DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Tale of the 'Evans, v. 4, issue 2, Spring 1946

Transcribe
Translate

Tale of the 'Evans, v. 4, issue 2, Spring 1946

Page 2

WHAT IS PROGRESS?
By Charles R. Tanner. 

I feel certain that there is hardly a fan in the country who has not, at some time or another, in some bull session, had put to him the question that is the title of this article. 

It usually crops up just as you are about to launch into one of your pet theories on developments in the future. Somebody interrupts and asks just why you believe this particular thing is likely to happen in the future. "Why, because it's essential to human progress," you answer, and then -- "Ah, yes," he will reply, wisely. "But what is progress?" And in the ensuing mad brawl, all trace of the original discussion is lost. 

I've had this happen to me more than once, so I've had occasion to analyze my beliefs as to just what progress is and inasmuch as I believe it might interest more than one, I'm giving it to you here. 

In the first place, I don't think progress is merely a human thing, or the product of an anthropomorphic outlook. If there isn't something absolutely fundamental about progress, then it doesn't exist at all. But there is a basic fundamental law of change in the universe, and it is to this law I appeal. 

Somewhere about the time of creation, or shortly after, the basic units of matter-energy began to unite to form this space-time continuum's quota of matter. The electrons, the positrons, the neutrons combined into various systems to form atoms. These atoms became the units of a new system of individuals, a more complex system, with a more complex series of laws, based on the simpler laws of the simpler sub-atomic units. 

For long, in the stars, the atomic system must have reigned supreme. It is only in the cooler stars that the next high state of individuality can exist. Eventually, however, somewhere a star or planet became cool enough to permit the atoms to combine and form molecules and the third stage of matter appeared. A new individual thing, composed of atoms in combination, came into existence, and as time went on, became more and more complex. Here on the earth, at least, and more than likely, on all planets, the atoms that are combined into molecules probably exceed the free atoms. 

And, at once, as soon as the molecules had reached a stage of sufficient complexity, they began to form matter's fourth stage. Through the ultra-complex actions of the huge organic molecules, life came into being, life in it's simplest forms, the giant molecules of the virus type. Eventually, all the seas of the earth swarmed with an incalculable number of new individuals -- Fourth-Stage Individuals -- the protozoa. 

2

Saving...

WHAT IS PROGRESS? By Charles R. Tanner. I feel certain that there is hardly a fan in the country who has not, at some time or another, in some bull session, had put to him the question that is the title of this article. It usually crops up just as you are about to launch into one of your pet theories on developments in the future. Somebody interrupts and asks just why you believe this particular thing is likely to happen in the future. "Why, because it's essential to human progress," you answer, and then -- "Ah, yes," he will reply, wisely. "But what is progress?" And in the ensuing mad brawl, all trace of the original discussion is lost. I've had this happen to me more than once, so I've had occasion to analyze my beliefs as to just what progress is and inasmuch as I believe it might interest more than one, I'm giving it to you here. In the first place, I don't think progress is merely a human thing, or the product of an anthropomorphic outlook. If there isn't something absolutely fundamental about progress, then it doesn't exist at all. But there is a basic fundamental law of change in the universe, and it is to this law I appeal. Somewhere about the time of creation, or shortly after, the basic units of matter-energy began to unite to form this space-time continuum's quota of matter. The electrons, the positrons, the neutrons combined into various systems to form atoms. These atoms became the units of a new system of individuals, a more complex system, with a more complex series of laws, based on the simpler laws of the simpler sub-atomic units. For long, in the stars, the atomic system must have reigned supreme. It is only in the cooler stars that the next high state of individuality can exist. Eventually, however, somewhere a star or planet became cool enough to permit the atoms to combine and form molecules and the third stage of matter appeared. A new individual thing, composed of atoms in combination, came into existence, and as time went on, became more and more complex. Here on the earth, at least, and more than likely, on all planets, the atoms that are combined into molecules probably exceed the free atoms. And, at once, as soon as the molecules had reached a stage of sufficient complexity, they began to form matter's fourth stage. Through the ultra-complex actions of the huge organic molecules, life came into being, life in it's simplest forms, the giant molecules of the virus type. Eventually, all the seas of the earth swarmed with an incalculable number of new individuals -- Fourth-Stage Individuals -- the protozoa. 2