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Neophyte, v. 1, issue 1, January 1948

Page 9

craniums were immense or else they were wearing abnormally large helmets." The underlines are to indicate that, at this point, Padgett hedged. He left it to the reader to determine whether the future men were BBDs.

One authentic BBD in three and one-half years is evidence, but whether it indicates a passing or a survival is a moot question. Doubtless other magazines contain additional appearances, but their files are not available to the writer. It might be observed that few magazines hew so closely to the Science Fictional line as Astounding and that it, therefore, should give an accurate indication of the trend. By way of negative information we notice that the story-type (to which he is native) has passed.

It would seem that the early popular writers took up where Verne, et al, left off; that is with ordinary men handling the products of a future technology and meeting the situations arising therefrom. The more remote the future, the more latitude given the writer and (presumably) the better the story. In the race to the furtherest goal it was realized that a failure to show an evolutionary modification of the far future humanity would be inconsistent with our species has consisted of various physical changes including an increase in the size of the brain with an attendant expansion of the reasoning power, and from this it was natural to decide that future development would follow in a straight line from the past. The brain would continue to grow, and the body to shrink, with the end result appearing as described in the first paragraph. After that -- extinction or retrogression. Stories have been written on both expectations; one of which convincingly demonstrated that the brain would become so huge as to be crushed by its own weight, resulting in madness, death and a racial extinction analogous to the fate of the huge reptiles who armored themselves to oblivion. Nature was to overspecialize again.

The early stories pictures a future so remote that to write or read them induced a mood of visionary exaltation...a haunting mysticism which swept away the present to reveal an infinite vista of blackened suns, and silent planets come to rest. How brief had been their brilliance...and how long the night to come! It is a mood impossible to sustain, and such efforts quickly become old hat. and then came to writers back, to graze the fields ignored in racing to the ultimate. Few stories today present a future sufficiently removed to justify the use of BBD and, besides, changes pictured now are based on the theory of mutation.

Before discussing that subject, we might clarify our position. The appearance of only one authentic BBD in a three year period may indicate that we no longer believe in him. On the other hand, his type of story is not current because we are more interested in a nearer future, and his absence is understood and excusable. The question thus arises whether he could come back if we should concern ourselves again with the later years of humanity -- and here the seeds of controversy may ripen. And here, also, the mutational idea becomes pertinent.

Our estimate of the future has been modified in the past ten years by the construction of the atomic bomb and the approaching possibility that numbers of us may be battered by hard radiation. This exposure could come either from the hazards, or from accidents or mismanagement experienced in the expected transition of industry from chemical to nuclear power, but in either case there is a possibility of a change in the structure of the species. Probably we are the first life form on the planet to introduce an artificial stimulus into the great blind game of inducing mutational responses, and to forsee the results of our impertinence with any degree of assurance is possible. But if we do change, we may expect modifications both mental and physical, for the security of our

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craniums were immense or else they were wearing abnormally large helmets." The underlines are to indicate that, at this point, Padgett hedged. He left it to the reader to determine whether the future men were BBDs. One authentic BBD in three and one-half years is evidence, but whether it indicates a passing or a survival is a moot question. Doubtless other magazines contain additional appearances, but their files are not available to the writer. It might be observed that few magazines hew so closely to the Science Fictional line as Astounding and that it, therefore, should give an accurate indication of the trend. By way of negative information we notice that the story-type (to which he is native) has passed. It would seem that the early popular writers took up where Verne, et al, left off; that is with ordinary men handling the products of a future technology and meeting the situations arising therefrom. The more remote the future, the more latitude given the writer and (presumably) the better the story. In the race to the furtherest goal it was realized that a failure to show an evolutionary modification of the far future humanity would be inconsistent with our species has consisted of various physical changes including an increase in the size of the brain with an attendant expansion of the reasoning power, and from this it was natural to decide that future development would follow in a straight line from the past. The brain would continue to grow, and the body to shrink, with the end result appearing as described in the first paragraph. After that -- extinction or retrogression. Stories have been written on both expectations; one of which convincingly demonstrated that the brain would become so huge as to be crushed by its own weight, resulting in madness, death and a racial extinction analogous to the fate of the huge reptiles who armored themselves to oblivion. Nature was to overspecialize again. The early stories pictures a future so remote that to write or read them induced a mood of visionary exaltation...a haunting mysticism which swept away the present to reveal an infinite vista of blackened suns, and silent planets come to rest. How brief had been their brilliance...and how long the night to come! It is a mood impossible to sustain, and such efforts quickly become old hat. and then came to writers back, to graze the fields ignored in racing to the ultimate. Few stories today present a future sufficiently removed to justify the use of BBD and, besides, changes pictured now are based on the theory of mutation. Before discussing that subject, we might clarify our position. The appearance of only one authentic BBD in a three year period may indicate that we no longer believe in him. On the other hand, his type of story is not current because we are more interested in a nearer future, and his absence is understood and excusable. The question thus arises whether he could come back if we should concern ourselves again with the later years of humanity -- and here the seeds of controversy may ripen. And here, also, the mutational idea becomes pertinent. Our estimate of the future has been modified in the past ten years by the construction of the atomic bomb and the approaching possibility that numbers of us may be battered by hard radiation. This exposure could come either from the hazards, or from accidents or mismanagement experienced in the expected transition of industry from chemical to nuclear power, but in either case there is a possibility of a change in the structure of the species. Probably we are the first life form on the planet to introduce an artificial stimulus into the great blind game of inducing mutational responses, and to forsee the results of our impertinence with any degree of assurance is possible. But if we do change, we may expect modifications both mental and physical, for the security of our