lift little more than one kilogram (three pounds). And while Jacobsen says a one-kilogram lift is adequate for 95 percent of all normal human arm activity,
it's still

the public.
thusiastic

And he often becomes so enwhen ticking off the arm's combit like

mercial attributes that he sounds a high-class Cuisinart salesman:

weight.

arm's control system, Jacobsen made what he calls an "awe-inspiring" discovery. He noticed the possibility of making

far

cry from a real arm's capacity,

somewhere between 23 and 45 kilograms

(50-100 pounds). To make the arm more competitive with its human counterpart, Jacobsen says four technological advances must be made: First, he needs better motors (compared to muscles, says Jacobsen, "motors are crummy"). Second, he needs a way to. 'attach the prosthesis directly to the. bone so can support more weight. Other breakthroughs needed are a way to hook into the amputee's nerves for better control of the arm and some kind of feedback system so the wearer can tell without looking at it what
it

Cyborg

laboratory;

"Bullshit," said Jacobsen. "If the government already has a Cyborg, well then, they're wasting a lot of money on us." He refers to the fact that most of Utah's bioengineering budget comes from federal grants

up or down at the elbow. Of course, the arm is meant to be used by an amputee, in which case it is fitted over ihe patient's stump. Electrodes would pick up the amputee's EMG signals from his limb remnant and from his shoulders, chest, and back on the affected side. Besides elbow flexion, the amputee can operit

"It has a nice, cosmetic exterior, a nice It's quiet in operation, smooth, and doesn't pinch or cut clothing. It will gofast, slow, and lock in place. It will lift three

pounds and support

easily replaceable

great electronic package.

the circuits
It's

repairable, maintainable,

fifty pounds. It has a The batteries are by the amputee; even can be removed and replaced. and can be

and

contracts.

ate three other joint-movements; humeral rotation wrist rotation, and hand closure, The beauty of the Utah arm is that an
,

sold at a reasonable price; under three thousand dollars." Jacobsen's style, though, stems simply

Members of the bioengineering team at Utah agree that the tutu re lies not in building Cyborgian robots, but in developing prostheses that mimic human body parts as closely as possible. Their research is

armless person doesn't have to be taught how to use it. "The amputee has muscles left in his stump that don't pull on anything anymore. But they're still connected to his brain. We pick up those signals and have

from his desire to get ideas from the lab out into society, "So many ideas," he says, "just stay locked up in universities. The public pays for the research but never receives the benefits. It's like pouring money down a
hole,"

a feedback loop in the circuitry. WhatyoU'd then have is an adapter-controller in the arm that would automatically adapt its movements to the amputee. "You'd just slap an arm on somebody," says Jacobsen, "and they'd reach an agreement about how they were going to behave." Even though the Utah arm may be the best artificial arm in the world, Jacobsen scoffs at the better-than-human, bjonic concept of his work. Recently a major encyclopedia company made a film about the Project and Design Lah. Jacobsen is still reeling from the results. "Jesus, just saw a copy of it and it's the absolute worst," he says. "The narrator turned out to be the acI

his

arm

is

doing.

tor

who stars in The Bionic Woman [the tv show] and he was standing the whole time
in front of this

signed as

But the Utah team understands the basic physiology of arm movement. And in this respect Jacobsen says the arm is defar as can go: "We don't need a
it

fancy new designer.

technology."

We need new

stupid panel of flashing lights

series be-

The Utah arm

will

be ready

for

home use

that

was obviously out of some tv

Michael G. Mladejovsky (mal-YOFF-skl)

47

has the opposite problem. Director

of

Ihe

Neuroprostheses Program at Utah, he's been working on developing an artificial vision system for almost a decade. He says facetiously that building a device that serves as an eye is a "mere technological problem."

goes on inside the visual cortex while Mladejovsky handled the computerhardware end of the project. They had been inspired by a 1968 discovery in England that blind persons, as
well

as people

He could

build

it

right

now

of light called

who see, can perceive spots phosphenes when the visual

done by using electronics and surgery Three years ago Dobelle and Mladejovsky found a willing subject, named Craig, who had been blinded in a gunshot accident. Craig agreed to some very scary brain surgery. The Utah team fashioned a
two-inch square Teflon wafer studded with

Above: Array

of artificial a

shews a

history of the prosis

thesis. At tar left

del. Electronic parts in

background are amplifiers for picking up electrical muscle signals. In two ptiotos at right top and center, Dr.

with existing electronic

hardware and
it

tech-

niques ...

if

only he

knew what

was sup-

posed

to do.

what happens

There's the rub. No one quite yet knows in the brain that allows peo-

back of the brain is stimulated with electricity These phosphenes usually appear as bright, white dots patients debut sometimes scribe them as "starlight"
cortex at the

64 electrodes. Surgeons separated hemispheres of Craig's brain to expose

the visual area, placed fhe wafer against it, then let the two brain halves drop back into position, holding the wafer in place. A connected to the implant was threaded through a hole in the back of the skull, then

Stephen Jacobsen, fatherotthe Utah arm, shows how it responds to signals. Sensor is
clipped
to his left

When he raises his hand,

right:

forearm. the

they're yellow-green, red, or blue-white.

ple to see. But no one has come closer to finding out than the scientists at Utah.

The Utah team's idea was

this:

if

you

Modern hand compared to

7666 hook. Near right: The Superprobe blood sensor.

William H. Dobelle started Utah's artificial vision program in 1969. Dobelle's role was to

could stimulate the cortex of a blind person in an orderly way, you could draw pictures

snaked forward between

Ihe skull

and

tiny

handle the physiological side

what

mind composed of phosphenes. And, in a way, that's exactly what they've

in his

scalp to a buttonlike connector that protruded (and still protrudes today) above CONTINUED ON PAGE 13B


RIVER

FICTION

His sworn duty

to protect the

was

The
. .
,

sounds came from

. . .

di-

corner,

and

it

disap-

hospital

lives.

which would save But there were enemies within.

stinctively

rectly behind him. Purr swish Carlton click Conlan Connager Instepped to the side of

peared
Center.

into the

Hydrotherapy

the corridor, and the. Patient Transport Vehicle hummed its way past him. The patient, who

Connager scowled after it. He'd never heard of a hydrotherapy patient who hadn't
loved the treatments, but this one had been panicky. And when Connager paused at the open door and looked in, old Mannighan, the hydrotechnician, started and peered anxiously at him until his acute

WEARIEST
BYLLOYDBIGGLE.JR. PAINTING BY GEORGE TOOKER

was seated HR, half reclining, looked up in sudden fright when

Connager's figure momentarily loomed over him. Then the PTV moved on, another click sounded followed by a
swish as
it

myopia finally
Connager.

identified

turned a


Patients,

employees,

staff. All of

them

were frightened. Some

of

them were

terrified because they'd never been frightened before. click swish. Connager Purr stepped aside. Another patient, riding
. . .
.

homely old shrew. Things usually worked out that way. click swish. Connager Purr
. .
. ,

an excellent administrator, and an outstanding citizen but he belonged to the

stepped aside and watched another frightened patient recede into the
distance.

fully reclined,

looked up
the

at

him

in fright.

Connager watched
it

humming PTV

until

turned the next corner. Then he walked

on, slowly.

The stockroom manager, Ritala Melmann Danvist, looked up uneasily when he entered and then gave him a formidable frown. "What is it now?" "Found the missing hypos?" Connager asked lightly. "Look. No one in this hospital has used a disposable hypo for years. I'm positive they were marked for destruction long before took this lousy job. They just happened to turn up missing on my first inventory, so I'm stuck." She eyed him worriedly and asked, "What's there to worry about?" Connager leaned over the counter. "Public Security thinks they vanished into the 'cotics trade. disagree. Did you know that Pharmacy has lost track of a couple of liters of Tharmenol?"
' I I

Connager met the committee of pickets the front gate. The lines were moving more slowly than they had that morning, and all of the pickets looked tireder and hungrier and dirtier. Some of their signs Death with Dignity We Demand the
at
.

wrong generation and the wrong world. The boys regarded him belligerently. The girl, whose steady gaze had been fixed upon him from the moment they entered the room, leaned forward and spoke, "You can. let your patients die in peace and comfort and dignity." Alfnol cleared his throat again. "My dear young people. In this institution, death is
not our profession. We are dedicated to life to healing, to repairing accidentdamaged bodies, to correcting genetic errors, to curing the diseased, to keeping

Humanity

Hospitals, not Right to Die in Privacy Circuses Natural Death Is an Affront to were torn and drooping. Like the other pickets, the members of
,

the committee were young all of them under 20 and they looked unwashed and untidy. Connager asked for their identity tags and gravely copied their names into his notebook: Lynar Dab-375, a tall,

people alive and enabling them to happy and useful lives. Fewer than
percent of those admitted to this
die.

live

five

institution

gangly youth still afflicted with adolescent acne; Jolan Silt-264, a husky youngster whose bulging contacts hinted at a life-

Our handling of those few is prescribed by law. The moment a patient becomes terminal, our responsibility ends, and we transfer him or her to the terminal
wards, as the law requires. You should be
picketing the legislature."

She stared
"Tharmenol
biturate,"

at him.
is

a powerful injectable barif

he went on. "Five cc's, even in a muscle, would kill a healthy human." Connager turned away. In the doorway he paused to look back. She was regarding him with an entirely different kind of worry. "Those missing hypos had
injected
five-cc syringes," hesaid.

^Severa! of the doctors were looking at him angrily which was, Connager

"We are," the girl said. "But of course the legislators say that they make laws in the area of medicine only. on the recommendation of doctors." She paused. "There once was a physician named Hippocrates. You may have heard of him. He said,
'Wherever !he
there also
of
is

art of

medicine

is

loved,

medicine

is

reflected, another healthy

claim, the love of humanity

the love of humanity' If the art loved in this hospital, as you will force you to
its

He

emotional reaction. said again, "The threat

is

defy the law and natural death."

inhumane strictures on
-

The director managed a hurt smile. "You

are asking those who devote their lives to the repair and cure of damaged and dis-

He walked on toward Pharmacy, where

a frenzied inventory was under way with an outside accountant on hand to tabulate prescriptions. Before he reached it, his jacket pocket beeped twice. He took the com disc from his pocket, activated it, and said wearily, "Hospital Security.

to this hospital's patients

an

internal

one.^

eased bodies, you are asking them

to

Connager." "You sound tired," the mellifluous voice announced. "Dead," Connager agreed absently. The voice laughed warmly, "This is the wrong place to say that. Were you up all
night?"
"I've been up the past two nights." The voice laughed again. "The director has agreed to meet with a committee of have you present,"

time of vision disability; Stel Mur-973, a slender girl with a boyish figure, tousled hair, and a smudged face, but with far more poise of manner than the males. The girl and Jolan were wearing stretch suits, which two or three years before had been the adolescent fad in nonclothing. Probably they hadn't been able to afford new wardrobes since their education allowances had terminated. Lynar was clad in
the

prove that they love humanity?" "One who loves humanity loves all of humanity," the girl said bitterly. "The healthy, and the dying. Take me to the the sick terminal wards and demonstrate your love of humanity by ending the suffering there."

with your objectives,

law," Alfnol said.

"However much we may sympathize we must obey the

The conversation continued, but the

looming shadow of the law lay heavily across every question. Finally, without a trace of amenities, the young people got
to their feet

and marched

out.

Connager

pickets. He'd like to

"Tell

dusky garb

of

manual employment.

ments

the arrangefor this meeting myself. We don't

Doctor Alfnol
of

I'll

make

want one

those youngsters smuggling a

bomb into the hospital." He switched the disc

nel.

He, at least, had worked at something, or affected to. The hospital's director, Marnsdorf Hardley Alfnol, was waiting for them in

left with them and walked them past the various guard posts to the main gate. The guards there opened the gate for them, and as the other pickets surged forward to

to another chan"Connager, Emotional Therapy report,

Connager's own

office.

He arose when

please."

A different voice announced crisply, "Traffic heavy, flow continuous, occupancy close to capacity but no problems." Connager pocketed the disc and

headed

for his Security Section,

that

dering about carefree voice that spoke to him several times a day from the director's office. He had never met the owner, but he suspected that she was a sour-looking,

wonwarm and vivacious and

they entered and regarded the youths distastefully, as though such obviously diseased specimens were unsafe in any hospital department except the morgue. Connager performed introductions and got everyone seated. The director leaned across Connager's desk and cleared his throat ostentatiously. "You are ah the committee, What can do for you?" He was a paunchy, intensely serious individual a distinguished physician,

ask what had happened inside, Connager spoke curtly to the committee. He "I'd like to show you something." turned and walked away, following the

parkway outside the hospital's fence. The committee trailed after him. He could have avoided the long walk by cutting through the hospital from his office, but revealing the staff communication system to these

unwashed youngsters would have left him open to scathing criticism. Connager had to go out of his way to avoid criticism. The
director of anything

made

enemies, and a

new

director of hospital security

124

made

CONTINUED ON PAGE

NATURAL PACKAGES

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lecithin, choline, avidm, zeaxanthine, pantothenic

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cyanocobalamin. sodium J
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ORANGE
ingredients:

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COMPUTER
There's

LIB

The computer revolution has begun, so get your data ready.

no turning back.

BY TED NELSON

Suppose you meia man who tiian't Know what an automobile was You'd think he was a cluck, a simpleton, someone unable 10 hold a sensible opinion on anything in the modern world. And it's so simple an automobile is a box you go places in. The majoriiy of well-educated Americans, however, are clucks and simpletons when comes to something just as basic as the automobile: the computer. Jus! as the automobile is a box you go places in, the computer is a box that follows apian. The plan can be anything. can tell the box lo turn
it It

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

FRITZ

GORO

things

on and off, to file and bring back information automatically, to blink lights, to mix drinks, to play music anything at all. So I've given you the word. You now

Consider

this:

Suppose someone

cre-

know what a computer is. They should never have been called
computers.

The first machines were labeled computers because their developers felt that
numerical computations would be their main function. It reminds one of the blind men in the fable, who when confronted with an elephant thought il was a wall, a snake, depending on what parts of the animal their hands touched. The pioneers were not wrong, just preoccupied. But the result has been that the name computer has frightened people
ever since. It might just as well have been called the Oogabooga Box. That way at least we could get the fear out in the open

ates a system for handling warranty repairs. You go into the store where you bought your nice new radio that doesn't work. You have the sales slip and your registration card stub. "Filt this out," the clerk says. He hands you a form that asks for your name, age. sex, address, occupation, height, weight, identifying marks, where you purchased the appliance, where you first heard of the appliance, a description of your problem, and your signature.

basic. "The librarian told me the book was out for rebinding." Everybody understands that. But how about this one: "The program got hung in a loop and tried to do a reI

but the system bombed." A few years from now, that language and the world describes will be as familiar to us as the librarian and the tailgater are. Today, however, anyone who understart,
it

stands that mysterious sentence a "computer person."

is

called

tree, or a

You demand to know why you have to answer so many questions. "Fill it out, or you don't get your radio fixed," responds the clerk. "Gotta have all
that for the computer."

You

fill

out the form.

It

The

ballpoint
is

pen smears

takes 20 minutes. ink all over your

clerk.

hands.
"This

no good," says the

"Ma-

and laugh at In France they call all aspects of computer use I'informatique the automatic handling of information. From time to time computer fans have advocated translating the French term and calling the use of computers informatics, an extremely appropriate term; Unfortunately, "informatics" happens to be the trademark of Init.
,

chine can't read the carbon copy." Quivering with rage, you fill out another form, which the clerk accepts. You get a portion of it back that bears the first three letters of your name, several digits, and some hyphens. You hand over your radio. "When will it be ready?" you ask. "Six weeks, maybe seven," he answers. "Computer has to match it up with your warranty card in California." "Never mind, just give it back," you say. The clerk hands you your radio and confiscates the stub.

"You'll have to talk to my nephew; he uses computers." gnash my teeth at that statement. Just because use wheels, must talk to the niece who rollerskates or to the uncle who teaches driving? Luckily, in a few years there will not be any computer people. That is, people won't be set apart as computer people, any more than skateboarders and truckers and commuters are set apart as "wheel people."
I I I

This

is

the magic time.

It

is like

the KlonIt

dike, like the old Hollywood, like the birth

of air travel

the new plode.

and radio and computer world.

television.
is

is

It

going

to ex-

formatics, Inc. here

in

the United States,

that.

so that pretty

much squashes

In Sweden they call computers "dators." A computer or a terminal between you and the computer is a dator, meaning

Today real computers can be purchased for as little as $600 (the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, for example), and some of these small machines are more powerful than the IBM 1401 the computer
,

something that handles data. Straightforward, huh?

The celebrated scientist John Von Neumann got right at the very beginning, "the allbut nobody listened. He called
it it

"Damn these computers," you shout and stomp out the door. For days you comeveryone about "those damned computers never work." But you are wrong. The system worked perfectly. They did not have to repair your
plain to
radio.

that ran American business only 5 years ago (and cost upwards of $50,000), Though only half a dozen brands are available at this writing, new electronics com1

purpose machine,"

when

But computer is what we call it, even it is playing music or making pic-

And you blamed

the computer.

panies are tumbling into the personal computer field willy-nifly. In my recent book. The Home Computer Revolution (available for 2.00 plus postage from: The Distributors. 702 So. Michigan, South Bend, IN 4661 8; softcover, 224
pages).
I

tures on a screen.

Keeps people scared. Oogabooga!

Any

nitwit

can understand computers.

Many

do.

Many people,
call

particularly those

who

Suppose you were taken on a tour of a library, but you did not know how to read. You would see people moving books around, turning pages. You would think they were all doing the same thing. You would not see the romance and adventure, the science and history, moving
across their minds.
Similarly,

predicted that ten million small

computers would be sold by the end of 1979. That prediction will probably not

come

true for there

is

not

now
will

the produc-

tion capacity.

But

think

it

be closer to

ten million than to one million. The history of electronics since World

themselves "humanists," often claim computers are oppressive, cold, impersonal, rigid, dictatorial, militaristic the list is endless. "They're controlling our hear. "They're taking over the lives! " world! "This is a widespread view, held fanatically by a large number of people, and is not altogether wrong.
that
I

War

II

can be described

in

two words

puters
things

typing odd messages

their

all

seem

people working with comto be doing the same

into the

smaller and cheaper. The vacuum tubes that made the first hi-fi sets hum in the early 1950s were the size of a pinecone.

machine and scratching

heads at the
strange

The
first

results, staring at walls, scribbling

it

Computers have been used

sysiems
that

in

many

push people around. They

are frequently instruments of oppression.

The Nazis, however, used railroad cars and ovens in oppressive ways, but this does not mean that railroad cars and ovens are in themselves oppressive. Computers, in fact, have provided a handy excuse for oppression: "Sorry about this, but the computer made me do

symbols on blackboards, sometimes muttering out loud and walking into things. But each one is doing something different. One may be studying the life and death of sfars and galaxies, another arranging a dating service. One may be robbing a bank.
To understand the language of automois basic. "A guy in a pickup tailgated off the interstate." Everybody underof

transistors that replaced them were the size of a thimble, then as liny as a BB. Not only were transistors small they could be grown, like little mushrooms, and sculpted and arranged in patterns while they were growing. This led to the "integrated circuit," a little cluster of transistors

and other things electronic

all

grown

to-

biles

me

stands that. To understand the language

books

is

The "OM" circuit is an experimental microprocessor, measuring a mere one centimeter on each side, that has the capacity to store greater logic and memory lunctions than any previously designed chip.

many
is

gether

in their

intended combination. The

Women should
common

beware, however,
is

for

size of a postage stamp, the integrated circuit could be designed for any electronic

computer hobbyists cannot

anything else. "What else
response-.

talk

about
the

course, always wants a better (read bigger) computer over which it has
exclusive control. Today, thanks to small

there?"

purpose as an amplifier for a hi-fi, a circuit for controlling radar sweeps, or

computers

that

the buiiding block of a computer. By 1965 it became clear that the workings of an entire computer could be put on

Anyone can
puter.
It

is

learn to program a comsimply a matter of getting acit.

cheap enough to bypass the "computer selection committee," the

are

a single integrated circuit. Did people plan ahead? Did the computer industry prepare for drastic change as the price of

computers

fell

from thousands to hun-

cess to a computer and learning one of the languages that will direct You don't have to know mathematics or electronics any more than you have to know the fox-trot. The magic age, however, seems to be
14.

dreds of dollars? Did any big companies get ready for. this change? You bet they didn't. The breakthrough came in 1971, when an integrated circuit company.lntel Corporation, brought out the first "computer gn a chip," the model 4004. This was not a full computer, with blinking lights and memory, but it was the vital part-the circuitry capable of following a program stored in
.

(The average age

of

people

in

noncredit computer courses, for example, is 14.) Today, of course, there is a simple way for a youngster to get involved with computers, probably the best way ot all. His father can buy him one.

monopoly of the computer center coming apart at the seams. According to Portia Isaacson, part owner of Houston's Micro Store, little computers have already penetrated large companies without the knowledge of the computer centers. The Trojan horse is already inside the gates. "I'll sell you a computer under
internal
is

any

name you

like,"

says Isaccson. "You'd

be surprised at all the different things we call them on the sales slips." Lock-in also isa strategy employed by
individuals

programmers
If

and

A curious strategy

pervades the

technicians, primarily.

you are the only

that was attached to it. alsooffered.to go with the 4004, components that would provide memory, outside hookup, and so on. All you had to do was buy the various parts and know exactly what you were doing. Then came the Altair. Out of the blue, in December of 1974, there came an electrifying announcement from Albuquerque, New Mexico. A tiny company called MITS was offering a computer kit for $420. Two hundred orders for the Altair would allow MITS. faltering, nearly broke, to break even. Those 200 orders came the day the kit came out. Quickly there were thousands of orders, then pandemonium. This tiny firm had discovered by dumb luck what a few prophets had claimed but
Intel

whatever memory

computer world from top to bottom. It is employed by the grandest bureaucrats and the most modest individuals. It is known as lock-in.

one who understands the computer

system you've created, you can't be fired. you have to do is look more and more harried each day, keep longer and longer hours, and demand raise after raise. Said one programmer: "I always tell them that if it can't be -done in COBOL (the standard business-programming language) it can't be done by computer. It saves me an awful lot qi trouble." The case was well made by
All

Today computers can be purchased for as little as

$600,

Up

and some

of these

small machines are more power- or hire are he said. "They're ful than the IBM 1401 tough, not easy."
the

Robert Townsend in his best-selling book, the Organization. "Most of the computer technicians you're likely to meet complicators, not simplifiers," trying to make it look

computer that ran American

business only 15 years ago. 9

virtually

what nobody believed: people want computers.

This is a critical time for the home or personal computer. In the very near future every device or appliance costing over $50 will contain computer ch/ps.but is unlikely that we will be able to treat them
it

By June of 1974there were several companies making Altair accessories.

There
was.. also a slick magazine for computer hobtiyists called Byte and a store in Los Angeles where you could walk in and buy a computer. By December there were more than a dozen companies making Altair add-on products. By the following summer the Los Angeles computer hobby

Lock-in

simply

means

keeping

someone a prisoner of your products and services. It has been around for years ever since Samuel Colt invented the gun you had to buy refills for. Anything that requires refills made by the manufacturer locks you in razor, camera.

as computers, Each device will be programmed to behave in a specific way when you touch its buttons, but there will be no tie-in. (Sometimes this situation is
called "distributed intelligence.") For example, the automatic "trip computer," already available in Cadillac, has its own fixed repertory of behaviors as does this portable telephone-memorizer (now available for about $70) and the box you can preload with your appointments (at
several hundred dollars).

club had 3000 members. Today-there are perhaps 50 brands of personal computers on the market, most and of them kits but some, like the Apple
.

Computers and
different

their

from

hardware are manufacturer to

II

Radio Shack's TRS-80, fully constructed and ready to run. The revolution has begun. Computer Lib has become a fact.
Virtually

manufacturer. This assures that after programs are written and corrected until they work perfectly, you can't change computers. Although IBM isthe most notorious user of this strategy, all computer manufacturers practice lock-in

None of them Can be together. Each one locks you in. This is not Computer Liberation. It is just crowding us with more gadgets. Only if the personal computer can perform a unifying function, only if it can
both keep records and orchestrate our accessories, can we derive full benefit. If all we get is a lot of separate gizmos the

every

city in the

country

now

whenever they can.

But lock-in is not limited to the manufacturer of computers. It also is practiced by the so-called "computer department within a company,
center," the

its own band of computer hobbyists. The weekly meeting of personal computer enthusiasts in such cities as Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco may draw more than 1 000 members. Curiously, Women's Lib has not joined up with Computer Lib. Membership in personal com-

has

computer

revolution

will fail.
.

puter organizations is almost exclusively male. Women are not only welcome but

encouraged to join, for most male computer hobbyists are dying to meet a woman who can talk about computers.

government where the big designed to provide centralized, etficient computer service, the computer center has evolved Into an internal tyranny, set up to operate at its own convenience and dedicated (like any organizational entity) to its own -self-preservation. The computer center, of
university,or

computers

live. Initially

Unification is not easy. It requires deep and thoughtful design. Unfortunately, so long as people buy cameras they can't understand and hi-fi sets with rows of identical knobs and switches that cannot be distinguished by touch, there will'be
little

improvement.

The

computer
will

manufacturers will build what people buy. It is up to you. DO

Whether it's a volcano disaster in Hawaii or a "rogue wave" in the Atlantic, the Center will be there.

THE CENTER

FOR
SHORT-LIVED

PHENOMENA
BY TIMOTHY BAY
1 has been a busy week at the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena in. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Telephones ring in a ceaseless cacophony, bringing news from around the
t

world of fast-breaking events on the environmental front. A caller alerts the center to a volcanic

flurry of activity

in the Philippines, sparking a as staffers scramble to piece together the story. Meanwhili

eruption

someone else is trying to uncover the mysbehind a major fish kill along ihi
tery

Brazil-Uruguay coastline. Simultaneously, background on an oil spill off the coast of Brittany, a starfish infestation off American Samoa, and a whale stranding in New foundland are brought up to date. A phenomenon in its own right, the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena (CSLP) is more than just a global news service covering the environmental beat. Its continuing analysis of a rainbow-range of both man-made and natural events provides scientists with the stuff to understand shifting forces and larger patterns in nature. Since its founding ten years ago by the Smithsonian Institution, the center has compiled dossiers on over 2500 natural
events, aberrations, dents.

and man-made

accifall

Raining fish

in Australia,

a meteorite

in Louisville, the eruption of a submarine volcano off the coast of Japan, a tanker disappearing off Nova Scotia, strange

sonic

booms along

the East Coast, a

fire-

ball in the

Rocky Mountains, discovery of a

of shark in Hawaii, a dangerous leak in an Italian chemical plantthese events and others are dutifully moni' tored, recorded, and stored by a cracl team of "aggressive" environmental reporters. Large sectors of the globe hooked into this information resource. Bui the center is evolving a wider base. It is promoting a new-age awareness of man's close and life-sustaining relationship with

new species

nature.

"The center has become more than jus! an information clearinghouse for industry and government," declares CSLP director Richard-Golob. "Today, many people rely in this country and around the world on it tor an understanding of the pulse of the

planet."

Already, the center has in a modest way moved into the streets. Above a kiosk in Harvard Square, an electronic message display spills out news from around the world. A first step, it is part of a much larger mission taking shape at the center: a campaign to raise people's environmental consciousness. A few blocks from Harvard Square, the center is headquartered on the second floor of a renovafed while frame house. A warren of rooms contain bulletin boards filled with center news, filing cabinets, a few pieces of office furniture, maps, and telephones. The staff is young and hardworking, mainly recruits from the Boston academic community. Only five staff members operate the center, but a far-flung network of some 2000 correspondents government officers, scientists, journalists are its eyes and ears around the world. When one of these informants phones in an event alert, the staff immediately places calls to confirm and flesh it out. Once verified, the report is edited and then reproduced for airmail delivery to subscribers around the world, Initial notifications are then followed up with reports tracing the event's life history. A typical correspondent was the army man stationed at the North American Radar Air Defense (NORAD) base in Cold Bay, Alaska, who kept the center informed on a local volcano when he was not monitoring radar screens, This amateur volcano watcher organized an entire network of reporters in the Aleutians. Because of ifs credentials, the center hasaccess to scientists who are more willing to give it information, rather than pass on to the media. Over 1500 subscribers pay to be part of this hotline. The subscriber list reaches from major media, like the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, to academic and research outposts, as well as into the Fortune 50D reaches of big busi-

ness. Corporate giants,

like

DuPont, Tex-

aco, Exxon, subscribe to the news reports because of the up-to-date reporting of oil spills, chemical leaks, and other industrial

accidents. Major
to

oil

large corporate contributions to the

companies make CSLP

ensure immediate and comprehensive

reporting of pollution incidents.

variety of ways.
ter, for

Scientists havetapped this resource in a Data compiled by the ceninstance, have helped scientists develop belter, more accurate predictive models of volcano activity. Emergency relief organizations use CSLP resources to upgrade planning so they can better handle the effects of natural disasters on population centers. Major companies incorporate

CSLP

reports to strengthen

oil spill

re-

sponse plans. Mobil Oil isnow working with

the center to evaluate the effectiveness ot dispersants. chemicals that break up oil slicks. The center has also collaborated with the United Nations Environment Programme in compiling a directory of worldwide pollution monitoring programs. Because of iheCSLP's digging and journalistic footwork, a simple phenomenon may be shown to have much greater significance than a first glance would indicate. What seems like an isolated event is connected to a much larger ecological chain of
life.
1

976,

A typical example occurred in ihefall of when five million squid came ashore'

it

(Preceding pages). Kilaueau volcano in Hawaii violently blows ashes sky-high in I 964 erupwitnessed by Center correspondent. Top left: Center is still mystified by 1969 deatns of thousands of shearwaters, a long-winged sea bird, off the North Carolina coast. Top center: Center Issues immediate reports on major oil spills such as this one that ravaged France's Brittany coast. Above: Hurricane Belle threw this 13,5-meter (44-foot) ketch clear out ot the water and through a stone wall in its 1976 rampage through Norwalk, Connecticut. Center is interested in any severe storm erosion. Lett: Wrecked car rests amid debris from Los Angeles earthquake. Center catalogues all quakes over 7.0 magnitude. Top right: Hurricane Cleo.
tion
.

on the beaches of Cape Cod. Natives and scientists were baffled by the event, and the local media treated it as something of a joke. But the center did some snooping, and what they found was far from comical. The extraordinary influx, they warned, could very well be related to declining populations of cod and haddock, which prey on the squid. In turn, they suggested that the high body count washed ashore might be traceable to chemical pollutants or to a
rapid temperature decline in the water, Similarly, when sonic booms mysteriously

began resounding along

the East
67

M
\

-1

\
/--~v

*^

,* a '.vv

t
^^

-/&***

J^
1

^'

."Ml

^. ^

--7,

-*V W

S
->

Coast last year, CSLP was called in on the case. During this period, the center be-

came

mission control

for

boom

reports: a

tory of the

central switchboard tying together various

regional reports. Working with government groups such as the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Congressional Research Service, staffers rolled up their sleeves and dug in. Center director Richard Golob recalls the investigation; his account neatly illustrates how CSLP research methods payoff. "We checked our files and talked with CSLP correspondents," Golob recalls,
"only to discover that similar sonic boom phenomena had occurred in England the year before. These previous sonic booms had been tied to the arrival and departure of the SST at airports near London and Paris. Apparently, sound waves propagated by the SSTs had, due to unusual environmental conditions, bounced back and forth in the atmosphere as if reflected in a series of mirrors. This effect increased the range of the booms from 10 to 20 miles to more than 100 miles." The center, he continued, did some more digging only to find that these UAOs (Unidentified Audible Objects) had been occurring in Nova Scotia at roughly the same time as the booms reported off the East Coast. Speculation proliferated. Some people explained the booms as methane gas emissions, earthquake precursors, and even close encounters. But the center linked these episodes up to the

Their biggest coup came at the end of 1 976 with an exclusive on the ill-fated hisArgo Merchant. Within hours of her grounding off Nantucket, the center revealed that the ship had a legacy of di-

was

by the Smithsonian Institution, with a staff of two people. At that time, its mandate to cover only natural events. During

the next few years, the center built

circuit of

up

fts

correspondents and developed

18 previous accidents, including two previous groundings and other mishaps. A source in the tanker industry gave the center the exclusive, a scoop that was immediately picked up by papers across the country.

saster, involving

some

a
to

scientific influence far out of proportion

its

size.

in 1975, the center set out on its own, breaking away from the Smithsonian and its economic subsidy. The center's focus was changing. They were incorporating

The Argo Merchant episode dramatized to the American people the danger of oil spills. But to Golob, it also emphasized how limited fixed in a regional viewpoint is our awareness of the problem. "All around the world, there are oil spills," he declares, "but it takes something in our backyard to alert us to the dan-

man-made events such as chemical

leaks and oil spills into their field of Its constituency was also beginning to grow, moving beyond the sectarian boundaries of the scientific world and into business and the general public. "The split was amicable," says Golob. "It was simply that we had outgrown our original
study.
role and were moving onto other things." Today, the center is diversifying and learning how to imaginatively market its services. It is looking around for ways to reach a larger audience as well as pay

He mentioned a disaster involving the Urguiola, a tanker that grounded in a Spanish harbor a few months before the Argo Merchant. "The Urguiola dumped close to 1 00 thousand tons of oil," he noted, "but only a handful of people in this country were aware of the disaster." The birth of a volcanic island near Iceland in 1 963 precipitated the center's creation. The new island, Surtsey. proved a
ger."

its bills. Says Golob, it takes some $150,000-5200,000 per year to run the

major scientific event, with volcanologists arriving on the scene from all over the world. Out of its creaiion emerged data

and photographs providing valuable clues to the emergence of life on earth. The event also dramatized the need for some central agency that could function
Top left: Elephant seal sounds his mating/battle cry as he prepares to light ail comers for sexual rights to sea! cows off California coast. Males often maim, even kill, each other in this sexual/social ritual. The Center is on the lookout for any event that could disturb animal mating habits. Top center: Center correspondents are also on constant alert for rare or sudden bird migrations or other animal movements. Above: Center reporters are concerned with this lone survivor of a previously populous wolf pack. The Center keeps an eye on all endangered species lacing imminent extinction bighorn ewes /right) and the grizzly bear (top right).
;

earlier European boom reports, theorizing that unusual environmental conditions

as both early-warning system and monitor occurrences.

for similar

were again the precipitating agent.

"We felt that given their regularity during weekdays and only during certain times of each day, the booms were connected to man-made activities," Golob explains. "The boorhs were undoubtedly linked to SSTs or military planes breaking the sound barrier during a period of temperature inversion."

At that point, scientists had no central communications system. Too often, they

learned about a significant natural event months later through scientific journals or secondhand accounts from untrained observers.

ena was created on a shoestring budget

Money-making ideas are prolifways to expand the center a multimedia resource. For example, in collaboration with a Boston publishing company, has begun to publish the "Oil Spill Intelligence Report," a weekly newsletter that will provide sub-' scribers with thorough International coverage of oil spills as weli as updates on cleanup technology, legislation, research conferences, and publications. Golob is also discussing the possibility of documentary films with tv and movie producers and is roughing out a possible book, which would be a compendium of odd and significant environmental events. Beyond these merchandising projects, Golob has a far-reaching vision of the center's future. The 27-year-old director is the center's entrepreneurial motor as well as its chief tactician. Boyish, selfcenter.
into

erating, as are

the center,

CONTINUEO ON PAQE

141

He

used

to

search

for

his

own

ter the

kind, but afgreat massa-

cre

in his fifteenth

season, he. hadn't had but a fleeting contact with others

a warble, a rumble, and a squeal that had come to him after endless traveling through the messagecarrying waters. Loneliness.

That was

all

any

of the others

spoke of.

He bellowed He

his

foghorn

bellow, feeling the water around him tremble with his

giant voice.

rose, the

spray of
ling

infinite

bubbles

tick-

against his skin, exhaling with a vaporous gush of relief, sucking in precious air. For a

moment, suspended above

the sea, no longer rising but not yet falling, he squinted in the yellowness of the outer world, feeling the warmth of dry air on his massive head.

WHrfSOMG
Hunting whales

was their way of life and path to death.

BY LEIGH KENNEDY
PAINTING BY

BOB VENOSA

"

>

Above, a pale-blue flalness struck against

the rich blue-green of his world. Below again, sailing downward, pulling the division
in

out

between the pale and the rich a confused whirl behind him, he cried in a squeal that ended with a honk.
if

quarters full, though they'd traveled far from the coast leaking a fragrant trail. Marsha felt the change in course even before she looked back at the viewscreen. She waited to ask, knowing that it would take a distance to be able to discern

Maybe someday, someone would hear he called.

whether the whale had changed course

with the sub.

Dr. Marsha Scott leaned into the viewscreen as if pressing close would undo the separation between herself and the sea. Inside a man-refuge of metal and plastic and nylon with gauges, dials, switches, lights, and papers clipped to the walls with strong magnets. Outside blue mystery that faded into an opaque

"Sonar?" she finally asked. "We're being followed," Barbara said. Marsha knew, even halfway through her talk, that the lecture rebounded off the Eskimos' emotions. They watched the film of the Japanese whaler-factory ship, not comprehending the significance of mas-

universe where odd creatures darted,

crept, or floated sleepily.

"Where are you, pretty one?" she called through the viewscreen, searching for a great whale-shape in the foggy water. "Come on, come on, we heard you. Don't be shy." Encapsulated in the submarine, her soft human voice was of little use. The cabin of the mini-sub was filled with squeals and twitters, sometimes mournful sounds, sometimes comical. The alien metal bubble of the sub was endowed with eeriness from ascending and descending scales ocean concertos accompanied by the microphone's brooklike interpretation of the water rushing around the sub. Barbara rose from the pilot's console to sland by Marsha and peer into the screen. "I think see her. Look there." Barbara's

The tape of whale songs didn't bring even the expected vague smiles of amusement. Mostly men in flannel shirts and jeans, smoking cigarettes until a blue haze lay in layers from the basketball hoops to over their shoulders and round, brown faces like a gauzy blanket; they sat
sive
killing.

this because we are anti-Eskimo. There will be no whales ever, ever again you kill them. The rest of the world has finally stopped. If you will leave them alone, they have a slight chance. At my University, we've been working with a chemical to draw all the whales together at mating season. It's called a pheromone a hormone like the ones the whales themselves make that attracts the whales who have gotten separated from schools." Marsha longed for a glass of water, but no one seemed to notice her hoarseness. She explained carefully about pheromones, that most animals seemed to have these, but they were hard to make in the laboratory. Appreciate the work I've donel she wanted to shout. Understand how important you are and why! But she lectured on steadily, feeling like a beached whale, suffocating from their resistance like a

"we are not asking

if

whale suffocates under

its

own weight

when

out of its cool, blue world. "Clever!" the restless old man muttered,

watching her with bright eyes.

<mThe cabin of the

mini-sub was fiiled with squeals and twitters,

Hope. She found herself speaking to him and the note-taking young man, not even seeing the sleepy looks that now graced those other faces. She finished. "Thank you." And they said nothing. Watched her until she collected her notes and put them into her
folder.

keen

pilot's

eyes were seldom wrong;

to

something Marsha had learned

appre-

ciate in her. Just as Marsha trusted Barbara underwater, Barbara seemed to defer in the lab. A well-suited pair of researchers needed that kind of trust. Barbara pointed to a vague, distant movement in the upper right corner of the screen. They both watched, wondering whether it was only a cloud-shadow

sometimes mournful sounds, sometimes comical ocean concertos accompanied by the water rushing around the sub. 9
. . . . . .

Fingers and

lips

trembling,

head

pounding, she crossed the gymnasium through the rows of folding chairs, across
the slick varnished
floor, into

the dimly

lit

corridor, looking for the drinking fountain.

on metal folding chairs

gymnasium

of

in the the village school.

modern

Behind her, she heard the villagers suddenly come to life. Gulping cold water, she heard the sound of argument. She stood in the doorway and saw the old man getting up from his folding chair, glaring at the man who reached out to his arm as if to convince him to stay. "George!" one of the other villagers
said,

wagging
killed

his finger at the old

man.

changing the color

school
of fish or

of the water or a thick

.
. .

plankton
trail

or the solo feearlier in the

male whale they had traced,

day, following the

of irresistible scent

they had put out just for her. The whale made a sound equivalent to a human flapping his lips obscenely. The two women laughed; though they

had heard the same thing endless times, Marsha felt an uncomfortable, guilty happiness. Sometimes she felt as though she should be sad every moment of her life, considering what was happening to her whales. But she couldn'l help but feel glorious joy when she was this close. "Definitely," Barbara said coolly. They smiled at one another, then Barbara returned to the console. Marsha watched over her shoulder to see the course

Barbara punched in an 18-degree starboard turn. Marsha looked left, checking the tank gauge for the whale "perfume," as they called their solution of pheromones, though to the whales themselves it was more a matter of taste than scent. The tank was still threechange.
to her

Only two people seemed to show any man and a young man. The old one moved restlessly in his around at other, impassive faces. He seemed horrified by what she said. When she explained that there had been no recent sighting of an adult male bowhead, the old man whispered, "Gone! Gone!" to Marsha's distraction. The younger man awkward, silent, apart took a pen and a small notebook out of his shirt pocket every now and then and wrote briefly. The rest sat with their arms crossed or hands on their knees and simply watched her with shuttered expression, having found she would say exactly what they expected. Please, please don't kill any whales this year. They had heard it before. For years. Marsha knew about the Eskimo she knew that the whale and the Eskimo had lived a'life together for thousands of years; she knew the customs and even a few
signs of listening, an old
folding chair, looked

"Who

"Leave

me

George
worst!

said.

slaughtering, they've

those whales?" alone, dammit!" restless old "Even if they did the left us the worst! The

Marsha watched them bicker for a few moments, talking about centuries of Eskimo life, how the Eskimo look at the world now bullied by biologists and ecoloplagued by those bug-eyed, beakfaced people from the south. She telt a hand on her shoulder and saw Dr. Thiol's sympathetic eyes. "How are you?" he asked. "I ache, "she said.
gists,
In the spring, he moved from the warm south to the cooler waters of the north; in the fall he moved southward again. He drifted naturally through his life, thinking about patterns he saw, music he heard, learning new things every season as he migrated from one place to another. He'd become fond of exploring deeper in the trenches, conditioning himself even be-

too

words. "Understand," she said, sweating and warm for the first time in three days,

yond

his innate ability to stay

under a long

72

OMNI


While, before surfacing for a breath. wl

He felt the changes in the water sliding around him as he dipped and glided. A trailing swirl blossomed into oily spirals, a
cool taste of the north sifted through his
sievelike baleen where the plankton Collected in his mouth for a continuous meal, the subtle changes in sounds reverberated through the sea, all giving him. a feeling
of

purpose.

Slowing down to enjoy a bright arrangement ot ocean flora blooming in orange

and pink and pale yellow

ruffles, surtendrils

rounded by softly waving green he felt almost content.

He sang. He was going home.

When the phone rang, Marsha woke completely and not at all. She bolted out of bed without conscious thought, a reflexive response. It took her a few seconds to remember ro speak. "Hello." "Marsh, they're going on the hunt anyway," Barbara said.

She stood dumbly with the phone to her ear, bending over the lamp table, her thigh-length nightshirt not adequate protection against the news that her world was about to be destroyed.
"Marsha?" "What?" she said breathlessly. "What 'are we going to do then? Maybe could fly up there and talk."
"I

we

don't think so, Barb.

did

talk."

"What about taking [he sub?" Marsha had considered that already.
"We'd never get that
the school wouldn't
far, let

that fast. Besides,

us take

it

on such
of complete Wild Tirtey painting

short notice." Marsha finally sat down in the rocking chair. She liked talking aboul
possibilities, even though she knew there were none. It was comforting. Somehow gave her the illusion that there was still hope they talked enough, "I'm coming over." Barbara said.
if it

by Ken Davtes, 19 by 21'

9S9-OM,

Wall

SI 5la.>

Wild Turkey Lore:

"Allright."

The Wild Turkey is an incredible

bird, capable of

She hung up and sat in the dark for a long while. Time, distance, time, distance. How to make them less? Less distance. Makes more time. But what. She stood, rigid with excitement. Then she went to her desk and flipped .on the light. On the wall a detailed map of the Pacific stretched across more. than a meter of wall space. She traced the lines of various colored pencils, twisting her head this way and that to read the notations. Rubbing her face sleepily, she sat down and punched in a series of numbers on her small calculator, When the doorbell rang, she was still staring up at the map. She got on a pair of jeans and trotted to the doorway. "Barbara," she began right away, "do you still know that fellow with the plane?"
.

out-running J

a galloping horse in a short

sprint.
It is also the symbol of Wild Turkey Bourbon, an incredible whiskey

widely recognized as the

finest Bourbon

produced

in America.

Barbara brightengd, aware of a less hopeless tone. "I'll renew my acquaintance tonight if need be." "Okay." She pulled Barbara by the elbow to her map and pointed to spots along the Bering Sea and north of St. Lawrence
Island. "We're

going to drop
136

some

phero-

WILD TURKEY/101 PROOF/8 YEARS OLD.

CONTWUED ON PAGE

TEST TUBE
BABIES
The most heralded birth in 2000 years, the first test tube baby may be a breakthrough more psychological than real.

BY TABITHA M. POWLEDGE

n a freezer
lesl

somewhere

in

New. York

City there's a

lube whose conlents

its affiliate.

and

summer
what's
tive

that the test lube

may interest you. They interest me. And they certainly interest Columbia University Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, because a jury told both of those estimable organizations last was going to cost ihem fifty grand, Nol bad, considering nobody even knows for sure
tube.

in that test

What's probably there is some semen from a middle-aged dentist and bits and pieces of the female reproducapparatus, including, perhaps, one or more eggs. What's possibly there is a human zygote a fertilized egg that had begun to divide, almost through with the first day of its nine-month journey toward the delivery room. What's definitely there is Doris and John Del Zio's hope for a test tube baby as a resull of in vitro fertilization,

down

the drain

or. rather,

down

the freezer.

Unless you vacationed underneath the North Pole, you are aware that last July we were treated to the most heralded birth in 2000 years, that of Louise Brown, the first human being acknowledged to have been conceived a laboratory dish). Louise was the culmination of many years of effort to overcome a particular " -.vr-icr- :ner= s blccksoe o- the fa lop.ar :joes the oaS'Sags ii" a: mc '":>" :;.:ccs a e-gg -o~k'nd of inte;. the ovary to its final destination in the womb. If these tubes are blocked, sperm can't get to the egg to fertilize it. In vitro fertilization involves an attempt to bypass that blockage by operating on a woman to remove some eggs from her ovaries and fertilizing them (in a Petri dish, actually, not a test tube) with her husband's sperm, "obtained manually," as the doctors delicately put it. The resulting embryo is grown in the lab for a few days and then
in vitro (that is, in
:'
; 1": .

ILLUSTRATION BY JEAN PAUL

MERZAGORA

In vitro fertilization

has spawned concern about birth

defects, the denial of human
rights,

and even the

possibility of

wombs

for rent.

9
implanted, via the vagina and cervix, into the woman's uterus. From that point, the pregnancy proceeds in the usual way. Louise was born in Britain but it could

have been an American first. It should have happened in New York, in the spring
of

1974, or so say the Del Zios,

who suc-

cessfully
stetrics

sued the university, the hospital, and Raymond Vande Wiele, head of oband gynecology there, for bringing to a halt (by placing the test

tube

in

the re-

freezer) a similar attempt being

made on

their behalf searchers.

In his

by one of Columbia's

defense. Vande Wiele listed sevfor his action.

eral

reasons

One

of

them

was that as a member of a special committee set up by the federal government to examine the matter, he knew that there
lot of unanswered questions about the moral and legal propriety of in vitro fertilization and that the government was holding off underwriting any of it (a decision tantamount to an unofficial moratorium), pending further public discussion,

were a

lot of

people,

it

appears, are worried

about the test tube babies; the Archdiocese of New York. Ann Landers, and the editorial board of The New York Times, as well as the right-to-lifers and proponents
zero population growth, feminists, antifeminists, possibly even you. Do you fear test tube babies? Should you? Perhaps, but maybe not for the reasons they've told you. list here several worries and a few reassurances. Worry #1 Test tube babies might have birth defects. This is a reasonable fear on the face of it. In vitro fertilization certainly
of
I :

sounds
ting

scary. Recovering eggs via surthem outside the body, letthem grow and develop for a few days and then implanting them in a uterus lot of things could go wrong in all that fidgery, fertilizing

dling around.

And in fact a lot of things probably do, which is why it took us so long to get to Louise Brown despite the

we've been doing all this with rabbits since 1890. Louise herself seems, blessedly, to be alright, though it's too
fact that

early to

be absolutely sure. But lots of things go wrong, even

in

The extraordinary photography of Lennart Nilsson highlights the unseen world of the growing months of age the rich complexity of the sophisticated system of blood supply can be seen extending through the arm
fetus. At only lour
(left)

and into the face and brain {above).

pregnancy achieved
estimated that bor and about
suffer
is

in

the usual way.

It

is

they discard those results, indulging

in

the

at [east

20 percent

of
it

conto la-

ventional conceptions never

make

five percent of those that do some kind of birth defect. So Nature not altogether perfect either. Furthermore, much of the animal work on in vitro fertilization is rather soothing on this point; animal embryos appear to be astonishingly resistant to damage during transfer, and the damaged ones don't survive. On that score, we're not likely to differ much from mice.

wanton destruction of human life. All of these worries rest on the belief that human life begins at the moment of conception. The abortion melee has shown us
believe this and those who don't. Such opinions are, for the moment at least, articles of faith rather than rationality. It does not, however, make much sense to adopt the policy of protection of each fertilized egg in the laboratory when we have made the political decision that women should have the choice to
that there are

those

who

Worry #2: Test tube babies will suffer psychological damage because of all the
publicity. In other words, out of the test tube, into the goldfish bowl. Remember the Dionne quintuplets? Poor Louise, it is too bad her parents couldn't resist the media madness, but how many people can resist their only chance for limelight, glamour,

abort or not for up to two-thirds of a conventional pregnancy.

But even people who think women ought to have that freedom are sometimes troubled at the idea of the wholesale dispatch of human embryos, no matter how laudable the purpose, because of what

and money? Maybe,

of the
it

dent

with the preceDionnes before them they will

if

manage all more sensibly. And maybe she knows she was one of the most wanted babies in human history, that will compensate. Of course the publicity
problem will apply almost exclusively to Louise; subsequent babies born of in vitro be greeted first with a few
polite handclaps, then with yawns, and then, alas, with an ear-piercing silence.

fertilization will

those embryos might have been. We might, therefore, want to set limits on the kind of things a researcher can do with the products of in vitro fertilization and also require that those products be treated with dignity and disposed of with decorum (as is the rule with cadavers in anatomy labs). Such steps will not, of course, satisfy the absolutists on either side, but no other compromise would either, so we
might as well try to soothe those many of us who waffle around somewhere in the
middle.
time,

We

will all

be paying

attention to

some

dif-

ferent nine-day wonder.

Worry #3: Laboratory manipulation of a fertilized human egg denies to a human being its basic rights. This is a complicated worry with a number of sub-worries: a. It is experimentation on a human subject,

fertility

Worry #4: Isn't it crazy to spend money, and brainpower solving people's inproblems in an overpopulated

the zygote, without that subject's voluntary informed consent. Since, of course,
this

such consent can never be given, work will always be unethical.

b.

world? The answer is yes. it is. Infertility research of all kinds (not just in vitro fertilization) should be a low-priority item on our national agenda. That's a position I've always found good for a few angry letters to the editor, accusing me of being inhumane and unfeeling and insisting that

Since a number of eggs are often fertione selected for implant, discarding the others isaformof abortion,
lized but only
c.

Researchers who pursue

in vitro fertilin

people have a right to children of their own. Do they? No matter what? That's a proposition we need to examine closely in an era of scarce resources. Infertility Is a
great sorrow, but it is only one of many plaguing humanity and nowhere near the most important one, either. For one thing,
CONTINUED Obi PAGE 146

ization

because they are interested

very

early

no plans

human development and who have to implant the results are, when

The fetus (telt) is four months old. more than six inches long and already weighs about seven ounces. Though his eyes are closed, he Is an active fellow, clutching and grasping with his hands and pushing outward against the amniotic sac that contains him in a near-weightless environment. All olhis organs are now formed within his fetal body, and he is in a period of simple growtb-the
forming of the eyes (above,
left);

the veins of the legs (above, right).

81

UNSEEN WORLDS
/ \ rtists have played a vital role in the exploraiion of space outer and otherwise. In the 1 9th century, landscape painter Thomas Moran accompanied the Hayden expedifir.st explored Yellowstone. Moran's heroic canvases depicted wonder of the region; they helped convince Congress

tion that

the virgin natural

and the

U.S. public to set aside Yellowstone as our

firs!

national park.

painting; Chesiey Bonasi.cH

early capture of the

Ciockv/ise from below: A balloon probe descends on Jupiter in Adolf Shatter's s vision of a red Martian volcano; the earth as seen from the moon by Charles Siticnger; Don Dixon'!; ra-crssiinn of earr.'rs

moon; and his view

of Saturn from

its

largest satellite.

astronomy. Their task Artists have had a similar impact this century in have taken has been a difficult one: to illustrate the unseeable. They astronomywith its benumbing mathematics and interminable star

fields and turned it into stunning, yet accurate, visions the public understand. There is little question that the taxpayers rallied behind the pictorials that U.S. space program in part because of magazine showed them what planets, moons, comets, and the distant reaches of person. the galaxy might look like when we can get there in Lucien Ffudaux. of the earliest and best space artists was

can

One

Rudaux was both an artist and a professional astronomer, and his lunar resemblance to paintings done in the 1 920s and '30s bear an uncanny and zones Apollo photographs. His imaging of Jupiter's cloud belts picture of the (see page 90), though 40 years old, is as accurate as any direct photoplanet before 1973, the year the Pioneer fiyby brought us

4 The space artist's task has been

difficult

one: to

illustrate the

unseeable.?

 Science

fiction

has inspired some of our most imaginative space paintings- 9

graphs

Jupiter a rsmarkable accomplishment for either art or science. Some of the most imaginative astronomical art appeared in science fiction magazines of the 1920s and '30s; a good example would be Frank Paul's space station (page 85). Many Americans got their first glimpses of our universe in pulp periodicals with names like Amazing and Astounding. A breakthrough of sorts occurred in July 1 939, when National Geographic published the paintings of Charles Bittenger, including his view of the earth as seen from the moon (page 82). Bittenger's paintings were among the very first to appear in a popular, nationally distributed and "respectable" magazine. To be fair to the science ficof

tion pulps,

many

critics feel that

some

of their astronomical artwork in the '30s

was
In

far
1

ellites

orbit

coming

more accurate than that published bylhe Geographic. 957 the Geographic redeemed itself with the article, "How Man-made SatCan Affect Our Lives," accompanied by beautiful paintings of satellites in forth at a time when only the Soviets had a satellite in space, just a

CoumerciocKwise Horn
right:

An asteroid

hollowed out to form a "space ark"; Bonestelfs version of

Saturn seen from a

nearby moon; Don

Davis's vision of what a solar eclipse

would look like viewed from Saturn's ring;

astronauts explore a Satumian moon.

single Sputnik. National

Geographic dek Pesek lo American readers in 1 970 (see Pesek's visions of Saturn, pages 85 and 88). But perhaps the greatesl of all space artists is Chesley Bonestell. His now-classic books with text by Wernher Von Braun were doubtlessly influential in glamorizing the appeal of space exploration. (Bonestell's work can be seen on pages 82, 85, and 86.)

also introduced the Incredible Lu-

Counterclockwise from above: Paul Lehr's surrealistic spacecraft combines elements of hardware and organic forms; Ludek Pesek's conception of what it would look like inside Saturn's rings, which are composed of millions of rocks and moonlets or ice: a spacecratt makes emergency repairs on a small planeflyby of Mercury. toid: James Hervat's re-creation of a Mariner 1

Would we have gone

to the

moon had not artists first painted the way? 9

67?ws curious marriage of fact and fantasy has opened a path

to the stars.

All the art reproduced here has been taken from the newly released book Space Art: A Starlog Photo Guidebook, compiled and written by Ron Miller, former art director with the National Air & Space Museum. Published by Starlog magazine, it's available in Walden and Dalton bookstores, or may be purchased directly from: Space Art, Dept. 0, O'Quinn Studios, Inc., 475 Park Ave. So.. New York, N.Y. 1 001 6. The paperback edition is $7.95; the deluxe gold-stamped slipcase edition, $12.00. Include $2.00 postage and handling fee for each copy. OO
1

Counterclockwise from below: This Lucien Rudaux painting of Jupiter, though old, is cited lor its accuracy even today: a lire ball an unusually large, bright meteor disintegrates over the English countryside (artist un-

40 years

known): a James Wyeth painting of Blockhouse 34 at Kennedy Space Center: Jupiter as seen Irom one of its moons, painted in 1927 (artist unknown).

Negative emotional
states may be the component of all
critical

common diseases-even

cancer.

LANGUAGE
6MOTION AND DISAS
BY WALLACE ELLERBROEK, M.D.
years ago. when Some younger bul as
tle
1

was a

litI

just

peculiar,

-was a general surgeon more inin why people got sick than in cutting them and equally interested in why they got well. Eventually. decided
terested

were to get any of my crazy ideas accepted. I'd have to become a psychiatrist. So started hunting tor a psychiatry residency. was interviewed by one eminent gentleman and incidentally expressed my belief that anger and depression were important mechanisms in Ihe
that
it
I I I

induction of cancer.
politely,

He

sneered, not very

and said, "Every weekend we get at least a dozen nuts in the emergency room who have figured out what causes cancer." asked, "What do they say?" His reply, which treasure, was, "We ignore them ... we have better things to do." Better things to do? Yes, suppose so. From his point of view we already know that cancer is caused by this, that, and the other thing. The list grows daily just
I I I

watch your newspaper.

Although will concede that constant exposure to soot does relate to carcinoma of the scrotum among chimney sweeps in England, have difficulty accepting the idea that everything like is
I l
I

carcinogenic.
entific

cherries,
drink, lay

am told, in numerous sciannouncements, that maraschino barbecued meals, the water and the air breathe are all going toI I I

me

low.

And

that's not

all.

Eggs,

PAINTING BYERICHBRAUER

sugar, milk, cream, butter (my wife and probably eat several tons of these deadly items per year, to the accompaniment ol shrieks from our friends) are all denigrated by the utmost authorities. Leaving the worst for last, tobacco, the sin of sins, as well as coffee, the mainstays of my existence and lunctioning well, they say you would be safer sitting all day playing RusI

sian roulette with a forty-five*

This all sounds very sensible, but it nonetheless leaves me entirely dissatisSome people smoke and get lung cancer; lots of people smoke and don't get lung cancer. My questions remain unanswered: why do people get sick? And why do some stay sick? And why do peofied.

ple get well,

and

if

they don't,

why

not?

Are these impossible questions? At the moment, given the available models, it would appear so. Physicians, of course, have all the answers unless you look closely. They have names lor all the known diseases sometimes, lots of names and people do feel some relief when given a name for what is bothering them. Af-

tery disease, and on and on, won't even mention the unconquerable head colds, sinusitis, and. in the young, ear infections, tonsillitis, acne vulgaris, and much, much more. Yet all the same, the clues abound. Once in a great while you encounter an individual who has managed to live to an advanced age. who is not sure what doctors are for, since he or she never goes to see one, and who dies usually while asleep without assistance from contemporary diagnosis or scalpels. Others, it seems, are the opposite, always having something wrong somewhere. They look at you blankly when asked when they last were well. Most people are somewhere between these two extremes, having alternating periods of health and sickness over the years, the finale being some type of unsuccessful major medical ritual.
I

and we talked
girl,

was treating her for something slse but became interested in her neck difficulties, a good bit. She was a lonely
rather prudish, slightly overreligious,

alone now + do not like being alone). Anger and depression are not separate emotions. Anger is: "Reality, as seem to perceive it, does not match my fantasy of
all
I I

became

deliberately introspective, trying

somatic specificity

(e.g.,

what

all

the

to look into of all this

going on and how

state of

and very inexperienced in the ways of the world. She found most males overly aggressive
in

ed, Suddenly, while she

sexual matters, so never datwas still my pa-

tient, a man in trer office started to show considerable interest in her. Within a few weeks she was a changed girl sparkling, alert, wide-eyed. And, fascinating to me, the chronically swollen nodes in her neck completely disappeared. This lasted six weeks; then she found out that he was

how it ought to be. but think there is something can do about it." Depression is the same, except "but there is nothing can do about it." (This one is critical.) Negative emotions are associated with unnecessary disturbances of bodily mechanisms, proporI I . . I

nature of
entific

my own head to see what was worked. The net result was an enormously changed mind on my part concerning the my patients and their illnesses
it
I

and how to care for them. found that scimedicine alone was not enough, and that my intense emotional involvement with the patient was part ol the treatment. Further,

tional fo the duration

and

intensity of the

make
I

found that anything did to the patient fee/ better helped him to
I

negative emotional slate. Such reactions are not limited to a particular organ. All
bodily organs

get better.

married, happily so, with a gaggle of children. Literally within a matter of days, the nodes returned, accompanied by their associated miseries and distress.

sponse

to

and cells express their resuch brain states in various

continued to practice "good" medicine by eliminating treatments or medications

that in

people with certain diseases have in common}. If you consider everything that has happened to an individual- since conception (or before), everything others have said to him or her, every thought he or she has ever had, plus everything that has been happening in the universe during the corresponding time, it becomes obvious that each person should, at any instant in time, have exactly what he or she does have. And when you look closely, you do discover that people with similar diseases have similar patterns, most particularly in
their thinking.

some way made

I

To

my amazement,

was soon able

I

to

find similar factors in every patient

saw.

Some

cases, as the one above, were obvious. Others were extremely obscure, requiring long periods of observation. Many patients totally denied carefully concealed emotional pains, while others were

ways If you are angry or depressed about your job, your stomach acids will either go up or down; your blood pressure will go up or down; your glands will increase or decrease their functioning, etc. Consider the concept of "stress." There are, from my point of view, two reactions to stress. If it makes you miserable, your

worse.

also

added

the patient feel anything that had a

effect. Critical
I

definite "positive
to all this

placebo"

was my belief that could help the patient, no matter what the diagnosis. Equally critical was my ability to make the

flicted individuals pestiterously return to

the doctor or chiropractor

infinite variety of

or, lately, to an gurus and complain that

they feel no better. We have doctors whose model for "diseases" are due, they say. to "real" organic causes. We also have the psychosomaticists, most of whom give a fairly clear message that, basically, it is all in your head. Sandwiched in between is a new breed of patient, semi-antiestablishment. who enjoys health food a lot. This group is uncomfortable with partisans of either of the former approaches and is searching out "al

completely unaware that they were unhappy, feeling this to be their "normal" gradually learned ways to get state. through to them and in the process learned how devious the human mind can be.
I

body will have all kinds of deleterious reactions. But if the stress is enjoyable pursuing a not-too-willing member of the opposite sex, for example the stress will make both you and your body function better than ever, up to the limits Mother Nature herself has installed.

The American Cancer Society provided me with an excellent example of the disadof "normal" thinking. In an ad, underneath a series of photographs showing a little boy and girl holding hands, the caption read: "Little children shouldn't get leukemia." According to me, that message has a number of less than desirable effects: it makes you angry or depressed, and more seriously, does not vantages
it

lead to open thinking, Try this instead: "Since certain children do get leukemia, if

we understood all the factors, would become obvious that those children should
it

Is

there, then, a significant possibility

At
ble.

one
I

point

began

to realize that the

that

puzzles

of

human

illness

were nof

insolu-

ing normal
of

gave occasional lectures (and was considered something of a quack), but mainly kept working with patients and studying in all directions. learned Qf Darwin's 23-year silence and so kept for the most part. The exceptions silent
I I

human

'variable factors

anger and depression, rather than beand necessary concomitants existence, are the long-sought in the development of all

human diseases, both "mental" and

"physical"? This idea, bizarre as
for
it

sounds, has been

utility,

me

of

enormous clinical

and do
I

ternative treatment modes." In forme days, people who employed such therapies were called quacks, but now they seem to be practicing holistic medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, transcendental meditation, faith healing, and who knows what else. For those who want something to smear on, shoot up, or ingest, we have royal queen bee jelly, Laetrile, Krebiozen. and other varieties of rather more concrete treatments. The really weird thing is that all of these

were my frequent letters to the editor and book reviews, each with one or two of my own ideas tucked in: a comment on
wedding-ring dermatitis, a
brief discus-

have gotten leukemia." This phrase opens your mind to an infinity of questions, a few of which just might be important in seeing what the processes actually are. The problem is, of course, in the word "should." In the first case, it means "it would be nicer if," but it is expressed in a psychotic manner, e.g. contrary to reality. In the second case, it means "it is appropriate that" and is more in accord with so-called reality as we
perceive
it.

believe it has enormous potential for the welfare of everyone. It means that you can

Does

this

mean
I

do something

to try to avoid getting sick.

It

mental? No.

that all diseases are say that mind processes

sion of the emotional feedback of shoulder posture, a hint that schizophrenia might

also means that if you are sick, there is something you can do to promote your recovery. And. of particular interest to the medical profession, it eliminates the idea that there are "unbeatable" diseases and affords new approaches to the major human scourges cancer, coronary artery disease, and hypertension, to name but a

(which means the functioning of the total brain in the body) are indeed part of, but only part of, getting sick or recovering.

be caused by disturbed thinking (instead of being the cause of disturbed thinking),

Finally, there are the so-called cancer miracles, which do actually happen,

and so
I

on,

however rarely.
All this

seemed
I

clear to

me

in

960

or

work sometimes, somehow, and

able degrees. But people
still

to vari-

get sick. As soon as we stamp out one disease, a worse one appears. Sometimes without

stamping one out, a new one starts in: it almost seems as if we must have disease. We have to get sick, one way or another, in spite of, and more frequently now bescientific advances. "Iatrogenic" is an increasingly popular word lor the trouble you get alter you go to the doctor. There are even people who are

cause of,

imagined that thoughts, language, and emotions had a good deal was considto do with illness. (For this ered quite disturbed by many of my associates.) The crux of the matter was that each patient, with all his or her problems, should have exactly those problems. The more deeply went into that person's behavior, thinking, and lifestyle, the more sense it made. Most particularly, it
thereabouts
I I

But the climate gradually changed, and longer wish to avoid open publifew basic definiand postulates and then proceed: There is no such thing as a fact: any verbal statement is an opinion, no matter how labeled. For example, any statement can be called either an opinion or a fact. If you call an opinion, you bear in mind the pos-

patient feel the same thing. The results? My patients did better, recovered sooner,

now no
tions

and had fewer complications. Even people hopelessly

ill

Then how we think does contribute to getting sick or welt? Exactly,! And this brings up the other problem, equally complex, of just how our language affects our perceptions behaviors. and
I

will

only indi-

cation. So, let's state a

few.

This entire subject

bly
all

is,

of course, incredi-

improvement
ing existence.

in

or dying showed definite the quality of their remain-

cate here
(b) there

that: (a)

is

language is full of traps, no single right word to apply to

complex:

if

it

they are not have seen them work when else failed. But before going on, would like to insert a bit of personal history. In medical school, where was able to listen
I

my

ideas

seem

simplistic,

If you call it a fact, you are neurotically expressing a belief that the is gold-plated, never to be questioned, and. more important, you are

sibility of error.

statement

seemed
type,
I

that

unhappiness,

of

whatever
af-

turning off your thinking

item.

machine as to that

what was told and to repeat back in test situations they told me: "Measles is caused by a virus, and that's a fact." In my head recorded. "They say measles is caused by a virus, and that is an opinion."
to
I

it

let's start over and try to answer a those impossibly difficult questions. Why do people get sick? It is not due to "physical" or "mental" factors but to the sum of all factors: physical, mental, emo-

Now
of

few

anything or any process, and (c) each word you use as a label for something makes you see in an entirely different way. Say "I am free" and mean Say "I am a slave" and mean Then alternate arid
it it. it.

tional,

and environmental, past and

was an

integral part of getting sick.

Some
them
did;
later

of their "facts"

seemed

potentially
to all of

they

hideously ill yet to paraphrase Shakespeare prefer to keep those ills they have than fly to medical management know not of. Are there medical advances? Yes. of course, but you add
if

recall a

charming young woman

them

all

uprpa/ticularly here

in scientific

America,

we humans should

not

be having

common though obscure condition called "idiopathic cervical adenitis." This means that she had swollen glands in her neck that were tender and bothersome; no one could figure out why. She had seen dentists, throat
flicted with a relatively

Objective knowledge is a myth: all "knowledge," being based on biases in

tive

useful,

so

decided tahang on
I

"perception" and "cognition," is subjecand emotionally determined. There are only two emotions, like and
dislike: all

others are compounds of one of these plus a personally tormulated com-

in case they came in handy. Some a lot didn't. So became a doctor and a surgeon and later a psychiatrist, head full of questions. became extensively concerned with the state of mind of my patients, both be-

present, Careful observation, however, that negative emotional states of some type are almost always present and contributory. Further, it is my opinion that what actually happens to people is not as important in producing illness as what they think happened is. In other words, if

suggests

watch your feelings. Having arrived at that point, perhaps we can now start talking about the diseases so prevalent in our day, and what, perhaps, each of us can do to avoid getting sick; or if sick, what we can do to restore
ourselves to health. Obviously, we cannot discuss here
the major diseases so
I

all

but always with a

I

high blood pressure, obesity, coronary ar-

specialists,

and

internists to

no

avail.

ment about

"reality" (e.g., "lonely"

am

fore

and

after surgery. At the

same

time.

something bad happens, you don't have get sick if you can avoid getting miserable aboutthe situation, Why do people get what they get when they get it? This is the problem of psychoto

now

practically

picked one that is epidemic and truly a major

public health problem: high blood pressure. It wrecks hearts, kidneys, and other things and leads to one of the most tragic of human conditions, a stroke.
CDNTINUE0ON PAGE
120

"Our mora/ responsibility

'*flB
is

not to stop the future, but to shape it to channel our destiny in

. . .

humane directions and to try to ease the

trauma of transition.
"

irUTERV/IEUU

hat date pops into your mind when you hear the "I I word "future"? 2001, perhaps. .Of 1984? I il Probably no nonaction writer has done as much as Alvin Toffler to persuade us all that the best answer is 1978. Right now, Right under our feet. His hugely successful (six million copies) Future Shock, published in 1970, made Toffler one of the world's best-known futurists. He has been both observer and shaper of the future we are living in: as author of such books as

f*

think the future

.
,

mm \J

will show [the Concorde] wasn't a sensible expenditure and even if it were, I'm sympathetic to the people here who were trying to control their technological environment." In recent years, Toffler has argued that if the emerging postin.

dustrial world

is

to

we must
"We

create a

escape both totalitarianism and anarchy, democracy that is not only participatory but

anticipatory.

are creating a

new

society," he says. "Not a

changed

The Eco-spasm Report and the forthcoming The Third Wave: as a consultant and advisor- to many foundations and corporations; and as a lecturer whose engagements, combined with his own continuing research and interviews, keep him on Ihe go.
Not surprisingly for a man with that kind of schedule, Toffler appreciates the speed of the Anglo-French Concorde: moreover, as a licensed mulliengine pilot himself, he admires the supersonic airliner's "technological poetry," But he applauds the American decision to halt development of our own SST and says. "I

society, not

an extended,

larger-than-life version of our present

society. Unless we understand this, we will in trying to cope with tomorrow," has just finished a half century of his own personal fuRaised in New York, he graduated from New York University, spent several years knocking around as a blue-collar worker and truck driver before turning to journalism. In the late 1950s he went to Washington as White House correspondent for a Pennsylvania daily, then joined Fortune magazine as an associate editor. Later

society, but a
Toffler

new

destroy ourselves

ture.

97


he wrote
the
for

A
Connecticut

home is the base of operations for Toftler and 28 years. She shares in the research, edits his and in 1 975 helped him organize a committee of iuturists who were instrumental in getting the members of House and Senate to set up a "futures caucus" on Capitol Hill the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future. "The future must be neither ignored nor captured by an elite," Toffle.r urged at that time. Since then, the spread of popular concern over technological developments from nuclear power to genetic manipulation has conHeidi, his wife for
writing,

scholarly journals as Technology

many popular magazines while contributing to such and Culture and the Annals of

AsaVisiting Professor at Cornell, he taught a course employing simulation methods" to analyze technology and values. The words "future shock," now almost cliche, first appeared in an article he wrote in 1965. The concept itself that the accelerating demands of change can prove too much for us and our social mechanisms to withstand led him through five years of interviews, study, and reflection on the ways in which we can and can't keep our balance. The result was Future Shock, which reached far more people than had 20 years of "think tank" prognostications. Future Shock also won

Academy of Political and Social Science.

Tofflerthe coveted Prix

ature, "and half a

de Meilleur Livre Etranger, the McKinsey Book Award for "distinguished contribution to management literdozen honorary degrees in law and science.
Omni: One of the most striking developments since Future Shock appeared is a

firmed Toffler's belief that our social, political, and economic adaptability may all reach their limits unless we recognize just how much of the future is not far off and speculative but quite literally here today.

publisher,

The following interview was conducted by OMNI Bob Guccione.

editor

and

much wider and deeper questioning

science and technology not just concern about, say, the" consequences of automation, but concern about all the values

of

and goals of "progress." What do you make of this concern? When was a child saw the movie Pasteur. can remember seeing many
Toffler:
I I
I

which the next round of exploracould disconfirm, but "scientific laws." causality to a simple-minded search for a single cause. We viewed a fact not as a temporary metaphorical explanation that might prove useful, but as a fixed, static, single-sided phenomenon. We looked at things one way, instead of through multiple lenses. Today all of this is under fire not merely
findings,
tion

We reduced

during its 300-year-long dominance of the planet, produced machines that were energy-hungry, machines that were ravenous and wasteful of raw materials, machines that were huge, machines that polluted heavily.
intensive.

Machines

that

were capital

movies about Edison,

Ehrlich,

Alexander

Bell, and other great scientists, doctors, or technologists. They were always heroes. And they were my heroes. By the late 1 950s and early '60s, we began to get more Frankenstein images images of scientists and engineers not as saviors, but as angels of doom. Dr. Strangelove appeared on the scene. Sinister figures. Today know perfectly sweet,
I

Graham

and mystics, but by scientists themselves. They are

by
antiscientific irrationalists

breaking out of the old scientistic

of

modes

thought and searching beyond es-

tablished boundaries for

new metaphors,

This primitive, battering-ram kind of technology characterized the industrial age and made mass production possible. It gave rise to industries such as the textile, steel, auto, rubber, and rail and paid oft in vastly improving the standard of life for hundreds of millions of human beings. It also raped and robbed others, but that is
another part of the story. The fact is, industrialism increased the life span and solved the problem of hunger for a sizable chunk of the human race. But at the same time, the Newtonian-, Cartesian habit of looking at things through only a single lens meant we seldom stopped to think about side effects. A good friend of mine, Dr. Donald F. Klein, who is one of the world's top drug experts, is often asked whether this or that drug has a side effect. He shrugs and says, "No
side effects, no central effect." You can't have one without the other. But that's not how we've looked at tech-

highly intelligent people

who

are so turned

new combinations of insight from both West and East. They are beginning to see science itself not as some relentless process, driven by its own mysterious inner imperatives, but as a social and cultural process we have created and that we,
can still shape. think that out of the raging war between "establishment science" and its critics both inside and outside the science will come a new, far more modest, useful science of the future. This revolution in science will be part of a revolution in society as a whole. We are moving into a new civilization.
hopefully,
I

off by science and technology, so angry at what they regard as the arrogance and dogmatism of the men in white coats, that they would gladly lynch a few before

breakfast.

community

This drastic
reflects

change

in

public attitude

flexible,

something far deeper happening today a fundamental idea-quake, an upheaval in our whole view of reality. This is a change so deep it has no precedent in the past several hundred years. As a result, both science and technology which until now have triggered so many revolutions are themselves about to be

Omni:

A new civilization?
mean
an

nology

historically.

Toffler; Exactly.

central effect

We've looked

at

its

its

Omni: What do you mean?

Toffler:
I

or a military

bang

and

ability to deliver

a buck

said, "Aren't

we

that for
history

300 years we've

is

been

living in

industrial civilization. This

revolutionized.

age began, one might say, with Newton and Descartes, the founding fathers of modern science. Newton told us that the entire universe was nothing more than a machine a clock
industrial

The

now over. We're moving swiftly out of and beyond industrialism toward a new phase that will
period of

human

be technological but no longer

industrial.

Descartes told us

we

could eventually un-

Omni: Aren't technological and industrial the same? We've always used these words almost interchangeably.
Toffler:

derstand that clock if we took it apart, component by component, and studied the behavior of the pieces. What we have lived in during the past 300 years until Einstein and the physicists began to challenge the mechanistic view was not a

No. The industrial age was based on a certain style of technology, on technologies representing a certain stage of

scientific

We

priest.

age, but a scientistic age. raised the scientist to the status of We took from science not its emtentativity,

phasis on

on experiment, on

development. Newtonian and Cartesian ideas were developed, elaborated, and applied to more and more fields during the period of early industrial development. And the two lines of development wrapped themselves together like a double heiix. On one side, Scientism; on the
other,

skepticism, on imagination and daring hypothesis, but its mechanistic, tinker-toy notions of reality. We sought not tentative

Omni:

Brute Force technology. Why "Brute Force"?

Toffler:

Because

industrial civilization,

smart?" We forgot to look at the side effects. Or we didn't want to look at them. Omni: How do you feel. about the people who say it's time to stop technology? Toffler: can understand their anger, frustration, and fear. But think the idea of "stopping technology" is both futile and immoral. think there's a better way to achieve what most of these people want, anyway. What we're seeing are increasing attacks on technology, not from Luddites, but from thoughtful people. They present a very powerful case, pointing out the atrocities and dangers that technology has trailed in its wake until now. Of course, some critics are merely technophobes. They'd like the whole world to go back to some pretechnological age. They forget how life was for most human beings in those times. How short, brutal, and stultifying it was. How viciously antiI

98

OMNI

CONTINUED ON FWGE 132

FICTION
For the competition, he had

carved a beautiful setbreathing

life

into

every piece.

THE CHESSMEN
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD
most innocent Tomov was was
of
all. li

this,

per-

the

So Tomov studied, first. He went to shop of books and page by page

real confusion,

haps, that caused the challenged for a moof history,

ment the course

and led

looked through a hundred, or a thousand. Even those on back shelves, books so suspect they were like a
ticking
in

eventually to Tomov's death. But Tomov, dead or alive and whatever part he played, is not an important element in this tale; being, as Tomov was, mere flesh and blood. Our heroes are wood. Exquisitely

bomb

if

one dared have such

one's home, books of which private possession could bring, on any night, the silent thunder of disapproval; even those Tomov turned

carved; painted with

infinite

care;

each one a
tainty,

child born through ago-

nies of thought,
there; but

months

of

a change here, a

new

unceridea

page by page. And on those pages were the things he sought. A queen, dressed in such flagrant riches was enough to sicken Tomov, a queen whose very gown told of her faithit

wood. Tomov made them.

lessness, her carnal loves.

After the long hours at the dyeing vats of the woolen mill at Rybinskh, it

man, pompous,
the queen.

fat,

was

joy to hurry

home

to the

bench

A king ah!, these were what Tomov was after. No need to labor his dye-stained fingers with makTomov would remember until each vicious line was shaped in the solid oak. Then the carving. Tomov grew as each completed piece was set aside and a new one begun. The little, easier ones Tomov made first, the eight
ing sketches.

A churchas lecherous as

beside the sink, take his little box of cupboard, and live the evenings with the smooth, warm It was worth the year it took,
tools from the

wood

one had but a small chance of winning the contest and of being rewarded with the trip to Mosespecially
if

surely the extra ration coupons.

One might even see Comrade
or find
Stalin,

cow, visits to the shrines, the handshakes of the mighty ones, and

a better job waiting

returned.

at the mill

when one

PAINTING BY RENE MAGRITTE

chain-laden slaves, the eight strong, sickle-swinging comrades like he'd seen on the collective farms. These he made first so his hands could gain in skill for the master pieces. Next were the two castles, showing by their tumbling towers the decadence they represented. Almost with a shudder Tomov turned from them to shape
the perfect tiny replicas of the

went into finishing up the mined frame and gold-crowned skull

well learned

erfor

should have given Tomov a reprieve; yet inthe period of deliberation danger
threatened almost at once. Dosiev, second in command
ture Office
ately
in

the Capitalist king.

And

ideals precious to

every Russian gave joy to shaping the healthy Peasant boy and girl in regal
proportions.

at the Cul-

Moscow, was struck immedithe care, the unusual colinto entry K2726. He

by the

skill,

new

apartfor the

ment house
faithful of

just built in

Rybinskh
to

the People's Republic.

Then the
out, to

think plan, but hard to carve. The effeminate, weak, dull ones were the worst, but even
soldiers.

They were easy

With only one month to work before the contest deadline, Tomov spent every evening turning the carefully stolen bits of powdered dye to paint and bringing final life to every piece. There was not even time to ask Stolovkin to drop in and play a

ors that

had gone

placed the box with the others, between the painting of the Leningrad boy and the
bridge made of sticks and twigs, with half an idea in his mind. If Andreievich happened in at the right time, they might return to the office in the evening and play the interesting set. Andreievich was a fine partner for chess, relatively easy to beat yet capable on occasion of creating a difficult situation on the board. It made it pleasant, thought Dosiev, to be challenged and at the same time to know one

game before the

neatly
later.

the two broad Russian generals angered

Tomov as he carved them, by bringing

back
to his

mouth the

taste of

mud and

snow, by causing the half-healed wound in his hip to ache, by arousing the shame a
soldier of the Red Army must feel at remembering his fear. The fwo fat bishops brought some of the same trouble, for Tomov as a child had held his mother's hand and walked the long mosaic aisle to kiss a ring worn by a kind and gentle man. What one read and heard helped Tomov form the beady eyes, the obese jowls, but the sweat was heavy on his forehead before

he

felt

quite sure his knife

lips of

from the

both

had cut the smile With a sigh of relief

he set the pieces with the others and be-

gan the commissars. These, when done,

left him the task that brought the greatest pleasure. There was nothing the least bit

personal, nothing to disturb Tomov in creating the wanton queen. Only ideas

set had to be bundled up and sent off to the Culture Office in Moscow. Tomov regretted that, especially If only Stolovkin and he had tried but one game. It might have made Tomov pause, perhaps not send his proud entry to the contest at all. But there was no time. Tomov shook off another regret. The set would not be returned to him, no one would have seen his handiwork completed. No one except the beggar who had knocked on Tomov's door and, while he waited for a bit of bread, had turned a bishop in his hand and certainly admired the work. The gesture the beggar made as he replaced the piece was odd, thought Tomov. It reminded him of the sign the priest used to make in blessing, back when there had been a priest in Rybinskh. Well the beggar, at least, had seen and liked his chessmen. That was something. Through the processes of bureaucracies, the decisions would be delayed for

chuckled occurred to him to let Andreievich see what he could do with the king and queen while the better player moved rehe, Dosiev lentlessly on to the inevitable checkmate by the People's men. It would be a moral
could pretty surely win.
as
it

He

as well as a personal one. The evening came, and with it Andreievich. After expressing his pleasure at the workmanship of the pieces and demurring a bit over representing the enemy, Anvictory,

dreievich consented to play the Capitalist

set.

That he won was of

little

concern.

He

had bettered Dosiev once or twice before the 20-odd times they had played. Bein

sides, looking back, Dosiev

But,

remembered
,

some months,

the winners unknown. This

he had been rather sleepy that evening. somehow or other, Dosiev felt compelled to play again with Andreievich on the same basis with these chessmen.
At the second meeting in the office, Andreievich argued for his right to play the

Peasants. Dosiev prevailed upon him to

repeat their earlier sides, pointing out that
his winning would balance the score not only between Andreievich and himself but between the sets as well. Not to Andreievich but to himself Dosiev admitted he was feeling a little tension about it. This

tension, Dosiev reasoned afterwards, was no doubt the cause for Andreievich's win-

ning again.
ferently.

home so

the holiday.

drowsiness

The third meeting Dosiev handled difHe smuggled the box of pieces they might play inthe morning on No use letting end-of-day or fatigue cause him to play poorly. Also, Dosiev went to bed early and had a full night's sleep. This time there was no trouble with Andreievich about the men. Having won twice with the gaily

gruesome royalty, Andreievich was quite happy to stay with them. In fact, as he
placed the chained-siave pawns, the fat bishops, the crumbling castles, the weakling knights, the wanton queen, and the
skeleton king, Andreievich noticed a feeling of confidence new to him facing Dosiev across a chess board. A third time

Andreievich won. Handily, too, with many pieces left and with Dosiev wiped out and helpless. Looking at Dosiev, however, Andreievich decided not to laugh aloud as

he felt like doing, Instead, he said good day and left,

foolishness about evil powers, plots, magicsurely you jest! But no. see that
I

Moscow have used these pieces, varying possession of the People's men and the
enemy men,"
"And the results, Comrade Krakov?" "As you know, Comrade," "The reason, Comrade, have you
learned that?"
cions.

The following morning, wretched from a night disturbed by many shapeless feelings of anxiety, Dosiev decided io return chessmen to the office and forget the whole affair, He would not be obliged to participate in ihe judging. His job was simply to arrange the entries, excluding the impossible works, so that Comrade Donovich and the man from the Kremlin Culture Office could select the winners. For a moment he considered throwing out the chessmen along with the poorer sketches, the too-crude sculpture, and other futile offerings. But no, he was making too much of nothing at all.
the

you do not Comrade?"

felt

jest.

Have you been

well,

Upon Donovich's
ning,

protests that he had perfectly well until the previous eve-

Krakov determined he should make to relieve the man, "You brought the box? Good. do not play the game, but leave the box with me.

some gesture

"We have! Or we have strong suspiEach player who used the proletar-

ian pieces

have friends who

play.

Some,

believe.

experienced a drowsiness as he played. There is evidence that these

who

play extremely well.

It was nearly a week later that Donovich was summoned to Krakov's office. The Di-

pieces are treated in some way, probably in the paint or dye, to produce this effect in the handling of the pieces. Very probably
these chessmen are the agency of an imperialist design to create uncertainty and
fear in our glorious People's Republic.

On

the street Dosiev passed Andrei-

evich. Did his friend walk

more

erect, his

head higher,

his chest out? Ridiculous,

Dosiev told himself. Even Andreievich's

rector of the Moscow Culture Office, his man Dosiev tagging along, entered to face Krakov and two unsmiling members of the Politburo itself standing behind the desk. "Donovich!" "Comrade Krakov."

"We

shall

see

this

Tomov

traitor,

if

there

wide

grin with his

little

"Good morning'"
in

aroused only a

resentment

Dosiev,

the

But it was a new thing, that grin. The same evening, when Dosiev saw Andreievich looking through the shelves in the back of shop of books, Dosiev came to a decision. He would somehow place the matter before Comrade Donovich. Tomorrow.

"These chessmen!" "Comrade? You have tried them?" "Donovich, this box is identified only as entry K2726 in our contest. What is the

is such a one. He will be brought from Rybinskh. Meanwhile, Petroev will come from Stalingrad. Petroev, who has mastered the ablest of the foreigners in the tournaments in London and Paris, will try your chessmen, So superior is his skill, no

drowsiness, however maliciously

in-

name

of the

man

or

woman who made

them? The address?"

"Yes, yes. Dosiev, here, has it. Stop shaking, man, and give me the card with

Comrade Donovich was

pleased.

first

impatient,

then supercilious, then plainly dis"Fool! Because your friend improved and you grew careless at chess, you toss bed and bother me over the shape of pieces of wood? Fagh! Bring me these chessmen. Let me see these midget monuments that shake you in your boots!" Although Donovich was without artistic background in any field except that of devising methods for eliciting greater efforts from inmates at a northern camp, he did in a sense justify his appointment as
in

Comrades. One Alexovich Tomov, Woolen Mill, Rybinskh.

the name. Here you are,

confirmed my feelings?" "Tomov, Alexovich, Woolen Mill, Rybinskh. Comrade Donovich, this chess set has been played in exactly sixty-seven enjements. Five of the best players in

You

duced, will defeat him. He will win with the peasant pieces." Back in Rybinskh, Tomov was not too surprised to learn he would go to Moscow. He was surprised, though, that the message should be brought by two members of the secret police and that he must leave at once, that same night. His wonder at this fact took away much of the pleasure he felt at winning the contest. (He was sure he had won, or else why the trip to Mos-

Director of the Moscow Culture Office his reaction to Tomov's chessmen. "Aha! Interesting!"

in

"Nice

color.

Nice knife work. Clever

I
I

imagination, Dosiev! am glad you show me these pieces. take them home with me and still your fears, Yes, like these.
I

This fat fellow here, this cleric, looks almost alive. But you are an old woman, Dosiev. Tomorrow tell you to stop seeing bogeymen in pieces of a tree." The following morning a pale Comrade Donovich walked worriedly into his office,
I

mumbling
colleague

to himself.
in

He telephoned

his

Ihe Kremlin Culture Olfice to

to

make an early appointment. He was told come at once he was so upset.

if

Krakov listened closely till Donovich had finished babbling and pacing. When Donovich collapsed into a chair, Krakov
reviewed: "Your wife, you sayT-T.hree games, four games? Each lime she with the what did

you call it? with the 'corrupt' set? Then your son, who had never played before

and had to be taught the moves? He also do not wonder, Comrade, that you are pate if you sat up all night playing chess and teaching it to a child! But this

won?

Humanlike

qualities of

the sea,

many mammalian

brains

have evolved to sizes equal

it.

COMMUNICATING WITH
DOLPHINS

the dolphin brain

suggest a potential
that

for

to and larger than the critical size forlanguage as we know In These brains are restricted to cetaceans: the porpoises, dol-

mammalian dialogue
could transform our views of all living species and the planet

we

share.

phins, and the whales. No other sea mammals otters, seals, sea lions have brains above the critical threshold. Paleontologicai evidence suggests that the cetacea evolved tiie critical brain size for language 15 to 30 million years ago, something on the order of ten to 20 times longer ago than man with his present brain sTze appeared on this planet. In their souatic evolution cetacea developed brains up to six times
:r than ours, Several species of cetaceans have been studied from the standpoint of the acoustic spectrum they use for communication nd for their echo recognition and ranging systems. The most in'ely studied species is Tursiops truncatus, the bottle-nosed
"

BY JOHN LILLY

threshold for detection in the region from 30,000 Hz to 1 00,000 Hz. Smaller dolphins use higher frequencies, and the larger dolphins use somewhat lower frequencies than humans. There is sufficient overlap between the acoustic output of the human voice and the hearing curves of the dolphins, so that exchanges can take place between humans and dolphins in the sonic sphere. Dolphins in close proximity to man can voluntarily raise their blowholes into the air and make sounds in the presence of humans. This takes place only when the dolphins are placed in close proximity to humans who will speak to them or who are talking to other humans speaking loudly enough for the dolphins to hear (tapes demonstrating such exchanges are available).

105

Experiments using solitary dolphins in separate tanks connected by a "dolphin telephone" of a high-frequency pass band show that dolphins can carry on sonic communication by using such a link. Moreover, has been demonstrated that dolphins use sonic communication to modify one another's behavior. The capacity of dolphins to use echoes tor recognition of objects has been studit

'

Because the

for the

air cavities dolphins use production of sound are totally en-

closed inside the.body, they are closely to body tissues, which, in turn, are closely coupled to the water of the sea. In general, dolphins have three sonic/ ultrasonic emitters: two of these are just below the blowhole, and the third is in the larynx. There are two plugs, a right plug

sures, individual pulses of sound are released from one sac to the other. Frequency analysis of such pulses and whistles

coupled

shows

that they vary as the size of the

ied extensively. Such studies lead to the conclusion that the postulated language of dolphins, "delphinese," is possible because ot the ability ot the dolphin to construct "acoustic pictures," which are the basic elements ot their language. Human

and a left plug, that close the blowhole. As the blowhole opens, these plugs are pulled forward. If one continues to watch the blowhole region while it is closed, and
the dolphin starts to

make sounds

(either

coupled sacs varies. With this rather complex apparatus a ddlphin can clicjs at a given rate on one side, at another rate on the other side, or he can whistle over one frequency range on one side and another frequency range on the other; Or he can click on one side and whistle on the other side, The sounds are transmitted through the out into the flesh surrounding the sacs

see movements
sonic emitter,

languages are primarily based upon visual and manual images computed in an entirely different way than the elements of the cetacean languages. Language, as we know it, results from an agreement among individuals about the meaning of signals. Any two individuals must agree upon the kinds of signals they are going to use. the rules for their
manipulation, and their interpretation. Humans communicate in the immediate present through facial expressions, gestures of the body, physical contact, and the production of sounds in the mouth, throat, and larynx. Principal receptors of the body gestures and facial expressions in the receiving human are the eyes; one sees facial expressions and gestures. Another route is physical contact in which tactile sense, pressure receptors, and so forth are used to receive the muscular motions exerted by the transmitter.

pulses or whistles) under water, one can of the plugs closing the blowhole. When the dolphin uses his right

water, most loudly upward and forward, but with fairly sizable amplitudes in all directions around the body of the dolphin,

one sees that side twitching; when he uses the left sonic emitter, one sees movements on the left. High speed x-ray movies taken of this region show that the sounds produced are formed by the tongue coming up against
the

The sounds emitted by these two sonic

emitters are of a lower frequency region than those emitted by the third sonic emitter in the larynx.

membrane edge, forming a

slit

for

the

6 Dolphins, whales, and porpoises have demonstrated a capacity to survive far longer
-

These sonic pulses can be controlled in from one per minute up lo 1000 per second. As an object approaches, the dolphin's pulsing rate goes up. If one holds a hydrophone in front of a dolphin and swings it back and forth to and from the dolphin, one can hear the pulsing rate climb as the hydrophone approaches and fall as the hydrophone moves away from
their rate

the dolphin. This is the output side of their so-called

than humans. According to paleontologica! evidence,

sdnic navigation and ranging system. These short pulses go out through the water, are reflected by objects of interest,

Cetacea communicate in similar ways, producing sounds, receiving them with those sounds, and constructing mental images, maps, and ideas. They also watch one another's motions in the water and exchange physical
their ears, interpreting

some ocean mammals have had brains equal to ours for at least 30 million years. 9

and come back

to the ears of the dolphin

contact. Air-containing cavities within their bod-

air.

This

slit is

chords and
airway.

their

then analogous to our vocal impedance across our

enable cetacea to emit most of their sound above water there is an open passageway to the atmosphere; or they can emit most of their sound into water if cavities are closed and immersed in water. Human speech depends upon such cavities being "open," coupled to the atmosphere through the mouth and the nose. In cetacea, during sound production the cavities are closed within the body, and the sonic
ies
if

The dolphin has two right-side air sacs, two sacs on the left, and a tongue and a membrane on each side, totally independently controllable; he has two separately
controllable sound sources whose frequencies, amplitudes, and click rates can be varied independently. He fills the upper sac, cdntracts the walls of the upper sac, and blows air through the slit between the tongue and the membrane edge into the lower sac. He can then contract the lower sac and blow the air back through the slit into the upper sac, As the sacs change
size, their resonant qualities change so that the resonant click or whistle coming out of the sacs through the tissues into the

underwater. While the dolphin is using this sonar system, one sees him moving his head horizontally, scanning the object with a tight beam. Using sonar the-dolphin has been shown to discriminate objects hidden from his eyes with exquisite fineness. At a distance of f 6 meters he can distinguish an aluminum disk two centimeters thick from a copper disk of the same dimensions against a concrete wall under water The anatomy of the dolphin's ears
that the equivalent of the human ear exists inside its head, The two bones containing the cochlea in the dolphin are as hard as glass. The cavities in these bones contain air. There are also cavities surrounding the bones, containing blood.

shows

fat.

and a foam. Using air cavities, we constructed

energy

is

emitted into the water.

water a cate ever astonishing distances, along the order of ten kilometers for the bottle-nosed dolphin and up to eight hundred kilometers for the finback whale. This longdistance transmission is due to the in-

Under

cetacean can communi-

Bottle-nosed dolphins communicate with each other by means ol three sonic-ultrasonic emitters, two ot which can be linked into a kind of stereo sound- The third emitter is used lor sonar detection. Dolphins' acoustic range is

creased efficiency

of

sound waves

in

the

dense medium of water. (The maximum transmission in the atmosphere of information contained in the human voice is limited to two to three kilometers under
quiet conditions.)

water varies upon the size

instant.

in

frequency depending
sac
at that

of the

particular

about ten times that ot humans' at both sending and receiving ends. This indicates a communications capability thai is highly sophisticated- Computer technology enables
scientists to transtorm "delphinese" into

When the membrane edge is tight and the tongue presses against it, the membrane vibrates at very high frequencies, forming pulses so close together that they are heard as a continudus whistle. With a more lax membrane and lower air pres-

human language and vice

theorizes that

versa.

Lilly

because sounds above water that resemble human speech, they are interested in communicating
dolphins create
with people.

model of the dolphin's ears. When this was placed on the ears of humans, we found humans could localize sounds under water. Extensive studies of both the human

tive. programming in

sonic communication, dolphins do adapattempts to establish

this

and dolphin thresholds for hearing at various frequencies show that the bottlenosed dolphin detects and uses signals of approximately four and one half to ten
times the frequencies that
mally use.

communication. Dedicated faced with dedicated dolphins can depend upon agreements for adaptive programming on each side. Both species are sufficiently adaptable to modify and form new replies and new demands extremely
rapidly.

humans

humans

nor-

two sets of input and output for man and the dolphin. Sonic input to the dolphin is designed to be in the region of parameters most easily detected and discriminated by the dolphin. This is the region of maximum frequency discrimination and of the lowest threshold for detection of sounds running from approximately 3000 Hz (cycles per second) to 80,000 Hz (cywith

Dolphins can hear the frequencies of human speech in the lower end of their detection spectrum. They also produce sounds in this region. However, they do this only in the presence of humans who

Dolphins understand demands and methods involving no delay between a query and a response, each side learns very rapidly the limitaqueries. With real-time
tions and the possibilities expressed by the other side. Thus, this method of dolphin/human communication calls for changing the frequencies of the human voice accurately into the frequency domain of the dolphin's and, conversely, the transformation of the frequencies of the dolphin's voice down into the range of the human's. A doorway must be opened between the human sonic box and the

cles per second). On the human side, the standard

com-

municative frequencies from 300-3000 Hz (cycles per second) will be used. In addition, the human end uses the standard computer keyboard and video display units as well as printers and other convenient devices. (Eventually, visual feedback to the dolphins will be incorporated with a

speak above water.

We

discovered that

dolphins will try to mimic and improve their copies of human speech in the presence of humans who speak to them loudly The
dolphin's ability to use his communicative

cathode-ray

tv

underwater screen

or

its

sound

in

man's presence
his large brain

is
is

not unex-

pected when

compared

human. Through modern computer technology, it is possible to devise electronic machines that can translate both for the human and for the cetacean. One way involves making use of the fact thaf dolphins have been found to be interested in communicating with humans; i.e., they are ready with the necessary agreement to work on the problems. They go to inordinate lengths to create sounds above wawith that of the
ter that

dolphin's sonic box.

In the current research and development program of the Human/Dolphin Foundation, a computer has been pur-

chased
of sonic

to carry out the initial investigation

dolphin.
project,

JANUS

communication between man and The program is called the JANUS and the apparatus is also called for Joint-Analog-Numerical-

equivalent. The dolphin's visual input has been shown to be quite capable of analyzing visual symbols, so both the sonic and the visual can be interconnected in the dolphin communication experiments.) This route takes advantage of adaptive programming on each side by means of special "vocoders." Making such vocoders is a straightforward technical design problem that can be solved given the proper financial support and properly
trained engineers.
In the proposed "interspecies vocoder," human speech spectrum is divided a number of independent frequency channels by means of filters (or their equivalent) computed by a microproces-, sor. On one side of the vocoder, each of the human sonic bands is analyzed by analog methods in real time and is multiplied

resemble those of human speech. Using the narrow band of overlap between

human

sonic communication and dolphin

Understanding-System. JANUS has a dolphin face for the dolphin end of the system and a human face for the human end of the system. The brain of JANUS is a computer

the

into

by a factor of 4.5 to 10 into the dolphin's frequency band. On the other side of the vocoder, the machine does the inverse by analyzing each of the dolphin's frequency bands, which are analogically computed to the frequency band of humans. Such a device allows a human to speak to a dolphin underwater. The human could remain above water and the dolphin remain under water; a dolphin would speak back to the huma^ in his natural underwater mode. Each side would use its appropriate frequency bands, and the electronic device would translate one into the other. The air/water interface is thus broken opening a door. The frequency

barrier is also broken. Each individual involved is thus able to operate in the familiar regions of its existence, The number of bands required for understandable human speech of high quality, using a vocoder, has been found to be 30. These devices are based upon the

number
volved
C. Scott

in

of critical frequency bands inhuman speech and hearing. Dr. Johnson has shown that the num-

ber of critical hearing bands for the dolphin is about twice that of the human; i.e., the dolphin will require about 60 such

bands.
Dr. W.A. Munson devised thefirstvocoderfor dolphin/human communication. Dolphins expressed great interest in the

use of bands

this device, but the

number

of

(ten)did not

man
cal

critical

match either the hunumber nor the dolphin criti-

number. The vocoder method has the

advantage

ot operating in real time; i.e.. the dolphin and human can interact and correct one another rapidly. It is a relathe present tively inexpensive method estimations (1976) are that $100,000 would be sufficient for the design and the construction ot the interspecies vocoder. Another method involves the use of

THEK0NICAAUT0F0CUS. SO AMAZING, IT EVEN SITS THE FOCUS ITSELF.

AUTOMATIC FLASH; BETTER COLOR

modern, high-speed minicomputers and

microprocessors. Recent breakthroughs with microprocessors that do the fast Fourier transform can simulate the above vocoder method.. With this technique, the

analog vocoder is simulated by digital hardware. This approach has several advantages over the analog vocoder. For example, one would be able to shift the critical bands, both the number and position, in the two frequency spectra. The advantages of the flexibility of the software; i.e., the programming and its changes, would be sizable overthewired-in, fixed vocoder model, The cost of this approach is estimated to be 300,000. A third approach, which is farther in the future, would involve additional transformations of what the dolphin sees with his sonar to human video, and vice versa, by means of a high-speed minicomputer. In this configuration, one visualizes an underwater, artificial sonar system that scans the underwater environment in a
that mimics the dolphin's. An ultrasonic transmitter emits pulses similar to

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CLEAR PICTURES

those used by dolphins, picks up the echoes by means of an array of hydrophones, and transfers them to the minicomputer for computation. The computation in the microcomputer would be so designed that it would generate a threedimensional television display in color for use by the humans. A human operator could thus see with his eyes under water the way the dolphin sees under waier with

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Such systems open operational doorways between the species. Since each of
the systems functions

depending upon the adaptability

the

human and

in real time, we are of both the dolphin to solve the

problem of constructing a suitable interspecies language somewhere between delphinese and the human languages. The construction/use o! this new interspecies language will probably take a fairly long time of dedicated daily use, at the least several months, at the most, many
years.

Such technical proposals are now feasible. All that is required is sufficient time, energy, money, and interest on the part of the human species to carry them out. The only barrier in our way is our beliefdisbelief systems about the intelligence
feel

man

and language capabilities of cetaceans. very strongly that the reward to the huspecies of such a program will be
I

very great

beyond anything that

or

any-

Konica Camera Company, Woodsfde, N.Y. 11377, Burbank,

Calif.

91550

FICTION

The experiment looked so easy; except for one factor.

In

my zeal to demonstrate

psychic phenomena, I committed the one unpardonable sin in science. 9

CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT
BYRICKCONLEY

Standing
"I

alone on the podium, in the glare of the camera lights, the old man spoke wearily: have called this press conference to an-

entrust

my work

to abler,

more trustworthy

men. In particular, I'm gratified that Dr. John Cole has promised to continue my research
with ihe
trol

nounce my resignation from the American

Psionic Institute."

random stimulator. "Good luck, John. know you won't lose conI I

The audience of buzzed excitedly.

luctant to leave

scientists

and reporters
I

"As cofounder of this organization, am reit; but my continued presence here can only cast a cloud of doubt over honest men's work. For recently, in my zeal to demonstrate the existence of psychic

phenomena,

committed the one unpardonable sin in scideliberately ence: manipulated an experiment to yield the deI

as did." Alone in the laboratory, strapped down in a cage, the rats squealed in ecstasy as the machine directed repeated stimulations through the electrodes implanted in their brains. More! the rats' minds shouted. More! More! But the machine ignored their demands; it continued to grant the creatures brief moments in paradise according to its own mechanical caprice. Then the rats tensed.

sired results.

The man! The man was coming!

"A few weeks ago, implanted in the brains of rats electrodes that, when energized by a
I

Seconds

later.

Dr.

random-number generator,
in

produce highly

pleasurable sensations the animals. My obsee if the rats could through telekinesis mind over matter influence the generator to give more than the expected, chance number of stimulations. "I reported almost immediate success clear evidence of psychic ability! But then then some of my colleagues, puzzled by the excessive attention was paying to my apparatus, watched, concealed, as manipulated
jective: to

Cole unlocked the door to the laboratory and entered. Walking overto the experimental apparatus, he inspected Ihe electronic counter
hopefully.

He was

dis-

appointed to see that in Ihe past hour the rats had received no stimulations

expectation.

Good

thing he

beyond chance was on board-

the

equipment

to deliver additional stimula-

Peering into the cage at the tiny creatures. he sighed. "Do something, you deadbeats! Do something!" At that moment, the rats concentrated mightily. From their minds, at the speed of thought. sprang tendrils of mental energy. Reaching deep into the recesses of Cole's mind, the tendrils

tions to the rats."

touched, probed, twisted.

The old man sighed.

"Why did cheat? don't know, In fact, until my colleagues contronted me with the evidence. was barely aware of my actions. "Perhaps after a lifetime of honest research
I I I

More! the rats' minds shouted. Morel More! Unconsciously, Cole turned a dial on the

random-number generator. The

faster.

stimulations
faster

were no longer random; they came

and

with, at best,

ambiguous

results to

show for

it,

subconsciously decided to help the experiment along just a little, in order to encourage my colleagues and to impress the skeptics. "In any case, I'm sorry for the embarrassment I've saused the institute. And now shall
I

heightened ecstasy the rats man was not the same one they earlier. But still, he was a touched man, not a machine, and could be manipulated. They squealed in delight, They were in control again. OO

Even
.
,

in their

sensed

that this

had

ILLUSTRATION BY MARSHALL ARISMAN

LIFETIDES
In this excerpt from his new book, Britain's celebrated biologist
th

Lifeficte,

m
ned
any
in

and partly jetsam, aban-

paranormal phenon

with

of Ihis salvage,

well to bear

it would be mind Jung's r'

BY LYALL WATSON

a position to make reasoned judgments about the general process ot evolution that has led to our present strange, subdivided
in

we have
thy
is

learned about conditions conduis

cive to unusual perception

Irue, telepa-

more

likely. to

occur

in this

situation

state.

than at any other time

in life.

There may be such a thing as 'psi pollution' for those with imperfect ego defenses. Every culture has at some time devised a way of circumventing the cerebral censor
directly with the unconscious, usually by pretending that the information isioming from somewhere else, most often through some kind of In Tanzania, the Safwa blame a special chair, which stands still or shakes in response to questions from a sitter. The Nyoro people of Uganda use a length of wood, something like a spear shaft, called a segero. This is moistened, usually with the blood of a freshly slaughtered goat (the

suggest that what we have in the field of paranormal phenomena are vivid and sometimes meaningful indicators of the
I

is almost no limit to the fertility of symbiotic theory. Right away it begins to make sense of the childlike and irrational

There

and communicating

this

'

The different physraps on tables, bent keys, flying saucers, and wandering yetis are in themselves purely incidental symbols, which may sometimes coincide in disturbwhich bear no recognizable ing ways, but causal relationship to one another, We must not expect scattered occurrences, stray
true state of our psyche.
ical realities of

so many paranormal phenomena. Most mediumistic communications are repetitive and seem often to be almost
qualities of

scapegoat.

simpleminded. Psychoanalytical y they would be classed as regressive, which is exactly what can be expected if we are
I

scraps
tion of

of information, to carry

any informa-

consequence. Each on its own says very little, and any attempt to wring an answer from isolated experience, or to massage meaning out of laboratory
statistics, is

doomed
I

to failure.

believe there may be an almost basic cosmic rhythm, which probably underlies coincidence, chance, seriality, and synall

dealing with something that has its roots in infancy. It explains why so many so-called extrasensory perceptions are of a preconceptual, preverbal nature, and therefore almost impossible to describe. It certainly accounts for the fact that spontaneous adult telepathic experiences occur most often between mothers and young children, And it becomes easier, with the help of this model, to understand why all psychic experience is much more common in

unconscious thrives on that

with his finger

sort of vivid im-

agery), and the questioner grasps the shaft

chronicity.

believe

we

will

eventually suc-

ceed in laying this ghost in our machine and give all the physical properties and
it

and thumb, running them up and down, The point where they stick indicates the oracle's answer. Among the of the Upper Nile, the preferred technique is the iwa, or rubbing board, which is maneuvered over the flat surface of a special table, answering questions according to whether slides or sticks. In Europe and the United States in the

Zande

it

parameters necessary for its establishment as a recognized force of nature. When this feel certain that it will be is accomplished, the source of much that we now regard as
I

mid-1 91h century, turning tables was practically epidemic. Spirits were soon held to be

Pregnancy may be
"cradle of ESP,"
of mother

the

responsible and codes were devised to

communicate
in

with them. Then, as interest

an intimate
that could

table lipping
into
1

supernatural

physical association

came
like

its

There are human vampires. Not only in Transylvanian nightmares, but in the person
of

and fetus

extend into psychological

areas, merging their egos a way that bridges the
in

everyone
first

of

woman

born.
lives,

For the
exist in

nine months of our

we

what one textbook defines as a "parabiotic union between two different organisms in which not only is there intimate commingling of tissue cells of dissimilar genetic makeup, but also a chronic, covert exchange of blood." A rather long-winded way of saying 'pregnancy,' but one which
effectively stresses the strange nature of the mother-fetus relationship. By all stan-

usual

gap between

individuals.^

5 a heart on wheels, with a pencil fastened to so that answers could be written down directly. And in 1 892, a cabinetmaker in Baltimore patented a lettered board rncorporating a small planchettelike indicator, under a process identified by the combined French and German affirmatives as oui-ja. He made a fortune. Given these freedoms to express itself anonymously, the unconscious fairly babtable, just
it

waned, the planchette own. This was a miniature centimeters long and shaped

young

children,

who have

not yet reached

the slage of sharply delineating their

own

dards, the

and ought

embryo is a foreign substance to be rejected by the mother's

is,

ego boundaries.
If

a growing child, by progressively de-

immune system. She

brate with a
fully

after

all,

a verte-

functional antibody

mechto dis-

anism
still

that

is

specifically

designed

criminate 'me' from 'not-me.' But, in some mysterious way, nature successfully violates all the laws of transplantation, holding them in astonishing abeyance for the 270-odd days we all spend as parasites in

fining the edges of his own ego, smothers the possibility of telepathic communication then it is also possible that those individuals who fail to establish independent egos

may remain vulnerable

tions are

to

continued

tele-

voices,

_ 1
5.

f
a

f
1

&

the bodies of our maternal host. Jan Ehrenwald of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York calls pregnancy "the cradle of ESR" He suggests that the intimate physiological association of mother and fetus might extend into psychological areas, allowing their egos to merge in a way that bridges the usual gap between individuals. It could be significant that the uterine conditions are almost perfect for hypnotic induction. Temperature and light are virtually constant; the fetus floats at ease in the

pathic intrusions. Most auditory hallucinasensed as coming from multiple and when they say anything intelligible, the comments are usually anonymous and expressed in the second or third person. They are always sensed as separate from the self and out of the listener's control. There certainly is an embarrass-

bles away. In St. Louis in 1913, one particular ouija board began an extraordinary monologue that only ended twenty-five years and 4,000,000 words later when its operator, a housewife called Pearl Curran, died. Proverbs, poems,- and stories poured out of the board in biweekly sessions, picking up the thread each time just where the last effort ended, as though there had been no interruption, Each of the communications was signed with the name of Patience Worth, who was, by the ouija board's own admission, beginning her literary career almost three centuries after her death at the
of hostile Indians, soon afier arriving the New World from her home in England. The contenl is slightly cloying, in the style

hands
in

that

Reader's Digest
but
it

likes to

describe as

ing similarity between the paranoid schizophrenic's delusions of persecution, his conviction that others can influence his thoughts from a distance, and the theories
of those, like myself,

'inspirational,'
sistent.

is

extraordinarily con-

who

believe

it

is

possi-

ble for there to be contact

between minds

without any normal physical agency. Per-

| amniotic fluid", free to drift as it will; and the I loudest sound around is the regular, me% tronomic thud of the maternal heart. Disso ciation is almost inevitable and, if the little
114

haps schizophrenics really do hear voices. They are definitely selectively attuned to
subliminal, repressed hostility
in

other peoit

ple, but

maybe

there

is

more to

than that.

There is no evidence that a Patience Worth ever exisied, and suspicion must fall heavily on Pearl Curran, who found, after some years, that she was able to call out the words faster than the board could spell them, Later she graduated to transcribing directly onto a typewriter, finishing one novel set in medieval England in just 35 hours. But the psychic researcher WalterCONTINUED ON PAGE 118

OMNI

WHERE THE
By Stuart Diamond

ATOM

EXPLDRMTIDRJS
| e are standing inside the turI bine-building at the Millstone nuclear reactor, on the ConLong Island Sound. The enormous, the noise is deafening, is more than 1 00 degrees Fahrenheit. We are surrounded by a mass of equipment almost grotesque in
I

^%
is

*
room

necticut shore at

the temperature

such as the turbine building and the conroom. For most utility officials think the new regulations will make the public more wary of reactors: you can't see likely to be afraid of The more limited tour gives you a sense of a nuclear reactor complex;
trol
If
it,

fences lopped with barbed wire and, in some cases, equipped with alarms that go off when you touch the barrier;

fhe theory goes, you're more

it.

cameras that continuously survey the site; antennas that link the buildings by radio. Guards continually
b.uildihg-top tv
patrol.

size

pipes four feet across, pumps 15

and
hori-

the experience

is still

worthwhile.

A number
over the

of structures are scattered

feet high, bolts the size of fists,

zontal,
feet long

oblong heating units that are 50

and

look

like

large iron lungs.

Steam, water, air, hydrogen, and oil are careering through the pipes. Above, a turbine whines. It sounds like a jet plane. Off to one side, a sign on a locked door says, "Radiation area do not enter unless authorized. " Anolher door says "Danger high voltage."

You enter the reactor complex through a security building staffed wiih armed, uniiormed guards. As in an airport, you waik through a metal detector. The guards then run 'a "sniffer" around your body: It looks like a hand-held electric egg-beater and emits a siren if it detects anything that could be a component of an
explosive.
fluid

site, which is usually a few hundred acres. The reactor building houses

the reactor and fuel-handling equipment: a turbine building contains the turbine, generator, condenser, most of the piping,

Musk

oil,

residual cleaning

on clothes, gasoline fumes on the'

part of a tour, open to the public, of the Millstone reactor complex,

is

The scene

which supplies powerto

n Connecticut'.
It

1.

5 million people

clothes of fuel truck drivers, and even deodorant have been known to set off the sniffer. After the search, you put on your hard hat and step into the reactor

and administrative ofa radioactive-waste buhding contains highly radioactive spent fuel and the not-sp- radioactive clothing, rags, and other material contaminated in the normal course of operation. There are also warethe control room,
fices;

is

similar to tours at

complex.

many

of the 71 commercial nuclear power plants licensed to operate in this

Around the reactor complex, you see the trappings of the security network:

houses for eguipment and machinery; a pump building that draws in and expels cooling water from the nearby natural source; perhaps a cooling tower; tanks for emergency cooling water, hydrogen to eool the generator, and oil to lubricate

country.

Just seeing a reactor complex from the oulside can be a jarring experience. At Indian Point, New York, about 30 miles north of New York City, you drive along a tree-lined country road, and suddenly,

three large concrete domes emerge in a clearing along the Hudson River. You hear the whirr of machinery and see steam rising. At other locations, the reactor is covered by a steel or concrete building so that the complex looks like arge, windowless warehouses or building block's for giant children.

Security

is

tight at

nuclear reactors

to-

day, largely because of new federal regulations enacted this pasl January after studies had concluded security was too (ax in regard to potential sabotage. Now,

time-consuming searches and

identifica-

tion procedures are required for tourists. This has led a number of utilities to cancel reactor tours altogether. "It just became too much aggravation," said an official at

one

utility.

another tack, providing lours of just nonradioactive parts of the reactor complex,

Many power companies have taken

The

.13 billion watt Trojan nuclear power plant near the

Columbia River at

Rainier,

Oregon.

generator and turbine bearings; a transformer yard; radiation monitors; a tall stack to emit gases with trace amounts of radiation; a large stee! trame to support a crane; and high-tension wires leaving
the
site.

divided among the various reactor processes, such as turbine, feedwater,

auxiliary, radiation

before the automatic shutdown. All sucTTshutdowns must be reported,

along with a lengthy explanation, to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. As one walks down the hallways, doors
to various other sections of the plant pro-

monitoring, and
is

reactor control. The safety system

matically shut

designed

to auto-

down

The electricity in the high-tension wires emits a continuous popping noise that is
most pronounced when the
air is

there is a more operation. A pump failure, low steam

the reactor any time than routine problem in

damp.

When the weather

electricity

is

particularly dry, the

level, too much water in the moisture remover, high pressure, low pressure, and

can make the hair on your back stand on end as you walk under the wires. On most tours, you first are taken to the control room, where you observe operators from a glassed-in gallery.

dozens

of other

occurrences

will-auto-

matically shove the control rods into the It takes 1 2 to 24 hours to bring
fuel core.

claim "radiation control area." Guards the openings, or the doors are locked. Peering inside, it is impossible to distinguish these areas from the nonradiation areas. They all have that clean, stark, concrete look, with snaking wires or

man

The well-

room has about 1 3 meters of lightgreen metal instrument panels with hundreds of levers, dials, and lights. Red lights indicate that equipment is on or valves are open. Green lights indicate
lighted

and costs an estimated $300,000 per day in time and the oil or gas that must be used inthe reactor up again
in

tective clothing that

heavy machinery evident. Workers who enter these areas often have to wear prois discarded when
Throughout many plants are yellow signs proclaiming "evacuation route,"
with black arrows indicating direction.

they leave.

stead for power. In some cases, an operator has 5 to 8 seconds to spot the failure and perhaps correct it manually

the opposite.

'

The panel is usually In the shape of an L and lines two walls. Against a wall near the center of the panel is a lighted board that shows the location of fuel rods and control rods in the core. The lights are red and yellow, the board looks like a game of Chinese checkers. Rods are coded so they can be quickly located when there is
trouble.

Occasionally, 220-liter drums with contaminated low-level radioactive waste sit in a prescribed location in the shadow of
a building.
In many plants, different pieces of machinery are painted different colors for aesthetics and for easy identification. In the Connecticut Yankee reactor in Haddam Neck, equipment is painted gray, blue, and green. The floor is red, the stairs are yellow, the turbine and generator are light blue, and the railings are

Above the instrument panel are hundreds of small white plastic squares, and each lists a particular reactor component or system. When something is wrong, a square will flash white or red, depending on the severity, and a loud buzz sounds.
"RCP1 " means reactor coolant pump 1 "East pent rm inside El 38.5" means the
inside door to a penetration roombetween the reactor building and an auxiliary

cream-colored. The area

if

Is

quite neat,
it

and you ignore the noise, almost seems like a showroom for industrial machinery.

The massiveness
generator
typical

of the

equipment

is

the most striking. Next to the turbine/

at the Millstone
trailer

highway
It

goods.

looks like

complex is a used for shipping a toy model by com-

structure
It

has been opened

(1

re-

cently.

is

38.5 feet

sea

level.

These

2.5 meters) above indicators together are

called the "enunciator system"

and are

parison. Nearby, a fire extinguisher 1 ,5 meters high and 1.7 meters long has tires as large as those on some compact cars. One marvels at the fact that this is the culmination of a hundred years of engi-

neering

in elecfricity

generation.

As you leave the reactor complex, you go back through the security building and step into a device similar to the metal detector you walked through on the way in. This device, however, scans your body to see if you accidently received any radiation In the plant. You stand there for a

few seconds, until the scan is completed. Everyone contains radioactive potassium in their bodies, just as radiation is present in rocks, in watch dials, and in sunlight. If the device finds you don't have more than the amount you usually carry around, a green light flashes. The current move away from tours of reaclor plants has spawned "energy education centers" at nuclear reactors. Located outside the security fence, these
centers are
,

filled

with displays of reactors

and with models of various types of power generation and energy conservation. Films are often shown, and various
exhibits Invite visitor participation or play.

The centers are

children;

particularly attractive to
attract

some

50,000 school

stu-

The turbine and

gc;n?r,:i!c; o: Ine Troian

complex

jhijot^j Hear! o: the nuclear reactor (below).

dents per year.

Most of the centers have graphic and moving lights show how a reactor works. The various cooling fluids, componenls, and systems are in different colors, making the concepts clear even to junior high school children. The differences and similarities between nuclear and fossil plants are
colorful wall displays with thai

nuclear wastes is not really dealt with. Perhaps the most open reactor in the

concrete reactor complex on the other. One of the best tours around used to

country is the Trojan plant on the Columbia River near Rainier, Oregon. A domed reactor with a 1 60-meter tall cooling tower and a spacious energy education center attracts f 50,000 visitors each

be

that of the

Dresden
first

nuclear reactor

about 50 miles from Chicago-. The

reactor

domed

was

the

privately

owned com-

portrayed. There are usually machines lhat pose questions about energy. You press a button for the answer. Some have Geiger

bus shuttles. visitors around the complex. Tour guides take

year,
electric

An

vis-

mercial nuclear plant in the country, It started operating in 1 961 Until the new federal regulations necessitated canceling the tour, officials of Commonwealth
.

counters that click when a weak radiation lurce is placed near them. A few centers have windmills arid solar collectors.

itors-through the turbine building and other nonradioactive areas. Unlike most other reactor sites that receive visitors, no advance reservations or special arrangements are needed for tours. Usually, how-

Edison used to take

the reactor building

visitors

on the

floor of

above the reactor

WHAT'S AVAILABLE
The major problem
ters
is

you should call in advance to find and the arrangements necessary for tours. There is no admission charge, and the centers hand out avariever,

the hours

vessel. You wore a dosimeter to measure any radiation you received. You heard a Geiger counter clicking at the entrance. On one side of the room you could see a spent fuel pool, a brilliant-blue pool of water that contained the highly radioactive spent fuel elements. The water
its spectacular color from the radiaThe water shields observers from radiation and helps dissipate the radiation: The more highly radioactive spent tuel elements those that came from the reactor more recently are brighter blue. You could see the upright fuel assemblies 6.5 meters down. It was worth the trip, all by itself. DO

with exhibition cen-

ety of brochures.

gets

that they really

do

not give a visitor

Almost
least
is

all

plants allow the public on at

tion of the Cobalt-60.

same feeling one would get from a resome of the exhibits are rather hokey: mechanical arms that challenge you to put fake fuel pellets in little Mot a sort of scientific penny arcade. the darker side of nuclear
the

some

part of the property,

even

if

it

actor tour. Also,

tour the reactor, but

only a waterfront park. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, for example, you can't you can picnic on Bay, watch the fishing one side, and get a look Boston Edison's giant, square

Cape Cod
at

>,

trawlers on

reactors

potential safety problems and

ACTIVE NUCLEAR PLANTS:

ALABAMA
Joseph M Farley (Hou^'on Conn Browns Ferry 1 (Decatur)
1

WHERE THEY ARE

RHODE ISLAND
None operable

y)

INDIANA None operable

NEBRASKA
Cooper (Brownville) Calhoun t (Fort Calhoun)
Fort

Browns'Ferry 2 (Decatur]

IOWA

SOUTH CAROLINA

Browns Ferry 3 (Decatur)

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Duane Arnold (Cedar Rapids)
H.B. Robinson 2 (HartsvTIle)

ARIZONA

KANSAS
None operable None operable

NEW JERSEY
LOUISIANA
Salem
Oyster CreeK (Toms River) 1 (Salem)

Oconee 1 (LakeKeowee) Oconee 2 (Lake Kebwee) Oconee 3 (Lake Keowee)

ARKANSAS
Arkansas Nuclear

TENNESSEE
None operable

One

(Russellville)

None operable

NEW YORK
TEXAS
Indian Point 2 (Buchanan)

CALIFORNIA
Humbaldl Bay (Humboldt Bay) Rar^hr e San Qnalre 1 (San Clemente]

MAINE
Noneoperable
Maine Yankee (Wise as set)
Indian Point 3 (Buchanan)

Nine

Mile-

Point

(Oswego.)

VERMONT
Vermoni Yankee (Vernon)

COLORADO
Fort
St.

MARYLAND
Calvert Cliffs
1

James
Robert
(Lusby)

A. FitzPatrick (Scriba)
E.

Ginna (Rochester)

Vrain (PlattevlHe)

Calvert Ctiils 2 (Lusby)

NORTH CAROLINA
Brunswick 1 (Sduthport) Brunswick 2 (Soulhpo'l)

VIRGINIA
Norlh Anna t (Mineral) Surry 1 (Gravel Neck) Surry 2 (Gravel Neck)

CONNECTICUT

MASSACHUSETTS
Conrie client Yankee
Millstone
1

(Haddam Neck]
Pilgrim
1

(Watertord) Millstone 2 (Waterford}

(Plymouth)

Yankee (Rows)

OHIO

FLORIDA
Crystal Riuei 3 (Hod Le^cli
St Lucie (S: i_ucie Cixmiy) Turkey Pair" a ( lurkav Po.rri Turkey Point 4 (Turkey Point)
l

WASHINGTON
MICHIGAN
Big Rock Poirtl (Big Rock Point) Palisades (South Haven) Donald- C. Cook 1 (Bridgman) Donald C. Cook 2 (Bridgman)

Davis-Besse

(Oak Harbor)

HanlordN

(Richland)

OKLAHOMA
WISCONSIN
None operable
LaCrosse (Genoa)

OREGON
GEORGIA
Edwin Edwin
I.

MINNESOTA
Trojan (Rainier)

Point Point

Beach Beach
si-i

kc // :,!!

1 (Two Creeks) 2 (Two Creeks) {Canto" Township)

I.

Hatch 1 (Baxley) Hatch 2 (Baxley)

Monticelln (Manncello)
Prairia Island!
Prsiri
l

(Red Wing)
:
,

PENNSYLVANIA
'3rnpph;;;r_.;:ri i'Sfi--pr-.
-ji-'-Oi

PUERTO RICO
':

5i;-,l;..iii:1.y;! (0."i

)Vi-.'j)

ILLINOIS

None operable
rt;

MISSISSIPPI

Beavei v

in

Dresden Dresden Dresden

(Morris)

2 (Morris) 3 (Morris)

None operable

]:<(:(.' Miie island 1 (Londonderry) Tnree Mile Island 2 (Londonderry)

'Almost universally. r:ur.l"ar i;,-mp: piar.is m ?;,-,_-.',>; e public interest arid

cio-jiiJi! .jxnioffs
,'0 !:,.

Zion 1 (Zion) Zion 2 (Zion) Quad Csnes 1 (Coiooua) Quad Cities 2 (Cordova)

MISSOURI
None operable

Peach Bottom 2 (Peach Bottom) Peach Bottom 3 (Peach Bottom)

o< public

LIFETIDES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE
114

the the
I

same personality, or same personality."

I

different facets of

gues

that

we may know

all

the facts about

wish could be that certain. have a sneaking feeling that all the way through arI

a skill but can never learn to use it without actual practice.Therefore skills suchas dancing, or riding a bicycle, or speaking a
foreign language, are essentially incommunicable and cannot be passed, without
actual physical practice, from
to

Prince, after a year spent observing the sitconcluded that it was impossible tor
uation,

guments

of this kind we persistently underestimate the capacity and the connected-

awoman other limited

part oi the
"Either,"
call

interests, education,

and resources to have written even a small avalanche of words and whimsy. he said, "our concept of what we the subconscious must be radically al-

ness of the unconscious. We keep on making limited either/or judgments about we insist, the material comes
things. Either,
erts, or

one person

another by any normal means. So his major research effort is devoted to the dis-

directly from Pearl

tered, so as to include potencies oi which we hitherto have had no knowledge, or

else

some cause operating through, but in, the mind of Mrs, Curran must be acknowledged." Now, a half century later, we know a little more about the capacity of the unconscious, which seems to be limitless. We is possible for the unconalso know that scious to be in some way directly aware of what is happening to other people beyond
not originating
it

Curran and Jane RobPatience Worth and Seth are exwhat they claim to be spirits from the dead. Their control of the two mediums in these cases is only temporary, but see no
actly
I

the reach of the senses. Charles Tart has shown that when subjects ate asked to guess when afriend in a distant room is receiving a random but
painful electric shock, their conscious re-

reason why Patience and Seth should not be regarded in the same light as alter personalities in a multiple personality situation. In a session once with the celebrated medium Eileen Garrett, a psychologist brought Uvani, her spirit control, into a state had of confusion simply by asking what he been doing since their last session. It seems clear that many alternative characters and spirit guides are created for roles

covery of individuals who seem to have acquired such skills spontaneously. Stevenson's painstaking researches have established more than 1600 cases that he describes as "suggestive of reincarnation." Most are naturally from the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, where belief in reincarna-

sponse is totally inaccurate. But, if they are monitored for unconscious physiological response, their electroencephalograph^
patterns

6 All we have
with
is

show

that at the precise instant of

each shock, they react as though they themselves were receiving a mild shock. Knowing this, and knowing something of
the creative skill exercised by the unconscious in constructing internally consistent
personalities, see no major difficulties in the assumption that Pearl Curran could have been Patience Worth. In December 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband sat down in their apartment in Elmira, New York, to experiment with a ouija board for the very first time. In the initial two sessions little happened, but in the third
I

barrier,

to work what seeps past the what little

the unconscious,
'

A typical case of this type begins when a small child, usually between the ages of two and four, begins to remember living another life. Its statements about this life usually harmonize with its behavior in the sense that, if It claims to have been a wealthy person, is likely to refuse to do menial work, no matter how poor its present family may be. The child often asks to be taken to places remembers, and if these can be identified and the journey is made, it is usually found to have been correct in about 90 percent of its statements aboutthe life and surroundings of the person claims to remember. After five years of age, memories of the past life seem to fade and usually
tion is strongest.
it it it

in

unguarded moments,
slip
. .
.

lets

think the

evidence favors spontaneous

telepathic reception.^

vanish altogether, along with the unusual behavior prompted by them. A few of these cases satisfy the criteria (or reincarnation in that the subjects do indeed possess not only knowledge but also special and relevant skills. A young

Bengali girl produced elaborate songs and dances; an Indian boy began very early to play the classical drums or tablas with great skill; and another child showed
that last only

they began to get highly articulate answers to their questions. Almost immediately Jane realized that she was receiving this information in her head and could easily vocalize

as long as they are on stage. Only when they take over completely and abolish the primary personality altogether can one begin to talk about possession.

unusual expertise with marine engines. In two cases, Stevenson even found what he calls "responsive xenoglossy," an ability to speak and respond to an apparently un-

gan

without the use of the board. So beher communication with a personality

it

And

if

they persist, and

become perma-

learned language.

It

is

tempting

to as-

that called itself Seth

tated over
tion,

and that has now dic5000 pages of didactic informa-

organized into informal lectures on subjects such as health, dreams, astral

projection, reincarnation,

nent, showing all manner of inappropriate behavior, can one begin to think in terms of possible reincarnation. Ian Stevenson of the Universiiy of Virginia

that the accomplishments of all infant prodigies could be explained in this

sume

way. Wolfgang Mozart

at the

age

of four;

began composing Johann Gauss was cor-

and

analytical
is lu-

psychology. The presentation of

all

this material

cid and highly individualistic, embodying a wide knowledge of esoteric teachings to which Jane seems to have had no normal access. Eugene Barnard of North Carolina

State University explored Seth's character

Jane be speaking for Seth and concluded that he had been in conversation "with a personality or intelligence or what have you, whose wit, intellect, and reservoir of knowledge far exceeded my own. ... In any
in

sessions with

when she seemed

to

has done everything in his power to make the problem of reincarnation scientifically respectable. And now at last, after 1 5 years of intensive, almost single-handed, effort, he seems to be gaining some ground. The prestigious Journal of Nervous and Menial Disease devoted its entire issue of September 1977 to his work. Stevenson defines reincarnation as the survival and subsequent reembodiment of the human personality after death and
points out that personality consists of

recting his father's mathematics before he was three; John Stuart Mill and Baron Mac-

auley started writing almost before they could walk. All may have been reincarnations. "Unfortunately," admits Stevenson, "to the best of my knowledge, no Western child prodigy has ever claimed to remember a previous life." He does, however, go on to suggest that the idea of reincarnation could have "considerable explanatory value for several features of human personality and biology that currently accepted theories do not adequately clarify." Among these he included

more

than isolated bits of information. To make a personality, the information has to be organized into particular skills. He uses Mi-

childhood
uality,

sexuality, the origin of

homosex-

sense

in

which a psychologist
I

of the

West-

chael Polanyi's distinction between cognitive

ern scientific tradition would understand do not believe that Jane the phrase, Roberts and Seth are the same person, or

knowledge, which

is

knowing about

something, and tacit skill, which is knowhow to do something. Stevenson aring

early interest in unusual subjects (Schliemann declared his intention of excavating Troy before he was eight years old), rejection of parents, strange birth-

marks, the differences between otherwise identical twins, and even abnormal appetites during pregnancy.

Possession by discarnate
I

spirits
I

might

Stevenson himself admits that "all of the cases have investigated so Jar have some many of them serious ones. Neither any single case nor all of the investigated cases together offer anything like a proof of reincarnation. They provide instead a body of evidence suggestive of reincarnation."
I

be possible, but don't know. can't know. With our current knowledge, this concept is too complex to prove or disprove; it is too
big a jump from what we know to what might or might not be. The most we can say
now' with any certainty is that awareness, both conscious and unconscious, seems be determined at least in part by processes that cannot be localized in the brain and 'might not be physical at all.
to
In 1940 the 12-year-old son of a county sheriff in West Virginia was taken 192 kilo metersto the Myers Memorial Hospital at Philippi for an operation. One dark, snowy night, about a week after his arrival, he heard a fluttering at the window of his hospital room. He called a nurse and told her there was a bird trying to get in. To humor the boy, she opened the window and a pigeon came right in. He immediately recognized it as his personal pet He told the nurse to look for a ring on its leg carrying

flaws,

suddenly turned up. leaping through the window of their new home in' Gage, Oklahoma. The cat had a deformity of the left hip served as' positive identification, easily recognizable by a veterinarian. Though how he crossed a desert, several canyons, and the entire width of the Rocky Mountains
that
1

remains a mystery,

An even bigger mystery is why he should have gone to all this trouble in the first
place.

And

in

dismissing the alternative explana-

Why

did the pigeon risk death to find

tion of

some kind of assimilation through special sensitivity, he says, "To accommo-

the boy?

date authentic cases of the reincarnation type that are rich in detailed statements and in associated unusual behavior statements and in associated unusual behavior shown by the subject, with the hypothesis of super-extrasensory perception, requires
the extension of that hypothesis so that it becomes no more credible than that of survival after death,"
I

but believe that this conclusion is premature. The gap between the known capacity of the brain and the demonslrafion of unusual skill narrows with every new discovery in the life sciences. The existence of vast unlapped information in the genes: the pressure of alhis position,
I

sympathize with

Our lack of scientific success in bringing paranormal phenomena to heef strongly suggests that these.obey different laws, and can't be approached on a causal basis. So am not going to set up the contingent system as a causal factor. certainly don't think the answer is going to be that simple; but do believe that the existence of an alternative adds significantlyto. [Arthur] Koestler's contention that we are in a
I I
I

forces. This
tidal

state of essential tension between rival is the conflict have called the
I I

ternative

memories

in

the

rival

systems

of

^Awareness

..

isinpart

Lifetide. And emphasize again that the metaphor is appropriate, because and waves are phenomena that have nothing directly to do with the water in which they become manifest.

tides

every cell; and the growing appreciation of the powers inherent in the unconscious make it more, and more reasonable to assume that even a three-year-old child could, given ihe right circumstances, inherit or acquire, and then organize, an elaborate second. personality. The very scarcity of those with unusual knowledge or skill tends, suggest, to support this biological explanation rather than thai of reincarnation, which, given the sheer abundance of discarnate spirits that ought to be hanging around, queuing up for reembodiment. is astonishingly rare. think that, on present evidence, the best conclusion is that offered by Stevenson as an intermediate position. "Once considered about as welldefined asanorange-by its skin or a tree by
I I

determined by processes that might not be physical at ail. They may

There is an important contradiction in the apparent ease with which anyone can learn
to

dowse or lo

levitate a table,

and the rarity

with

be
to

sufficiently free of

neously. This rarity

which such phenomena occur spontamay be only apparent in

temporal constraints operate beyond the limits

of the body.

that we simply don't notice dozens of strange things that occur around us every day, bul even taking that possibility into account, it nevertheless seems clear that our internal filter normally exerts a very powerful two-way control. This suggests that

1 67. She did, and there it was. allowed to keep it in a box near his bed and when his parents came to visit a few days later, they confirmed that it was in-

the

number

He was

its

bark,

human

personalities

now appear

be much more extensible and penetrable lhan they were thought to be. They can invade and be invaded by processes of extrasensory perception. They may even blend together in the manifestation of a difto

ferent personality that

appears

to

be new,

but that
the

in

fact

new and
is

may derive from a fusion of the old."

Time and time again, parapsychological

drawn into a cul-de-sac with a end marked 'Death' and, in one corner, a convenient escape clause in the form of a ladder on which hangs a little sign
research
wall at the that says, This

deed his bird, and had been seen around house for several days after he was admitted to the hospital. So it hadn't been brought with him, or simply followed the The pigeon succeeded somehow in traveling 192 kilometers and locating the correct window, in the right building, in a strange town, at night, and in a snowstorm. Joseph Banks Rhine and his researchers at Duke University sifted through hundreds of cases of what they called 'psi-trailing' in
the

family car.

paranormal events have limited survival value and a narrow field of applicability, which leaves us in the awkward position of having to make major' assessments on the basis of fragmentary evidence. What we can see is nothing like the tip of an iceberg, which does in fact offer an excellent idea of the composition of the resl, bul merely the debris lelt behind by a series of unsuccessful experiments. We have to operate like plastic surgeons faced with the task of resurrecting a damaged face without a photograph of the original to refer to. Perhaps the best analogy is that of the psychiatrist with a severely disturbed patient, who has to search for health in the evidence of pathology. All he has to work with is what
the patient
with
tle
is

tells

him.

All

we have
barrier,

to

work
lit-

what seeps past the

what

tion.

animals, trying to obtain precise verificaThe one that most impressed' them

Way for Survival

Wfthoutthe

was

Body.' Millions,
of

perhaps even the majority

alive Trithe world today,

that of a cream-colored Persian cat called Sugar who in 1951 seems to have

the unconscious, lets slip. You can collect as many seawaier samplesas you like, but none will contain,

those

now

still

believe that survival is possible, and that a subsequent return in some form of reincarnation is likely, They may be right. If they are, we have in this belief a ready-made answer to almost all the remaining problems posed by apparently psychic experiences. But am suspicious of easy answers.
I

owners across 2400 kilometers .of mountainous country between California and Oklahoma. The family intended to take
trailed
its

the cat with them, but. it was afraid of cars and leaped from the window just as they were leaving Anderson at the northern end of the Sacramento Valley. They couldn't

catch him again, but 14 months

later

Sugar

nor tell you anything about, the tide. You can dissect as many living organisms as you can lay your hands on, breaking them down into their subatomic components, andstill find no answers. Life is a pattern, a movement, asyncopation of matter; something produced in counterpoint to the rhythms of contingency; a rare and wonderfully unreasonable thing. QO

IflNGUflGC
CONTINUED FROM PA

Do you get

the picture?

The awareness of ambiguity is not a bad and unpleasant thing but a good thing, a is to be welmajor survival mechanism.
It

Worse, the incidence is currently increasing at a horrendous rate. A few cases are

comed
tion!

as a warning sign saying, "Attencareful!"

Be

And we

learn that with

due

to certain peculiar "physical" lesions, but the vast majority are what is called "idiopathic" or "essential" hypertension,

proper attention to this warning, great suc-

central nervous system depressants includes many of the drugs now so frequently prescribed. Use alcohol only in trivial amounts: It's probably the worst brain depressant we have. Start observing other people: their posthis

which means the cause

doctors feel that
it

is

unknown. Some

is

inherited or "genetic"

(loosely translated,

"good

Others blame
or
'

diet, salt,

luck, buddy"). your job, your wife

husband, etc., etc., ad infinitum. researchers, particularly those biofeedback, currently hold that anger Is a cause. They are close, but not close enough. One person came much

Afew

into

cess will come our way in getting things accomplished. For example, suppose you are driving the freeway. The traffic is heavy and you begin to feel jittery. You don't know what that turkey in the next lane is going to do. You have several choices. You can keep getting more nervous and/or angry. You can get off the freeway and pop a Valium or you can have a cocktail which will seem to resolve your problem but will not improve your chances of reaching your destination. Or you can drive carefully and watch everything around you like a hawk. (There are, of course times when a brief coffee stop or a rest or taking surface
streets
is

tures, their

choice

voice, pitch,
ing on
in their

tions of others

of words and tones of and stress. Study the reacand try to guess what is go-

heads. And then watch youris shoulder is depressed, up and forward is hostile, up and back gives you the feeling that you are working toward the control of your own reality. Try these postures alternately and observe
self.

A good

item to start with

posture:

down and forward

closer,

back

in

1952. While studying the

attitudes of patients with a variety of disat Mew York Hospital-Cornell Medi-

your own reactions and those of others to these postures. You'll be amazed. Decide each morning that throughout
the day whatever happens will not make you as angry or as unhappy as it would have the day before. Get rid of the words "got to," "have to," "should," "must," "ought to," and that old favorite, "willpower." You can 7 do anyso enthing except what you want to do

eases

David T Graham found that those with hypertension "felt that they constantly had to be ready for anything." (The
cal Center, Dr.

a bright idea.)

reference

is:

Psychosom

Med

14:243-251, 1952.) This was a genuine, gold-plated clue, though his work was put

down, ignored, and largely forgotten but in a few moments you will understand the significance of his finding.
. .

joy

it.

Remember,

called

all

diseases "be-

Anxiety is a common one of the mainstays

psychiatry.
It

term,
of

lines that

many morel have

at least,

There are obviously many more guidecould list and undoubtedly not seen. But these are,
I

haviors," in other words, things that people do, and hypothesized that if some-

thing

was wrong, then there was someI

thing that the person was unhappy about. When found a patient with elevated blood

pressure (140/90 mm/Hg or more), said to myself not "He has hypertension" but "He is hypertensioning." While doing a physical examination would keep talking
I
I

defined as an emotion, it isn't. It's a compound of two things: awareness of ambiguity and a depressive reaction to
is

lieve

it

the right direction. Beor not, such behaviors help with the

a start

in

this

awareness.

to the patient

that
I

while regularly checking his blood pressure. discovered could make pressure go up or down not by what was saying or asking, but by what was making happen in the person's head. NatI

found patients with no anger who had high blood pressure and people with and nasty spouses who did not have high blood pressure. But the ones with high blood pressure did have what is called "anxiety." There, with a little conniving, is where found an answer not the only answer but one that works. Anxiety is a common term and one of the mainstays of psychiatric theory. It is defined as an emotion. It isn't. It is a compound of two things: an awareness of the existence of ambiguity and a depressive reaction to this awareness. More simply, it means that you don't know what's going to happen, and you are unhappy about this. And this is exactly what consistently found in people with elevated blood pressure that they did, indeed, have an incredible intolerance of ambiguity. have
urally,
I

We have looked carefully at the thinking behind high blood pressure and found
that this thought pattern is not unique to the hypertensive person but common to ail people. The person with high blood
ther,

horrible jobs

or

more and better. Furjust does it means that the common garden vahypertension can be prevented can be treated while it is still "labile" (when pressure goes up under stress and
pressure
riety of
it
I

described a person with high blood pressure as a person with his head in a neck brace so.he can't look up who must walk through a forest on a narrow, winding path, and who knows that up in one of those trees there is a very large and very

hungry boa constrictor waiting

120

just for him.

down when the stress is over). We can continue now and list those things that advise not only for the person with high blood pressure but for the treatment or prevention of any kind of problem. Learn to quickly identify the onset of anger and depressive feelings in yourself. Pick something you don't want to have happen to you a heart attack, an ulcer, the removal of some organ and when something happens that would normally make you become either angry or unhappy, ask yourself if giving in to these negative feelings is worth the disease price you'll have to pay. If the answer is yes, seek professional help, preferably from a therapist who is not depressed. Discontinue any medications that are

medical problems; whether abnormal gastric acidity, elevated cholesterol, or a pimple on your nose is your particular problem. And for the curious what were the results of this approach to hypertension in my practice? Previously uncontrolled patients could be brought down to normal levels (below 140/90 mmHg) utilizing only thiazide diuretic medication, and thus avoiding the complex-acting and unpleasant ganglionic blocking agents, many of which, by the way, have depressing effects. Many patients learned that their "early" hypertension could be eradicated. Typical of one of these was a person who for years had been found to have elevated blood pressure upon each consultation with a new doctor. And the blood pressure would fall with rest, reassurance from the new doctor, and the like. These patients, believe, are the pool from which later fixed hypertensives are developed: other doctors claim that this entity is meaningless and no risk. do not agree. closed my Finally, as far as results, when practice had no paralyzed patients lying in nursing homes waiting out the dreary
"real"

years.

carefully considered opinion that negative states, particularly anger and depression, are critical components in the development of all the most common medical and psychiatric problems
It

is

my

we can get and this includes cancer. And do believe that by learning how our heads work and how to work our heads, we can all learn to live longer, healthier,
I

and happier

lives,

DO

OMNI

nmp DOLPHINS
one else can imagine. Alternatives
lo

Dolphins and whales interacting with one another and in communication with human camera crews can do underwater ballets of dramatic and novel content. Inhuwith
teracting with

special methods, manufacturers of the

human swimmers

in

com-

necessary equipment will have a ready market in the above-given uses of the equipment. Each of these industries will need special equipment for their specific
use.

man language and communication

another species could be Ihe goals of a program lhat would capture human interest around the planet, interest of an intensity comparable to thai which we currently

devote io human warfare.

An

entire industry

can be

initiated

by

those seeking new areas of investment: in a relatively short lime (two-ten years) a

major breakthrough munication with dolphins/whales. With the proper approach in the technical and commercial spheres, relatively large returns could be realized on a relatively small capital investment within the next
will

be made

in

com-

munication with them opens up new possibilities for the motion picture industry heretofore not imagined. The recording market (records/tapes) can be sold, new music/songs from the cetacea interacting with human musicians each side teaching the other new forms of music. Marine Industries: Offshore oil drilling industries operating in cooperation with

The modern microprocessors and minicomputers designed for use in salt-air environments is the basis for the breakthrough in communication with cetacea. The speed of these computers is currently

enough to realize these objectives. Education industries: The public should be kept up to date on current cetacean work through public educational channels, including schools, colleges, universities,

communicating cetacea can control

their

operations in more detail. Small oil leaks can be detected by cetacea rapidly and
efficiently.

and the public media. Marketable

products

ten years. Through franchises, leasing arrangements and contracts, a satisfactory

can be realized. The first persons to establish and use communication with the cetacea will be in
level of profit

tion

a preferred position to market the informagained. The market includes commercial fisheries, the Navy, the entertainment industry (film/tape/records), marine in-

The manufacturers and developers of sonar and underwater communication equipment can benefit from cetacean knowledge of natural sonar use. Cooperative underwater surveys with cetacea open up new areas of enterprise for those industries in marine geology and industrial exploitation of sea bottoms and structures Cetacean knowledge of map.ping the oceans can be used by these industries.

oceanariums, computer manufacturers, software companies, education businesses, and conservation groups. Specific areas of useful and profitable endustries,
terprise are as follows;

Worldwide communication

of ships/
activi-

yachts with dolphins/whales opens up

new regions
ties

of

navigation/rescue

Commercial Fisheries: The yellowfin 'tuna industry needs means of communication with dolphins to warn them of netting activities and to avoid the capture of dolphins in- their nets. Public pressure on the industry is at a high level to reduce or eliminate the capture and killing of
dolphins.

heretofore unknown to man. Computer manufacturers'. Once the communication breakthrough is made via

pictures can be sold readily. Conservation groups: Rather large groups of people (numbered in the millions) have become interested in saving endangered species, especially whales and dolphins The passage of laws forbidding importation of industrial whale/ dolphin products has been facilitated by these groups in the U.S. and Britain. The Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972 was one result of such public pressure Communication with cetacea will give these groups their best argument for cessation of industrial use of whale and dolphin products. Such public opinion will be advantageous to the new industries

books, tapes, records/motion

operating in cooperation with the dolphins and whales.

DO

llems

Other commercial fisheries have probof net destruction by dolphins in their nets. With means of communication/warning aboard their vessels, such conflicts can be avoided.

caught

The Navy. The activities of the Navy in the area of the use of dolphins/whales in the service of human warfare is well known. Mounting public opinion opposes this area of naval activity. The prestige of the Navy is being lowered by such publicity and activities, With dolphin/whale communication, the Navy could initiate a new publicly approved policy of significance: world-wide cooperative education of cetacea to avoid areas of human warfare. The knowledge gained from the cetacea would aid the Navy in their other tasks. The first Navy of the world to use such communication will possess, for a time, a strategic advantage. Eventually, however, such short-term advantages will disappear. Entertainment Industries: The first corporation to open communication with cetacea will have the opportunity to market the results worldwide. With cooperative
from dolphins/whales, entirely new varieties of motion pictures, records, and tv shows- are possible.
efforts

(fc&Uuw

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WEARIEST RIVER
CONTINUEDFROM PAGE sa

edly and then turned questioningly to Connager. 'Twanted to show you your problem."

more than he deserved. They lurned the distant corner, walked almost the full length of the grounds, and finally reached a seldom used service entrance. The guard there regarded all of them suspiciously before he unlocked the
gate.
"In case you didn't know," the boy Lynar said good-naturedly as they started across the grounds, "we don't need exercise. We've been walking for two days and

Connager said. Stel asked sarcastically, "Our problem?"

"Humanity's problem, if you prefer it that way. As long as people feel a need for emotional therapy, are willing to pay for it, and have psychiatrists willing to prescribe it and call it necessary, we'll have laws about natural death. There are the people you should picket," "They're sick," Stel announced scornfully.

said. "At least twenty-five percent couldn't function without it. Because oi your picketing, the directors have closed the outpatient clinics, restricted admissions, and even cut back on some emergency ser-

vices, but they wouldn't dare interrupt the

emotional therap_y treatment schedule, Look at the patients waiting for treatment, and then look at those leaving." They were an abstracted cross section of gross humanity. Some were withdrawn,
talking volubly,

"What good would

it

do to

picket sick
this

people?"
"Picket their psychiatrists, then.
If

moody, depressed; some were elated, and laughing shrilly at their own pointless jokes; some were nondescript and would not have been taken for
mental patients except in that particular lobby. Almost all of them carried binoculars. As their turns approached, they displayed the craving, the sickening eagerness, of 'cotics addicts about to receive a fix. And those emerging from treatment had a dazed, drugged appearance, sometimes ornamented with the smug
smile of satiety.

nights."

"So have

I,"

Connager told him

sourly.

They followed the drive, circling reach an unused loading dock. At regular intervals they passed guards, who nodded to Connager At the dock entrance they signed in, after which another guard spoke to a com disc and a guard inside opened a door for them. They walked along a corridor, passed through another guarded, locked door, and
of the hospital to

a wing

kind of therapy is necessary, the psychiatrists should be able to provide it

humanely." All three of them turned on him. "You sound as if you're on our side, " Stel said. "Ever been inside a terminal ward?" Connager asked. They shook their heads.
"I have to take a minimum of three daily tours of the place. You kids can't imagine how bad it is. Yes, I'm on your side. But

"Now you know the problem," Connager

said,
"If
I

emerged

in

a lobby.

glad to

tell

could think of an answer, you what is."

it

I'd

be

The sign said emotional therapy center. in two directions. Those departing were taking descending escalators to the hospital's underground trans terminal; those arriving were stepping from ascending escalators, fumbling for their treatment cards, and hurrying toward the queues formed at gates that matched the color of their cards The pickets took in the scene perplexPatients flowed

you're challenging a universal medical practice that happens to be legal. The

only way to stop changed."

horrors

it

is

to

get the law

"Bringing the public's attention to such will put pressure on the legisla-

ture," Stel said confidently,

to

you're trying to

"More than half the public you're trying arouse needs the emotional therapy do away with," Connager

He took them back to the service entrance and left them. When he reached his own headquarters, he watched briefly a pair of monitor screens that showed the pickets marching peacefully along the fence and waving their signs. In the background, a lone Public Security agent was watching indifferently. Public Security, at least, did not panic at the sight of a few peaceful pickets; but Public Security. wasn't responsible for what occurred inside the hospital.
Connager turned to an assistant, who was watching the row of interior surveillance screens. "Argorn made any interesting contacts 7 " he asked.

"She rarely speaks

eats alone."

to

anyone. She even

She was walking with slow deliberation along a corridor: Nellisly Rhoodhal
Argorn, a sturdy-looking woman with a large frame and hefty shoulders. The hos-

One thing machines could not do was lift and care for patients, and Argorn was very good at
pital

needed such

help.

it.

She was strong but

gentle. Her superiors thought highly of her, and they were indignant when Connager placed her on

surveillance.

She stopped to look in both directions before she entered Ward 9E. The assistant punched a number, switching the monitor
to another camera. Inside the ward, Argorn was slowly walking along a row of
coffins.

Hospital employees called them cof'fins.

They were

life-support

systems

for

ill, boxes with curved were closed when the was using oxygen, and they contained all of the complicated electronic instrumentation and apparatuses necessary to monitor a patient's vital signs and

the desperately
plastic lids that
patient

supply nourishment or medication as prescribed and sound an alarm at any

.,

significant deviation from Ihe predicted

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Argorn paused several times to glance patients she passed, and finally alter cautiously looking about her again she stopped by the .coffin of patient 7-D27-392A. Connager's assistant clicked a stopwatch. Argorn remained there for five minutes and 17 seconds, performing the routine chores a nurse's aid was responsible for she sponged the patient's face, she performed a synch test on instruments and monitors, she rearranged the
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Connager dialed the daily report on pa7-D-27-392A and studied thoughtRitella Downley Smithson. a widow,
it

aged 102, diagnosis

curable
if

Retlaftd's cancer,

detected

in

time, but hers hadn't

li

been. The deteriorating-prognosis had dropped below 20 percent. She would not be moved to a terminal ward unit reached, zero. She had no known living relatives; she'd had no visitors. And Argorn demonstrated a special interest in her. Connager asked his staff to
:il

find out why.

Connager's jacket pocket beeped twice. Connager took the com disc, activaied
rity.
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"'"mergency board meeting," the seductive voice announced, "They want

"Everyone wants me," Connager said because I'm so handsome." The voice giggled warmly.

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The board members were doctors

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There
aren't

is

no external threat
to

to this hospital.

Those youngsters on the

about
thinkthey're
;

.picket lines

storm the building, They

201 Lincoln Blvd.

much more concerned about

vour patients than you are, because they nclude the terminal patients in their c<
i.

and they're convinced that you

There
is

a serious potential threat to the patients, and you're right to be concerned about it, but it's an internal threat." Dr. Alfnol said Incredulously, "After all hat's happened in the past three days, do you still maintain that this hospital's patients may be in danger from our own employees and staff?" "Yes, sir, because of the lax procedures fallowed in hiring and in inventories prior
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Cut the external security to a reason able.mini mum. Let me move my people where they're needed." "Are you aware that the number of pickets has doubled since noon?" "Yes, sir. And I've never seen a more peaceful group of pickets. They may make
verbally.

inside,

sir. And she lied about everything except the fact that she's female and her present address. I'd like to know why. can't ask her, because that would alert her

be checked,

It

was

quite dark now.

and several were

of the

carrying torches.
Finally,

Connager reached one

to the fact that I'm suspicious.

If

she has

dark-haired girls. She spoke softly. "Stel the arrangements. Everything is

made
thing

coconspirators, them."

want her

to lead

me

to

ready "Good.

Tell

her she

can't

be

late.

Every-

threatening gestures, but that's only to attract public attention to what they consider a serious moral problem. Frankly, gentlemen, I'm wondering if they aren't perform-

"Ridiculous!" Dr. Alfnol muttered.

ing a useful social function.

They've
the hos-

"No, sir. It's sufficient reason for watching her carefully, which is my job. I'm giving you my recommendations about security, which also is my job."

depends oh the iiming." "I wish we could come." "No. There's risk enough without

that.

Your being there would turn a protest into a

conspiracy."

managed
pital,

to frighten

everyone

in

including you.
of

When was

the last

time any

you were frightened? An

occasional strong emotional reaction is healthy. If you have one often enough, it keeps you out of Emotional Therapy. Ask
your psychiatrist." Several of the. doctors were looking at him angrily which was, Connager reflected, another healthy emotional reac-

"Very well, Connager. " The director wasn't enjoying being frightened, however therapeutic his psychiatric col"We'll consider leagues might consider your report and let you know," It was almost dark when Connager left
it.

He moved along

to the other dark-

haired girl and spoke to her about blocking the gate. Then he turned back. He motioned to the guards, who opened the gate for him. The pickets already had ar-

He said again, "The threat to this hospital's patients is an internal one. I've found no trace of the missing syringes. I've found no explanation for the alarming pharmaceutical shortage. don't know how many undesirable employees we have because the proper checks weren't made at the time they were hired. request permission to move my people inside." "Do you still suspect Argorn?" the direction.
I

the building. He walked slowly down the drive to the main gate. He stood therefor a time with the guards, watching the pickets. Two dark-haired girls, walking one behind the ofher. looked at him curiously and

ranged their lines into two circling segments to leave the gate clear. "How come they do what you tell them?" one of the guards asked. "I always say please," Connager told
him.

then looked away. There were now two indifferent agents; Public Security had doubled its force for the night shift. "The kids shouldn't be blocking the
gate,"

He
Alfnol of

returned to his headquarters. Doctor

was waiting there, talking with one Connager's assistants. "Where have

Connager announced. The guards looked at him perplexedly No visitors were being admitted, and there hadn't been any ground traffic in three

tor

demanded. "Her superiors

think that's

ridiculous."

"She was hired recently enough so that the information on her application could

Connager signaled for the gate to be opened. "The idea," he said, "is to be He went out to the parkway and began walking alongside the'pickets, joking, asking questions, and then moving on.
days.
firm."

you been?" he demanded. "Out persuading the pickets not to block the main gate." "Oh. The board has rejected your recommendations. There are more pickets now than there were this afternoon. Keep
the

guards outside."

Connager said, "Sir, I'm worried about the terminal wards. At least let me bring enough people inside to put them under

maximum

security."
differently.

"The board sees the situation

Keep your people outside." The director left. Connager

sistant, "I'm

told his as-

going

to rest awhile. Call

me

when you have

to."

He went

to his office,

stretched out on an uncomfortable sofa, and tried to sleep. At 2200 he was up again and making his rounds. An uneasy quiet had settled on the hospital. The routine went its inexorable way
without incident, and except for an occasional prentice nurse moving from one ward to another, Connager met no one, He missed the humming PTVs; theirs was the most characteristic sound of the modern hospital, but few patients were sent any-

where between their evening meal and breakfast, and none at all were moving
about on
this night,

spoke

He descended to the first level and to his com disc. "Connager here.
I'll

I'm going for a swing outside. contact for 30 or 40 minutes." clear here," his "All

be

out of

assistant

responded. "What's Argorn doing?"

"Taking her break."
"I'll check in as soon as I'm back inside." Connager turned into a short exit corridor that was off monitor, and he actually opened a seldom used exterior door and again. Then he stretched on a closed pair of surgical gloves. He unlocked and opened the metal cover to a service shaft, climbed in, and closed and locked it.
it

With a light dangling from his wrist, he climbed down a ladder to the hospital's He emerged in another offlowest level.

"Right. Everything's
"I'll

relieve

you

at

still quieL" 2400. You need

some

sleep."
"Right!"

monitor corridor, crossed to a square metal door, and unlocked it. The tunnel to
the hospital's
fore

him

power

plant stretched be-

low, half filled with pipes, but

easily negotiable.

He reached the end, unlocked the door and stepped into the power plant. he was outside the hospital's fence and the cordon of guards. The old boilers were no longer in use; the building was kept in maintenance in case of emergencies. There was no night attendant, Connager went directly to an exit at the rear and unlocked it,
there,

Connager climbed a flight of stairs, unlocked a door, locked it after him. Three strides brought him to a second door, and he emerged from that one into an Emotional Therapy treatment session. The balcony slanted steeply; the psy-

Now

down into the arena, most of them using binoculars. And in the arena were the rows of terminal patients dying the natural deaths that the law guaranteed and demanded dying without
chiatric patients sat staring

medicine or medical condolence, dying in agony. Their twisted bodies heaved with
pain, their

Stel stood there with eleven carefully chosen recruits. "Five females and seven males," she said. "It better be right. You're
late."

moans and screams and

wails

reverberated from one sound amplifier to

another.

And the ET

patients

the mentally

ill

"One minute

"Five and seven check. Let's move." He passed out surgeon's gloves, and all of them, with unpracticed awkwardness, stretched them on. Then he motioned them inside and locked the door.

early,"

Connager

said.

whom
tions

this society had insulated pain, from fear, from all the strong
it

from

emo-

The time was 2244 when Connager emerged from the service shaft at the
second-floor level. Leaving the 1 2 pickets clinging to the metal ladder, he replaced the cover and went to scout around.

considered socially undesirable and who now had to be exposed to death agonies as therapy these were bathing themselves in effusions of terminal torment. They sat transfixed, totally absorbed in the horrendous sufferings of the doomed patients below, vicariously experiencing a few minutes of death agony each day to make an emotionally barren

"Connager here," he
;'Back inside."

told his

com

disc.

"Everything's

still

quiet," his assistant

answered,

existence possible. On the lower level, the dying patients' cots were arranged in double rows, with a space between them for the use of medical personnel, and those psychiatric pa-

He returned

pickets out, room across the corridor. "You'll find uniforms there," he said. "Get dressed." He left them and went for a brief inspection tour of that wing up a flight, along a corridor, down a flight. Adoorattheendof the corridor opened. A group of nurses

motioned the and led them to a storage

to the shaft,

and prentices emerged. Connager

counted, them as they passed, nodding at n: the nursing staff of the terminal

wards, going for its 2300 break. They all went together who could be concerned about an emergency among patients placed on the hospital's discard heap to die? And they always left early and

overstayed. As soon as they turned the corner, Connager opened the door to the storage ^oom. He motioned out the pickets, now dressed as nurses. He handed them a carton that had been hidden behind a stack of large containers: two gross of disposable hypodermic syringes, each of which Connager himself had filled with five cc's of Tharmenol a lethal dose of a powerful, injectable barbiturate.

indexes walked along a transparent wall on either side, stopping here and there to press their faces against the plastic barrier and drool at the convulsive anguish just beyond their noses. Connager had never been able to view the scene without an impotent anger that sickened him, but on this night he had to remain tensely alert. Six of the pickets, disguised as nurses, were working along the dozen rows of patients: the males in pale blue trousers, coats, and caps; the females dressed the same except for their traditional nurse's headpiece. All of them wore surgical masks. In the adjoining ward, the other six would be working. They had 1 5 minutes to get to the far end of the ward and return. Siel had briefed them with care. Their nurse's posture was more than adequate as they routinely checked their patients here bathing a face, there straightening a pillow, rearranging a twisted leg, covering a tormented body and as a final caress injecting five cc's of Tharmenol into the patient's upper arm muscle.
tients with high disability
It meant 20 patients for each masquerading nurse 240 in two wards; for only most agonizing deaths were put on display for Emotional Therapy. Those pa-

I Enclosed is $5.95 tor 6 issues of c Asimov's

iss,"

"Be back at this door- at 2315 regardhe said. He unlocked the door; hurit

Science

Fiction

Magazine

them through it, and closed and ccked after them, Then he "took out his com disc. "Connager here. I'm going into the terminal
ried
irds, ET levels. disconnected."

the

tients with the

bad

taste to die quietly w.ere

allowed

to

have

their natural

deaths withthe psych

Mark me down as

out spectators.

Connager looked about

for

techs.

watching not the terminals whosesutfer.ihg provided the treatment. He saw no psychiatrist on either balcony, but there rarely was one at this time of night even though the treatments were available on a--24-hour schedule because the dying patients' sufbut they
patients,

They had noticed nothing their own were

irregular,

their therapy.

"Emergency!"

his assistant

gasped.

But there was no reaction yet. Seven minutes. All of the nurses were working back on the opposite row of patients. Five minutes. Four. Connager left the balcony and passed through the double doors back into the

"The pickets are rioting. Argorn turned off the life-support system on patient 7-D-27392A. The director wants you."

"About the pickets, nonsense. got Argorn?"

"Yes,

Have you

but"

fering

was

continuous.

",,

the

looked practiced achieved the mechanical indifference of the regular nurses, who knew that no kind of unsympathetic handling would distract from a profundity of torment. A touch of the brow with his left hand, a smoothing of a
blanket;

Connager turned his attention -to one of phony nurses. Already his movements and efficient. He -had

main hospital. The general-alarm gong was sounding when he opened the seccoolly locking the ond door. He ignored door behind him. He ran down a flight of
it,

stairs,

went

to

unlocked the stock room door, and open the door he had passed the

pickets through.
Stel and another girl staggered out. Both had ripped off their surgical masks. The other girl was holding hers to her

and

his right

hand swung Home

the syringe, emptied it, withdrew it, .returned it to the cart he pushed ahead of him. The instrument ot death was handled

almost invisibly. [p In the next aisle, one of the girls had reached the end of the row and. started back. Connager looked at his watch. They were making better time than he had expected. Anxiously, he turned his attention to the patients already injected. 11 ,they reacted
to the

drug too. quickly, if their agonies subsided before the pickets got out of the room, the result could be catastrophic. The ET patients would profest instantly. Connager had seen a near riot when three terminal patients had died simultaneously, thus depriving the watching ET patients of

mouth, trying not to be sick, their faces were pale and dripping with perspiration. Connager waved them to the stock room, and they began to.strip off their uniforms before the door closed ori them. A boy hurried out and went to join them. And another. The others came in a rush, and Connager counted 12 and locked the door. He went to the service Shaft and removed the cover. As fast as they were able to change, the pickets hurried to the shaft and started down. Connager went last, pausing to lock the stock room door and dump the
uniforms
later

"Then it's a medical problem. We've handled the security problem. Tell the director want all available medical staff rushed to the terminal wards. Get those terminal wards nurses off their tails and back to the wards. Class one emergency. It's hot, and i'm chasing it. Forget the pickets. Don't call me." He dropped the disc back into his pocke't and climbed into the tunnel. As he let the pickets out of the power
I

plant door, they stripped and handed them td him.

Stel told him.
.

off their

gloves

"It was ghastly," Then she added, "Thank

you "Get around there and get involved in the riot," Connager snapped. They vanished into the night. Connager retraced his steps, locking
doors, removing traces. He dropped the gloves into an incinerator unit and watched them vanish. Then he climbed the stairs to ground level and took out his

down a laundry

chute.

Moments

com

disc.

he had the pickets scurrying back

"All right,"

he said. "Whoever

it

was, they

through the tunnel. He took his com disc from his pocket. It beeped stridently when he activated it.

got away.

"They've

Where are my people?" all gone to the terminal wards."

"Connager here."

"How's the riot?" "They're still making lots of noise, and they threw something over the fence that's burning, but guess they aren't doing much." "Then I'm going to the terminal wards." He pocketed the disc and walked along briskly, ignoring his fatigue. He would be up the rest of the night, but after that he could go home and goto bed. For the first
I

time
all

in

three days.
director's face
killed

The

dead! They

"Not

dead,"

was ashen. "They're every one of them!" Connager said.

"Murdered."

jaw moved, but no sound came out. Then, abruptly, he was angry. "Youthe director of security. Where were
Or. Alfnol's

you?"

Connager "with a board that vetoes every recommendation make. You wouldn't let
"A director
of security,"

said

bitterly,

me move security personnel came myself."

Dr. Alfnol stared. "In

in

here, so

"You were here?"

person," Connager said, still sounding bitter. "But one person can't cover all the levels. must have witnessed at least 50 murders, and didn't suspect a thing
I I

until

it

was

too late."
it

"You
"I

mean you saw

it

done?"

saw

done. By people wearing

I

that the

nurses' uniforms. And it wasn't until it was almost over that suddenly remembered ward nurses take their break at 2300. They all go together, and saw them go. But was watching the ET patients,
1 I

and

I'm tired,

and

didn't react to

what was

going on until it was loo late." "But what did they do?" "They fussed with each patient, the way nurses do. What they did is a medical problem." "Yes. Of course." Alfnol paused. "Argorn. You were right about her, too. But she claims that a gauge was malfunctioning and the alarm didn't go off and she set it oft deliberately to get help quickly," "Could it have happened the way she
said?"
"Yes,
I

"Changing things takes time," Connager said, "You've been picketing for three
days, and no one outside the hospital has noticed. But the public will notice this two hundred and forty murders can't be hushed up. People will start thinking about those patients, thinking about what will

BITE
The leading magazine
in

happen
things

to

them when

it's

their turn for

natural death.

eventually."

And

that

may change

the personal

computer field
BYTE is the magazine for the creative home computer experimenter. BYTE tells you everything you want to know about personal computers, including how to construct and program your ownsystem.

suppose
1
I

it

could."
I'll

"Then maybe- was wrong about her, have a look. want thedata sheets on the

"Changing things takes time," Connager said. "You've been picketing for three days-, and no one outside the hospital has noticed. But the public will notice this two hundred and forty murders can't be

murdered patients. "He turned. The director said, "Connager Connager turned again and faced him. "I'm sorry. Connager. You were right. We

were

stupid."
sir,"

hushed up. People will start thinking about those patients, thinking about what will happen to them when it's their turn for a natural death. And that may change things eventually."

Home computers are now practical and affordable. Low cost peripherals have resulted in more hardware and software,
more
filled

applications than you could imag-

"No.

Connager said,

"but you violat-

ed one

of the basic principles of

your pro-

fession, Don't call in a specialist if you're not going to believe him unless he agrees

She brightened. "I didn'tthink of that. right. They can't hush up murders." She started to get to her feet, and then she
You're

ine. BYTE brings it all to you. Every issue with stimulating, timely articles by professionals, computer scientists and

turned

don't tell you how to fix people's You shouldn't be telling me about been doing the one as long as you've been doing the other." "I never thought of it that way," "What about the ET program?" Connager asked. "We're bringing in terminal cases from the other hospitals. Each one will let us have a few, We'll have the program going again shortly," Connager had a brief interview with Argorn, and. then he told her superior to put her back to work. "She may be entitled
with you. insides.
I

him again. "There's something I've been wondering about ever since mean, why don't people realize how horrito

security. I've

ble

it

is?

know

there's

all

that double-talk

those who make theand the medical profesand why does everyone let keep happening?" "People do surprising things for money," Connager said. "The Emotional Therapy centers are immensely profitable. The public won't pay taxes to support hospitals, but it's always willing to pay

about the

law, but
for,

laws are voted

it

sion advises them,

write -CANCEL" across the invoi mail back. You won't be billed, a

copy

is

yours.

for

entertainment"

io

commendation," he
I

said,

The nurse looked

"That's odd.

at

him strangely.

They left, and Connager leaned back and closed his eyes and reminded himself he was no longer young. For these
lhat

thought you didn't like her." "Emotions such as like and dislike belong to Emotional Therapy, The only emotional luxury a director of security can
afford is to be suspicious. He returned to his headquarters and relaxed for a time, watching the pickets on They had quieted down, and several Public Security agents were standing by conspicuously. Then his assistant came in. "Those pickets that were here this afternoon. They want to see you. To apologize for the

youngsters, it was an achievement. Something they would always remember. For him, something he preferred to forget, with another weary night of security routine to
follow.

the monitors.

fires

they say."
see them

I'll

in

my

office,"

Connager

said,

They came in quietly, escorted by a Public Security agent whom Stel had perto bring them lo Connager, "It's all
suaded
right, officer,"

Connager

told him.

"You can

ieave them with me."

The agent nodded and stepped back. The door closed. "We just -heard," Stel said angrily. "They're bringing terminal patients from
the other hospitals.

His assistant came in. "Here are the datasheets on the murdered patients." Connager took the stack of folders and began lo leaf through them. He found the one he wanted. Veranone Janling Marcone. Age ninety-seven. Relatives, none known. Visitors, none. No relatives except a daughter willing to take a job as a nurse's aid just to be near her mother, and a son willing to take a demotion to transfer to the hospital as director of security so he could visit her several times a day. And when her illness became terminal two granddaughters willing to organize pickets in a monstrous conspiracy they all took part in to end an old woman's death agony. A pity, Connager thought, that the psychiatrists practicing emotional therapy

We

didn't

do a

bit of

good. You lied to us." "Two hundred and forty patients were dying in agony," Connager said softly, "Now they're no longer in agony. That isn't good?"
"It

couldn't expose their patients to love instead of suffering. But perhaps they considered love a dangerous emotion better
left

suppressed.
it's

"But
said

It could lead to murder. also a beginning," Connager

softly. "It's
it's

one

suffering old

woman's

ending, and

didn't

change

anything."

He closed

a beginning," the folder.DO

CHESSMEN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE103

sures were
sent
its

demanded. The Laboratory for Chemical Analysis

report:

cow?) Even at his trial, where he learned he was a traitor and a spy and that this was in some way connected with his chessmen, Tomov was not surprised, because there was not room for surprise amid his efforts to understand what was going on. No one thought or took the trouble to mention the "poison" in the dye used to color the proletarian pieces of Tomov's entry. But when the attendants carried his body from the bullet-studded wall, certainly the expression on Tomov's dead face was one of surprise. The day following this correction of Tomov's error, Petroev, Champion of Chess, arrived in Moscow When Petroev and the peasant chessmen, playing before several

"Except for the'usual chemical elements found in dyes (no doubt stolen from the Woolen Mill at Rybinskh), there are no chemical properties in these wood
pieces. The

faith in the

same dyes, in identical color combinations, were used for pieces of both sets. The slightly different appearance of one piece is not due to any detectable additional material
facture, nor

developing taste for western ways added spice and a touch of humor to the game. Stalin moved a sickle-swinging pawn. A chess expert? Not he. But a leader with peasant people represented by his chess set, a leader with faith in the principles for which he lived and fought, a leader with faith" in his power over the lieutenant playing opposite him.

used

in its

manu-

is this one piece part of the set suspected of poisoning." The laboratory report was labeled "sovERSHENNOSEKRETNO," "ABSOLUTELY, COMPLETELY SECRET," and rushed to a special meeting of the Politburo to be presented to Comrade Stalin and his immediate lieu-

Whatever Muses, Fates, or gods watch games of chess, they were sorely abused that day and are no doubt shuddering still. Perhaps the spirit of Tomov also watched. Justice, not one to understand a special need, soon turned her eyes and dimmed her lamp. For none of
over
the leader's faith had been misplaced. The lieutenant, however hard he tried,

could not

make an

intelligent

move. The

tenants. Since

Comrade

Stalin

was

indis-

members

of the Politburo, lost

to each of the five local experts, to Donovich, to Dosiev, and to Donovich's ten-year-old son, the final confirmation had to be sought. It had to be sought if

only because word had somehow got to the people of the city. Quietly, but very widely, in the shops, in garages, on the streets, discreet questions were being asked about the losing proletarian chess-

men. So wide this knowledge seemed to be that the affair could not be handled by a few swift moves after dark. Faced with the prospect of purging all of Moscow and probably beyond, one realized other mea-

for two days, the meeting had to be postponed. Comrade Stalin became disposed. The meeting was held. Petroev was invited. Krakov and Donovich were allowed to wait just outside the door for word. A table was placed, and two chairs. The chessmen were set up on the board. Comrade Stalin challenged the evil and himself sat down behind the peasant king. The other chair was taken by that one man in the Politburo most skilled in military maneuvers, most read in the battles of Bonaparte, Caesar,

posed

Donovich boy would have shrieked with delight at the ineffectiveness, but there were only serious faces on the Politburo members crowded around the table. In less than a dozen steps the gaudy queen was gone, the puny soldier-knights and

shoddy castles

lay aside. Only the bishops, king, and a few stray pawns remained. Yet it happened. Breath stopped in every watcher, in both players. Not to make the move would have been too absurd. So a bishop

stepped a single pace and stared down open passage to the peasant king.
"Check." Perhaps it wasn't ever said aloud, the whisper was so low. But every ear heard it. And in the stillness following the. word, there was time, too, for every ear to hear the quiet questions of the people of
the
city.
It was Stalin, the leader, who dared to lead now, to break the stillness. The words

and von Clauswitz, ablest of all the lieutenants at chess. That he had been hurriedly recalled from a foreign post because of a

came

softly in

the exhale of a long-held

breath:

"Not mate." His fist then thundered on the board, hurling the pieces far. His voice was large now, strong and low: "Check, yes. But not check mate!" Then still the leader, still the one with

table, the board.

strength to act, Stalin picked up the pieces one by one, from the floor, the He walked to the fire, dropped the chessmen in. He waited while they burned. For a minute, and another, he watched the smoke. And then he turned. Again, and quietly,
he spoke: "Always there is a way: by by cunning, or by force."
skill,

or then

The others hurried out

of the city that Stalin,

to tell the people again, had won.

The last to leave knew better. They saw the leader's fist still clutch the wooden bishop. They saw the fist compress and crush till veins stood out and flesh was those last to leave one white. They saw

hardened eye run down the cheek and "plop" upon the hearth. They saw what they would never say:
tear from the

without the skill, the cunning, or the force, the chessmen won.

OO

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inJTERVIEUU
democratic society was. In my view, it sari attitude that goes with a full belly. People in India or Burma, Guatemala or Colombia, can't afford to be as cavalier about stopping technology as some of the
middle-class rebels of the sixties were. There's something arrogant, anyway, about the idea of doing away with technology, as though it were ours to dispose of. We tend to think of as a product of Western society, and we forget that it's also a product of Arab mathematics, of Chinese inventions, and so on. Science and technology are the common inheritance of the
it

to .play with genetic engineering, weather modification, and other

beginning

toric

ade
ing

or two. We'll

step into the sea within the next decgo from simply harvest-

high-powered technologies we know

little

about. Considering our abysmal environmental record with far more traditional, less powerful technologies, there is plenty

cause for concern, But none of this means we should turn the clock back, that we should stamp out technology which can't be done
of

anyway or that we should doom threequarters of the human race to perpetual hunger or poverty in the interest of preserving the environment. What it does mean is that we can no longer play the technological game the way we have. It's a new game, and Rule Number One
"proceed with extreme caution." Omni: You say we must proceed with caution, yet you've also often said that we are on the edge of fantastic breakthroughs in science and technology for which we are unprepared. Can you give us some examples. How do you foresee scientific and
is

i.e., fishing to growing life need i.e., aquaculture. We'll manganese nodules off floor. And we'll build semisubmersible floating platforms on which we will put not only airports and oil refineries, but large numbers of people. We're going to make our own islands and populate them. That was Bucky Fuller's dream a

ocean

what we
the

also start taking

ocean

generation ago.

Omni: What new problems

Toffler:

will this

kind of

human

race,

and

it's

not for a

few well-fed

middle-class Westerners to say, "Let's pull the plug and begin again." But the iechnophobes are really only a small, romantic group. Most people, by and large, do want science and technology in their future. But they want a new,

more human science and technology. They want advances that are carefully
thought through, carefully selected to minimize adverse side effects. And they want some say in the choice. It has always seemed to me that both extremes in this debate are dangerous to

high-stream development bring with it? Just look at the political and international issues you raise when you suddenly create a new island! To whom does belong? Can it declare independence? Or join the UN? Environmentally, how do you carefully, cautiously develop these ocean resources without turning the seas into poisonous soup? How do you avoid killing off the algae we depend on? How do you prevent overfishing? Who has a right to the krill that populate the seas between Argentina and the Antarctic? Should American and other, multinait

tional,

6 know perfectly sweet,

/

plunge madly
petitive

corporations have the right to into the oceans, in a comrace for profit, and be given wide-

intelligent

our health and ought to be labeled as such. At one end, the blind "progressmanics" who want to push forward with the same kind of brute force technologies that have already imperiled the planet. At the other pole, the equally blind and arrogant past-glorifiers who want to go. back to a past as prehuman as it was pretechnological.

people who are so angry at what they regard as the arrogance and

open squatters'

rights, or is the ocean"the common heritage of like technology humanity," as the poor nations insist 7

dogmatism

of the

men in

white coats, they would gladly lynch a few before

breakfast. 9

Many of these same questions will apply operations in outer space as well once manufacturing begins to take place there. And once the Pentagon and the Soviets begin knocking down each other's satel* though we lites in earnest. Once again
to

What we need, even more desperately

today than when called for it in Future is a movement for responsible technology. That means a technology that recognizes our own limitations and the real or probable limitations of the
I

devote less money and brainpower to them the social and political questions linked to technology turn out to be far more

Shock,

technological development
twenty years?
Toffler:
I

in

the next

think we'll

biosphere.

converging, lines

see three separate, but of development. call

I

Omni: Isn't it really too late? Haven't we gone so far toward destroying the environment that nothing short of a screeching halt can now save us?
Toffler:
still

them "high-stream," "low-stream." and "out-of-the-stream" technologies. The first

of

these "high-stream"

depends on
I

No. don't believe in apocalypse. believe that, over the long haul, we will pull through. also think the But, having said that, 1980s and '90s will see someterrible techI I

theoretical knowledge or on complex techno-englneering. Under this heading, for example, would Include space exploration. Gerry

advanced

O'Neill at Princeton

is still

pressing for
colonies

manned (and womanned) space

nological disasters

If

we continue on

our

present track. If we keep proliferating nuclear plants, siting them on geological

faults or

near volcanoes or dumping radio-

active wastes into the seas and into the earth, somewhere along the line, despite all the fancy computer models and all the assurances we get from the experts, some unexpected series of human errors will
will fail to

and has mustered considerable political and intellectual support. Work is proceedwhich will ing on space manufacture someday give rise to new processes and materials that can't be duplicated on

important than the purely technical or even scientific issues. Omni: What about genetic engineering? We've heard a lot lately about cloning and test tube babies. Is that "high-stream" science and technology, too? would include them under Toffler: Yes, that heading. They certainly depend on advanced theoretical knowledge of biology. Years ago. at the lime described cloning and birth technology in Future Shock, most people thought it was wild speculation, science fiction, Today it's front page news. And it will be even bigger news in the near future. When you get into genetic manipulation, you touch the life force itself. And like so many other breakthroughs, it has both its hideous risks and its positive side. Omni: What's good about genetic engiI

Work on the space shuttle moves ahead. Budgets will rise and fall, but we
earth.

neering?
Toffler:

are irrevocably committed to space, in my opinion, and that commitment is likely to

cheap
tant,

insulin.

Genetic manipulation can yield It can probably help us

those beautiful fail-safe systems prevent a tragedy because they themselves,will prove irrelevant. You can't ever cover all possibilities. If it isn't a nuclear catastrophe, who's to
occur.
All

deepen.
Similarly, while

solve the cancer riddle. But, more imporover the very long run it could help us

matters are confused

say
132

it

won't be s.omething worse?

We

are

because of the failure of the Law of the Sea conferences to arrive at an international agreement, there is no doubt whatever in my mind that we are about to take a his-

crack the world food problem. You could radically reduce reliance on which means saving artificial fertilizers energy and helping the poor nations substantially. You could produce new, fast-

OMNI

growing species. You could create species adapted to lands that are no.w marginal, infertile, arid, or saline. And il you really let your long-range Imagination roam, you can foresee a possible convergence of genetic manipulation, weather modification, and computerized agriculture all coming together with a wholly new energy system. Such developments would simply remake agriculture as we've known it for 1 0,000 years. Omni: What's the downside? Toffter: Horrendous. Almost beyond our imagination. When you cut up genes and splice them together In new ways, you risk the accidental escape from the laboratory of new life forms and the swift spread of new diseases for which the human race has no defenses. As is the case with nuclear energy, we have safety guidelines. But no system, in my view, can ever be totally fail-safe. All our safety calculations are based on certain assumptions. The assumptions are reasonable, even conservative. But none

systems lag behind

scientific

and techno-

the technology that works

will

In

Birmingham

money
cope

we put precious tittle or brainpower to work on the problem of social invention. We're trying to with things like genetic engineering
logical invention, but

with obsolete regulatory concepts.

Not surprisingly, the guidelines and controls on genetic engineering are still
only feeble at best. The geneticists (with the big drug companies (with fewer honc-aiie ex-

some honorable exceptions) ana

ceptions) don't want anyone te-"Jng

trfe,T>

what do to. They will want to D'aytr-ecame by the old laissez-faire njSes. Omni: What other "high-stream" deve Dements are ahead? Toffler: Things are breaking toose on many other fronts like brain resea'ch. for example. Dr. Jose Delgadc. trie nan who once Stopped a charging bul by sending radio waves to electrodes implanted in its brain, is now in Madrid, after having left Yale. saw him recently at a UNESCO roundtable in Paris, and he predicts that

tell what happens if one of the assumptions turns out to be wrong. Or what to do if a terrorist manages to get a

of the calculations

necessarily be good for Bombay or Brooklyn. It attacks the basic premises of brute force technology, and many of the underlying principles of industrialism, can give you one simple example of low-stream technology A futurist triend ot ours, M.S. Iyengar, some years ago headed up the Indian government's research laboratory in Assam. He looked for new processes that could be used by village people without much capital, without supporting staffs of Ph.Ds., without much energy input. He noticed that India was importing caffeine for pharmaceutical use. but that, at the same time, was burning millions of tons of waste. from its tea plantations. Now tea has a substance in it that is extremely similar to caffeine. So he invented a simple, cheap, village-scale machine for.extracting this substance from tea waste. Then he invented a technology for using the waste from that process to make low-cost building materials. think we'll see much more of this approach in the years ahead, and that it will develop at the same time as our highI

it

hold of the crucial test tube.

lot of

tighten controls in this field.

good people are working to NATO recently

There's something arrogant

about the idea of doing away with technology. We forget it's also a product of Arab mathem&ics, of Chinese inventions. It's not for well-fed Westerners to say 'Let's pull the plug.'*

stream technologies, which will, themselves, begin to embody some of the

same principles. Eventually, we'll see high-stream and low-stream begin to

come
together
in

issued a report summarizing the steps taken by dozens of countries from the U.S. S. Ft. to Britain and the U.S. But what do we do about irresponsible corporawho just want to crash "ahead? And completely honest, socially responsible geneticists are found on both sides of an emotional debate as to how or even whether to proceed. Farther down the road, you also get into
tions or nations

appropriate systems.

Omni: You spoke of three main lines of development. What's the third? Toffler: In addition to "high-stream" and "low-stream" would add what might be called "outside-the-stream" science and technologies developments from fields
I

very

deep

political,

philosophical,
is

and ec-

ological issues. tionary

shall

Who

to write the evolu-

and engineering establishments today, for the most part, regard as kooky, weird, or unrespectable beyond the pale. Omni: Like what?
that our scientific

code of tomorrow? Which species live and which shall die out? Environ-

within

one year

we'll

see non-sensory

mentalists today worry about vanishing species and the effect of eliminating the leopard or the snail darter from the planet. These are real worries, because every species has a role to play in the overall ecology. But we have not yet begun to think about.the possible emergence of new, predesigned species to take their
place.

communication from brain to tKamthe direct input ol elecirica' = g"=:s kern ere brain into another, bypassing the sense organs. This has staggering ntp ':cat.=c-"s for our understanding cf cercepson and communication. Delgadc is speafeng our, trying to tell us that revolutionary changes are about to explode. He says that before
the abiiify !g rieibefaiefy alter evolution of the human brain. Omni: Whew! If that is all "high-stream'

example, the new interest in the work of Nikola Tesia. Tesla was a genius who was supposed to share the Nobel prize with Edison but refused to appear on the same platform with that "tinToffler: Like, for

kerer." Tesla believed that the earth itself

could be used as an electrical conductor and that one could resonate electrical waves from point to point without wires or
other connectors. For

many

years, Tesla

long

we will have

Omni: What about that old-fashioned species, Homo sap/ens? what aboul us? Who is to redesign the human body? Who is to decide what your child and your grandchildren are going to look like? How shall we prevent such techniques from falling into the hands of the Hitlers of the future? As usual, we are racing wildly ahead in
Toffler: Well,

has been a forgotten figure, Today there are persistent reports that
the Soviets, the American military, and others are doing strange things with low-

us

development, what's 'iow-sTrea-m"?Give some examples. = :=:"-: eg. Toffler: Well, "low-sirea that is designed to be "ore n^a" -nore --?, needs. responsive to local a" c:: less environmentally as-g/sd-a ""-e people working on this say lecrtnoogy doesn't

the lab with innovations but crawling

It

when

comes

to social

and

political innovation.

think every dollar used-for scientific and technical research and development ought to be matched by a dollar devoted to research and development on how to deal with the social and environmental
I

be big and wasteful. They point where capita <z scarce a - abor plentiful, technologies stmtfd be deliberately labor-intensive. They say that the energy system mustfcei5:^---E :;:=-]
have
to

out that,

71

built

on renewable sources. This whole concept, as developed by

consequences of that research. We complain that political and social

E.F.

Schumacher,
it

since

is a constructive one, challenges the sssanpfton that

frequency electromagnetic waves, based onTesla's unconventional theories, Two years ago, for example on October 1 4, 1 976, to be precise radio communications around the world were disrupted by some mysterious influence. It turned out. as understand it. that these were caused by secret Soviet experiments. The U.S., Canada, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries formally protested to the Russians. Intelligence sources reportedly now believe they were caused by waves originating at a Tesla magnifying transmitter in Riga, Latvia. Omni: What aboul fields like parapsycnol-

133

ogyand

the occult? comes back to what said at the beginning about the revolution
Toffler: Well, this
I

in

science

itself.

We are witnessing a slamrigid, restrictive

conceptions of science. This is coupled with a demand lhal the frontiers of science be

bang attack on

expanded

to

encompass many subjects

of those who suggested that Velikovsky's theories be tested. Whether Velikovsky is right or wrong is not at issue here What is at issue is the nasty retribution dished out to the few who seriously wanted to explore his ideas about astronomy. Smart scientists are usually agnostics, dumb ones are dogmalic and religious

some
1

coupled" from the minor suburb

we hap-

that have until now been regarded as taboo, Now, much of this much of the interexample, in the occult, in irrationalis ism, mysticism, or parapsychology either naivete or quackery. Millions of peoest, for

tion

having lost faith in industrial civilizaand its ruling' ideas, are desperately for a new world view or a new religion. And many of them are extremely gullible, easy prey lor the para-scientific hucksters and hoaxsters, for phony gurus and psychics.
ple,

searching

Some people dissatisfied

with the

cri-

teria

science uses to determine truth use no criteria at all. They believe everything. But while this is true, it's only half the
story.

about science itself. Science is a powerfully revealing mode of thought. It has proved so powerful in explaining so many things that seemed "mystical" or "miraculous" at one time that many people treat science itself as though were a religion. Pretty soon the adherents of this religion say that if a phenomenon does not lend itself to analysis by the approved methods of the church, it does not exist. can't buy that. It tends to draw too tight a perimeter around inquiry and all too tidily disposes of a lot of phenomena thai if real (and stress the " if") would make reality far more complex than we like lo imagine it. Reality is more complex than we can imagine. And it is at least theoretically possible thai there are dimensions of
it
I

this way: there are two basic issues. One has to do with subject, the other with method. So far as subject is concerned, scientists make value judgments about what to study. These value judgments are influenced by money, preswhich, at tige, and the prevailing culture any given time, holds some subjects to be "uninteresting" or "unacceptable." Today, think that dogmatic scientists are probably too restrictive in what they regard as "worth" studying.
I

pen to inhabit? can sum it up

The other question is more complicated, and it is related, The kit of tools called scientific method, which was put together chiefly in the 17th and 18th centuries when industrialism began, has been powerfully useful. Today there is a growing belief that these todls, which some took to be universally applicable, may not be, and we need alternative methods for deal-

it

that

ing with anomalies.

Omni: Thai's rough language. What's the

other half?

"real"

experience

that scientific

mefhod,

The problem, so far as can tell, is that no one has come up with a coherent alternative methodology, or alternative set of
I

establishment science itself has become a church, wilh its own dogmas, hierarchies, and hereToffler:

The olher

half is that

sies.

It

has

its

the

power

to

popes and cardinals, and excommunicate. This power

as we now know it, cannot illuminate. What our basic assumptions about probability turn out to apply to some, but not all, phenomena? What our present rather crude conceptions of time make it impossible for
if it

principles of evidence that has any rigor and that makes it possible to test hy-

has been used to pillory scientists who challenged prevailing scientific orthodoxy.

us to understand certain fundamental processes? What if physical laws do not apply equally throughout the universe? What
if

potheses, rather than merely assert them. As part of the birth of the new civilization, we may very well develop such alternative intellectual tools for dealing with aspects
or

dimensions

may

of reality that

may

repeat,

lie

beyond

the reach of scientific

Look what happened,

for

example,

to

some

parts of the universe are "de-

method today. This would be a major intellectual accomplishment. We will and must' continue to use existing scientific method. But we may come up with parallel, equally usetul and practical, methods for other assior

pects of experience. If so, the "single v' lization be of industr replaced by a culture based on multiple
'

vision.

Omni:
a

any case, we are clearly left with anomalies. Toffler: The anthropologist Roger Wescott has proposed we create a whole new branch of science devoted to questions
In
lot of

that

seem

to

defy scientific analysis, Let's

take all the things that don't fit our preconceptions our model of reality and look at them in a new way. What he's asking for is, so to speak, a science-ofthe-oddball. Under this heading, he lists a number of fascinating phenomena that probably ought to be given more

attention.

Wescott

lists

anomalies or unexplained

phenomena ranging from quasars and Bermuda Triangle. He says

tektites to the
to investigate the Tunguska explosion of 1908 in Siberia. Apparently, we have eliminated the hypothesis that this was caused by either a comet or a meteor, and at least one Soviet astrophysicist claims must have been a thermonuclear

we ought

it

blast.

now term

Then [here are the various unexplained, but repealed tales describing animals we imaginary, and there are odd ob-

jects like

chains

we have found

in

rocks

strategy? Don't
Toffler:

we have one?

about
ology,
to

geologists claim are millions of years old(Of course, one ought to be skeptical, too, all our dating procedures.) In physi-

No The U.S. has nothing remotely resembling a technological policy. My wife

I

he immediate objection was, "What do ordinary people know about energy? They can't tell a solar cell from a fast-breeder
I

Wescott suggests, someone, ought

and have just returned from Tokyo, where people

reactor,

so how can they make

intelligent

we met

phenomenon of firewalkwhy does it cripple some and not others? And what do we make of all those
look into the
ing;

megaliths and other apparently ancient we find around the world from Peru to Britain whose function we still don't fully understand- and whose construction methods remain a mystery. happen to believe, as said a moment ago, that most of what is reported about the so-ealled "paranormal" and the "occult" is pure nonsense and that many of the people writing books about these things couldn't distinguish a non sequitur
structures
I
I

MITI -their ministry of industry and trade. What interested us aboui the Japanese was not their very advanced research, but that this research was part of a larger plan.

with,

among

others,

from

decisions?"

The Swedish government

said,

"OK, so

the people don't know. Let's teach them." it set up a program that, in effect, said

And
that

They expect their manufacturing sector to decline and their service sector to grow as it has in many other nations. So they are busy inventing practical applications of advanced technology for the service seetor of the economy. Omni: You have been quoted as advocating greater "citizen participation" in the making of major technological decisions.

any Swede willing to spend ten onehour sessions in a class learning about energy would have the right to make formal recommendations to the government. Every political party from the righf wing to the communists, every trade union, every adult education center, promptly offered its own ten-session courses on energy. that
fact.

But

isn't

it

naive

to think that

ordinary peo-

from an Abominable Snowman. They show no judgment, no critical faculties. They apply no principles of evidence at
all.

ple, without scientific f raining,

can make

million

The government people assumed 10-15,000 Swedes might enroll. In 70-50,000 signed up. That's like 2 Americans sitting down, taking a

intelligent
Toffler:
I

recommendations?

And when you ask me to believe

every-

thing, I'm

tempted to believe nothing. But when we start putting together the kind of hard, respectable scientific re-

don't think untrained people can replace experts on questions ihatneed expert answers. But you don't need to Be

crash course, and trying to learn something about a national problem. don't think this is a panacea. I'm not romantic aboul "the people. " don'fthinK we can handle complex technological and scientific questions, or begin to control
I I

of a Delgado, for example, with yet nonrespectable specuabout telepathy, w.e may find wholly new answers to old puzzles. Some of these could have immense technological

search
lation

some of the as

6 Or, Jose Delgado, who once

stopped a charging bull by sending radio waves to
electrodes implanted in
its

our own technological and scientific drive, without experts and scientists. But also don't think we can afford fo leave science
I

and technology
brightest.
If

to "the

best and the

Implications.

we

Omni: Are you saying you believe

athy?
Toffler:
,
I

do. we'll find the tuture has already

elites
it

in

telep-

been staked out in advance by small

beginning

No. But believe we are still at the of exploring our tiny little piece

brain, predicts that within

of the universe, that we're still scientific and- technological primitives, and- that as
v-o

year we'll see nonsensory communication from brain to

brain

who got there first and colonized for their own purposes. And that's dangerous Omni: Undemocratic maybe. Butwhy
dangerous?

revolutionize science

itself,

expanding

the direct input of

its

perimeter,

we
is

Because the trajectory to the new civilization takes us Ihrough unknown

Toffler:
territory.

will

put mechanistic

science which
ing bridges or

electrical signals.*

highly useful for build-

making automoui es in its limited place. Alongside it we'll develop multiple metaphors, aiternative principles of evidence, new logics-, and new ways to
separate out useful
ones.
fictions,

ter,

from useless
to

Omni:
a

Is this

what you mean by moving,

it.

new

civilization?
It's

Toffler:

part of

The sp is tern a logical

an expert to know whai you want, and you don't need to be an expert to make the kind of value judgments thai technological policies are necessarily based upon. would put it the other way_ think it is naive, not to say anti-democratic, to go on
I

At the end of the line, after a generation we may very well have a much betmore decent, more democratic, and more humane world than we do how. But will be smooth

oriwo,

don't believe getting there

and

easy-

revolution in science is part of a much larger revolution in our culture that, In turn, is a reaction to the exhaustion of industrial
civilization.

letting

major technological decisions

It history is any clue, the succession of is accompanied by bloodshed, disasters, and other tragedies, Our moral responsibility is not to stop the future, but to shape it, to channel our destiny

civilizations

Omni: What will this new civilization be like, and what role will technology play? Toffler: The shape of the new civilization will be determined by population and resource trends, by military laotors. ijvvali.e changes; by changes in family structure, by political shifts not by technology

that will affect our lives and the lives of our children be made by small elites from tt\e business, government, and science communities-

in

humane

directions,
of transition.

and

to try to

ease

thetrauma
is

One way to do that

to invite millions of

people, especially
in

the dispossessed

and disfranchised, who

basic

Granted,

we

don'l

know much about

are seldom consulted., to share

decisions. This means giving

how
in

to get intelligent citizen participation

such matters.

We lack the necessary soso

to

cial

and

intellectual technologies,
I

speak. But
this

think

respect, the

we can invent them. In Swedes may have some-

alone, I'm not a technological determinist.

Nevertheless, the technological choices w.e make in the next five orten will have. an extraordinary impact. If we choose to develop one energy system as against another, or one communications network as against another, we will
years
drastically

thing to teach us. Omni: What have they done?

The Swedes were hard-hit by the energy squeeze of 73. and they decided they'd better have an energy policy and a lot more conservation. But they also recToffler:

morrow, It tions lor controlling our technological lunge into the future. It means replacing our obsolete political structures. It means new decision-systems that are both future-oriented and, at the same time, broadly participative.
Only by opening the decision process, by democratizing our basic scientific and technological decisions, at least to a degree, can we hope to pass safely through
the

them a stake in tomeans designing new institu-

That's

why we need

shape the world of our children. a technological

strategy.

Omni: What do you mean, a technological

ognized that if fhe policy came from the usual elites, and the people were not involved in formulating it, then no one would pay the slightest attention to it. So they tried to find a way to democratize it.

decades

that stretch betore us.

Toffler

DO

Copyright by Alvin

1978

WMl SONG
CON TIN UU'J
F'
fl

MO.

and here into the sea here don't know if it will be stronger here. ... than the whales' instinct to head north, but ..." if we could lure them south. "Of course." Barbara looked at the map a moment, visualizing what had to be ar-

mone

ranged. Marsha watched her, knowing thai they were going to do it. Neilher of them would let by even a slight possibility.
'As they slid along the icy pathways,

sometimes they bounced so high. that John saw his father almost lose his balance in the seat of the snowmobile. John wanted to be at home instead of out here;
nol that he

cities to tell the Eskimo that man had slaughtered God's creatures, and they would not come back unless they who had never killed a great amount of whales didn't stop the hunt. John wondered why God didn't put the whales together instead of waiting for the scientists. Could it be that all the iales they brought north were lies? John helped his father and other men load the yellow-white sealskin umiak long, slender, silent boal that barely whispered in the water. For Ihousands of years, even the acute whales never heard the soft whisper of skins gliding in the cold wawalrus and ter. They loaded in food sweets a tent, warm caribou hides, a tool box, ammunition, close-range shoulder

oppressive. lence then rubbing his sore arms, he wondered what his father and the others were thinking through those hours of paddling around and around, waiting for a dark underwater rush, a betraying vapor spout. The sea had remained silent for several -~ days. Were they thinking about the woman from the University? Or the lack of whale to divide in the village? Or perhaps the way

was

Arching his back,

'

others would look at them when they paddled back without a catch? "There aren't any goddamned whales

someone said loudly. John was Startled by the sudden voice a forbidden voice. It snapped the tension so abruptly that he felt a physical
out here,"

cared about the whales

there

were always whales, there always would be whales but he had been teaching his mother to play chess, and that seemed more amusing than the whale hunt. He wondered about the woman from the University. Were the other villagers thinking about her as they wound between the walls of ice twice a man's height? John wanted to take out his little notebook and look again at the word she had brought with her "pheromone." A nice sounding word. It had taken him several days to find the word in a dictionary. He'd found "extinct" again, too, and found that confused with "explicit"; but he'd gotten they were different words altogether, though they sounded good iogether. Like pheromone sounded, wifh a "ph" and not an "f." John wondered anyone else had looked up the word. Perhaps only he, of all the people who lived in the village, knew how the word was spelled and what the dictionary said. After all, he'd had an entire year of accounting at college; he was the only one who carried a notebook and a pen all fhe time. They reached the edge of the ice, where the cold sea rippled in a choppy channel. Perhaps they would think fhe sea too choppy to go out. John got off the snowmobile and looked at his father, but his fa-

guns, inflated orange plastic or sealskin which still resembled the seal in a comical way, a box of diversions magazines and a few western novels. Most important was the harpoon with the little bomb that would shoot into the
floats

in his shoulders and eyes and neck. At once everyone began to speak, relieved to have their anger spilt into each other's ears. John heard them talk about "them" killing all the whales, about starvation, about being exterminated by conser-

confusion

vationists

and

sociologists.

John

knew

didn't worry about starvation. He that he.could get a job with the gov-

4 Please, please don't kill any whales this year. They had heard it before. Marsha knew about the
Eskimo-she knew that the whale and the Eskimo had
together for thousands of years
lived a
life *>
. . .

ernment after another year of school on government grants. He knew that all the village could move away to work for the oil
companies,
or the fisheries, or collect wel-

fare. No one would starve. But things would never be the same again. The village would be extinct explicitly

it

extinct.

When he mused on
seemed
that only
that they

the words, it had a special meaning >

if

he could grasp. How could he exthem? This combination of sounds didn't it apply to them, too?
plain
it

to

John remembered suddenly that the woman had said that whales were smart.
Almost as smart as people, but in a differAnd she had played a tape of the whales talking to each other underwater. It sounded like funny electronic music He knew a word that described those sounds. A word from his little notebook that he'd written down a long time ago.
ent way.
.

wha

back and explode within. "Are we going out?" John asked

e's

in

sur-

prise.

"Of course!" his father said

irritably.

ther didn't look at him.

tions that they

He never

did.

John understood from his father's acwould load the umiak right away. As he looked around at Ihe other villagers, each preparing for the hunt, he saw that they were grim. As a boy, he had known the hunt as a glad time, full of expectation and excitement. But things had changed so that the Eskimo had to defy
the others from the south. Defiance

John hadn't heard any whale sounds, and from the others still casually loading their umiaks and checking their harpoons, it seemed ihat no one else had, either. The boats slid into ihe sea. John worked
his

Plaintive.

oar hard, not wanting the

men

to think

They dragged the skin umiaks up onto the ice floe, grumbling with disgust and frustration. John hesitated as the men all headed for the tents of the hunting camp

that the year at college

had taken any of the Eskimo out of him. Soon all the boats were out, but one man slood attheedgeof the ice. It looked like old George.
waited.
rettes

where they'd spent

their futile

weeks.

John's father looked af him. "Come on. We're going to have a meeting. Or is that below your dignity, too?"

They rowed and waited, rowed and cigaNo one spoke. The men
lil

John shrugged and followed.

weighed them down. They smoked and stood at the edge of the ice in their bright
orange, blue, or green down-filled jackets, peering out at the sea. A few of the older men still wore their white-skin hunting
parkas.

Long ago, the men from the south had come and told them about fheir God, and how God made the world and everything that happened was God's will. Now the men came out of the green valleys and tall
136

and stared at the sea. John read a paperback by a man named Camus, who wrote about a hot, sandy land. Twilight, midnight, dawn passed again in such a short time that one could almost hear the soft hiss of the pink sun dipping into the sea, resisting with a bounce into the cold blue morning. It was too short for the transition of feeling a new day had come. Instead, it was intermission in a long, long day. He was glad to rest again, though the si-

They decided

to break

up camp and ap-

point a delegation to write a letter to the President. Everyone in the village would

sign it. Maybe they would get other villages to sign it, too. Maybe they could get compensation. And maybe they would be on the six o'clock news. The rest of that morning they packed
their

harpoons, magazines, and anger

onto the snowmobiles. John prepared to ride with his father, but he turned away from John and said. "You ride with George.

OMNI

Tom
talk."

is

going

to ride with

me

so

we can

John got to his feet ana brushed the sharp ice crystals from his jacket There
must be more," he said simpfy "Where?" George demanded John just looked at George. "Come and watch." George put his hand on John's shoulder as If to apologize for knocking him down, buthedtdrTtsayii. They walked together to the channel and
wailed
slurping

Somehow, both

of

them had been

George was
him, but
felt
still

little

fear

slow; John tried to help they were lett behind. John because he'd been left behis father
it

hind,

because

had scolded

him.

Even with their radios, wasn't sale to be so far from the village alone.. John thought about asking George what he thought about it was it because they were the only ones who didn't speak during the meeting? Was because George didn't go out on the hunt, but stayed at the camp? But he didn't want George to know

squeezed out of the world. They were so alike they couldn't destroy each other, could they? John fell that George understood that even belter than he did, and he less alone inside himself. He wondered why his father and the others didn't
felt

have

this feeling, too.

if I

res,

were the

last whale,

would sing

Again, farther out. the fluttering. sound and a black mountain ris-

a sad song, too.

it

ing out of the sea.

half-circle

The whale swam

in

shining
sea.
"It's

that he'd noticed anything,

then arched down fof a drve. its giving a last teasrng glimpse. They stood for a long time, watching the
tail

They were just about to go. The buzzing motors of the other snowmobiles had faded beyond the mounds of ice between and the sea. John and George heard the whale sound at the same time a great throbbing rumble, wet and strong. They ran to the edge of the ice and
the village

too late for us,"

George said. 'We're

already changed beyond recognition.

He'd felt the danger for weeks, tasting man-ness and potential death in the water. Cautiously, he'd called and called for others. Usually, he heard distantly his kind in the cool summer waters of the north. This season, he heard nothing. Not one faraway voice rippled the water.
/ I

watcntl as a mass of gray-black rose out of the water, making a tremendous sucking noise.
air,

A fountain

of

vapor shot
.
.

into the

then a giant's breath.

John laughed and hurled toward the snowmobile's radio. He had his hand on the switch when George, old and frail as he looked, pulled him away and pushed him down on the ice. "What did you do that for?" John asked, his pride wounded.
"Do you want
.

What do you think my grandfather would say about snowmobiles and radios? About shoulder guns?" John nodded. He knew this set of thoughts Every old villager had told every young child about over and over. He had read one of the books that the socioiogists had written he knew what Eskimos were supposed lobe. "It's probably too late for him." George said, squinting as to see a rise or ripple
it

am lost. am alone.
to land, in spite of his

He coasted close
fear,

curious about the alien invasion of the He found nothing and lurned back to the sea. Diving deep, he found a warm current with a startling taste-smell. He traced the taste tentatively at first.
sea.

if

Pausing now and then, he tried to resist, not wanting to leave the cool waters. The trail was taking him away, back to winter
water.

on the horizon. John suddenly understood summing Not something he could put into words like
"plaintive" or such, but
it

He became warmer and

the scent

was

stronger.

had to do with the

he called out

Experimentally, after days of traveling, to meef the bearer of the irre-

to

kill

the last whale

in

the

voice

of the

whale. The whaie

was f*e the

sistible scent.

world?"

last villager.

There was no difference.

Someone answered.

DO

fSfm

liar territory

without tripping over obstacles;

BIONIC
CONTINUED FROM PAGE J9

they want to spot curbs, doors, follow crosswalks, see automobiles. Can this be

At left Utah researcher adjusts wearable artificial kidney on dialysis patient. Portable kid-

Craig's right ear.

Mladejovsky was thus able to

the electrodes implanted
a computer,
in

conned

done? Probably, Mladejovsky foresees building

iaturized television

a min-

ney allows patients more freedom than conventional hospital treatment. Charcoal (top) helps filter wastes from blood in wearable
kidney. Above, tubing

used

in

the device.

Craig's brain to

which in turn was connected to a tv camera. The camera was pointed al a simple image, such as a piece of masking tape on a dark-green screen. The visual image was simplified by the computer and carried as electrical impulses to Craig's
brain.

dummy
needed

pair of
to

camera mounted in a glasses. The electronics

pictures,

of It worked. He was able to see the strip tape as a white line and tell whether if was vertical, horizontal, or tilted ai a 45-degree angle. The Utah team also stimulated letters of the Braiile alphabet in Craig's brain, read simple to visually was able and he sentences like, "He had a cat and ball." Mladejovsky found there was no limit on speed; he could flash new letters to Craig faster than Craig could read by the normal tactile Braille method. But blind people don't want artificial vision for reading but rather for mobility. They want to be able" to navigate without being led around by another person or a dog. They want to find their way through unfami-

convert the images would be carried on a belt. A cable could be run from the electronics package up the person's back under his clothes and then concealed under his hair, finally connecting to the implant's exterior "button" and fo the camera-carrying eyeglasses. What would the blind person see?

each composed

One

could
I

make

ot only 256 dots. out clearly as a man's

bearded face. The second image, a

pair of

scissors, didn't recognize. But Mladejovsky emphasizes that the blind person

would have other clues to guide him in recognizing objects sound, smell, an

object's size
ings.
If

in

proportion io

its

surround-

Mladejovsky believes phosphene-dot moving pictures could be created, similar to those you see on electronic scoreboards in baseball and football stadiums. Only the images would be much cruder. The device
implanted
in

he was standing at a crosswalk and he saw a large oblong object getting closer and closer, accompanied by the sound of an internal combustion engine, he would

know enough

to get out of

its

way.

Craig's brain contains 64 elec-

trodes, which produce 42 phosphenes (you don't get a 1:1 ratio). The next step is an implant with 256 electrodes.

Assuming that will produce 256 useful phosphenes, which might not. you'd still only be able to create crude, silhouettelike images. But they would be adequate for navigation. Mladejovsky showed me two
it it

Mladejovsky thinks that eventually they able to stimulate as many as 500 phosphenes in a person's visual corOf course, many problems have to be worked out first. William Dobelle recently left Utah to head the artificial organs department of Columbia University in New York City, where he

may be
useful
tex.

continues his work, trying to solve the phys-

138

OMNI

iological mysteries of eyesighl. Craig

is still

facilities for

over

six

months; 184 days to

in

part of the project, shuttling back and forth between Utah and New York. "In the meantime," says Mladejovsky, "I'm just biding my time. can't do anything more until Dobelle, or somebody like him, can finally sit down and set up concrete specifications for what the artificial vision device should do." When that day comes, Mladejovsky and his colleagues in Utah's Microcircuit Lab are prepared to build the 'Utah eyes.' "A mere technological probI

be exact.

Abebe died

May

977, not be-

four hours. A nuclear-powered heart, on the other hand, could run 40 years on a

cause qf a malfunction, but simply because he was a growing young cow and had outgrown the heart. (Calves are used because their cardiac output is similar to
man's, they are good animals to operate on and they are far cheaper at $200 apiece than gorillas or baboons.) Theodore's Jarvik-7 brings Utah one step closer to artificial heart implantation

small supply of plutonium 238.

There

is

one potential problem, how-

in

man because,

unlike Jarvik-5,
for

it

is

the

Mladejovsky repeats. The artificial hearing project at Utah is quite.similartothe eyesight project. Electrodes have been implanted in the cochlear membranes of the inner ears of four deaf volunteers. Mladejovsky and other Utah researchers are stimulating the cochlea with electrical signals to create sounds of varying pitch and loudness. As with artificial vision, the ultimate goal is to understand how human hearing works, and then build
lem,"

exact size needed

human

being.

An artificial heart has been implanted in man on only one occasion. That was Dr. Denton Cooley's controversial operation on Haskell Karp in 1 969. Karp survived
span of hours with the implant, Since then, blood pumps have been used as temporary-assist devices to keep cardiac patients alive for short periods of time, but there have been no more total replacements.
only a This hiatus
is

ever. While plutonium 238, unlike plutonium 239, is not fissionable {you can't make a bomb out of it is highly carcinogenic and could be used to poison a city's water supply. The nuclear heart conjures up a horror scenario of terrorists kidnapping several cardiac patients and killing them for their plutonium capsules. Kolff is not overly enthusiastic about the nuclear heart. He doesn't share Olsen 's pessimism over running wires into the human body and calls the electric heart a
it)_,

partly

due

to

now

stricter

miniaturized computer circuitry lhat can

be used in a portable hearing device. (The computer used in Ihe artificial hearing experiments, like that used for artificial vision, is presently gigantic 2.7 meters long by 2.7 meters high.) While artificial hearing may not sound as spectacular as artificial vision, Mladejovsky claims it is a much more difficult venture because deaf subjects have great trouble communicating what they're experiencing. It is difficult to describe subtle variations in pitch and loudness, and most subjects are mute and must communicate by writing or sign language. The team's biggest break came when they found a willing subject who was deaf in one ear only. Paul, the unilaterally deaf subject, has electrodes implanted in his deaf ear. When his cochlea is stimulated electronically, he tunes an audio oscillator to produce a matching sound on his good ear. This way he can tell the researchers

40ur aim, " says

perfectly sane solution, The power pack would be worn outside the body, with wires leading inside. When asked aboutthe risk of infection, Kolff said, "So what? We're talking about patients with a life expectancy of five minutes." Kolff also made note of Dobelle's success in implanting wires into Craig's head and leaving them for three years with no sign of infection. Another solution would be to induce electric current-through the skin. Two coils one inside the body, one outside would transmit power from an external

Kolff, "is to re-

battery to Ihe heart's motor.

store people." Utah boasts spectacular programs In artificial vision

The heart
that

isn't

can

fail in

the

human

and hearing,
. . .

sels, nerves, bile ducts, urelers,

the only internal organ body. Blood vesbladders,

the

most successful artificial heart

project in the world and other bioengineering marvels
of medical care

fall victim to disease and Utah's plan: repair and replace tissues with synthetic and rubber. Armed with a $1.4 million federal grant, the university recently set up the nation's first Biomedical Engineering Center for Polymer Implants.

and lungs also

injury.

these

damaged

plastics

Donald
center,

J.

Lyman, director

of the

new

federal regulations for

to

all

medical devices

exactly what they're producing with their

electrical signals.

be used in human beings, as well as obdue in pari to technical problems still to be worked out. Perhaps most imporviously
tant, however, is the recent decision by the National Advisory Heart Council to give left-ventricular-assist devices (LVADs)
first

has already implanted in dogs tiny blood vessel grafts made of a new polyurethanelike material. Very large grafts of Dacron have been used for years to repair major blood vessels such as Ihe

made

human
used

aorta. But

Dacron and

similar

ma-

terials are for

But Mladejovsky admits that producing

artificial

hearing

is

much more

What's needed
through
it.

too rigid and fail quickly when smaller arteries and veins. is a flexible material that

difficult

than anyone had suspected. Donald Olsen, a veterinarian in Utah's artificial heart lab, gently kicked a sleepy

priority

and

to

deemphasize

total

looking calf

named Theodore.
Theodore

It

was

has brought a partial dryingup of funds for the Utah heart team. Willem Kolff differs strongly with the
hearts. This

his staff of

has enough give as the blood pulsates That's exactly what Lyman and 20 have created. The flexible

enough
feet.

to bring Theodore rapidly to his "See," said Olsen, "this calf is perdid, in fact, look

Council's philosophy.
really

If

the patient

is

sick

fectly healthy."

enough to need an LVAD, claims Kolff, he needs a whole new pump. Kolff feels
cannot sustain a heart whose condition is so bad that all conventional remedies have failed. The drying-up of funds has temporarily killed one of Donald Olsen 's favorite projects, the nuclear heart. Olsen favors hearts with a built-in power source because they offer the patient independence. He also feels there's less chance
that

grafts in dogs are only three millimeters in diameter smaller than needed for humans and have lasted 8 months. Polymer implants in humans are expected

very healthy. The only thing distinguishing him from a normal calf was an array of air hoses sticking out of his side. The hoses

an assist

pump

patient

connected Theodore to an external compressed-air pump that powered his artificial heart. Some 85 days earlier, Olsen had removed the calf's real heart and replaced it with a molded polyurethane model called the Jarvik-7. Designed by Robert Jarvik, head of Utah's heart program, Jarvik-7
record for
stein calf

within a year. Lyman explains that 80 percent of the human body is made of polymers, which are simply very large molecules (Europeans call them macromolecules). DNA, for example, is a polymer. And Lyman's office reminds one of something out of Watson and Crick and the search for The Dou-

ble Helix.

is'similar to Jarvik-5, the plastic heart that holds the world longevity
artificial

hearts.

It

named Abebe

alive

kept a Holin the Utah

because you don't have to run hoses into the body. An electric heart will probably be the next step but, Olsen says, the batteries
of infection

The day visited him, it was cluttered with atomic models that looked like long chains of different-colored plastic
I

electric wires or air

would have

to

be recharged every three

1

to

One 1%-meter-long model had claimed sole possession of the office couch. Lyman said it represented only 1/20th of a polymer he was "designing."
baseballs.

139

That's basically what the center Is doing: "We're mapping implants atom by atom." Lyman and his colleagues am creating brand-new synthetic polymers, which he said could be loosely described as plastics or rubberlike, in order to find

Once the right polymers are invented, Lyman foresees building any number of
body
parts; lungs,

gram

is not without its fund-raising problems, however. The school is sometimes

an esophagus and

tra-

out-maneuvered by more powerful and

better-connected rivals inthe fight for fedmoney. mentioned Michael E. DeBakey, perhaps the most famous name in heart research, to Dr. Kolff and obviously hit a sore spot. President Nixon awarded DeBakey's team at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston a real plum several years ago: the opportunity to work with Soviet
eral
I

the perfect implant materials. Lyman expects his polymers to have mind-boggling characteristics. First, they must survive far

chea, skin, testicles, fallopian tubes, even nerves. "Blood vessels are rather simple," says Lyman. "They're really just pipes. The bladder is a bag. But nerves are more like telephone wires." Even so, Lyman plans to make, implant, and regenerate
nerves, Eventually.

longer in the human body than conventional implant materials. Second, they must eventually degenerate. Initially, this

it

seems odd

that with

all

the medical-

scientists

seems

contradictory.
infinite

But Lyman's plan makes

sense.

Polymer blood vessels, ureters, bladders, or whatever must last long enough for the patient to survive. However, Lyman believes

only a few synthetics can

last foris

ever

in

the body.

Human

tissue

connot.

stantly

changing while the implant

then
is

is

science heavyweights concentrated in the establishment East and on the innovative West Coast that the most sophisticated bioengineering effort in the U.S. is going on in Salt Lake City. At first suspected a fBligious motive, considering the overwhelming influence of the Church of Latter-Day Saints on the city. That idea
I

the job

on a joint U.S.-U.S.S.R, artificial heart project. Kolff claims Baylor only got because of DeBakey's tremendous power in Washington. "They sent the
least successful heart
to

group inthe country

While that

Moscow," said

Kolff.

may

ring
re-

of

sour grapes, DeBakey's longevity

sults with artificial hearts

ger

when compared

to

are rather meathose of Utah's

create materials that will encourage tissue growth on their outside surfaces. In this way, a blood vessel could be implanted, and over a number of

The

trick

to

was

years,
ral

ally

it would slowly degrade while natupolymers would take its place, eventureplacing it entirely. In other words,

quickly dispelled. "Salt Lake is a beautiful city for skiers and backpackers," said one researcher who asked not to be identified. "With all these beautiful mountains, you can put up

heart program. And there's another funding problem. Kolff says Utah sometimes suffers from

you could rebuild a man's insides with Utah implants and in, say, ten years you could cut him open and find nothing
synthetic

The

only normal, natural tissue. real goal of implantation, then, is regeneration.

any number of Mormons." Dr. Kolff gives a more mundane reason Utah's success; money. The university has set up Kolff in a special position that allows him great freedom in acquiring federal funds. Kolff reports directly to the
with almost
for

the government's peer-review system of awarding grants. "We're so far ahead in our field," says Kolff immodestly, "that it's sometimes hard to find peers." And that pretty much describes the bioengineering effort at Utah peerless. The Six Million Dollar Man as portrayed on television will probably never exist. But the

vice-president in charge of research. The university's bioengineering pro-

$8.4 Million
in

Man
City.

is

alive

and

well

and

living

Salt

Lake

OTHER MARVELOUS MEDICAL MIRACLES AT UTAH

THE INSTANT BLOOD TEST
Utah scientists are on the verge of elimione of the biggest annoyances of a the doctorthe blood test that requires a wait of several hours to a week before you get the results. Often, a doctor must send your blood off to a lab, and you
nating
ten, different

membranes on one com-

puterchip,
testing rhesus

week and

visit to

Moss believes
fore they

Chemfets have already been used in monkeys, dogs, and cats. will be a few years yet behave an FDA-approved device
it

a hospital three to four times a for several houi apparatus filters waste from his blood. Now Utah researchers have built an artificial kidney that can be worn right on the

must go

to

sit

body.
set

It

weighs eight pounds and can be

like a life jacket or next to him. In either case, it al-

strapped to the patient

must make a second appointment and before you can be pay a second fee properly diagnosed and treated. Bioengineers Stanley D. Moss and Jiri

PAINLESS ANESTHESIA

down

One of the problems

it

ot painkillers is that

hurts like hell to get

is

them when a needle used. But the Dermatron, developed by

lows the kidney patient infinitely more freedom and mobility than standard dialysis does. Even though the wearable kidney must be connected intermittently to an
18-liter tank,
it

Janata think the Chemfet, or Superprobe, will end all that. About the size of a needle point, it's a microprocessor chip (like those used in pocket calculators) to which a tiny chemical membrane of the type used in medical labs for blood tests has been bonded. What you have then is a tiny

computer that

instantaneously measures

Stephen Jacobsen and the Projects and Design Lab, delivers anesthesia without puncturing the skin. A band containing two electrodes and a dose of an anesthetic drug is strapped over the skin to be anesthetized. The band is connected by cable to a power unit the size of a pocket calculator. By a process called iontophoresis, the drug
is

still

means

dialysis patients
lives.

can

travel

and lead more normal

3-D TELEVISION

FOR YOUR BODY

concentrations of vital blood chemicals. Let's say the doctor wants to know how much potassium you have in your bloodstream. He would take a syringe fitted with a Chemfet and stick it in your arm. But he

driven through the

would draw no blood. A desk top computer connected to the syringe would display an immediate readout potassium level. The Utah scientists have already built a prototype that measures potassium and are close to making pH and calcium probes. Next on the horizon will be fluoride and oxygen Chemfets. Moss says that a
different
of the blood's

skin into the tissue. It's painless and avoids possible infection and irritation from standard needles. The Dermatron has been used to anesthetize dialysis patients and those undergoing wart removal, minor finger surgery, and the draining of:

Utah scientists have built a "television" that transforms x-rays into threedimensional images. Brent S. Baxter and Steven A. Johnson of the Advanced Imaging Methods Laboratory have already projected a realistic 3-D illusion of a human brain onto a television screen. It doesn't require special glasses as the old 3-D movies did, and several people can look
at the

image

at the

same

time,

The image

THE WEARABLE KIDNEY

also has parallax; that is, when you shift your head, you can see around the outside of the image, or you can bend down and
look

up

into

the image (or vice versa) and

When a

person's kidneys
to

fail,

he must

be hooked up

an

artificial

kidney, or

Chemfet

will

not

be needed

for

each chemical measurement. He's confident they can fit at least six, and possibly
140

dialysis machine, in order to cleanse his blood of urea and other toxic substances. The standard artificial kidney is about the size of a washing machine, and the patient

get a different view. Baxter says the device could be used for air traffic control (creating 3-D pictures of planes over an airport), architectural

design, and for making 3-D geological maps of potential ore beds. D.T.

DO

OMNI

PHENOMENA
'.-.oh
i

Today, classrooms; tomorrow, science

mediacy.

M...-..L-

:>

museums. With evangelistic

spirit,

Golob

f-'aw 'Li;:

described, a strategy for expanding the center's information net through science
facilities.

confident, enthusiastic; Golob has the clean, casual white-shirt-and-chinos look a Harvard graduate student. He also has in abundance two qualities that may prove vital to the center's growth; a canny entrepreneurial sense along with a very
of

There
for the

is

real

need
in

in

museums,

he says,

does. "Too

much

kind of reporting that material

CSLP museums is

Golob's scenario is more than wishful thinking. Several museums, including Boston's Museum of Science, have shown real interest in the concept, and now he is applying to the National Science Foundation for support.

historical," he complained. "It does not convey a sense of immediacy, a you-are-

These
its initial

activities, of

course, highlight the

fact that the center

there feeling about the world."

serious commitment to environment awareness. His devotion to the center and

has moved far beyond clearinghouse role "Our name

What he would

like to

see are CSLP

does not

missionary concern tor spreading ecology consciousness infects his conversation, and one is easily engaged by
his
his

enthusiasm. In his small, neatly organized office overlooking a bucolic Cambridge street, Golob brainstorms about the future. In the
is

forefront of his thinking

a variety of plans

to

"Message Golob feels, "have an immediate and striking impact on viewers." He speculates that this message board would be connected to a huge world map, offering push-button access news of environmental phenomena
all

message boards in science centers that provide viewers with a continual flow of information about environmental changes. boards,"

this point,"

really describe our functions at declares Golob. However, he adds, "We have built up respect from govscientists,

ernment and
"Our future
continues.

and they connect

our activities with that name.

lies in

nonadvocacy," Golob

causes,
tegrity."

"Once we become involved in we lose our impartiality and our inThis extends to the center's envi-

at helping the center reach a larger audience. Educating the public in terms of environment awareness is very much a part of center has moved into classrooms across the country Some five years ago CSLP established the Environmental Alert Network, inviting students and teachers throughout Ihe world into this future. Already, the

aimed

throughout the world as they occur. "Press a button, and you would see

day
in

wants

ronmental educating. Rejecting doomsrhetoric or special pleading. Golob to "bring science to the people" but

the active volcanoes worldwide light up. Another button might pinpoint the location
of recent oil spills, insect infestations, or earthquakes. It would be a visual newspaper dramatizing the constant changes going on in our environment." Concluding with a flourish, Golob envisions a whole network of museum displays, a communications hookup transmitting continually

their activities. Some 60,000 students a junior league of environmental monitors and used the center as an educational tool. Participating schools and classrooms became local CSLPs, and students corresponded with the headquar-

formed

"an impartial, nonadvocacy way" An informed citizenry finely tuned to the natural world around them. This is what Golob would like to see evolving within the near future. A good example of this ideal, he points out, is the "barefoot scientist" in China. These "barefoot scientists" are simply informed laymen farmers and

between museums throughout the country and perhaps the world. Cassette tapes

ters center.

would provide general science background and would constantly be updated to provide present-tense im-

workers who intelligently help scientists cover a natural event. They actually function as monitors on the environment. When a meteorite falls in China, the government can count on factual reports from its citizenry about the trajectory of the object, its

and other matters of scientific interest. In America, on the other hand, Golob laments, "If anybody sees a sudden bright light in the sky, they immediately UFO." Despite the ground swell of interest in UFOs, the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena stays clear of this short-lived phenomena of the popular kind. UFO sightings are usually unverifiable and thus below the
luminosity,

think.

center's credibility threshold. This is not to say, however, that some pretty strange

events don't make their way into the

center's
files.

Two years ago, for instance, they were in to investigate the disappearance a ship off Nova Scotia. The Liberian tanker Grand Zenith vanished suddenly,
called
of

the only evidence of

lifejacket

its voyage a solitary and some flotsam. The Grand

Zenith,

Golob now feels, may have fallen victim to what is known as a rogue wave. He explains: "Sometimes, when a strong wind collides with a powerful water current, they produce an abnormally high

wave a wave that seems to come out of nowhere." This wave, he continued, could create in turn a hole in the ocean, a vortex that might completely engulf an unsuspecting ship. "Most ships never recover from the incident, and that's why scientists
have so
"

little
"

data on which

to

develop

We must be making

their theories.

the transition from

ape-man

This wind-opposed current

to

modern-man

theory,

I'm getting ulcers."

to eventually

he adds, may provide a good clue unraveling the mystery of the

Triangle.

Bermuda

DQ

PHEruanriEruM

BS9

JBflS

1fe'fe
we breathe. Wilhout these microscopic '-stories transducing sunlight into chemi energy tor synthesizing food, all life ir the oceans would rapidly die
I

DO

The
is

intuitive

answer

often totally wrong.

EMfUlES
BY SCOT MORRIS
COOLING
I
.

You've seen the lype of vocabulary lest in which you are given a bunch of strangelooking words and you're supposed to supply the appropriate deiinitions. And you know the tests in which you are given
pictures or descriptions of things and you're supposed to supply the correct

THEIR NAMES

POINT. Which method

will

cool

A
R

Aglet
Philtrum

C
n
F

Pipkin

K
I
,

Punt Brassard Bale rolls

Columella Blowout Comfort cable temple

Stall

bar

words. Here's a vocabulary test that's so tough we'll let you look at both the definitions
feeling like a
of things:

n
H

Soutache Harp

M. N. 0.

Airplane-back

Worm
Plungers

and the words and you'll dummy. First,

gizmos.
in

still come out you'll find a list doohickeys, whatchamacallits,

NO INTUITION, PLEASE!
The following 1 3 puzzles are classic science problems. They all require some scientific knowledge to help solve them. The intuitive answer is often totally wrong.

of coffee fastest? (A) Let the coffee sit for five minutes, then pour in cream from the refrigerator; or (B) pour the cream in right away and let the mixture sit for five minutes. UP AGAINST THE WALL. If you stand with your back and heels against a wall, can you louch your toes without bending your knees? (Try to solve this problem without actually attempting the exercise.)

your cup

A HARD SKATE.

Is

it

easier to ice-skate
is at

All of

them have names

proper,

when the air temperature 3Q F(-32Cor-1 :DG)?

0For

at

correct, English

namesthat are listed

at the top of the

WHEELING EASY. Which

ing a

is

easier: pushto

column at right. Each thing has only one name; each name applies to only one thing. Just match them up. Easy. (All answers are on opposite page.)
mixed-up order

HOT DROPS. Two mercury droplets

having exactly the

wheelbarrow or pulling it? WATCH THIS. If you take your watch

the mountains, than usual?
will
it

same temperature
new
droplet's

run faster or slowe,r

combine

into one. Is the

DOOHICKEYS __ 1 The metal frame on a lamp that

.

sticks
2.

up around the bulb and holds the

temperature any different from that of the original two? BOOTSTRAP ELEVATOR. Study the drawing carefully. Can the man lift both himself and the block off the ground?

POLES APART. Antarctica

times as

has eight

much

ice as the Arctic.

Why?
gives

HOT AND COLD MILEAGE, Which

the better mileage
line or

4 liters of cold gaso-

shade.

The part of a pair of eyeglasses hooks around your ear. The hollow lump in the bottom of a wine boftle. 4. The lip at the end of your shoelace. 5. The business end of a cuff link that you put through the buttonhole and
.

lhat

4 liters of warm gasoline? POTTED PROBLEM. Which pot will hold more coffee? (The cross sections of the coffeepots are the same, but the pot on
the
left is taller.)

3.

fasten.
6.

The gymnasium

wall exercise ap-

paratus with wooden uprights and horizontal rungs about every five inches. 7. The part of your nose above your
lip

that separates your noslrils. 8. The small rubber typewriter rollers

on the bar above the main roller. 9. A band worn around the upper arm such as the one with the swastika on it
that Hitler wore. . 10. The curly part of a corkscrew. 1 1 The round braid trimming on the
.

TILTING BALLOON. Inside a moving au-

border
12. 13.

of pajamas and bathrobes. A tiny saucepan for melting butter. The cleft in the middle of your up-

BOILING POINT. The boiling point of walower when atmospheric pressure decreases. Theoretically, then, you coulc
ter is

tomobile a child holds a helium balloon by a string. AH the windows are closed. Which way will the balloon move if the
car

makes a

righl turn?

per

lip.

The party favor that unrolls when you puff on it. ,1 5. The connect/disconnect buttons
14.
that the receiver of your telephone rests on.

attach a suction pump to a pot, suck out the air above the water level, and the water

SUNKEN SUB.
rine fries at
all

The captain of a submacosts to avoid letting the

if

would come

to

boil faster,

saving energy.

Do you see

thereby anything

wrong

with this invention?

sub come to rest on a clay or sandy ocean bottom. He knows that this happens, can be fatal. Why?
it

144

OMNI

YOU MAKE THE LAWS/ A COMPETITION

Morris's First

ANSWERS
luouoq 34401 qns
is

Law

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states that

if

there

any generally recognized human foible, someone is sure to reduce it to epigram

form, attach his last name to it, and announce the discovery of a new law Thus, anything

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we have Murphy's Law:

go wrong,
it

"It

can

Murphy's Law is the generalization from which many more specific laws can be derived, such as Gumperson's Law: "The outcome of any
will."

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41

desired possibility
tional to
its

is

inversely propor-

degree

of desirability."

Gumperson's Law explains why there are always so many parking places on the other side of the street. Sometimes the specitic cases are so significant and universally recognized that they get names of their own, such as Ettore's Law: "The other line moves faster." Or (Calvin) Coolidge's Law: "A lost article invariably shows up after you replace it." The problem with this whole law business is the temptation to take mere clever
sayings and call them laws. A prime offender is Lawrence Peter, of the Peter Principle: "Bureaucrats rise to their level of incompetence." He had a neat little in-

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one that deserved to have a name. But recently, Peter rose to his own incompetence by announcing a
sight there,
level of

qoB3
e

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new Peter's Law: "Today, if you're not confused, you're just not listening." This is not a law. It's a cute saying with
someone's name attached to it. The same goes for Levinson's Law, attributed to comedian Sam Levinson: "Insanity is hereditary; you can get it from your children." What the world needs is more laws with
clear social insights:
"If then" type statements that truly enlighten us to the universality of our condition. We are firm believers in Gates's Law: "If there isn't a
.
.

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TESTTUBEBABIES
CCfJTINUED FROM
this planet
Ft is awash with children abused, starving for both food and love. It's not a question of supply, it's a question of distribution, and the sad tact is we don't seem to be directing resources t6 improving that

ago, and nowrriany others' are looking into the'Petri dish that gave rise to Louise

c.

She

will

probably be missing some

Brown and seeing

Reproduction

it

too.

totally in

Wrro--from con-

distribution. Let's take care.of the kids

we've got. Worry #5: In vitro fertilization divorces procreation from sex, and that is a Bad
Thing, This Is 'one of the chief worries expressed by organized religion. It-is certainly true that in vitro fertilization bypasses a good deal of fun as it bypasses

ception to decanting an infant-nine months later is, -for technical reasons, so far away it's hardly worth listing as a worry Some people.think we may. never be able to manage more than a shabby and inadequate approximation of the miraculousapparatus half of us come equipped with. Work will go forward on the artificial placenta because of its medical applications in saving very premature babies, but it will go slowly because it makes more sense to try to prevent premature birth by finding-

pleasure too. Pregnancy is not a pathological condition; it's a normal. female state. It often feels good, and so it should. There are very few jobs it interferes with. Pregnancy, in fact, is the simple part of being a
parent. Ask any mother which is harder, the first nine months or the next 20 years. That's the point at which a-womai who

wants

to

avoid inconvenience needs^a

'

surrogate mother. But the big argument against worrying about artificial reproduction assuming it were technically possible is that there is

ways

of

maintaining pregnancy for the

time.

the fallopian tubes, and while that's a pity, it's not quite fair to say it's a Bad Thing in the cosmic sense. Nor is it the first tech-

proper
their

length'.. o,f

no sense whatsoever in going to all that trouble and expense. Tell me a clear economic reason to reproduce this way and join you in worrying, but until you think
I'll

nique to do so, We've been trying hard to find an effective way of divorcing sex from procreation eversince we made the connection between a night of love and the day of reckoning nine months later. It's
called birth control.
In

Surrogate-motherswomen who lend womb for the duration of pregnancy are certainly a technicaipossibility before too long, and there may even be an "occasional reason why such an arrangement would be desirable.

ponder the following: a. making babies the usual way is so easy we have to go to some lengths (sometimes even life-threatening ones) to
of one,

that

avoid
b. it's

it.

also

more amusing.

The

Pill,

in vitro fertilization is
toy.

comparison with an inconse-

quential

Worry #6: "My God, Professor, this time you've gone too far j-n probing the secrets
of the universe."
Will

6 Do you

fear test tube

There may, of course, be economic benfrom the use of these techniques in domestic animals. A large cow could mother many calves simultaneously, just as a prize bull fathers many now, if her fertilized eggs were impfanted in less
efits arising

you believe

me

if

tell

you that

all

the

preceding

worries-.'are rationalizations

.babies? Should you? Perhaps, but maybe not for

the reasons you've
If

constructed by inventive human. minds to "cover up the fact that, this is the real reasQ.n'/n vitro fertilization makes us nervous? Wis worry takes two general forms, both

been

told.

we ever make it

valuable surrogates. Orthe embryos could be frozen and implanted in a surrogate many years later after her death. Which brings us to genetic manipulation, a subject so complex and touchy that can
I

give

it

only the sketchiest attention here.

to the

Brave

New

World, we're

But, to allay anxiety on this

score a

bit:

of
a.

first

them literary.in inspiration: My colleague Willard Gaylih Calls the The Frankenstein Factor, the terror of
intervention into
nat.u-r'al

likely to

have more

worries than test tube babies.^

a. Precise manipulation of individual genes is a long way off not as long as the artificial uterus, but long enough so that

human

pro-

cesses', particularly by means of elaborate technology. A portion of thai terror is,

of

course; perfectly rational. Look at the

is

record-.it
.

spotty.

The

rest

is

geared

to

Some have wondered what would happen if either party changed her mind, and other such ingenious scenarios. But why couldn't a contract- drawn up beforehand take care of such issues and also specify
that, for instance,

',.

something like a religious awe, a. dread ot human'hubris in the assumption of -such God- ike powers. Its- good to try to improve our ability to
1

worry to your grandchildren in your will. Manipulation of characteristics controlled by several genes (height, I.Q., and most other things we find interesting about ourselves) is a worry they can probably leave to their

you can probably safely leave

this

".'predict the
..

consequences of technology, and we ought surely to have learned by now that caution and conservatism in -apit

plying-

is

wise. But

we

are kidding our-

the surrogate mother agrees to avoid substances known to be harmful to a fetus, such as tobacco and alcohol?

grandchildren. b. We are not without experience in these matters. Genetics, in fact, .is our second oldest science (astronomy is our oldest), and civilization as we know it is built on the

purposeful breeding
1

ot

animals(for at least

selves if we don't facethe fact that we are nature's experiment in an interventionist animal. We humans, or rafher something vefy much like us, only smallerand, not
quite so bright,
lions of

People who worry..about surrogate

mothers, however, are usually worried that they will be used to relieve other women (usually pictured as those vicious, narcissistic, hard-driving career women) of the inconvenience of pregnancy. Well,

made and used

tools mil-

years ago. Attempting to call a halt now is about as effective as trying to make a well-fed hou.secat stop chasing birds. Of course, that doesn't mean the fat tabby won't fall qutof a tree and get killed, and we may blow it too. But our chance to succeed depends on learning to cope with our powers.
-Jo.
"

ma'ybe.

But consider these factors

20,000 years) and plants (for at least. 0,000). Do you like roses? Gorn? Your dog? You invented them all. c. Any society tightly controlled enough to make possible planned breeding of people for specific purposes would be in such trouble in so many areas that its reproductive methods would be the least of
it.

against it: a. To obtain fhe eggs requires abdominal surgery, beside which fhe inconveniences

Worry #7: In vitro fertilization is a breakthrough more psychological than real, but
is glamorous and full of human interest and therefore captures an inordinate amount of our attention. In the process,
it

The Brave Wew World Brood. A pity.AIdous Huxley hasn't been around to hear himself so often hailed as a prophet in past months. It was-he who predicted totally artificial reproduction and genetic manipulation in his novel almost half a century

ofpregnancy seem minor. b. The uterine environment is so influential that a child "carried by one woman will differ from one carried by another, even though fhe eggs.and sperm they come from are identical. Thus a woman who wants "a child of.her^own" will be losing something she limits he;- role to egg doif

unfortunately,

it

distracts us from our

gen-

uine and pressing technological problems, such as the disposal of nuclear waste, the decreasing quality of ourwater, and.theproliferation of carcinogens. And those.friends, are worries worthy of
the

nation.

name. DO