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Variant, v. 1, issue 3, September 1947
Page 6
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ALLISON: (who has caught her breath, speaks, snappily). It does nothing of the sort, Lex! Have you begun your article for Variant yet? CHARLES LUCAS: About the Philcon. What about the price of hotel rooms? Milt, can you tell us anything? MILT ROTHMAN: (rather bashfully). Well, in the front of the last issue of the Philcon News it said rooms could be had for $1.67 1/2 per day. That was a mistake. But in the back it listed hotel rooms at $18.93 a day. Well, that was a mistake, too--- GEORGE O. SMITH: What are we supposed to do? Take a statistical, or mean, average? JACK MIDNIGHT: (bouncing up). Isn't there a motion on the floor? (Club grows silent. Talkative Member's buzz is now drowsy.) PRESIDENT: (head in his hands, elbows on the table in posture of despair). God knows. CURTAIN MECH by Sol Levin Mighty machines. Machines releasing untold energies to move worlds, suns and even universes. Machines to carry man parsec upon parsec to distant galaxies in the twinkling of an eye. Eternal machines that repair themselves so that they may serve man forever, as in Cambell's Twilight. Such are some of the things one encounters when reading science fiction. I have often asked myself, "Why do such fictional machines fascinate me so? " I might have also asked, "Why does science fiction fascinate me? " But since I am dealing with my fascination for the above mentioned machines, I will consider only them at the moment. To begin with, man, as compared to the forces of nature and the unconceivable infinity of the universe, is but a puny, ephemeral speck of protoplasm. When I view these things I experience (as I am sure others do) a feeling of inferiority. But I read of the mighty machines that can better the energy output of a sun of the first magnitude, quench a supernova, transport one through the vast reaches of the macrocosm at undreamed of speeds, that feeling of inferiority is swept away. Man can look nature in the eye and say, "Behold the mighty machines I have created! No longer must I quake in fear at your powers, for I can meet and even better them! " Perhaps I sound as if I am making the machine my God. I say that I am not. I view it as an extension of man, being his creation to help him overcome the forces of nature, and to help him execute his wants. And there, in the worlds "Help him execute his wants," lies a sour note, for these wants are too often destructive rather than constructive. It is not a man's creation that is a Frankenstein monster, but man himself. Perhaps, as time goes on, there will arise, as science fiction writers have pointed out, a superman who shall work for the ultimate good of mankind and use his machines toward that end instead of to annihilate his brother. Let us hope so. (6)
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ALLISON: (who has caught her breath, speaks, snappily). It does nothing of the sort, Lex! Have you begun your article for Variant yet? CHARLES LUCAS: About the Philcon. What about the price of hotel rooms? Milt, can you tell us anything? MILT ROTHMAN: (rather bashfully). Well, in the front of the last issue of the Philcon News it said rooms could be had for $1.67 1/2 per day. That was a mistake. But in the back it listed hotel rooms at $18.93 a day. Well, that was a mistake, too--- GEORGE O. SMITH: What are we supposed to do? Take a statistical, or mean, average? JACK MIDNIGHT: (bouncing up). Isn't there a motion on the floor? (Club grows silent. Talkative Member's buzz is now drowsy.) PRESIDENT: (head in his hands, elbows on the table in posture of despair). God knows. CURTAIN MECH by Sol Levin Mighty machines. Machines releasing untold energies to move worlds, suns and even universes. Machines to carry man parsec upon parsec to distant galaxies in the twinkling of an eye. Eternal machines that repair themselves so that they may serve man forever, as in Cambell's Twilight. Such are some of the things one encounters when reading science fiction. I have often asked myself, "Why do such fictional machines fascinate me so? " I might have also asked, "Why does science fiction fascinate me? " But since I am dealing with my fascination for the above mentioned machines, I will consider only them at the moment. To begin with, man, as compared to the forces of nature and the unconceivable infinity of the universe, is but a puny, ephemeral speck of protoplasm. When I view these things I experience (as I am sure others do) a feeling of inferiority. But I read of the mighty machines that can better the energy output of a sun of the first magnitude, quench a supernova, transport one through the vast reaches of the macrocosm at undreamed of speeds, that feeling of inferiority is swept away. Man can look nature in the eye and say, "Behold the mighty machines I have created! No longer must I quake in fear at your powers, for I can meet and even better them! " Perhaps I sound as if I am making the machine my God. I say that I am not. I view it as an extension of man, being his creation to help him overcome the forces of nature, and to help him execute his wants. And there, in the worlds "Help him execute his wants," lies a sour note, for these wants are too often destructive rather than constructive. It is not a man's creation that is a Frankenstein monster, but man himself. Perhaps, as time goes on, there will arise, as science fiction writers have pointed out, a superman who shall work for the ultimate good of mankind and use his machines toward that end instead of to annihilate his brother. Let us hope so. (6)
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