MARC CHAGALL'S ILLUSTRATED BIBLE- BILLY GRAHAM, THE DALAI LAMA,ETAL, ON THE FUTURE OF GOD- THE TEN BEST CHRISTMAS GAMES- PLUS: AGENT X- RENE DUBOS-THE PIOUS PLURALITY- THE LITTLE ROCKET THAT COULDN'T onnruiDECEMBER 1981

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR; BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: BEN BOVA EXECUTIVE EDITOR: DICK TERESI ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO EUROPEAN ED "OR DP BERNARD DIXON ASSOCA"E P...RL SH-R MAR ANNF HOVVATSON DIR-OTOR Or ADVERTISING. BEVERLEY vVARDALE

CONTENTS PAGE FIRST WORD Opinion Thomas 0. Paine 6

EARTH Environment Rolf Martin and Kathleen Stein 16

MIND Behavior Walli F Leff ia

LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 22

_IT"LE ROCKET Space John W Wilson 24

FILM The Arts Mitch Tuchman 26

SCULPTURE The Arts Jane I Bladow 28

BOOKS The Arts Charles Piatt 30

PERFORMANCE The Arts Kathleen Ann Hughes 32

HOLOGRAPHY The Arts Sal Manna 38

EX?I ORATIONS Travel Norveil Brasch 40

CONTINUUM Data Bank 43

COMPUTER B=AIN IY^lAY" Article Kathleen McAuiiffe 52

RINGTIME Fiction Thomas M. Disch 60

SURVIVAL Article Rene Dubos 70

ASHES Fiction Ian Stewart 76

FUTURE OF GOD Article James Reston, Jr. 80

CHAGALL'S BIBLE Pictorial Gini Kopecky 84

\ASAS„A'v'ES V 3EGGS Interview Ben Bova 92

AGENT X Article Franklynn Peterson and Judi Kesselman-Turkel 96

VISIONS OF THE OCCULT Pictorial Douglas Colligan 102

VOXOLYMPICA Fiction Michael Bishop '106

ANTIMATTER UFOs. etc. 131

PHOTO CON"EST Competition Geoffrey Golson 158 TEN 3E3" GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 170

STARS Astronomy Jeff Hecht 172 SUPERSTORM Phenomena John F Deeks 174 PIOUS PLURALITY Humor Spider Robinson 178

Survival Kit is the title ol this month's cover, by Scotsman Colin nteO in the U.S.A. by Mere Hay. Familiar to British science- rid (except the U.K.) by Cu s©

1 ''Ci'.'O.', readers because of his . By COMAG, Tavistock Ro numerous pagerback cavers, Hay irorn draws his inspiration Gothic L'.ii AVC-S2-I:; y".CK cathedrals, modem architecture, armingOale. N.Y 11735. Po wYork.N.Y.andataddilion and machinery. He attended ine onions published Ihereot re Edinburgh College of Art.

4 OMNi Fro^<-'iy perspective,' America laces four toward a.pcwcra;! uixiprstandina of c ir cjrsa; challenges: environment c and our own makeup, from irs:, :e buikj and ceiTionstrate ;o the the ini-'-v-mosI structure of subatomic wor:c! a creative polyethnc democracy nailer to ine grand aremteciure of the -v;iri b'oihei'nooc from sea io umve-se. and f-om tne beautiful genetic. ' shining sea." blueprint or OMA's douole heih io rue

. Second, to preserve global peace, cognitive mysteries of the human mind using deterrence an'd persuasion wisely "'"•:,:' ay we face c-x.oiirig opportunities on to prevent a calamitous nuclear war transcendent planes. ..-"' between the superpowers. I beiieve tha' Americas national security Third, to manage International's : cience ami econom. o ,ve!i-i:'eing uepend upon, ano technoogy in order to raise health our continuing technological leadership. ; and ; ving standards throughout the world. As was shewn a decade ago. NASAs FourA to continue to explore the 11 ' : 1 'I ' Ul ii|-. , 'III.,:, r . frontiers cf science, particularly our solar sobering oeterroni io So^e! system and trie cosmos, eventually iTisoalcuisiion and a major sSaollizma propagating terrestrial life to new worlds. lc-ce:n mainia:nmg peace. Space :o rno die greatest glory of America is sur- i.i.'lance sysierns. furthermore, oHer 01^ melutacetao democratic society, with t.n= best hope I';/ reaisiio arms control (hat diverse ethnic an.g religious values. More -an be carefully monltcrsd and enforced. races live and work harmoniously together There are many ot hereihan anywhere in the history of the from NASA's programs. Communications world. We do not have to apologize that satellites today represent ap.riv.aW- the task is no: ye! finished; of course it's Investmeni of £1 billion - money raised not FIRST no!. Much remains io be done, because from taxpayers but from Wall Street we a/e an organic soc stiii eiv. investors expecting a return. More than experimenting adapting, arid receiving 100 nations are now linked by the global LOJDRD n.ew peoples. communications satellite system, soon to i believe tha America's destiny is to be followed By-Thomas Paine by the direct broadcast of - demonstrate t 2 troubled world how many television channels from orbit. people of ciive se races and cultures ^Low-cost can In the next decade modules derived space effectively wcr together-arid reach from the space shuttle will be fitted transport will for the stars; open a togetherto create operations centers in- Our second challenge, to preserve orbit. rich continent They will provide permanent facilities global peace e nd prevent nuclear war, is tor medical and materials research, Earth in orbit and generate of overwheimir importance. g We will neec observations, advanced communications. industries im- navigation systems, radio astronomy e.no salience and s rength, vigilance and luck other valuable human activities possibleon Earth.9 Military streng h and resolution are not From space telescope observation mav enough. ' Wetii st combine deterrence come oiscoveries of new fundamental '. with diplomatic persuasion better and laws of nature, with implications for mutual umderst anding. We' create must „ ' i :,, more effective 'Genomic and cultural mas' aiscov'eries of radioactivity eace Magmncent lasers, and semi-conduction were to Opportunities e xis! for. joint programs in present technology space expi oral on. The future of "-.- :'-, n ! j. ro vili numanklnd dep ends upon our skill and "S" ":.; nveslmenf mid economic. success. :-:-- e cpme'il a rich newcontineni ;n earth

. Ourthi-rd cha lenge, to manage ":: :: : -ow-eosi iransporiaiion to orbit ano

' ' e.enci re chnology ; io mo-:.j:v v to ;ne moon arid asieroios. plus

11 I i andards. 'umcus space research wi;.- generate aisoconlribules to sUmi.-, peace and whole new rnoustres. From our new New teennciogies will be of critics- vantage point in space, we will better importance: meci-oino. aerospace, mee" snmprenend the universe and rovoiution ' agriculture (with generic engin- "-umankind's role as a vitalizing lorce. ir-ug nroms:r;gnewbreak-mrf .,,;-: propagatihg'terrestrial.!ife;outward'from,its ' JiiriL-r :i orom ' "; ' earthly cradle, ..- ;. :."=.. (!! : i, . hi: , " space commu- "h;s is a sound direction for us today Let nications, ano new energy options - ui: :: teate a new Golden Ac;e as we soar ail of these will spark termer -apiri upward to explore c-u r cosmic advances for the remainder o; environment and. m the tradition of tnc e.nn-ee-; : i;g Polynesian navigators, open * Our halluuge: led co- thes ir.DO

' the physical arc cos man at anytime DRJinJIBU!

lomorrow's computer factories, researcher had uncovered an infectious from his latest book, Celebrations of Life, Inintegrated circuits will not be agent that may cause everything from Dubos challenges the doomsayers' bleak

mechanically assembled, but grown senility to Parkinson's disease, but it was predictions: "Trend is not destiny." Never, inside genetically engineered cells. EMV sufficiently small to pass through filters he points out. have human beings stood

Associates, Inc., a small, high-tech fine enough to trap all known viruses." Turn still in the face of disaster when they have company in Rockville. Maryland, already to page 96 for a medical detective story been aware of the consequences. has plans to build a protein chip 1,000 that contains all the elements of the best Professor Emeritus of Rockefeller times more powerful than today's sili- science-fiction thrillers. University, Dubos is a microbiologist and

con wafers — and small enough to inter- . With To Defend, To Destroy and The experimental pathologist who created the directly with the brain. face human Amnesty of John David Herndon , James first commercially produced antibiotic.

Omni associate editor Kathleen McAuliffe Jr. established repulation in his eightieth year, reports, "I Reston, , a as a Now he caught wind of this development when she gifted commentator on the social have changed in many ways. . . . The best and her sister, Sharon McAuliffe, were upheavals caused by war and political is that I've become more optimistic about putting the final touches on their newly turmoil. But his latest book focuses on the future of the world." published book, Life for Sale (Coward, another disquieting force within society. TV Update: Only a few episodes into the McCann & Geoghegan), which explores Our Father Who Art in Hell is the story of 26-part series, Omni; The New Frontier how recombinant-DNA technology will the life and death of the Reverend Jim quickly reached critical acclaim. Owen transform our lives. Her report on the Jones. As a special feature for our holiday McNally, of the Hartford Courant, writes, biochip revolution begins on page 52. issue, Omni contacled Reston to analyze "The show has a touch of class, style, and The world's most talented sleuths are the mounting influence of the world's star quality right from the start. ... Its racing to track down a killer that strikes spiritual leaders on global affairs. "Reli- breezy approach might even entice kids victims with such ferocity as to reduce gion in the Twenty-first Century" (page 80) nurtured on Star Wars and other their brains to a spongy pulp. The feafures Reston's interviews with silver-screen space fantasies to develop assailant has left a trail of death and American presidential adviser Billy an interest in science." Kay Gardella, of destruction the jungles similar from of New Graham, South Africa's black Anglican the New York Daily News , voiced Guinea, where Fore tribesmen have fallen Bishop Desmond Tutu, Tibet's Dalai Lama, sentiments: "Omni: The New Frontier prey, to mink and sheep ranches in the and other prominent figures who provide a speaks a language we all can understand.

United States. Dubbed Ageni X, this killer definitive look at religion of the future. It's a heralded newcomer to the growing may be the smallest living entity known to Living under the constant threat of list of programs in this genre." The New. science. In fact, it may not even qualify as nuclear holocaust, with everything in York Post chose the new series as one of a life form— at least not in respect to our shortage except pollution and people, the best listings in town, and UPI reporter present definition. It was a tiny item in the modern man has come to view the future Kenneth R. Clark comments, "If the Wisconsin Stale Journal that drew science with gloomy desperation. But Rene opening episode is any indication of reporters Franklynn Peterson and Judi Dubos, prominent scientist, humanist, and things to come, the old 'wasteland' of

Kesselman-Turkel into the search for the Pulitzer Prize-winner, stands out as a television is flowering at last." Check local deadly substance. "The news clipping," singularly uplifting voice in these troubled listings for the broadcast times of Peterson recalls, "mentioned that a times. In "Survival" (page 70), an excerpt upcoming episodes. OO [ M editors..publisher KATHY KEETON

OMNI PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD. EDITORIAL LETTERS

Editor in Chief: Bab Succionie V.P. E;: ml Oiiec- .-. tor: Ben Bwa; Executive Eato, D. > ' ._, .u s ,-:.= ing Editor: Paul Hi'es: :•.' :' ?.;n| £ 7 V ; Morii's, Owen Dawes Gu-nev KVii'.ams ni -. nco ftf/for corinnnunjiCMTiariJs

Measuring Up Public Access Why does the magazine of tomorrow I want you to r know what a fine job I think continue to use the English GassmWcomn&V»9^ :i/;cvs.'''Or r^rick Moore! measurement Kathleen Slein did in covering what must system of yesterday? have been a very difficult assignment- ART Peter M. Loge describing in lay terms- a brand-new

Art O/rector: Fran, DsVinc A SS < S !an! Art Direct 1 New Haven, Conn, advance in a very technical area of brain Margaret Richichi. Elisabeth Woodson; Photo Etii- research ["Brainstorms," October 1981 ], You point out a problem that has troubled Shapiro; Stat! Photographers- Pal Hill, Tony Sue* Usually the translation into lay terms does us for three-years. We have tried not take place until some months or even converting all measurements to the metric years after the initial scientific report, and system, but we found that some usually several stages of intermediate measurements are better expressed in the descriptions are written for nonspecialist English system than isrtative - in the metric one. scientists. This S- . . L ;„in 0;. process was successfully Most of us have a good idea of what a shortened by Ms. Slein. since the initial kilometer or a kilogram is, but how many of report of our results appeared in ihe us comprehend what a hectare or a August 21, 1981. issue of Science. kilopascal is? And what about 100-yard I think it is a credit both to her and to dashes, room temperature, the length of Omni that the final story met all the initial football fields (British or American), and goals of accuracy, comprehensibility, and measurements that are given precisely in timeliness. I would not hesitate to inches, feet, quarts, or pounds? recommend your magazine to my We have chosen not to distract readers colleagues as a fine medium for WERTISJNG OFFICES by drawing undue attention to any presenting their work to the public in an measurements in a story since this would accurate and interesting manner lessen the story's impact. Our present AlanS. Gevins policy is to retain the system of EEG Systems Laboratory measurement that is appropriate to a San Francisco. Calif. particular story, keeping in mind that many -iifterc:): people read Omni. Boasting to the Stars Although we are the magazine of Be advised that Farmers Loop Inter- tomorrow, we must consider all our read- planetary, which was formed in 1976 to ers, along with the fact that we cannot con- mine the asteroids, has every intention vert them by pushing a few buttons — Ed. of fulfilling its charter The apparatus EDITORIAL OFFICES we will use is not an electromagnetic mass Lunar Madness driver, solar sails, or any of the other a firefighter As and emergency medical devices mentioned in Brian O'Leary's technician for the past ten years, I know I Space column [September1981], Our can speak for many policemen, nurses, economic analysis and fhe accompanying and doctors who collectively prepare technical design for our project were the themselves for an interesting evening very best in 1979, when they were when the is moon full [Human Tidal conceived, and are still the best. Waves, Continuum, September 1981]. R. L. Blackmer The incidence of strange or unexpected Farmers Loop Interplanetary injuries and maladies seems to rise College, Alaska sharply when the moon is full. On a warm summer night emotions that would Software Slang otherwise remain hidden or controlled Omni's article entitled "Computer Graffiti"

seem to rise with the tides, resulting in ' [September 1981 ] contained an erroneous E CORPORATION homicides, suicide attempts, domestic explanation of the origin of the word foo. quarrels, traffic accidents, drug Foo. is the shortened form of "fubar" overdoses, and drownings. (pronounced foo'bar), which stands for I've yet to respond to any werewolf Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition, an

attacks, but I must remind myself that acronym that has been in common use at there are still many moons to come. MITfor many years, perhaps decades. Richard C. Ornberg Martin Plys Des Planes, III. Cambridge, Mass. DO "

DIALOGUE FDRUfUl

In which the readers, editors, and cor- ourselves io smail d'eams : A strong respondents discuss topics arising out space program is the kind of dream we of Omni and theories and speculation of need to revitalize our national spirit. " general interest are brought forth. The President Reagan and Vice-President views published are not necessarily those Bush will lead America into an era of hope, of She editors. Letters for publication prosperity, and great dreams again. It is should be mailed to Omni Forum, Omni up to us to tell them that space must be a Magazine, 909 Third Avenue, New York, part of that era. Please write to Mr. Bush NY 10022. today about this crilical matter. Newt Gingrich Write Now House of Representatives President Reagan's January 1982 State of Washington, D.C. the Union 1. THE EDGE®: More and more Address may be historic. The players are turning to the President has the opportunity to use his A mountain of ice and dust and organic its great payability, Its streamlined message to lay out America's agenda of molecules is slreakingfrom beyond Pluto design and lightweight aluminum hope for the 1980s, and you.and I have the toward the sun. It is probably a fragment construction add quickness and ooportunity to ensure that he includes left over from the formation of the solar response to your game. Its larger space in the national agenda. system and may hold clues to the origin of size is more forgiving on otf-center We need a nationwide letter-writing and life. The most famous visitor to Earth in. : hits. Yet, unlike the jumbos, you public relations campaign to influence the human memory don't have to adjust your game. Halley's Comet will once President and get him to commit the ration You'll see improvement in every again pass our planet in 1986. It cries out to shot you hit— volley, serve, and the goal of a permanent manned base, for exploration. All the nations of Earth ground strokes. Skyport One. in low-Earth orbit by 1990, able to send a spacecraft to encounter the At the August meeting of the National 2. THE GRAPHITE EDGE": If you comet are doing so. Only the United want to see your game take a Coordinating Commiltee on Space, States seems reluctant. And only the several quantum leap in the right direction, space-advocacy organizations United States is able to muster a the Graphite Edge is the racquet pledged their support of this campaign. Voyager-class mission, thereby greatly that can do it. It combines the feel Our is strategy to write letters to enhancing the effectiveness of the first and power of graphite with all the Vice-President George Bush, asking him truly multinational exploration of space. advantages of the Edge mid-size to counsel the President to declare As editorials in many American design. Its firmer flex lets.you hit Skyport One a national space priority newspapers crisper volleys and deeper ground indicale, a Halley mission is during the State of the Union Address strokes. You get a quiet, solid enormously popular It is scientifically this coming January. feel plus remarkable control and meritorious. It costs less than 1 percent of consistency. I need the help of every Omni reader to the NASA budget (tiny for federal write the Vice-President, 3. THE NEW "STRING-LOCK™" Old Executive spending, but far too much for public Office Building, EDGE: The newest Head high- Washington, DC 20500. subscription). It will reinvigorate a U.S. performance aluminum racquet and request that he urge Mr. Reagan to planetary program sacly neglected by features a in lead whole hew concept America into space. While they're at several administrations and will make us racquet technology. Each string is their typewriters, they should also write proud of our nation and of our species. individually locked into place. This their senators and congressman, asking And it can still be done. means you can "fine-tune" your them to do the same. But only the White House can make an racquet with more exact string Two decades ago President John F American Halley mission happen at this tensions and keep it in top playing Kennedy used these words to move the late date. Therefore, it is imperative condition, replacing strings as ti that become worn or broken. The American spirit and get America dreaming your readers send a letter or telegram to denser string pattern and more again: "Now is the time to take large President Ronald Reagan, The White accurate tensions produce a tin strides— time for a great new American House, Washington. DC 20500, urging feel which lets you hit that well- enterprise— time for this nation to take a him to take action without delay, placed winner. clearly leading role in space achievement, Such a Halley mission will be celebrated Visit yoyr authorized Headdeah which in many holds " ways the key to our by our descendants in the far tuture. Help to try a demonstrator racquet. future on Earth." make this historic event possible. the Edge that's best tor your g. After two decades of malaise and Carl Sagan stagnation. President Reagan declared President, the Planetary Society

" that "we are too great a nation to limit Pasadena, Calif. CuMII.VUEDON PAGE176 SAVE A SEED EARTH By Rolf Martin and Kathleen Stein

Several years ago a medium-sized the United States have become extinct in concede that it may no longer be possible bridge was built over a river in recent decades. Surveys conducted by to save all the 3,000 endangered plants in States. Confronted with the task Louisiana. It was an ordinary the Smithsonian Institution and the Federal the United selecting plants to rescue and bridge in most respects, except that it was Endangered Species Program predict as of which built over one of the last remaining many as 3,000 more American plants — which to abandon to extinction, some 10 percent of the plants scientists are now considering a populations of Isoetes louisianensis , approximately of plant species. a small plant that criginated in in this country — will vanish if present cost-benefit assessment coal-producing swamps several million trends continue. Once their economic value is estimated, a years ago. Thai population of Isoetes In order to adopt a policy to preserve decision can be made as to whether does not exist anymore because no endangered plant species, the American their total worth exceeds the costs of one made any effort to change the people must face a number of difficult preservation. construction site just a few hundred feet. questions. How far should we move President Reagan apparently has "There are many causes of extinction," bridges, dams, tunnels, and roads to endorsed the idea of cost-benefit analysis says Ghillean Prance, vice-president for accommodate endangered populations? by ordering that fiscal evaluations must science at the New York Botanical Garden, How many acres of critical habitat should accompany all new federal regulations. technical "but the most pervasive is habitat be preserved from development? How But because of the legal and destruction." Farming, strip mining, urban large a budget should be allocated for issues involved in assessing benefits, a expansion, and many other human endangered-species research and detailed cost-benefit analysis of plant activities devastate vital natural areas. "In recovery? Answering these questions is conservation has not yet been carried out Iowa, over ninety-five percent of the land especially difficult while the economy is by the federal government. Although the has been altered in one way or another," faltering and budget cutting is the remedy Reagan Administration has no clear-cut says Dean Roosa, an ecologistforthe nowadays most often being prescribed. idea of the economic value of endangered state of Iowa. And in many other states Many people— particularly plants, it already has taken a position comparable areas will soon be affected by conservative business groups— believe concerning preservation: The budget of Program human incursions. Plants are simply the time for arguing whether all plant the Federal Endangered Species running out of living space. species should be saved has come and has been cut by about one third. At this More than 50 species of plants native to gone. Even many environmentalists rate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects fewer than six additional plants will be legally protected during the next year, reducing by half the number of additional plants accorded official protection. Regardless of the proposed merits of the President's cuts, his plan does not encompass 99 percent of endangered American flora. "There is no doubt that many endangered plants will prove to be extremely valuable," says Paul Ehrlich, professor of population studies at Stanford University, in California. For him, the conservation of rare plants is a matter of personal importance. In their new book, Extinction, Ehrlich and his coauthor/wife, Anne Ehrlich describe how Paul's father might have been saved from Hodgkin's disease by an obscure periwinkle plant that grows in the West Indies. Unfortunately, purification of one of the plant's ingredients, vinblastine, began several years after his father had died. A similar chemical obtained from the periwinkle, vincristine, is now used each

Reaganomics force bomnsts .o; fix a pnce on such endangered i;o:a as ine Tennessee co.nefiov

16 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 160 ASYNCHRONx rmiruD

By Walli F Leff

right half of Peter's body has been able to see the tiny movements the earliest moment, an infant is sensi? ve The of moves faster than his left. His people make as they talk to and listen to to the rhythm language. right eye tracks more rapidly than others. Eyes, mouths, wrists, fingers, Condon found that dyslexic and autistic his left eye does, and it focuses al a hips, knees, and feet move in precise children lack synchrony within themselves different point. When he blinks, his right patterns, slowing for consonants, speed- and with other people. "The whole eyelids shut faster. When he smiles, his ing up for vowels, all in time segments organism of a normal person, both left and iips curve up more quickly on the right as short as one ninety-sixth of a second. right sides, moves with incoming sounds," side of his face. Peter is a dyslexic child, By observing speakers from all over the he explains. "In the dyslexic child, and his body is constantly in a state of world, Condon has found that each however, the right side moves, and then, asynchronous confusion. culture's body movements are in concert after a delay, the left side moves, as if one Dr. William Condon, of Boston University wilh the rhythm of its language. side of the brain is getting the message Medical Center, discovered Ihese Condon has also discovered that late. And this seems to occur repeatedly." right/left asynchronies in children who listeners move in patterned precision When Peter's name is called, for suffer from dyslexia and autism when he along with the speech of another person. example, the right side of his forehead, his studied patterns of body movements lhat "Communication is like a dance, with right eye, and his right eyebrow move at are associated with speech. In Dr. everyone engaged i indicate and shared the appropriate time. The left side of his

Condon's study, autistic children — movements across many sublle face, however, remains still. His right seemingly .self-absorbed and withdrawn dimensions, yet all strangely oblivious of side then shows an appropriate orienting from reality— had a left/ right delay. the fact that they are doing so. Even total response: turning toward the person Children who showed symptoms of strangers display this synchronization," he who called his name. dyslexia— a puzzling brain disturbance writes. He calls this entrapment. Meanwhile the pattern of forehead, eye, that aftects one's ability to read — had the Entrainment is evident from birth and and eyebrow movement takes place opposiie delay in reactions: right/left. probably occurs as early as the sixth belatedly on his left side, then repeats— Using a 16mm Time Motion Analyzer, the month affer conception. A newborn infant inappropriately— three more times. When device used by football coaches for going moves rhythmically with its mother's the entire sequence is viewed in real time,

over games frame by frame, coupled with . speech, and this, in turn, lets the mother Peter's lack of symmetry is not very synchronized audio equipment, Condon know that the child is responding. From noticeable: His face just looks interesting.

At worst, he appears a little fidgety. When the film is run one frame at a time, the right/left differences stand out. But many dyslexic and autistic children are visibly jumpy and jerky. Condon's slowed-down films suggest that the children's involuntary twitches and

overloud speech, with its distorted pitch and stress, can be traced to delayed and multiple entrainment. In one remarkable

example, a child is shown attempting to reach for an object: then his arm jerks in delayed response to a sound heard earlier, and he knocks the object over. Another film shows a child walking across a room and suddenly lurching to one side as he entrains to a previous sound. The films seem to indicate that the inner

life of autistic people is a booming, buzzing confusion. Although their hearing is normal and they hear each sound only once, they continually look around, one

way and another, as if the sound were being repeated. "They cannot attend to anything because they attend to everything," Condon says. DO play, or a contract. And that's O. K. "Prvwu; jfiirii. JnJ duslc- 10 read jasler-except the But word-by-word reading is a rotten way to read faster. It actually aits down on your speed. How to read faster Clustering trains you to look at groups of words instead of one at 4& a time-to increase your speed enor- mously Rir most of us, clustering By Bill Cosby faster. But I know of 3 that are Then read the entire last two * especially good. paragraphs. is a totally different way of seeing what And if I can learn them, Previewing doesn't give you ive read. Here's how to cluster: Train so can you-and you can put all the details. But it does keep you them to use immediately. from spending time on things you your eyes to see all the words in clus- \ They are ters of up to 3 or 4 words at a glance. commonsense, don't really want-or need-to read. the piece at your nonnal speed to practical ways to get the Here's how I'd cluster the story mean- Notice that previewing gives see what you missed the first time. ing from printed words quickly we just skimmed: you a quick, overall view of long, Try- a second piece. First cluster, and efficiently. So you'll have unfamiliar material. Rir short, light then reread to see what you missed time to enjoy your comic reading, there's a better technique. in this one. books, have a laugh good with When you can read in clusters 2. Skim-if it's Mark Twain or a good cry with without missing much the first War short and simple and Peace. Ready? time, your speed has increased. Okay. The first Skimming is a good way to get two ways can a Practice 15 minutes every day and help general idea you get through tons of of light reading-like you might pick up the technique reading material— popular magazines or the sports fast—to'tfioat in a week or so. (But don't be disap- International Pah: jjk.,1 Bill Codr.-uhu earned his reading every word. and entertainment sections of the pointed if it takes longer. Cluster- drainmue m vd'.tcaw.in an.! fun hccn in>vi<:t:d m privets They'll paper. give you the overall ing everything takes time and which heh people learn to read faster-to share uhnl he's meaning of what You should be able to skim - you're reading. a karnc.! dkon: icUilifi.j irirviy rT (,'55 rime. practice.) And let you cut out weekly popular magazine or an awful the So now you have 3 ways to When I was a kid in Philadelphia, lot of unnecessary reading. second section of your daily paper help you read faster. Preview to cut I muse have read every comic book in less than half the time it takes read- 1. Preview— if it's down on unnecessary heavy ever published. (There were fewer you to read it now. long and hard ing. Skim to get a quick, general of them then rhan there are now.) Skimming is also a great way to idea of light reading. And cluster I zipped through all of them in a Previewing is especially useful for review material you've read before. to increase your speed and com- couple of days, then reread the good getting a general idea of heavy Here's bow to skim: Think of prehension. ones until the next issues arrived. reading like long magazine or news- your eyes as magnets. Rirce them the words—and in less than half the With enough practice, you'll Yes indeed, when I was a kid, paper articles, business reports, and to move fast. Sweep them across time it'd take to read every word. be able to handle more reading at the reading game was a snap. nonfiction books. each and every line of type. Pick So far, you've seen that pre- Learning to read clusters is not school or work—and at home-in I It give But as got older, my eyeballs can you as much as half up only a few key words in each line. viewing and skimming can give you something your eyes do naturally. less time. You should even have must have slowed down or some- the comprehension in a.s little as Everybody skims differently. a general idea about content— fast. It takes constant practice. enough time to read your favorite thing! I mean, comic books started one tenth the time. R>r example, You and J may not pick up 1 But neither technique can promise Here's how to go about it: Pick comic books- and Waxayid Peace . to pile up faster than my brother you should be able to preview eight exactly the same words when we more than 50 percent comprehen- something light to read. Read it as Russell and I could read them! or ten 100-page reports in an hour. skim the same piece, but we'll both sion, because you aren't reading all fast as you can. Concentrate on see- It wasn't until much later, After previewing, you'll be able to get a pretty similar idea of what the words. (Nobody gets something ing 3 to 4 words at once rather than when 1 was getting my doctorate, decide which reports (or which it's all about. nothing in the reading game.) one word at a time. Then reread parts for I realized it wasn't my eyeballs that of which reports) are worth To show you how it works, read faster and understand were a closer look. lb to blame. Thank goodness. I circled the words 1 picked most—if not all—of what you read, They're still Here's how to preview: moving as well as ever. Read out when I skimmed the you need to know a third technique. the entire first Today, the printed is more vital than ever. there The problem is, there's too two paragraphs .-. following story. word Now of whatever you've is more need than ever for all of us to read better, write better, and much to read these days, and too Jfr) Try it. It shouldn't 3. Cluster-to increase little chosen. Nes communicate better. time to read every word of it. H take you more speed and comprehension ,v**.* offers this series in the hope that, even in Now, mind you, I still read than International Paper 10 seconds. Most of us learned to read by look- comic books. In addition to con- a small way, we can help. My brother^ ing at each word in a sentence- tracts, novels, and newspapers. Since we started printing it in 1979, we have sent out-at one at a time. Screenplays, tax returns and corre- requests from people everywhere, including students, teachers and Like this: spondence. Even textbooks about business people-several million reprints. My—brother-Russell—th inks- how people read. And which tech- (Joset at nighuBur Ifyou would like reprints of this advertisement, write: "Power of monsters... niques help people read more in I told himlhe is crazy. the Printed Word," International Paper Co., Dept. 3X, PO. Box 954, You probably still read this less time. 'Go and^hec Madison Square Station, New York, N.Y 10010. w™.™™™™-™**. kP way sometimes, especially when I'll let you in on a tittle secret. QLen^hejiaid. the words are difficult. Or when the ©INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY There are hundreds of techniques ami you'll haiv have words an extra-special mean- We believe in the power of the printed word. you could learn to help you read nd a good cry with wi. id(l was chicken!) ing-as in a poem, a Shakespearean RABID OVER RABI! LI

By Dr. Bernard Dixon

Imagine a country free of one of man- Faced with this menace, however, the led the government to set up a Working kind's vilest, most lethal diseases British authorities have all but banned Party on Dangerous Pathogens. The but living in fear of that infection's being experimental work aimed at the prevention second occurred at the University of imported from outside. Envision the and treatment of rabies. Microbiologists Birmingham five years later. The furor disease gradually approaching over many are furious, and one expert, Professor surrounding these outbreaks resulted in years until just one accident or human Colin Kaplan, has described the bodies infectious microbes being put into error could allow an invasion. Now responsible— the Department of Health, different categories of risk, such that the suppose that officialdom in this same the Health and Safety Executive, and more dangerous organisms could be country places constraints on the very the Ministry of Agriculture — as "an handled only in specially designed research needed lo combat this threat. international scientific laughingstock," containment facilities. The setting for this absurd scenario is Other distinguished virologists wrote Against the accumulated experience of Great Britain. And the disease in question recently to the normally unemotional scientists who had worked safely with is rabies. Since the end of World War II, journal The Lancet to announce, "The rabies over many years, this virus was foxes have carried rabies virus inexorably situation borders on the ridiculous." placed in the same risk group asthe vastly westward across Europe from the The cause of their rage is a two-year-old more serious smallpox, Lassa fever, and German-Polish border. The disease front initiative, which unnecessarily restricts Marburg viruses. To say the least, this is has traveled at Ihe rate of about 30 rabies research to a few laboratories bizarre. These three microbes are con- kilometers a year, crossing the Rhine River, under incredibly tight security. The blame tagious. Rabies is not. moving into the heart of France, and now lies with regulatory officials who are not As a direct result of such ill-informed heading toward the Atlantic coast. Today a knowledgeable about the virus and who regulation, rabies research in Great Britain northwestward flanking movement is overreacted to the health hazards posed has steadily declined, and that which is evident, bringing rabies toward the Chan- by a totally different disease, smallpox. stiil allowed has become prohibitively nel ports. By the end of this century, if The ordinance followed two separate costly. There are added inconveniences. not before, the southeast of England will incidents in which laboratory experiments too. One distinguished scientist working be at risk. Once the rabies virus has with smallpox virus spawned accidental for the National Blood Transfusion Service crossed the Channel, it might become and fatal infections. has had to use facilities elsewhere, under irrevocably established in British wildlife. The first, occurring in London in 1973, considerable difficulty, in order to continue his vital work in testing new rabies vaccines. Another scientist points out that

accidents are. if anything, more likely when technicians have to work in cramped quarters, ostensibly for their own "protection," instead of in a more conventional laboratory. Even more alarming, there will be few virologists in the United Kingdom capable of handling

rabies virus when and if the disease does arrive on the nation's shores. Past experience also confirms the lunacy of Britain's policy. While smallpox has proved highly contagious to researchers, rabies has never been acquired by anyone working in a modern, conventional lab. For that reason, European and American virologists at a recent World Health Organization meeting were "bemused and incredulous" when Professor Kaplan informed them of Britain's extraordinarily stringent regula- tions. As one of them wryly remarked, "You have built fortresses to contain a minor threat, but remain defenseless against ihe deadly virus inoxora'o-y c/o.se- ;o Britain's shores. a ravaging invasion from afar."OQ PERCHERON

By John W Wilson

atop its spindly orange Perched figure out why the rocket blew up. It's in by using technology already available. 4' launch platform, the x 55' the nature of rocket explosions for most of NASA, in effect, was the group's rocket looked a bit forlorn out the evidence to disappear. The Percheron research-and-development arm. GCH there alone on the vacant beach of explosion was no exception, but Gary also selected the most cost-effective Matagorda Island, northeast of Corpus Hudson, the founder and president of technology even at the expense of Christi, Texas. GCH. thinks he knows what took place. performance. For instance, the fuel was

If seemed implausible that the engine "The valve froze from the liquid oxygen pressure-fed instead of pump-fed. test scheduled that day was to be the first tank because of the high humidity So we Pressure-fed rockets are cheaper. step toward a proposed launch in 1982 of had only kerosene burning. The heat Someone also raised the question of a the nation's first privately funded space unfroze the valve, and we had oxygen and heater line for the liquid oxygen valve. enterprise — the Percheron Project, kerosene mixing outside of the Hudson vetoed the item for the sake of named after a breed of draft horses from combustion chamber, triggering the economy NASA would have built in every the Perche region of France, NASA's explosion," he says. safeguard it could find to make sure the monopoly had created the impression It's touchy business playing the what-if valve would open on schedule. Investment that megabucks were needed to go into game, but the stuck valve points out the return is not NASA's overriding concern. space and that such programs were best problems an entrepreneur in the rocket "In retrospect," Hudson says, "it was a run by government bureaucrats. business faces when making decisions bad decision. But it was only one of many Yet here was a rocket funded by Space with an eye on costs and ultimate profits. decisions we made, and the rest were Services, Inc., of Houston, built by GCH, GCH is doing a number of things to good. Besides, the valve had worked Inc., of Sunnyvale, California, constructed keep costs down. The company is perfectly the day before." for about $1 ,2 million, with the avowed building one model of rocket and engine, Hudson says the changes necessary to intention of putting satellites into low-Earth designed to provide 75,000 pounds of lift. eliminate the problem were already in the and geostationary orbits for a profit. It was When the weight of the payload increases, works for the next stage of development. an attention-getting situation, the rockets will be hooked together in "One thing we're going to do," he says, "is

The control center for the first engine clusters. It will spare GCH the cost of use inhibited red fuming nitric acid instead test was 300 yards down the beach, north developing bigger engines. of oxygen. It stores at room temperature." of the launch site. It was even more In addition, the rocket was developed Hudson was not stunned by the loss of implausible than the idea of a private- the rocket. "We're relatively unaffected." enterprise rocket. Inside the converted he says. "We'll have another ready to Navy electronics van were four GCH launch in about eighteen months." employees: Eric Laursen, technical The Percheron Project got its start when director; David Ross, test director; Cliff David Hannah, Jr., the founder of Space Home, in charge of instrumentation; and Systems, read a story about Dr. Gerard K. Caroline Williams, the mission's vbfce. O'Neill's plan for space colonies in orbit at

AtT minus seven seconds, Laursen L5. "I was convinced we were closer to a initiated preignition. AtT minus zero, he practical use of space than we realized," the liquid opened oxygen line. And a split Hannah says. "So I tried to get the Carter

second later the kerosene flowed into the Administration interested. I talked to engine's ignition chamber. At T plus three several people. But in the end none of seconds, there was a brilliant fireball. The them were interested." top half of the nation's first rocket for profit Hannah, who made his money in spiraled lazily into the sky over Texas. Houston real estate, is a practical man There was a moment of silence in the and hardly a radical visionary. He works in van. Then someone muttered, "Oh, shit," the world of dollars and cents, and he felt Williams slowly opened the door of the that space could become the source of un- van and asked whether everyone outside limited real wealth. behind the sandbags was all right; No one "I feel it could offer a solution to the was hurt, and soon they were putting out world's energy problem," he says. "It's a a grass fire started the by explosion. way of being able to have all I want while "When it was all over," Laursen says, you have all you want." "there was a strange sense of elation. I Vision in the Carter Administration was suppose because no one had been hurt." severely limited, however, and Hannah The only problem that remained was to v -:-.:;// i zirj-.res ww ;e:::>aci>. switched gears, "I guess you could say that 24 OMNI I PAGE 162 .

aM THE AET5 By Mitch Tuchman

from from ^^^way hokum, away would act out the various gestures or utter This is the chimpanzee greeting. Raquel Welch in #^A her fur bikini— the various sounds that either or I Burgess "What I did — and, of course, this is only the filmmakers never # » doubled suggested. People were furiously writing a guess, it's not serious science — was — theirs would be the path less traveled notes and making up a kind of dictionary. give them a greeting gesture lhat had a and away from what screenwriter Gerard "My consultancy was entirely to do with kind of basic validity, which could have Brach called fantaisie imbecile. All films gestures that these people were making happened, whether or not i! did, in fact, do about prehistoric humankind made [80,000 years ago]. How did they greet so. I combined the ape gesture with the heretofore Brach dismissed summarily, one another? How did they use their hands modern gesture and suggested that, "Merde," he said in a telephone interview when they were frightened or aggressive? instead of clasping each other's palms from Paris. "Just the beginning of 2007 is How did they signal their status'' and instead of touching the back of the good. You remember? Just this one. These "I used three sources," Morris limp hand to the lips, the Ulam should five minutes are fantastiques. Every other continued. "One was a sort of reverse touch the backs of their hands to each movie is ridicule." distillation, reirocjrHssive disti lation from other. Not only is this a hybrid gesture but Ridicule —One Million B.C. and One modern gestures, like looking for one's it is also a slightly more cautious gesture. I Million Years, B.C., A Prehistoric Love great-great-great-great-grandfather, only don't actually give you a chance to grab Story. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, in gestural terms; the second was ape and hold of my hand that way.

Caveman, and History of the World, Part I \ animal signals; and the third was "That's just one example. I can give you Jusf what Brach, director Jean-Jacques information from modern anthropological many more." An Ulam under stress puts Annaud, and producer Michael Gruskoff studies of tribal gestures. his hand to his mouth; we chew our were determined their Quest for Fire would "For example, when two humans meet, fingernails or smoke a cigarette. An angry not be. "The reality" Brach insisted, "is they tend in most cultures to shake hands. Ulam rocks back and forth, stomping his more exciting, very much more interesting. This is done by clasping the palm of the teet; we pace the carpet. How do Ulams "Very much more difficult," he other person in your own palm. Now, when kiss? They roll one face across the other's continued. realistically rendered A remote two apes or two chimpanzees meet, they from cheekbone to cheekbone. "It's past is as difficult to achieve as a credibly don't shake hands. What they do is reach related to nose rubbing and involves a envisioned extraterrestrial future. "II is out and press the knuckles, the back of great deal ot skin contact," Morris immediately necessary to make the film a the limp hand, to the lips of the other ape. explained. "It's quite erotic." littlebitsc/enW/qtre." At any cost (and lhat Some of Morris's suggestions were turned out to be $12 million), the adopted unaltered. Others were modified documentary lo aspects had be credible if during production. "When you hit a the dramatic aspects were not to be as chimp," director Annaud rationalized, "he laughable as in those other "cave flicks," doesn't react. I tried it in the picture, and it "The director wanted to make these was wrong. I had to show them suffering; early men convincing in terms of so I did. I had girls throwing rocks. The behavior," said Desmond Morris, the right way was an outward, underhand Oxford University zoologist and human gesture from the waist [like sowing seed], behaviorist, recalling in a telephone but the violence was missing. Sol had interview his participation in making the them throw overhand." film. "Instead of having a kind of The performers— all of whom met the science-fiction approach — the sort of thing first requirement of a broad forehead and we've all seen with dinosaurs lighting early a strong jaw — spent hours watching Jane man and all that sort of nonsense — he Goodali's films of chimpanzees using wanted this to have authenticity. He tools, establishing dominance and wanted to try with dramatization of course, submission. They spent days at zoos and to re-create something approaching the weeks with British mimes Desmond Jones . primeval condition. So he decided to bring and Peter Elliott "chimping," bent forward in a language expert, and chose Anthony at the hip, knees flexed, elbows turned Burgess, who had studied gestures and outward— but no rolling chimpanzee gait. body language. He chose me," said "No King Kong-ing," Elliott admonished. Morris, author" of The Naked Ape "The most formidable obstacle,"

"Burgess I and spent a couple of days in according to Everett McGill, who stars as London advising. We worked with a group Naoh, the leader of the quest, "was of actors at Twentieth Century-Fox who Age Utams; No King Kong-ing allowed. suppressing natural instincts. A modern 26 OMN! ' on PAGE 154 :ULPTURE THE ARTS By Janel Bladow

Los Angeles standards, the creating a stairway to heaven. During the tribute to the "magic and mystery of the gala unveiling of artist John first 15 minutes, the sixteen 1,000-watt city night." David Mooney's massive floodlights By are switched off, leaving the Using artificial light for artistic purposes permanent sculpture atop the Metromedia steel illuminated by only three 1,000-watt dates almost as far back as Edison's Complex last April was not as stellar a searchlights and ten 400-watt floods. brilliant invention. In the early 1900s celebration as, say, the Academy Awards. During the second phase all 400-watt Thomas Wilfred, the first artist of this But it certainly was more illuminating. lights are shut down so that the century to use electric light for expression At night, bathed in 23,000 watts of white searchlights alone shine eerily through the rather than illumination of objects, created light, the 35-foot-high, white steel steel-formed patterns. Lumia Suite, now at the Museum of sculpture Starsteps looks like an year A and a half earlier, at sunset on a Modern Art, in New York. But light as art enormous, glowing Erector set. Designed clear fall evening, and a continent away. 50 lost some of its enthusiasts with the arrival to finish of! the six-story Metromedia maintenance men, handful a of executives, of television 20 years later. It wasn't until building and "to titillate the sky little a bit," and artist James Pelletier began an the late Sixties that the imagination was according to Mooney, who works in unusual mission among the skyscrapers again sparked by electric light. Chicago, Starsteps takes modern art to of lower Manhattan. Carefully following the In 1966 Billy Kulver, of Bell Laboratories, the heart of life in the fast lane-the artist's blueprints, each man switched on in New Jersey, formed EAT (Experiments in Hollywood Freeway. Seen from a certain car lights or pulled designated blinds. Art and Technology) to merge industry, speeding along the highway below, the rm. By 8 Night/Light was complete. A science, and art to create large light

41 , 000-pound supersculpture gives dozen buildings along New York's famous works. A year later the Pulsa Group (now viewers the illusion of a collapsed antenna skyline suddenly lost their familiar defunct) was organized by seven New (imagery to emphasize the entertainment rectangular character and became a Haven, Connecticut, artist/scientists. industry?) or a construction segment single, unified, glowing sculpture of Their plan was to use urban dangling dangerously above L.A. traffic. geometric patterns — diamonds, triangles, energies— lights, computers, and Two times each night (at 9 rm. and at and squares. Night/Light celebrated the strobes— to produce sensory phenomena midnight) the sculpture becomes a one hundredth anniversary of Thomas in programmed public environments. performance piece; its lights dance once Edison's invention of the electric light bulb Other artists have since used electric every 30 minutes against the city's smog, and was also, according to Pelletier, a light in their work, but it wasn't until Mooney and Pelletier that large-scale environmental light sculptures reached the masses. Mooney and Pelletier are also among the first artists to use common light sources — car headlights, searchlights, and building interior lights— to create illuminated "urbanscapes" in darkness. Both men have sought to bring form, design, illusion, and continuity to the random evening environment. Mooney performed his first major environmental light sculpture, Light Space 77, in Chicago for the city's annual lakefront festival. "The relationship between architecture and Lake Michigan," he says, "has kinetic qualities during the day Night, however, creates a very different phenomenon in the city which has no relationship to the water." Thus, Mooney devised the spectacular piece — 16 searchlights positioned in pairs over eight miles along the shore of the lake. Each beam projected 30,000 feet into the sky and was bounced back by the overcast black night, creating pools ol light on the searchlights, andst water. Following Mooney's radio-

COfJTINUED FROM PAGE 166 BOOKS THE ARTS By Charles Piatt

interest in Public our neighboring shrouded in a mantle of perpetual clouds. never warmer than -30°F and soil planets has never been greater. But readings from the Venus probes in the samples showing no definite evidence of Those evocative color photo- 1960s told a very differenl story Those bacteria, let alone the bones of wise old of Mars. graphs Jupiter, and Saturn have enigmatic silvery clouds turned out to be Martians. Mars was proved to be old, stirred almost everyone's imagination, full of sulfuric acid. The surface of Venus cold, and dead, and writers could no and yet the number of science-fiction was a rock-strewn hell of intolerable longer pretend otherwise. stories set on these planets has dwindled temperatures, around 800°F, and Venus's The outer planets were still available, almost to zero. During the past decade atmospheric pressure was 100 times thai but they had never been very popular. science-fiction authors have taken their of Earth. Our imaginary forests would have Clifford Simak set part of his classic novel tales elsewhere. burst into flame, and the reptiles would City on Jupiter, depicting a world of frozen Back in the Forties and Fifties, authors have been squashed flat. So the myth of beauty where hardy, six-legged animals used to speculate freely about what we verdant Venus was destroyed overnight by iramped through 500-mile-per-hour winds, would find on the planets in our solar a stream of radio data from space. admiring waterfalls of liquid methane. We system. Some of these imaginary For a while Mars still offered some now know that these endearing animals scenarios often were used so that they promise. If had always been a favorite would have a hard time staying on their became as familiar to science-fiction home for alien races. The assumpfion was feel. The Pioneer 10 probe determined readers Corral as the O.K. and Dodge City that Mars was a desert world where an that Jupiter has no solid surface. The are to Western buffs. ancient race had been driven to (he edge planet blends gradually from an Venus, for instance, was invariably of extinction because of a planetwide lack unbreathable. corrosive atmosphere, to pictured as a mysterious paradise of of water; their efforts to build a gigantic toxic oceans, to frozen sludge. swamps and rain forests, giant plants and irrigation network (the "canals" Saturn has been found to be equally menacing reptiles. These stock images popularized by astronomer Percival inhospitable, and Uranus, Neptune, and were used by everyone from Ray Bradbury Lowell) had been fruitless. Pluto, so far from the sun that they exist in in his short story "The Long Rain" to Isaac Then, in 1976, Viking landers sent back a perpetually deep-frozen gloom, are even novel Asimovin his The Oceans of Venus, their pictures and data from the planet less inviting, Writers presented this Venus way Mars, revealing a wispy atmosphere of It's easy to see why authors, faced with because the planet is close to the sun and unbreathable carbon dioxide, a climate ihese harsh facts, gave up and took their tales elsewhere. Some started setting their stories on moons, asteroids, and orbiting man-made sfructures. Others abandoned the solar system altogether and restricted themselves to satellites of distant stars. The advantage of settings on faraway worlds is that such planets are well beyond the scrutiny of TV cameras on future probes. Most stars are so distant that we don't even know whether they have planets or what those planets would be like. This leaves the author free to invent

any world and populate it with an alien race, safe from advances in our knowledge of the universe around us. This is what Frank Herbert did in his all-time best seller, Dune. The novel deals with a desert planet that might as well be Mars. But by setting the planet in another solar system, Herbert freed himself from the restrictions of our knowledge about the Red Planet. So he was able to develop social and political themes instead. This "distant-star" type of planet story often focuses more on the people than on

Planetary probes ling inhospitable c ::" :.<.': ions roi: SF ,'./::;e:s <:' CGr:vor:: : ona: story settings. the planet. A well-known example is 30 OMNI CONTINUED FROM PAGE 163 PERFORMANCE THE ART 8y Kathleen Ann Hughes

Except for a time clock mounted Hsieh invited the public to watch him control, and Hsieh is its victim. Working, on one wall, the small, gray room punch in several times a month. Visitors being chained to- the lime clock, is is emply. Throughout the night, examined the completed time cards, destroying his health, aging him rapidly, every hour, an amplified alarm sounds. which were signed by a witness, sealed in and causing a nervous breakdown. Hsieh, Hsieh, in Sam dressed a gray uniform, plastic, and placed on display. They also the industrial worker, is powerless to slow it

rises quickly from his single bed and examined the time clock, which was down and powerless to change its effects. enters the room to punch in. He must covered with paper seals and (hen dated He can only punch in 24 times a second. punch exactly on the hour. In his waking and signed by a witness to corroborate At the end of the year Hsieh showed his hours a beep from his wristwatch alerts that the clock had not been tampered with film to a small audience, slept through 11 him to punch in every hour. A film records in any way uninterrupted hours, and then talked his actions for one year. To document the passing of one year, aboul his year: "I felt very bad about the What like the cruel sounds tactics of an Hsieh made the film. Each time he punch-ins I missed," he said. He had kept employer gone mad in a 1984 scenario punched in, he exposed one frameof a record of why he missed when he did. actually took place. For one year, 16mm color film. To dramatize the time "But I'm human, and besides, even a "performance artist" Hsieh punched a lapse, he shaved his head at the machine makes mistakes." During the time clock in his New York loft every hour beginning of the year. The film shows the year Hsieh missed a total of 131 punch-ins on the hour, day and night, from April 11, hands of the time clock spinning around (about 1.5 percent of Ihe 8,760-hour total).

1980, at 5 until April 1 , 1981, RM„ 1 at 6 p.m. while Hsieh's hair grows out from baldness A punch-in counted only if it was exactly "I wanted to explore lime and boredom," to well below his shoulders. Each day on the hour. says Hsieh, a thirty-year-old immigrant passes in one second and the entire year Very few of the missed punch-ins from Taiwan. "Most working people do the in six minuies. As the year goes by, Hsieh occurred during waking hours. Hsieh said same things over and over again. I chose appears increasingly pale, haggard, and he simply planned his activities to fit within the time span of one year to symbolize exhausted. Because he stood in a slightly the limit of one hour He bicycled, jogged, life and one hour to symbolize work." different place in each frame, he appears watched TV talked to friends, and put up As a performance artist, Hsieh explains to be having convulsions. posters advertising the performance, that his art consisted primarily of the act Time, in the film, twentielh-century always returning home at the sound of a of punching in. Through advertisements, industrial time, is a machine racing out of beep from his wristwatch.

"I felt myself becoming more and more

like a machine man," he says, "I internalized the rhythm of the clock so thai

during the day I knew exactly when the hour was up without looking at the watch." Machines, Hsieh adds, have alienated man from his natural senses, including a natural sense of time. And the time clock, invented in the nineteenth century, mech- anized the way wo'-ers experience time.

If Hsieh did internalize the time-clock rhythm, he was undoubtedly out of synch .with his "internal clock," according to Dr

Elliot. Weitzman, director of the Sleep- Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, in New York City. Our internal clock or biological time,

Dr. Weitzman explains, is slower than the external clock that is based on sun time.

Although it varies with each person, the internal clock day is usually about 25 hours. (The biological day o! a person can be determined by when that person, placed in a time-isolated apartment, would think one day had ended. The difference between biological time and solar time, Dr. Weitzman says, allows off with the thought of waking up. "I had to perpetually pushing the stone up the us to "phase-shift" or adapt to being in forget about time I and in. I punching had to mountain, just knew I had to go on." Europe or to waking up on a different trust the machine and stop worrying." He A former painter, he says he chose cycle. Conforming to soiar time requires a said that this method worked. In January performance art over painting because continual effort and the use of clocks or the number of missed punch-ins at- "all artists must search for new ideals and alarms. No one, notes, he has an internal tributable to sleep dropped from 21 to 3. new forms. For me this performance clock thai cor responds exactly to the The fact that he dreamed a lot, he Says, is expressed daily drudgery better than a external clock. It's possible that some proof that he attained a state of deep painting or a sculpture could have." process became fixed inside him, so that sleep eveiy hour. "The real proof, though, Although people seemed bored by he had his own external clock. is that I didn't go crazy." watching him punch in, Hsieh says the Hsieh did find, however, that the same However, according to Weitzman, Hsieh response to the film at the end of the year mechanical rhythm did not continue after well may have been suffering from chron- was so good that he showed it twice. he had fallen asleep. Most of the missed ic, oral least partial, REM deprivation. The time-clock performance was not his punch-ins occurred at night and were Normally a person falls into stage three or first performance work about time. In 1979 caused by his sleeping through an alarm stage four sleep a few minutes after he locked himself into a cage for one year were attributable (90 to sleep, 31 to dozing off, he explains. REM (rapid eye and did not read, write, or'speak. A friend tardiness, 10 and to punching in early), movement) sleep, found to be essential to brought him Chinese takeout meals twice As the number of sleep-caused missed the brain, almost always begins only after a day "It represented the solitary working punch-ins increased steadily between 1.5 hours. This is the period in which most life of an artist," he declares. "Being in a April and December, Hsieh found that he dreaming occurs. cage is like thinking and creating. It's very had to change the equipment he used in If deprived of REM sleep, a brain will lonely work." Some of his other per- order to wake up and had to learn to exert continuous and strong pressure to formance pieces have been "Leap," in control his sleep patterns to "avoid going attain it, he says. Though this occasionally which he jumps out of a second-story crazy." It became contest a between his results in hallucinations (a fusion of the window; "Half Ton," in which he lets half a instinctive drive to sleep and his con- ton of sheetrock fall on his body; and scious determination to live by the alarm/ "Horse Manure," in which he jumps into a time-clock rhythm. large vat containing just that.

'At first I didn't trust the alarm system. According to Leo Castelli, a New York

So I couldn't sleep well," he declares. His art gallery owner, performance art has first plan, to use 12 alarm clocks lined • Whatever an up been an accepted art form in New York in a row, was jettisoned when he decided artist does is art if he City since the 1960s. Defined as the use of they might not be accurate. Instead, he " the body itself to express ideas and feel- calls it art, attached his digital alarm whstwatch to a ings, it was exemplified by such people loudspeaker placed next to his pillow Still says Castelli. "After all, as Chris Burden, who had himself nailed anxious about sleeping through a beep, lo a if we couldn't Volkswagen. "Whatever a working Hsieh often lay awake, worrying for fhe artist does is art if he calls it art," says belter part of hour, accept an and would then fall new art forms, Castelli, who professes to have "nothing into a deep sleep right before the alarm we'd still be but respect for Hsieh. After all," he adds, sounded, and he consequently missed a building pyramids.9 "if art couldn't accept new forms, we'd still punch-in. be building pyramids." Though he tried sleeping for 12 to 13 "It may be art, but it's not necessarily hours a day (albeit interrupted), Hsieh good art," says Micki McGee, a curatorial found himself suffering from extreme intern at the downtown branch of the Whit- fatigue. In December he missed two ney Museum of American Art. "Although alarms in a row, allowing him to sleep dream process and the waking state), it he manages to frame the experience of through three hours, the longest period of usually results in "REM rebound"— simply punching in, good art is not just putting in unbroken sleep he had during the year. getting a greater percentage of REM sleep lime; it's creating something new in that Finally, in desperation, he decided to- the next night. But while Hsieh's brain may time. Hsieh doesn't offer an analysis of the attach his.wristwatch to not just one but necessarily have induced REM sleep work life or any insights into its horror. two loudspeakers positioned near his within one hour, Weitzman says, it was People who are forced to punch a time pillow He set the alarm for 30 seconds probably only partial at best. Though REM clock would think this was foolish. before each hour (as opposed to 8), sleep constitutes 15 percent to 25 percent Ultimately it's nihilistic and a waste of allowing him more time to wake up and of a normal person's sleep, Hsieh pro- time." enter the time-clock room. (Hsieh said he bably had far less. "Since an experi- Leslie Walter, an office worker who never slept in the time-clock room, ment like this is unprecedented," he notes, punches a time clock, disagrees. "The film because it connoted work.) "the effects simply aren't known. He must gave me a different viewpoint on time and Although he decided he could trust the have tremendous willpower" punching the time clock," she says. 'At two-loudspeaker system and fall off to Though Hsieh claims that he could first the film was funny, but then it became sleep at last, he continued to experience a control his deep-sleep patterns, eerie. I he found think it's definitely art, and I feel it's severe sense of fatigue. He also found thai thai he couldn't control his dreams, and he excellent," his skin and scalp itched constantly. "I felt I frequently suffered from nightmares. "I Hsieh's current piece is called "Out- was losing control of mind," admits. my he dreamed lhat I wanted to escape and doors." go On September 26, 1981 , at 2 p.m., A friend told him that at least four hours of on vacation," he remembers. "I also Hsieh went outdoors, and he plans to uninterrupted sleep are needed lo attain a dreamed that I wanted to stop punching remain outdoors until September 26. 1982, state of deep sleep. Wjthout deep sleep, the time clock and stop being an artist.". at 2 rm., without entering a single building, the friend warned, a person would be- Other dreams were about wars and about car, train, or ship. He is equipped with only come mentally unbalanced and perhaps being called back to Taiwan to serve in the a sleeping bag and a specially designed permanently insane. army outfit to keep him warm during the winter.

"I knew I had to learn tosleep deeply in Despite the mounting exhaustion, the "Most people spend eighty percent of one hour or give the artwork," up Hsieh nightmares, the boredom, Hsieh says he their time inside buildings," Hsieh says. says. His approach was to concentrate on never seriously considered quitting. "I was "This piece will be about feeling at home falling into a deep sleep instead of drifting living my art," he muses. "Like Sisyphus outside. Really, it's about freedom. "OO 34 OMNI THE ART By Sal Manna

professors it. Optical Physics do certainly just as simple, if not simpler. scientist anymore to make a hologram," technicians do it. College That's why more and more artists are For approximately $400, you can set up

students do it. Anyone can do it getting into it. They're less afraid of the your own holography studio, according to for the price of a good 35mm camera. technology now" Jeong. The essential components are a

Even a twelve-year-old can do it. A graduate in physics from Yale with helium neon laser (useful for iis low cost In a laboratory in Lake Forest, Illinois, an a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the and high safety level) of under 5,000 eighth-grader turns on a green light. University of Minnesota, the forty- milliwatts, a vibration-isolated table Illuminated on a table in front of her is a five-year-old Lake Forest College (constructed of a steel plate or a sturdy low-power helium neon laser, a lens, a professor has been conducting sandbox resting on inner tubes), a photographic plate, and herfavorite holography workshops for a decade. In negative lens or a 10x microscope lens, a possession: a silver Darth Vader doll. She the early days, however, the process holographic film plate, and processing aims the laser through the lens to diverge required thousands of dollars for lasers, chemicals. Since the laser accounts for the beam so that it covers the fallen Jedi slate tables needed for stability, and three quarters of the cost, this method warrior, She carefully lifts a piece ot black elaborate beam splitters. Jeong has compares very favorably with the cost of a cardboard that shields the plate in front of changed all that with his popularization of still-camera system. Besides, Jeong adds, the doll. A moment later she replaces it. a technique first employed in the Soviet there's no problem with focusing, f-stops, The special plate is immersed in a Union, known as the white-light reflection adjusting lenses, or even exposure. You photographic developer, and, voita, a hologram. grossly still can under- or overexpose and , hologram made by a twelve-year-old! The "In our workshops everybody who come out with a reasonable hologram. finished product is a three-dimensional comes in does a hologram their first The safety factor has even been

Darth Vader visible in ordinary white light. afternoon," Jeong says. "They do it even improved recently with the production by H. that within Tung Jeong says our before I explain it. It's like walking and Kodak of a nontoxic, noncaustic bleach lifetime holography will be as common as talking as a child. You're doing it before that is required in the developing phase. is photography today. The guru of you understand how you're doing it. You Among the sciences, holography is a holography for the masses, Jeong admits don't have to know the scientific analyses child in swaddling clothes, having been that his "secret goal is to make holography of lenses to be able to make a applied only in the last 20 years. When popular It's as as taking snapshots. photograph. You don't have to be a Jeong first heard of it, he was curious, "but

just from reading about it, a hologram is hard to appreciate." So Jeong asked a fellow scientist for one and received a flat hologram of some chess pieces. Though excited, Jeong felt there was much more that could be accomplished. "The pioneers in photography tried to copy painters when they started, and the early holographers tried to imitate

photography. But," he says with glee, "I

thought that if you're delving into three-D, you might as well go all the way. Why not a three-hundred-sixty-degree hologram?" With the help of two enthusiastic freshman students, Jeong made his first hologram in 1965— the first one ever that you could walk around and see all sides of, He had placed a beautiful Chinese ivory carving of a camel inside a cylinder, wrapped with holographic film, and aimed

a laser at it from above. The idea, even in holography, that pictures are necessarily flat was found to be false. In the middle of a coffee table in Jeong's living room are two American-made pistols used by Russian officers in the war CONTINUED ON PAGE 168 7ALILEOS ITALY EXPLDRMTIDRJS By Norvell Brasch

journey from Rome to other. He intended to prove that the x reached a mag-ihcatlor-. ol 33 . The TheFlorence ranks the acceleration among gems of gravity is independent of telescope was an instant hit, and in a of European travel. Up the the mass of falling objects. Dropped dramatic demonstration for the Venetian Mediterranean coast of Italy and through simultaneously from the top gallery, the Senate Galileo touted its ability to sight the exquisite hill towns of Tuscany the balls landed at the same instant, hostile warships approaching nearly two route is famed for its wine, cuisine, and demonstrating a law of motion that hours before their arrival. scenic splendors. Newton's theory of gravitation would later But Galileo had grander plans for his Galileo Galilei, a native of Pisa, had explain. Both cathedral and tower remain instrument. Fixing his telescope on the made the trip many times, but this was to open to the public, and only fear of arrest moon, he observed vast craters and be his last and most difficult. After a and a shortage of cannonballs prevent imposing mountains, destroying the notion five-month trial in Rome, the Inquisition visitors from repeating the experiment. of a smooth lunar surface. He damaged guilty of had found him heresy, a heinous An offer of a professorship at the his eyes by viewing the sun and its offense against the Catholic Church. His University of Padua prompted Galileo's mysterious spots. He discovered that crime: belief that the sun, not Earth, is the move to northeastern Italy in 1592. Padua Jupiter, like Earth, possesses orbiting center of our planetary system. The was then within the realm of the moons, circumstantial-evidence that our Pope's tribunal finally extracted a progressive Venetian Republic, and planet is not the center of the universe. confession, and on June 22, 1633, the Galileo enjoyed total academic freedom. Galileo announced this discovery in The aged scientist knelt before the court. A A popular lecturer, he often drew crowds Starry Messenger, describing the four prison sentence was later commuted to of more than 1,000 people. moons that he observed in 1610 as arresl for life, house and Galileo returned In the summer of 1609 Galileo caught "bodies that belong not to the to under guard his home near Florence. wind of a Dutch invention "by means of inconspicuous multitude of fixed stars, but The vision of an visible orbiting Earth soon which objects, though very distant to the bright ranks of planets." In a rare act gained broad acceptance, but the trial of from the eye, were distinctly seen as if of political savvy, he dubbed these moons Galileo remains a symbol of the nearby." As dexterous mechanically as he the "Medici Planets," to honor his powerful unresolved conflict between science and was intellectually, Galileo wasted no time Florenfine patrons.

faith. Recently Paul II in constructing Pope John used the his own telescope, The gesture apparently paid off. Grand occasion of Einstein's centenary to gradually improving the lenses until he Duke Cosimo de' Medici, his former pupil, suggest a reconsideration of the harsh engaged Galileo as court philosopher and verdict against Galileo, which has stood malh»rnal[cian, The move to Florence in for nearly 350 years. 1C"0 "'^.rked the end of his teaching Whatever the outcome, the reappraisal dutifis snd the beginning of his career as a of Galileo's case has renewed interest in full-time scientist. the Renaissance scientist, who stands as A devout Catholic, Galileo journeyed to one of the most controversial figures in Rome in 1624 to pay his respects to the history. For his refusal stubborn to accept Florentine cardinal Maffeo Barberini on his the assertions of others without election as Pope Urban VIII. The scientist verification, and for the clever methods he had reason to be encouraged by this devised to prove his own theories. Galileo event: The new Pope respected Galileo immortalized has been as the father of and was said to be more open-minded experimental science. than his predecessor Paul V On the Galileo's early work on motion is a case strength of this improved climate, Galileo in point. In the greai cathedral of Pisa, he decided to go on record with his theory of used his pulse to time the motion of a a heliocentric system. massive, swinging chandelier He His masterpiece, Dialogue on the Two concluded that the period of this Chief World Systems , was printed in pendulum was constant, no matter how February 1632. The Pope's censors, who great or small its arc. This simple test may have missed the full import of eventually paved the for way more Galileo's message, initially approved the accurate clocks. text for publication. Next to the cathedral is Pisa's Galileo had been admonished to celebrated Leaning Tower. Legend has it present the two theories , the geocentric that Galileo climbed the tower with a large and the heliocentric, as equally valid, He iron ball in one hand in and a small one the Galileo experimented at Pisa's Leaning Tower. kept to the letter of this command, but the 40 OMNI CONTINUED ONFWGE 147 •T SPEND 20 MINUTES SAYING HE HiiBiTTayTii AND SPEND 0NLYS3.84.

^HEAR= coruTirxjuunn Edited by DickTeresi

.RASS-ROOTS TELEC

I ime was you could tell the difference between tele- networks. Computers chitchat round the clock; Indeed. IBM calls

gram, letter, newspaper, television program, phone its internal communications system Sunnet, because the sun

call, and book. But today's marriage of satellites and never sets upon It, computers has given birth to the communication hy- But there do not seem to be any plans to install a computer brid: the voicegram, electronic mail, the videobook, the teletext. terminal at the corner store for use by the great unwashed elec- In the good old days the provider was as distinctive as the torate. Has anyone been able to borrow videotapes or video service. Western Union typed telegrams, the Post Office deliv- discs from his or her public library? Unless each of us has the ered mail, the New York Times Company published the daily money to hook into the various telecommunication systems, we paper. CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS broadcast television shows. won't be granted access !o them.

Ma Bell sent the phone bill, and reading a best seller meant a trip If we look back upon the "information infrastructure" that our to the library or the bookstore. forefalhers built in a nationwide, flat-rate mail service, and that Now wiih Dial-a-Bird, Dial-a-Prayer, and even bedtime stories the Bell System ensured with local, flat-rate service, we may just a few digits away, it's hard to tell who's responsible for what. understand the consequences of allowing a pay-as-you-go mar- The New York Times arrives via a computer terminal, movies sell ketplace to prevail. No longer will public lobbies be able to at the corner video market, and Federal Express brings the mail. mobilize massive mail campaigns without incurring paralyzing The protusiop of services has caused some confusion among costs. Charities will be unable to use these expensive systems purveyors. During the Seventies the Federal Communications when they solicit contributions. Commission dismantled the Communications Act of 1934, 'un- The telephone and the mail are democratic instruments. bundling the nationwide telephone network and keeping the There's a mailbox for every citizen, and a public switched net- Postal Service out of the electronic marketplace, In 1981 Con- work through which any one telephone can be connected with gress seems ready to approve the process. The result; a breed of any other telephone. This isn't true of more authoritarian media new telecommunications, deceptively called "enhanced ser- — radio and television — where those controlling the micro- vices." These pay-as-you-go services will be brought to us by phone control the message. Besides, it's virtually impossible to just about every kind of communications company. {The excep- talk back to a TV set. While enhanced services may permit tion: the Postal Service, which must stick with delivering the instant polls and video shopping, they'll benefit only those mail.) And while the competition in this new marketplace will offer wealthy enough to buy their way into the "enhancement." several advantages, the hitch may be a loss of broad ac- If the public is to benefit from this era of telecommunications, cessibility and universal service. then the public better demand more responsive government

Take our democratic Postal Service, for example. Letters can representation. If we're to render obsolete the postal system and be sent at a nationally uniform rate. Often the rate for newspa- the public switched network of POTS (plain old telephone ser- pers, books, and mass mailings is subsidized, too. The private, vice), we'd better take care not to throw out the sense of democ- but regulated telephone monopoly gives local service for a flat, racy upon which the government survives and the economy monthly fee. These rates are usually low enough that virtually thrives. The nationwide grass-roots telecommunication sys- anyone can take advantage of the services. tem— now available to all — is a concept worth reconsidering. Not so with these enhanced services. Because of the cost and Where shall we find a street-corner computer terminal to send complexities of the hardware, an electronic elite has emerged. out our electronic mail if can't aftord our very own Apple, Atari, or Giant antennas reach from rooftop to rooftop of major interna- TRS-80? What publjc institutions will keep our electronic history tional corporations, transferring electronic messages in voice, books when parchment and paper are outmoded? video, or facsimile to their far-flung enterprises around the globe. Who will tend our grass-roots telecommunication gardens? Citibank arid BankAmerica have their own international private - ANNE W. BRANSCOMB CDruTiruuuan

SPORTING VIOLENCE Because hockey players however, is one measure are especially violent, fol- Cheffers does not recom- Every month or so John lowers of that sport become mend. "Most imbibers," he Cheffers iugs a pair of video more disorderly than any says, "are well behaved." cameras io his car and other sort of fan. Yet other — Eric Mishara drives to Boston Garden to sports also provoke rage. see the Bruins in action. Soccer fans, for example, do "The only time politics will While he's watching the not go to a game expecting not interfere with the quality game, he flicks on his players to slug it out, but 0/ a scientist's work is whsn cameras, pointing one at the when there's a brawl, the he happens to be a political " hockey players and the other spectators often break into a scientist. atthe people in the stands. slugfesl themselves. Indeed, — Anonymous Cheffers, a psychologist some 65 percent of all the at Boston University, for'the fights among soccer players $3 MILLION TOILET past lew years has been are matched by disturb- m studying the violence that ances in the, stands. Astronauts have been complaining tor years. With- erupts among spectators at To keep peace among Youh, sporting events, anything spectators, Cheffers would out gravity, they say, answer- ing nature's call is a messy, over the toilet, creating a totally distasteful chore. vacuum that causes the That's why NASA just waste material to vaporize spent $3 million on the new through a filter and out into Waste Collector System, a space. high-tech space commode Zero gravity poses a spe- that simulates a gravity field cial problem during urination

so that it can be used like a as well, since liquid released toilet on Earth by both males from the body does not flow and females aboard the in the expected stream. In-

space shuttle. The two- stead, it separates into free- phase disposal system, floating "spheroids." As- which processes liquid and tronauts find this circum- solid wastes separately, stance disconcerting. connects to a unit that re- To get the stream flowing, sembles a regular toilet— engineers devised an air- except that crew members suction tube that draws the strap themselves onto the liquid in through a funnel. seat so they won't float away. Because people can use the When an astronaut defe- toilet while standing or sit- Vioience in & he stands. cates, spinning blades be- ting, it works equally well for from hockey to football. have TV scanners that can neath the seat create a pow- male or female astronauts. Using data gleaned from predict outbreaks. He would erful suction, which draws The liquid waste. is stored in video recordings and like to see fans grouped in the waste down to where "it tanks in the belly of the firsthand observations of smaller, "less anonymous" literally hits the fan," accord- spacecraft. more than 700 college and seating sections. If the ing to Frank DiSanto, the According to DiSanto, the professional games, Chef- chairs were more comfort- project manager for General system passed muster on fers has concluded thai vio- able, the herd instinct that Electric Space Systems, Columbia's shakedown lence on the field or in the normally prevails in crowded who refined the device over cruise with flying colors, arena almost always pro- stadiums could be subdued. a three-year period. The sparing the grateful crew the vokes violence among the And Cheffers suggests that blades shred the waste and unsavory task of using and fans. Atthe Bruins' games, arenas resemble parks, with hurl it against the sides of a storing wasfe bags, which, for instance, fans become flower boxes in the stands. hugecollectortank. he said, "were really a mess rowdy whenever a brawl Banning the sale of alcoholic To "flush," astronauts pull during previous space- breaks out on the ice. beverages at athletic events, a handle that slides a lid flights."— Irving Lieberman " " "

"With regard to thi devastating effects last up to light, much has bt 18 hours. Dosing the mouth and against it. but! with silver nitrate and may say without ieai glycerine, the mouthwash contradiction that when the produces a bracing sensa- Paris Exhibition closes, tion, drying and tightening

electric light will close with it, the gums and activating the and no more will be heard salivary glands. When the

ofIf." smoker takes a drag, the tar — Erasmus Wilson, and nicotine absorbed by professor at Ihe gums react with the Oxford University, 1878 mouthwash and saliva, form- ing a bilious yellow liquid. NOISY VEGETABLES After one or two puffs, the smoker "spits, spits, spits," An Australian scientist has and the mouth feels like a revealed thai plants whisper, garbage dump. "Water me." Trained in neuropsychi- As St. Francis preached to atry, Najjar got sick of treat- birds, John Milburn, of the ing patients with smoking University of New England, ailments. Finding rational atArmidale, New South arguments useless, he re- Wales, has picked up the Garber. "Say you came up clean— until the smoker solved to cure them with a language of plants, accord- with five hundred ways to tell lights up. Then the mouth "shock therapy." Without ing to the Wew South Wales whether someone is dead. tastes "as if it has chewed on warning, Najjar gave the Business Review. Eaves- That wouldn't bring him back iifry cigars, and the smoker mouthwash to a few patients the castor . dropping on bean to life."— Judith Hooper is instantly I n hell and lei them go their merry plant— by means of a tiny Dr. Najjar reports an 85 to way. It made their breath un- microphone implanted in its "I would like to volunteer for 90 percent cure rate for bearable. Knowing he'd hit stem— Milburn has heard your next space trip. I can smokers who use the on something, the doctor thirsty plants click. go anytime but Wednesday mouthwash in a ten-day reg- spent the nexl seven years

The clicking noises re- afternoons. I have my hair imen. A smoker merely testing the rinse on portedly come from the vi- done on Wednesday rinses twice daily with one thousands of subjects. bration of the plant's minute afternoons. teaspoon of the mouthwash Najjar has begun to sell water pipelines. His method, — Child's letter to NASA in an ounce of water; the the mouthwash in Quebec Milburn says, could tell and Onlario provinces under farmers which seeds to plant "Medicine makes people ill, the name of Tabanil (a in arid soil and identify which mathematics makes them French portmanteau word for new breeds of plants are sad, and theology makes "tobacco-nil"). He is seeking " drought-resistant. them sinful. FDA approval so he can sell

Other plant fanciers are — Martin Luther it in the United States, When underwhelmed by the break- and if it gets here, potheads through, however. "It's cer- FOUL MOUTHWASH should be alerted as well: tainly plausible that the col- The mouthwash has the umns of water might snap A new mouthwash makes same effect on people who after a while," says Univer- smokers as objectionable to smoke marijuana and sity of Chicago biologist themselves as they often are hashish.— Mark Teich Edward Garber "But so to nonsmokers. According to what?" Ihe inventor, Dr. William Naj- "The past is not dead history;

What of Milburn's claim jar, a Montreal physician, the it is living material out of that the method could iden- mouthwash has a fresh, which man makes himself tify drought-defying plants? rninty taste that makes the and builds the Suture. "He's out of his gourd," says mouih feel extraordinarily A repulsive shock for smokers. — Rene Dubos CDruTiruuurui

SPACE AGE BRA the first ot numerous articles abbreviation have adminis- strument that actually tells Kuznetz wants to design. tered irritating oral liquid you your body temperature.

You wouldn't hare to be an Other ideas suggested in- medicaiions to the right eye. It's aiso realistic; it has a astronaut to benefit from a clude; garments containing Davis says that a patient speech impediment. Space Age bra designed by packets of heat-absorbing can protect himself by using Don Nicholson, of Elec- a NASA engineer, the manu- gel strategically placed to common sense: He shoufd tromedics. says, "We devel- facturer contends. keep athletes cool, chil- queslion the administration oped the instrument for the

Designed by NASA's dren's clothing that grows as of eye drops, for example, if blind, but it is being used Lawrence Kuznetz, the they do, and sleeping bags he is hospitalized for a con- primarily in biofeedback Support-Her bra, suggested that can be converted into dition unrelated to his eyes. work, Once the probe is at- for jogging, employs the hiking suits. — Allan Maurer To match drug and disease tached to an extremity, a accurately, Davis and Cohen finger or a toe, the ther- PRESCRIPTION recommend that pharma- mometer gives continuous ERRORS cists maintain a patient's readouts in a male voice." medication record, which Oral and rectal probes are If a physician writes an il- would include a description also available. The talking legible prescription, his pa- of problems and previous instrument, which Nicholson tienl may receive a deadly therapy. They also advocate said fisps the numeral 3, say- dose of the wrong medicine. the use of the unit-dose sys- ing "thwee," retails for about For instance, one doctor's tem, in which the pharmacy $270. order for Ethatabs— a mus- provides the patient with A less expensive, non- cle relaxant— was misread daily medication in a labeled talking model that gives a as Estralabs, which is a continuous digital readout of

female hormone. Before the — Madeleine Lebwohl temperature is more popular, mistake was discovered, the priced at about £100, male patient took Estratabs TALKING Nicholson says. for over a year and devel- THERMOMETER "Both are useful in oped large breasts as well biofeedback because they

as psychological problems. If you have trouble reading tell the user how he's doing. According to Neil Davis the red line on thermome- As you relax, for example, and Michael Cohen, of the ters, Electromedics, Inc., a the temperature in the ex- Temple University School of Colorado company, has just tremities goes up." Pharmacy, in Philadelphia, the thing for you: a talking in- — Allan Maurer same theory of compression not all doctors write sloppily, (rather than uplift) used in and medication errors are the design of astronauts' caused by more than just clothing. For spaceflight, itis poor handwriting. The important to ensure thai pharmacists, who recently bodies and clothing move in published a book titled the same direction to prevent Medication Errors: Causes chafing. and Prevention, say a break- Manufactured by Prologs, down in communication a Long Island firm, the bra within hospital staffs is also combines Spandex, Velcro, at fault. carefully placed adjustable Abbreviations for instruc- straps, and bottom ventila- tions have sometimes tion to provide comfort to ac- caused the correct medicine tive women as they "shuttle to end up in the wrong around." place. The letters OD stand A product of an apparel for the Latin oculus dexter, or analysis course that NASA right eye. Doctors occasion- conducted at the University ally use OD to mean once of the is only daily. Houston, bra Nurses uncertain of the Verbal thermometer: Available orally or reaally . . 46 OMNI " "

COMPUTER SURGERY slipped through a cable are smooiher because it has a beered-up afternoon, Pul- manipulated like marionettes program-it-yourself key- safe uses a radio transmitter An automated setup now for the procedure. board for the virtuoso and operates on the same in the works may eventually Computerized electrosur- operalor" principle as an automatic enable surgeons to cut tis- gery done by endoscope— After further experiments garage-door opener. Just flip sue and stop bleeding indel- without actually opening up on dogs with ulcers, he says, a switch, and your car icate operations with more a patient— shows potential the next step will be to test springs into action. The speed, precision, ease, and value against ulcers, polyps, !he device on humans within optimal signal radius is safety than ever. other stomach disorders, a year or two. — Robert Brody 100 feet. The system, mainly con- and, possibly, such cancer- "The device is also useful sisting of a solid-state gen- ous growths as melanomas. "No organism can afford to in unsavory neighborhoods be conscious of matters with for scaring off young people

which it could deal at who have selected your ve- unconscious levels. hicle as a backstop for —Gregory Bateson stickball,"says Marvin Lazansky president of TMX, CAR FINDER Inc., the distributor. When the car goes crazy with no one

Fortheabsentminded in it, the kids just scatter. The

i river who can't recall-where suggested retail price is he's left his car, there's hope $495, not including installa- at last tion.— Al Furst A Torrance, California, firm is marketing an antithefl de- "/( Is always the best policy vice, called Pulsafe, to speak the truth, unless of which— at the press of a but- course you are an " ton—will make your car exceptionally good liar. beep its horn and flash its —Jerome K. Jerome headlights.

Perfect for those mam- "Smoking kills. If you're moth parking lots at the air- killed, you've lost a very

port after a weekend trip, or important part of your life. at a sports complex after a — Brooke Shields erator controlled by an 8080 The advantage here is that microprocessor, is designed a surgeon can program the only for electrosurgery per- computer to control the in- formed through an endo- tensity, frequency, duration, scope. and rhythm of the electrical In electrosurgery, rapidly currents for each operation, vibrating blades, powered preventing extra cutting or by high-frequency electrical poor incisions. currents, blast rapid-fire "You can program an op- voltage in a fraction of a eration almost the way you second to sever tissue or compose music," says Otto to cause blood to coagulate. H.Schmitt, biophysics-bio- An endoscope is a tube engineering professor at the that can snake through the University of Minnesota, who throat, and other body open- developed the computer ings, and slide into a hard- surgeon with support from to-reach-spot to convey fi- the National Institutes of ber-optic images back to Health and the Veterans surgeons watching a TV Administration. "II makes the monitor. Then surgical tools whole process faster and riigtir^-rish parking lo< "

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DUSTY NUNS or diphtheria toxin. a portable mailbox at the NAUSEA STRAPS All sides benefit. Allergy end- The arm stands in the Household dust, collected sufferers are relieved of their middle of a yard, Vanis ex- Ancient Chinese by nuns, is being turned to runny noses and sneezes. plains, and is hooked to a acupuncturists relieved good use in modern Beecham makes a nice pulley system that extends nausea by pressing tiny medicine. profit from iis ton of house from the curb to the front points' on the inside of the The dust comes in en- dust collected each year. wrists. Now oncologist velopes, parcels, and car And the Sisters of Our Lady Choy, of Columbia trunks' to Holy Crass Priory, in of Grace and Compassion Medical School, Sussex, England, where the have already used their prof- loped a pair of plas- Sisters of Our Lady of Grace its to help run interdenomina- that do the same and Compassion gather it tional housing for old y suppressing those inlo large plastic sacks. people. — Bernard Dixon [points (called nei- These then go off in regular acupuncturists), batches to Beecham Phar- MOVABLE MAILBOX can alleviate maceuticals, a drug manu : 'ithin one minute- facturer based at Brentford, When mailman Raymond like watchbands, the in Greater London. Vanis crossed the sprawling id straps exert con- The eventual beneficiaries lawns of David City, Ne- jure on the ten- of this bizarre trade braska, he invariably slipped ide each wrist. Dr. (Beecham pays 10 cents a on' ice, tripped overtoys, or Iieves that they in- pound forthe dust) are provoked dogs to attack. ;ea by triggering a people- who suffer from al- After more than 15 years of direct electrical impulse to lergic asthmas. Many asth- jangled nerves and mount- the brain. matics are hypersensitive ing injuries, he decided to Choy conceived of the to antigens present in house tackle the problem. The re- a year ago in a storm- mites, which are found in as- sult? The Curb-to-Door Mail tossed yacht race between An end to po< tronomical numbers in Relriever, a roboilike arm that Newport, Rhode Island, and household dust. Beecham's will help letter carriers trans- door of the house. By tug- Bermuda. When a wave task is to use the purified port mail across a yard. ging the pulley cord, the washed the ship's pill supply dust to produce a vac- According to Vanis, his postman and the receiver of overboard, he had to come cine— exactly as it new device consists of a the mail can move the arm up with a treatment for the iuld with measles virus folding mechanical arm with and the mailbox back and seasick crew. He taught forth without braving the them how to suppress the

hazards of the lawn. nei-kuans with the thumb. It

Vanis expects that if his worked, but only if the pres- system is implemented, one sure was continuously mail carrier could do more applied. work than is now done by Choy realized there had two, thus reducing man- to be a better way. So he built power costs. Moreover, the the wrist. straps when he carriers who remain would reached land. equire far less time off to The straps were tested on their bruises. Anaddi- 100 seasick cruise pas- ional incentive to homeown- sengers and, according to s: The device doubles as him, helped 85 of them. The support foraflag, yard straps also had a high suc- light, or basketball hoop. cess rate with postoperative — Margaret Sachs and chemotherapy patients'. With the patent pending on

"Time does not I his invention, Choy says the

sacred until we have tived it. wrist strap will soon be on — John Burroughs the- market. — Eric Mishara SPACE VAN in the LLah town of LaVerne SNORING CURE I sey, and he and his wife, (population 1,200), Located Linda, an experimental psy- By 1 987 we may have two far from cities or military in- "Laugh and the world chologist, have patented a choices of travel to space, stallations and prolected by laughs with you; snore and device that's designed to the space shuttle and Len mountains, the eondos are you sleep alone," goes an Cormier's alterna- to withstand any- compact designed old saying. Snoring can be I The idea is fairly simple. tive, which he calls the ".hira except a direct nuclear Space Van Orbiter. hit. Above each condo are

Cormier believes it is eight inches of reinforced possible to build a small fleet concrete and three feet of of long-nosed, stubby-winged earth. An independent utility

space planes that can be system, safeguarded air- piggybacked on a 747 and water-filtration systems, high into the atmosphere. a decontamination center Somewhere above 40,000 and medical facilities are feet, they would be re, eased part of the package. to rocket off into low-Earth While the base price of orbit. each unit is $39,000, each Cormier, an aerospace comes with a four-year sup- engineer with 23 years of ply of freeze-dried and air- experience, has established dried food for four persons, Transpace, Inc., to design with storage space above and launch that fleet. the shower and in other out- The Space Vans will be of-the-way spots. This raises about half the size of the the price of the eondos to shuttle and consequently nearly $80,000. will carry smaller payloads. STI president Ron Bout- When the patient snores lot loudly, the machine jusl wakes her up. Their big advantages over well says, "Unlikegun nuts the shuttle will be in cost and and other kookS: organized "a noxious interpersonal When snoring exceeus a convenience. At the peak of survivalisis are not a threat problem," says Raymond certain volume, the device operation, Cormier says, the to anyone. What they're try- Rosen, a clinical psycholo- wakes ".he patient up. It also Space Vans could be mak- ing to do is preserve society gist at Rutgers University counts snoring eoi so en- ing as many as 1,500 flights and its laws."— Allan Maurer Medical School, in New Jer- during the night, tohelp to low orbit a year, ferrying make the patient aware that' cargo and people for he really was snoring. During roughly one fifth of what the. the two-week treatment shuttle would cost. period the device is set to — Douglas Colligan respond to progressively lower snoring volumes. SURVIVAL CONDO So far over 80 percent of people using the device People.determined to-.sur- nave reduced their snoring vive anything from nuclear considerably, and many con- war to social collapse have tinue to improve even after created a market for every- the treatment is finished. thing from crossbows to claims Rosen {who says, by radiation suits. Now they can the way, that neither he nor survive iirstyle — if they his wife snores]. The device have $80,000 for an under- isn't on the market yet, but ground condominium. Rosen is talking with possi- Survive Tomorrow, Inc., a ble manufacturers who Utah-based firm, built has an cou Id market it for less than

underground project . condo Sui'vivalisl: "Nat 3 threat . .just trying to preserve society:' $100. — Jeff Hecht 49 '

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OPENING LINES a little embarrassed about and then rated the speakers carrying from 500 to 1 ,000 this, but I'd like to meet you" on likability and dominance. amps of alternating current. What do you say to an al- and innocuous queries like Whether male or female, An electrical pickup in the luring stranger? Well, if "What do you think of the the person who spoke 80 car's bottom collects the you're a man and the band?" percent of the time was electricity from the cables by stranger is a woman, lines The no-no's ranged from judged domineering, cold, induction, without ever like "I bet the cherry jubilee "Bet ! can outdrink you"(bar) and impolite, while the one touching the surface, and isn't as sweet as you are" and "Is your bread fresh?" who got in only 20 percent of turns the alternating current won't get you very far in (supermarket) to such laun- the words came across as into direct current for the car Singlesland. dromat banter as "Those are submissive. When the con- and its batteries, The vehicle Men have underestimated some nice undies you have versation was equally runs on battery power on just "how much women hate there," shared, both speakers "unpowered" roads. scored high on likability, This isn't the first time warmth, and politeness. someone has thought of — Judith Hooper using inductive energy trans- fer; the first patents were is- ELECTRIC ROADS sued in 1891. This modern version may find use in

And now . . . electric free- Santa Barbara. California, for ways. an electric-bus system. Led by Carl Walter and LLNL engineers estimate Steve Wilson, a team of re- running a roadway- powered searchers at the Lawrence electric car should cost be- Livermore National Labora- tween 1.2 cents and 2.4 tory (LLNL), near San Fran- cents per kilomeier. The cost cisco, has built a 220-me- of turning regular freeways ier-long powered roadway into powered roadways that provides energy to a could be from $21 7,000 to 1969 Volkswagen. $373,000 per kilometer. Buried in the roadway is a — Joel Davis steel magnetic core, its top flush with the surface of the "Your head is your house; inet'Od:^ ims: "Those road. Inside the core are six fumishit"

insulated a um ; num cables, — Arabian proverb " cute, flippanl opening iintis Men employ such cutesy, says psychologisl Chris L. macho come-ons out of fear Kleinke, of Edith Nourse of rejection, Kleinke Rogers Veterans Hospital, in theorizes. Indeed a few Bedford, Massachusetts, In women liked phrases like his study, both sexes — but "Your place or mine?" (advo- particularly women- cated in pickup manuals). preferred either a "direct 3ut Kleinke recommends the approach" or an "innocuous ingenuous question as a question" as a prelude to fur- more productive ego saver ther acquaintance. Ifyoucan'f think of any-

Kleinke had college stu- thing to say. at least say ' dents rate a potpourri of something. But don't talk too opening lines appropriate to much, either. This advice bars, restaurants, super- comes from another Kleinke markets, laundromats, study, in which college stu- beaches, and general situa- dents listened to tapes of a tions. Highly rated lines in- purported first encounter be- cluded direct ones like "I feel tween a man and a woman 50 OMNI This new computer doesn't just crunch numbers, it feeds on them BIOCHIP REVOLUTION BY KATHLEEN MCAULIFFE

While microchip architects race to squeeze more and more information onto wafer-thin silicon, a few pioneering biochem- ists are plotting a computer revolu- tion that could make obsolete the most advanced circuits dreamed up in the back rooms at Intel and Motorola. Almost unnoticed, the ultimate biological computer has reached the drawing boards. The bioprocessorwill be a mo- lecular latticework that can grow and reproduce. Capable of logic, reason, perhaps even feeling, its three-dimensional organic circuitry will not process data in the rigid, linear style of earlier computers, but network-fashion, like the living brain. Small enough to mesh directly with the human nervous system, biochip implants may restore sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, replace damaged spinal nerves, and give the human brain memory and number-crunching power to rival today's mightiest computers. The prototype is taking shape not in the high-tech labs of IBM or Bell, where researchers have focused on such hardware as optical disk memories and Josephson junctions, PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANTHONY WOLFF LJg

*.

mThe plan is to develop a symbiote that will grow into the brain, communicate with m the nerves, and learn from themV

but si EMV Associates, Inc.. an obscure than nerve cells, circuit switches one a Tokyo-based trading company that al- six-employee outfit in Rockville, Mary- hundred million times faster than ready has acquired a large stake in both land, where corporate gene splicers neuronal junctions, or synapses, and biotechnology and microelectronics. seem to be proliferating as quickly as packing densities of the functional circuit EMV has also been awarded a grant their bacteria. EMV's president and co- elements a million times greater than are from the National Science Foundation to founder has high hopes for his company: formed in the brain. test the first living interface between an

"Our aim is io. build a computer that can "This factor of ten to the twentieth power electrode-studded chip and the brain. If design and assemble itself by using ihe is truly incomprehensible in terms of any successful, the experiment could restore

same mechanism common fo all living present concept of intelligence. It would sight to the blind. Its success would also things. This mechanism is the coding of be expected that the 'being' of an indi- reassure McAlear and many other bioen- genetic information in the self-replicat- vidual so equipped would live in the com- gineers that embryonic nerve cells can ing DNA double helix and the transla- puter part, not in the central nervous sys- serve as a living bridge between the mind

tion of this chemical code into the struc- tem. It is also possible that when the cor- and the computer (t is here that Ihe new ture of protein." pus perishes, its implant would survive technology may pay off first.

A tall, burly Irishman with a hearty and could be transmitted to a fresh host. A little over a decade ago British scien- laugh and a Billy Carter smile, James Well, that pretty much fits ihe specifica- tists reported that a blind woman could

McAlear manages to be both a shrewd tions for an immortal soul. And if you have see phosphenes, bright flashes of light, businessman and a highly imaginative something that has intelligence and the when they touched her exposed brain

inventor with several patents to his name. ability to communicate at high speed, it with an electrified wire. Since fhen, blind He is both an idealist bent on expanding might well become a single conscious- patients with electrodes implanted in their Ihe human intellect and a pragmatist ness—a superior, an omnipotent being." visual cortex have been able to recognize concerned with the nuts and bolts of how If all this sounds like the next sequel to simple shapes, letters, and even short

things work. Among his colleagues, Dr. 2001, it is a fantasy that big business sentences in Braille. Impressive as it is. McAlear is known for his eccentric and takes seriously. Bethesda Research Lab- this vision is crude, like a cartoon electrifying ideas and an irreverent wit oratories has jusl bought 30 percent of sketched out in flickering light bulbs. born of childhood rebellion against a the company's shares. McAlear reports Building on this work, McAlear hopes to strict Catholic upbringing, that DNA Science. Inc., Ihe venture-capi- "It's easy to build a whole religion tal arm of E. F Hutton. and Paribas. a large Previous page: James McAlear. Above: Com- around this'artificial-intelligence work," French financial firm, are also keen to in- puter graphics molecules from which chemists he says with a mischievous twinkle in his The vest. Japanese, too, are hot on the may build biocomputer's wires and switches; 'After all, eyes. we are looking at conduc- trail of molecular eiectronics. EMV is now far left: McAlear and John Wehrung study tive velocities about a million times faster arranging a deal with Mitsui Corporation. protein chip on a microscope TV display. produce an image with roughly the resolu- biological principles might be applied to beams, nature has succeeded in building tion of a staticky black-and-white TV the manufacture of integrated circuits." a microdevice that rivals man's most prized

The major stumbling block has been It. started with the notion of building a inventions. What is her secret? making the electrodes. Even hair-thin wires conventional chip out of protein. Proteins As one scientist explains, "Nature uses a are too thick to link with only a single organize the vast array of biochemicals bottom-up, bricks-and-mortar method of neuron; each stimulates a bundle of and assemble them into living organisms. building up microstructures atomic layer neurons to create a phosphene. McAlear And if they could create order from that by atomic layer." This is how McAlear plans intends to cover his electrodes with a layer incredible complexity, McAlear reasoned, to build his biocomputer Like many natural of protein, drilling thousands of holes surely they could serve as a simple matrix proteins, the molecular computer will be through the coating with an electron beam. for microcircuits. grown from the DNA templates of genet- The holes will be covered with polylysine, a To test this idea, EMV's pilot study coated ically engineered bacteria. The result will cellular glue, and be attached to em- a glass slide with a. monolayer of protein, be radically different from the VSD, where bryonic brain neurons. According to plan, which was in turn covered with a thin pro- protein merely supports traditional metal the nerves on the implanted electrode will tective material, called a resist. Then an circuits. McAlear's brainchild is a three- then grow into the visual cortex of the brain, electron beam was used to dig trenches in dimensional protein lattice, including its forming links with individual neurons in the the resist about half the width of a red blood densely packed circuitry. patient's cortex. Each electrode, McAlear cell. Dipped into a silver solution, the pro- "This microscopic gem will contain the projects, will produce up to 100,000 phos- tein exposed by the beam organized the collective consciousness of mankind," he phenes, 6 million in all. metal into fine streaks — microscopic wires. envisions, ticking off the advantages of "The idea islo mount a tiny video camera The research, carried out with Professor molecular computers. "They open up the on the glasses of a blind person," he ex- Jacob Hanker, of the University of North possibility of three-dimensional circuits, plains. "The wires leading from the camera Carolina, in Chapel Hill, produced the increased speeds, reduced energy con- will be inserted through a tiny plug in the basic pattern of a functioning microchip. sumption, and ultraminiaturization that can scalp and connected to the protein chip Dr. Hanker believes that proteins can ar- reach a million billion elements per cubic and its electrodes. The computer will then centimeter On this scale, all the memory process visual data and convert them into elements of every computer manufactured a pattern of phosphenes that will duplicate to this day could be contained in a cube the camera's image." one centimeter on a side."

If all goes well, EMV expects to have a Since the biochemical organization of liv- think we are prototype ready for testing in ten years. QNe ing cells is very different from what would At this point, however, the company is evolution's crowning glory, be desirable in a molecular electronic de- clearly a gamble for its eager investors. Where in but we are vice, an obvious question arises: McAlear's organic circuits will measure nature will genetic engineers find the less than one hundredth of a micron merely the beginning of life, genes that code for these proteins? across. (For comparison, a human hair is a potential for Very simply, they won't. Biotechnologists about 62 microns wide, a red blood cell, 7 need not make do with the hand-me-downs limitless growth once we microns.) Building them will not be easy. of evolution. Scientists have already begun < When approaching the limits of small- take control of to design synthetic proteins unlike any ness, solid-state physicists in Computer graphics enter a world as our biological destiny3 found living cells. alien and uncharted as the universe. Just allow them to study the three-dimensional as black holes warp space and time, the structure of molecules that exist only In infinitesimal distorts reality as we know it. theory. Soon these computer techniques Here traditional notions about the nature of will be coupled with recombinant DNA solids are turned upside down. Electrons technology to make the genetic blueprints pool at discrete energy levels, turning con- range nearly any metal into useful circuits, for make-believe proteins. ductors into insulators. Here a stray cosmic including many materials that cannot be "The ultimate scenario," says geneticist ray can knock an electron off course, caus- used by conventional methods. And pro- Kevin Ulrner, of Genex Corporation, "is to ing malfunctions in software or, worse, tein can be coated with protective layers develop a complete genetic code for the damaging the molecular hardware. Com- thinner than silicon. This makes it possible computer that would function as a virus puter scientists, genetic engineers, or- to etch much finer lines than those used in does, but instead of producing more virus, ganic chemists, and a host of other special- today's chips. Small-enough conductors it would assemble a fully operational com- ists will be needed to make the biocom- could pack onto biochips more than puter inside a cell." Eventually, he thinks, puter work. McAlear has managed to at- 100,000 times the power of present com- this will be a large market for the gene-tam- tract these diverse talents— probably, he puters. Gentronix, EMV's holding com- pering industry. thinks, because of his eclecticism. pany, intends to test such a "very small Biobuilding microcircuits would be This "eclecticism" is reflected in his life- device" (VSD) within three years. largely a self-correcting process, Ulmer style as well as his professional creativity The VSD could soon stand the computer notes: "One component could not assem-

His office resembles a baby's playpen. The industry on its ear. But in McAlear's grand ble out of place or out of turn, because it coffee-stained papers on his desk might scheme it is merely the first step in the would lack the necessary binding sites re- have been blown there by a tornado. A file development of an ideal biocomputer— quired of the correct molecule. The yield of drawer opens to reveal balls of crumpled one modeled entirely after living systems. perfect devices could approach one paper. Underneath this apparent chaos lies Living organisms are treasure houses of hundred percent." And every time the cell not a hint of order. molecular conductors and switching cir- divided, a new assembly line would be Yet this inability to compartmentalize cuits. Poorly understood, their components born. Conventional factories will have a may well explain his knack for seeing rela- are far smaller and more densely packed hard time competing with microbes. tionships in seemingly unrelated findings. than the electronic components of the most It will be a long time before working com- In the junk shop of his mind, ideas mingle sophisticated computers. Take, for exam- puters roll out of their cellular factories. freely, coming together in unexpected ple, the electron transport chain responsi- "Ulmer's scenario is at least thirty years combinations". "The inspiration for a mo- ble for photosynthesis. The leaf of a green off," predicts Dr. Zsolt Harsanyi, vice-pres- lecular computer," McAlear comments, plant contains 10 million more electronic ident of DNA Science. "Computer graphics "would have occurred to anyone who had elements per square millimeter than a sili- are very useful, but we will need a far to think bothered about the ways in which con chip. Without high-powered electron greater knowledge than we have now to . 56 OMNI intelligent beings that would be design proteins that will automatically nerve projections from its tiny protein may lead to standards." self-assemble the way a virus does." facets. The host's neurons will link up with superlife by present envisions would Given these challenges: Dr. Forrest Car- these. spindly outgrowths, sending out The implant McAlear ideally combine the brain's ability to relate ter, of the Naval Research Laboratory, in electrochemical pulse's in the brain's own reason with elec- Maryland, has begun to look for solutions language, inside the molecular lattice, incoming data — to — of light. tronic speed and efficiency. "Computer today instead of, as he puts it, "waiting tor electrons will dance at the speed intelligence are not antagonis- the rope to run out in the semiconduction Only at its periphery where the implant's and human tic," McAlear asserts. "They complement field." A tall, bearded man who would look tentacles sense the neighboring nerve beautifully You might consider it at home in the British Admiralty, Dr. Carter is cells, will the flow of electronic information each other heaven." designing molecular switches to record the slow to the gentle pace of the brain; a marriage made in Wehrung, EMV's co- on-off binary'Code used in computers. Suddenly the old distinctions begin to McAlear and John far they have no idea "One possibility," he says, "is to use long fade; the rigid line between life and nonlife founder, admit that so here on chain molecules with alternating double wavers. How do we classify a human inven- how to achieve such a marriage says Wehrung, and single bonds. When an electron is tion that derives its materials and energy Earth. "First and foremost," specialist, "we have to figure transported down the chain, all the single from the living cells around it and can grow, a computer out the brain works and then strive to bonds will switch to double bonds, and reproduce, and think? how duplicate its of operation." vice versa. This, in turn, will determine "By definition," says McAlear, a Har- mode Wehrung is Whether intersecting chemical chains are vard-trained biologist, "this is a form of life, In sharp contrast to McAlear, athletic, fair-haired, with boyish switched on or off." but its potential will be realized through neat and partner, he loves to A computer built with Carter's molecules research and development by human be- good looks. But, like his "The next plan of would be so small that an electron traveling ings rather than the trial and error of natural contemplate the bizarre. tones that sound from switch to switch would have aimost no selection." The biocomputer is not just action," he says in hushed theatrical, "is to de- chance of colliding with an atom or another another implant, he feels, but a symbiote, almost intentionally will liter- cells it inhabits and giving velop a compatible symbiote that electron. So it would produce almost none living from the the brain, establish com- of the waste heat that sometimes causes them, in turn, the chance to evolve into a ally grow into with individual neurons, and today's computers to fail, Its speed of op- higher intelligence. munication biological sense." eration would closely approach that of the Evolution set the precedent for this sym- thus learn from them in a idea superconducting Josephson junction, on biogenesis some 3 billion years ago, Farfetched as it sounds, Wehrung's slight changes in the which IBM has pinned its hopes for a McAlear says, when microorganisms as- might require only supercomputer, spending an estimated similated even more primitive creatures electrodes designed to simulate sight in blind. of sending signals into $100 million. And its power needs would be that now survive as the chloroplasts, the Instead eavesdrop on so low that the computer could run on the mitochondria, and other organelles of the brain, the device would electrical dialogue between cells. chemical energy of the cells around it. modern cells. "This alliance," he says, the infiltrate Wehrung The gemlike biocomputer of McAlear's "paved the way for all plant and animal life. 'It would, the tissue," tissue, sense the tissue, dreams, implanted in the brain, will sprout But --the next time around, symbiogenesis says, "live with the and keep detailed records of its interaction.

After all, how do you learn how the natives live in Africa? You can take pictures of them. You can climb a tree with binoculars and gaze at their activities from afar. You can study the artifacts of their culture. But the best method is to send an an- thropologist into the jungle to befriend them, live in their huts for a year, take part in their rituals, and report back. A symbiote would serve an analogous function." McAlear, for his part, is not one to down- play the importance of the biocomputer he and Wehrung will build once they have the symbiote's report. "We are so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as the crowning

glory of evolution," he says, "that it is dif- ficult even to consider the possibility that we are merely the beginning of life— a po- tential for intellectual development that is limitless once we take control of our biolog- ical destiny." His voice rises slightly to penetrate the din of the bar in which he is speaking. "One Sunday about four years ago," he begins, "I was parked in front of the Swedish Cove- nant Church, waiting for my wife, Anna, who

was inside. The minister, it seems, had got- ten into this tiff of singing a hymn and then praying that I'd come in and be saved. Finally my wife came out, 'Why don't you

come in,' she implored. 'They've asked me to ask you, don't you believe in God?' " 'You go back,' I said, 'and tell them that but not only do I believe in an almighty God, I'm probably the only one here that has any

idea how to build it.' "DO Blackmail is always a dirty a day (my story begins) I found myself on ihe shady side of business, but it's sometimes downright fun Memory Lane, which is a place, like Walt Street, that can be anywhere Ihe sellers and the sold chance to collide. In this case, in the IRT Antique Arcade, between Twenty-third and

Twenty-eighth, where I had come with four hundred in over- the-counter unregistered cash and a need to spend ii all

RINBTIME immediately. I knew where. At the downtown of the end Ar- BY THOMAS M. DISCH PAINTING BY RUDOLF HAUSNER cade was a deale>" osteins bly dealing in old bluebird of happiness. A felony was as but when you know a ring s hot, it starts to

Evil lias : glitter. paperbacks, most of them just powder much as I could hope for. ioo^ different ts own

I law-abiding citizen. I sealed in cellophane, but who was in fact a "How about a life of crime?" I hinted. On the whole. am a fence for hot rings. Morton blinked his opossum eyes. "You, understand the reasoning behind outlaw- Morion Shure had the pale skin and uh, wouldn't want me to break any laws?" ing the. merchandising of murder, rape, or opossum eyes common to the denizens of "Laws? Morton, we're grown-ups. any other actionable offense. Surely it will the IRT Arcade and a straggly beard that Grown-ups can distinguish between enter- not do for honest citizens to subsidize the

looked like acne that had undergone a sea tainment and real life. If I can put on a ring, I corrupt elements- in crimes they have change. With browsers who stopped to in- can take it off. Right? At my age, with my committed in order to market their tran- traffic in is spect his baggie;; ol powdered prose he blood pressure, do you think I can be cor- scription. Surely to such wares aitected the tranked-down speech of a rupted by The Adventures of Robin Hood?" irresponsible and deserves reprobation consider how zombie in custodial care. With real cus- 1 continued babbling in this vein until Mor- and punishment. Even so, tomers he revved up to a laconic mumble. ton had been soothed sufficiently for his common it was, in the days before micro- Not a candidate for Salesman ot the Month, greed to get Ihe better of his distrust. memory transfer, for the public to be of- lurid of but Morton's merchandise sold itself. I told "There's one item, 1 personally know fered as "entertainment" fantasies in him what I was after, and we stepped to the nothing about it." criminal behavior. True, the movies and back of the booth. Morton drew the curtain "Right, right. Show me." novels of the pre-now era, law and order and brought out his black velvet tray of losf He unlocked a metal file and took out a usually wound up winning, but you don't silver souls. Most of the rings on the tray cassette. He plugged the cassette into a have to be Diogenes to suppose that the were familiar to me from earlier shopping pair of video specs and handed them to prime fascination of all those criminous ." . otherwise known as villains, was expeditions. One or two I'd tried on for size me. "Personally . he began again. heroes, and resold to Morton. The selection was as "You know nothing about it." the possibility of the audience sharing vi- I'm guilty varied, and as tempting, as the index of a I turned on the spectacles. They bub- cariously in their wickedness. a

it, for that ring, sex manual. It is my opinion that anyone bled with blue blips, and then a man in a wretch, I don't deny buying wretches who buys a ring as an alternative to getting facemold of the aged Woody Alien told me but am I any guiltier than the who laid in the phenomenological flesh has his what to expect from the ring he was pawn- flocked to see Little Caesar or Death How to Dismember Body? (Or ass screwed on backwards. Orgasm is like ing. 1 will not anticipate the ring's spinning Studs or How a the sunrise; another will be along soon. of its own tale except to say thafthe masker than the readers of this confession?)

Most collectors of any affluence agree, and (who was not the ring's maker; only its third The long and short of it was that I gave in so raw sex is a buyer's market on Memory owner) admitted candidly (and a little nerv- to the temptation I'd come looking for. Mor-

Lane. Four hundred dollars would have ously) that it recorded the commission of a ton, with a merchant's mysterious sixth bought up half the rings on Morton's tray felony. To b.e found in possession of such a sense for any pocket's exact depth, would and left me change for a doughnut and ring brings a mandatory sentence of a not budge from a price of four hundred

I pry out coffee. On the other hand, I knew that four year's imprisonment— longer, if the nature dollars. The only concession could hundred dollars wasn't going to buy me the of the crime is particularly nasty. It's odd. of him was to throw in a couple of blank

"We::, I'd IlKe sf/" anorhei opinion. Doctor rings, which cams with the- proviso that he

be allowed first refusal on anything I re- corded.

"And if you think you might do anything, urn, undignified or"— he twiddled the four- hundred-dollar ring thoughtfully— "devi- ous, stay away from mirrors, hear. You'd be amazed how many guys get busted cause they get careless about that." "Just call me Dracula." Morton smiled a pallid smile. 'And don't

rob any cradles, either. 1 got principles."

The deal was sealed, and I left Memory Lane fizzing with a sense of personal dig- nity. It had been quite a while since anyone

had suggested that I make a recording. I went up the stairs like they were an es- calator, whistling the theme from The Myth of Progress. Arriving home cured me of those delu- sions. Home is where the heart breaks. Home is what's left when all the collectibles have gone to the auction block. Home is a plasterboard box fourteen feet long, twelve feet wide, and eight feel high, the largest of ten spaces sliced up from what had once

been a dentist's office. I still have Dr. Moss's chair, back sprung and vinyl patched,

bolted to the center of the floor. Beside it. where once the drill was mounted, is a rented Ringmaster, my central and sustain- ing self-indulgence. Twenty years ago. when my recording career began -to foun- der, I had the foresight to sign a long lease for both the office and the Ringmaster. Now the renf from the space I sublet is all that Bombay. The Gentle Gin. One of the three great gins imported from England. keeps me afloat financially. The Ringmaster is a metered, not a the hog and. at the sane time, to sample street signs, shop fronts, the license plates the I of cars. of woman behind monthly, charge, and since, alas, I so rarely my own tapes (with the excuse that wouid The mind the

use it. my bill is less than I'd pay for a phone do my own documentation and thus save ring was almost as featureless as the blur of if I had one. I have a small stock of rings, but gallery fees). Alas, pleasures that are re- pavement underfoot, a anxiety they are either crude mass-market simula- membered cannot be repeated with equal and fear, with some black purpose locked previous tions or my own botched jobs of later years. pleasure. I went through cycles of hunger in its back room. As the ring's

The day a picnic didn't pan out and I, un- and saiiefy, excess and disillusion. Instead owner had warned, this was a rather unpro- daunted, recorded eighl hours spaced out of living for my public, I began to live for fessional recording, but in a way the very

fun, if in a laundromat. The day I bused upstate to myself, with predictable results. My life fell lack of definition added, to the you view the autumn leaves and sprained my apart, and my recordings got so bad that count suspense as fun. self into re- ankle leaving the bus. Those failures were even I was bored by them. Bye-bye, career. My temporary stepped the at least vivid. Most of my unmarketable All that was Auld Lang Syne. To return to cessed entrance to a narrow brick building

memories are just dull— so many soft, the present, there I was in my humble (one- and reached into her pocket for the simple tasteless noodles in the soup of the past. hundre.d-sixty-eight-square-foot) home, tools of her trade. Even numbed with cold, The fun past, the yummy past, the past with my own recent acquisition around my her fingers were quick in solving the riddle all over the tumblers one sings of on New Year's Eve — that is finger, itching to be unveiled. I climbed into of the lock. After taping unrecapturable, sold off in weekly and the antique dentist's chair, fastened the so the door would not lock behind her, she

monthly lots, There is one entire year, my seatbelt, and stuck my ring-hand into the set off, in deeper darkness, down a cor- stairs, twenty-ninth, wiped from the slate of mem- Ringmaster's maw. I thumbed the switch ridor, up two flights of and along a until flashlight's ory. What seas of pleasure I cruised that and felt the prick of the recall needle as it longer corridor her beam year, what wine cellars were plundered on passed through the center of the ring and picked out, stenciled on a gray steel door, my behalf, what dainties ravished my pierced my finger. The filament began to the number 33. Here her task was more tongue, only the directors and patrons of revolve, and then, poof, nada, night and delicate, her workmanship more ingenious, the Albright-Know Museum are privileged fog. but on that first viewing it was the thrills

that I to know, since the public, which includes 1 thought (that much of me that could still more than the skills of the burglary me, is denied access to the documentation think independently), I've been had! But, took note of. What clarity there can be in a (never mind the use) of those three hun- no, the ring was functioning, and I— the fear defied! What pleasure (impossible to dred sixty-five rings. But even unremem- other "I" of the recording — was walking describe, except that it is intensely, specifi- bered pipers must be paid. One cannot through a foggy night, heart speeding, cally visceral) in the slow winning to the gourmandize through the day and into the muscles tense, ears alert to the traffic forbidden goal! What triumph when at las!

night and then, just by turning the lights low, noises. I was conscious, too, in an the till was open and the money in our

summon Romance or even Raunch. Even- amateurish way, of the energy belt that hands! And (for it would be dishonest to tually there is an energy crisis. Instead of powered my ring. edit out this final act) what a blast— of

resisting that eventuality when it came A city street, but what city I couldn't tell, panic, horror, and guilt— when she shot the pie upon me. 1 began unwisely to live higher off for my eyes avoided all telltale specifics- guard returning with his takeout orderof and coffee! After the murder (if it amounted facade of sagging black iron and flaking to that; she didn't stop to tind out) she rose-painted brick, another look at the lock "This year walked (resisted running) four blocks (I on the door in the foyer, and instinct told me counted them) to a public park, where she that here was my target and now was the she gave me sat on a bench and wolfed down the pie hour. As Shakespeare says, present mirth

an A in English." and coffee. A cherry pie, and never have I hath present laughter. I wired ring to belt taken greater pleasure in a meal than in that and started to record.

one slice of pie. (And I am accounted I woke the next morning- in my own room, something of a gourmet by those who've finger ringless and memory's tabula collected the rings I've made.) entirely rasa. No memory even of having After she'd wiped her fingers on a. nap- come home. Which meant that, as so often 'And we weren't kin, she counted her take— eighty-seven in the past, I'd been brought home and put even under the dollars. She seemed quite satisfied. At that to bed by friendly elves. The elves had left point she stopped recording. behind, in exchange for yesterday, two mistletoe." To speak in greater detail of what the ring rings, a sealed eight-hour blank, and a revealed would be to betray the teacher to second, fully recorded and set to replay,

whom I was to owe so much. (As it is, I have molded in a lion's-head design. Beneath had to disguise the more incriminating the rings was a note in my own handwriting:

facts; 33 is simply the number I favor at Once more, with teeling. Come at 6. roulette; eighty-seven dollars, the going Meanwhile enjoy your plunder.

After breakfast, for I price for a blank ring.) Through her I which lacked my

learned not only (on later' viewings) effec- usual appetite, I decided to try out the new tive methods c" picking -oco and disabling ring. Like an informer's hand slipping a se- alarms but, more critically, the tao of crimi- cret accusation into the stone jaws of the nality. Just so, a student learns from the ring Bocca del Leone, the needle of the Ring-

of a virtuoso musician not only the feel of master entered the lion's-head ring, and I his fingerings but whatever of elan, judg- found myself at the bottom of a well. The ment, and sublimity his artistry can bring to water was up to my knees and rising. Rats bear. Let me lay a wreath, therefore, on the squeaked nearby, while far above a witch grave of that Unknown F.elon and pass on to cackled with glee. Things quickly got my own malefactions. worse.

As much, at least, as / know of them. I was lucky to have grown up before the My own criminal career was, from its in- entertainment industry had made cradle ception, undertaken less for the sake of robbing a temptation available to the work- immediate gain (that eighty-seven dollars ing class. The equipment needed to make

was no great incitement) than for the sake recordings was still too bulky and expen-

of art. Once J had practiced lockpicking on sive then, and Memory Lane was a county my own and my tenants' locks (some of fair compared to the bustling bazaar it's

surprisingly good quality), I determined to since become. It's no credit to my parents, profit from my new skill by recording bur- therefore, that my lousy childhood belongs glaries that would be, like virtue, their own to me and not to a collector hungry for reward. My objective: not loot but lumines- wonder and innocence.

cence. I have an abiding faith, which no There was a case in the news lately of amount of experience has ever been able parents who had been restaging Baby's to shake, in professionalism and quality. first Christmas every day of Baby's young From an aesthetic point of view the ring I'd life from age four through age seven, when bought from Morton Shure was rankly un- the IRS finally caught them. (They got ten professional—hasty, unstructured, and years for tax evasion. In Utah there's no law fuzzy. While, even at their most minimal, on against robbing your own children's cra-

days when I had accomplished little more dle.) This recording was more like Baby's

than tying my shoelaces, my own record- first Halloween. The hours I spent trapped ings had been clean, clear, and well- in rapport with that child's terror were the paced. 'A born recorder," Art Scene called supreme bad trip of my life. My own adult

me, back in my golden youth, "with a knack knowledge that I was being tormented not for making something miraculous out of the by literal witches and ghosts but by every- most obvious materials." day human monsters was no proof against Now that the gun of present purpose was panic terror. When the ordeal was over and

loaded, all I lacked was a target. It didn't the needle retracted from the ring, I lay a

take long to decide what I wanted for long time inert, reeling with the aftershock.

Christmas. What else but rings? I wheedled Slowly my heart's roller coaster eased to a

a back issue of Ringtimes from Morton stop, and I got off.

Shure and compiled a list, from its clas- I swore revenge and washed my pants at sified pages, of Manhattan dealers whose the sink in the hallway.

It offerings were modest enough to suggest was dusk when I returned to New Soho

t their security systems would not be Square. The painted brick of Number 33 beyond my still-untested capabilities. List had dulled from rose to sepia. The metal

in hand, I began to scout the land and gates of the shops about the square had found, like Goldilocks, that most candi- been drawn down, giving the neighbor- Get an A in English dates were either too big or too piffling, too hood a battered, embattled look. Pigeons with English Leather.® posh or too drear. fluttered to their roosts in the junked cars

Until I came to, lucky number, 33 New stacked monumentally in the basin of the

Soho Square. One look at its degentrified defunct fountain at the center of the . 6d OMNI square. It seemed as though nothing had changed for a hundred years. Machu Pic-

chu has nothing on Manhattan, if you catch

it on the right day.

I loitered in the square some minutes, circling the stacked cars in the fountain, establishing mood. Who knew but that (his SANYO

would be my last. recording? So it had bet- ter be good. My eyes' cameras panned across the concrete stumps of benches toward the doorway of Number 33 and then, feet assisting, zoomed in to the shal- low foyer the plastic and laminated name- ; plate of the Happenings Gallery. M. Ruyk-, Proprietor A ringed finger rang the bell. Silence. The door was locked. With the ease of

borrowed experlise, I entered. The gallery, on the third-floor landing, was double-

locked. I entered again. The place was an ice palace carved from white light— no walls for miles, no furniture, just a pure and tasteful void. M. Ruyk didn't worry much about the electric bill. Illusions like this cost money. The cinematographer in me was delighted, but the thief was taken aback. WANTS Feeling less and less like an avenging

angel, I inched forward through the mirage until my hand encountered vertical solidity. "Mr. Whelan, we're so glad you've de- YOU to TO cided return." The voice came from the four corners of the void, a flat, throat-miked contralto like the voice announcing lime on the telephone. In the white glare behind me, where the KEEP IT door should have been, two images formed, his and hers: both young, both dressed in icy shades ot blue, both up- side-down.

"You're inverted," I told them. CLEAN "One moment." The man's hand disap- That's why Sanyo™ recommends peared to the left, and the image righted the Allsop 3 cassette deck cleaner for itself and then sank through the white glow to just below floor level. "Better?" their state-of-the-art portable stereo. "You need some vertical adjustment, but It's the Sanyo M9982F which com- that's okay." bines a sensitive AM/FM stereo radio with an advanced The sofa on which they were seated sank cassette player capable of playing metal tape. So you can another two feet. The woman leaned forward— seen right listen to stunningly accurate sound anywhere. side up, she came across as expensive The Allsop 3 is the only cassette cleaner endorsed by rather than young — and addressed my Sanyo and other leading manufacturers. For a good midriff with an earnest, placating smile. reason. Because Allsop uses a totally unique, non-friction "Excuse us ior keeping at such an un- friendly distance, Mr Whelan. but the metal cleaning method: the wet system. It's non-abrasive. The indicator suggested you might be armed." Allsop 3's gentle cleaning action, using separate virgin "Excuse me for breaking and entering. wool pads, keeps the capstan, pinch roller and head dust And no need to worry about the gun. It's free and ready to sing. And virtually eliminates tape only imitation, Look," I took it from my pocket and fired off a blank. mangling and "eating" caused by dirty capstans and pinch "Oh, my!" She fluttered her hands ex- rollers. pressively were They white and bony and Just moisten with our special cleaning solution and roped with veins and about fifty years older insert. In 20-40 seconds it's as clean as a whistle. As Sanyo than her face. "How violent! Let me say at it 3. once, Mr. Whelan, that I am a great admirer says, "Keep clean." Swab your decks with Allsop

of your work. You have such . . . Flair scarcely does justice. Regrettably, I can't claim to possess any of your more notable /1LL60P recordings, but I have been allowed glimps- es. Such glimpses!" She cocked her head WE KEEP IT CLEANSa- and squinted at my knees. (The image had ALLSOP, INC., POST OFFICE BOX 23, BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON 98227 continued sinking, and now their feet were coming into view in the air above their' heads.) "Rudy, can't we get better focus?" "Maybe you could begin with introduc- to do! I've always said, haven't I, Rudy, that

Rudy gave a martyred sigh. His hand tions," I suggested. there is a deep affinity between artistry and vanished to fiddle a dial. "Of course.- Excuse me. This is my criminality?"

'Ah, that's better. No doubt you're impa- mother Muriel Ruyk, who founded, and "Yes, Mother. But crime is crime, for all tient, Mr. Whelan. There's so much to ex- owns, this gallery. I'm Rudolph Ruyk. For- that." plain. And I'm so bad at explanations. The tunately for yourself, you do not need an "Yes, of course, one must take precau- loss ot short-term memory is the price one inlroduction. Muriel recognized you at tions. But I can't help admiring those like pays for a lifetime of vicarious experience. once from your recordings. Her short-term you, Mr. Whelan, who are headstrong and

It does something to the synapses." (Now memory may be poor, but her recall for the act out of impulse. I do hope we'll work only their heads were left in the lower im- more vivid stretches of her past— anytime something out." age. Slowly they sank from sight and were before the last ten io fifteen years — is often "We already have, Mother. We have his reunited with their bodies in the image proportionally acute. You, Mr. Whelan, are agreement on videotape. And as a pledge above.) "Consequently, my memory of yes- one of my mother's- most vivid memories." that he'll honor that agreement, we have his terday is very little better than yours. 'Aruba!" she exclaimed. "And the oysters own recording of how he broke into the

Though I do have the advantage over you in on Belle lie! I'll never forget those oysters." gallery. In fact, with the recording he's mak- having just sampled this." She louched the "You were there with me?" ing now, we have two such recordings. He ring on her left forefinger. "Exquisite! You "Goodness, no. You were there. Isn't that can scarcely refuse to cooperate." have not lost your touch, Mr. Whelan. Your enough? The way Ihe waves pounded on "That sounds ike blackmail to me." palette may be darker, so to speak, but your the cliffs. And you on those slippery rocks! "It is, Mr. Whelan," Muriel said pleasantly, palate is unchanged. Forgive the pun. I was Oh, my! We did meet once, in passing, at "but I'd like to think that our arrangement saying?" Dares Salaam, but nothing came of it. I am would appeal to you on its own merits.

"You were explaining to Mr. Whelan," said proud to say, though, that I was one of your You've been leading a rather mean sort of

Rudy "why he's here." first collectors. So long as 1 could afford life. We're offering you a new chance at the

"Oh, yes. Oh, dear. Why is he here, your prices. Once you'd moved up to good life. We're offering you, in fact, a

Rudy? I remember, from the ring, how he Knoedler, you zoomed out of my range." comeback." got in yesterday. That was fascinating, all 'All that was quite a while back. I'm sur- Despite myself, the word worked its that business with the locks. But then, after prised you recognized me." magic: a comeback! I resisted the bail long the guards had got him and he was hand- "Your hair is thinner now, certainly, and enough to ask, "On what terms?" cuffed—which in ils own way was most you've put on weight, but the indescribable "On our terms," said Rudy. "Five nights a

absorbing — after that I'm afraid I rather something is still there. If I hadn't recog- week you'll record for us. The recordings lose (he thread. Mr. Whelan himself be- nized you, I'm afraid Rudy would have will be the propeny of ihe gallery. All record- came confused, and I stopped paying at- turned you over to the police directly, and ing expenses will be approved in advance tention. Until dinner. The dinner was that would have been a shame." and charged to the gallery."

I superb, as believe I've said already. You "Mmm. yes, it would." "It all sounds rather . . . unilateral." explain, Rudy. You do it better." "Such a daring, such a desperate thing Muriel touched her ingenue smile with a CO\*'NUFDQ\' PAGE 112

rffc~f>& -fc^a— fsV .

HERE'S TO THOSE WHO'VE TAUGHT US THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS.

.. ... (3, Chai- - A Christmas Carol to "*.....— »no loving and forbearing PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN MORRILL .

of (he likelihood ot acute, even if temporary, of computer models of what the future will The ^acK ot convincing information con-

shortages of energy and other resources. I be, predicated on existing data concern- cerning Earth's reserves of fossil fuels such also realize that several aspects of presenl ing population, resources, pollution, and as petroleum, natural gas, coal, and peat is world problems make them quantitatively the present trends in these, and other de- obvious from even the most casual reading and qualitatively different from those of the mographic, social, economic, and techno- of newspapers or magazines. And there is past. For example: logical categories. uncertainty concerning the prospects for • Today's problems are no longer iso- The last and most monumental contribu- so-called renewable forms of fuel directly lated and confined lo small population tion to this kind of world game is an 800- or indirectly derived from the sun. groups scattered throughout the world, page Global 2000 Report to the President One' can assume with the authors of the Many deleterious agents are spread prepared in Ihe United States by the Coun- report that the consumption ot nonfuel over most of the "globe, for instance, cil on Environmental Quality and the State minerals will continue to increase and that radioactive substances and acid rain, Department in collaboration with 13 federal shortages of some of the rarer ones may

Useful technological innovations tend agencies. The purpose of the Global 2000 occur. But it was shown during a recent to have unexpected consequences, as Report is to determine the "probable international convention of geologists that when the widespread use of pesficides to changes in the world's population, natural new techniques— from remote sensing to control insects brings about dangerous resources, and environment through the geochemical methods— are substantiat- changes in the food chains of birds, fish, end of the century" and serve as a founda- ing the existence of vasi reserves of essen- .and eventually humans. tion for long-range planning. At the very tial minerals in many parts of the American • There is an unprecedented intercon- beginning of the report its authors ac- continents. nectedness of effects; the political con- knowledge Ihe difficulty of obtaining reli- There is nothing new in the general con- flicts in the Middle East influence pe- able information for such an ambitious en- clusion of the report that "if present trends troleum production and thereby American deavor. In their own words, "The executive continue, the world in 2000 will be more- living patterns as well as the attempts of agencies of the U.S. government are not crowded, more polluted, "less stable poor nations to develop more productive now capable of presenting the President ecologically, and more vulnerable to dis-

agriculture and industry. ruption than the world we live in now. . . There are great tragedies in the world Despfe greater material output, the world's today. Paradoxically, however, much of con- poor will be poorer in many ways than they temporary gloom originates not from the are today." Such grim warnings have been difficulties we are actually experiencing repeated ad nauseam since the doomsday form but from disasters that have not yet hap- 60ur of forecasts of the Club of Rome's Limits to

pened, and may never happen. We are pro- technical civilization will Growth. Like many others. I also believe technological civili- foundly disturbed by the possibility of eventually collapse that our present form of nuclear warfare and of serious accidents zation will eventually collapse if present in nuclear reactors. We are disturbed by the if present trends continue. trends continue, .but what a big it this is. likely to unproven hypothesis that the widespread ' Human beings are not remain - But what a big if use of fluorocarbons from spray cans will passive witnesses to situations that they this is. aren't likely damage the ozone layer and thereby ex- Humans regard as dangerous or unpleasant. Their., pose us to dangerous levels of ultraviolet to stay passive interventions may often be unwise, but they radiation. We are collectively worried be- always alter the course of events and make in dangerous situations.^ cause we expect that world conditions will a mockery of a::emp:s r.o orcdict the future

deteriorate if population and technology from the extrapolation of existing trends. continue growing at the present rate. The Industrial societies have a good chance of earth will soon be overpopulated and its surviving and even of remaining prosper- resources depleted; there will be cata- ous because they are learning to adapt to strophic food shortages; pollutants will rot with internally consistent projections of the future and overcome crises. our lungs, dim our vision, poison us, alter world trends in population resources and We adapt to heat, cold, crowding, and the climate, and spoil the environment. The environment for the next two decades." A poverty, and we minimize their effects by

spread of income between the have and few examples will suffice to illustrate the appropriate changes in, our physioogical have-not nations will widen even further. unreliability of the information that serves mechanisms and our way of life. The This will certainly increase terrorism and as a basis for quantitative studies about the phrase social adaptations to the future may eventually lead to the use of nuclear present state and the future of the world. therefore sounds nonsensical since soci-

weapons, it only as a form of blackmail. According to official statistics issued by eties have- not experienced the conditions, During t+ne pasl few decades most writ- the British Ministry of Agriculture. Fisheries, largely unpredictable, to which they will ings by sociologists, economists, and and Food, the total amount of foodstuffs have to adapt in years to come. Our per- environmentalists have expressed a pes- recorded for 1976 in Great Britain was so sonal biological adaptations, however, are

simistic mood about the future. The vol- low as to make it appear that the British more subtle. In ordinary life, our minds and Limits to the eat the to umes on Growth : published by people on average much less than our bodies make adaptive responses Club of Rome in 1972, deserve special the minimum recommended by the U.N, situations that have not yet occurred, but mention because Ihey were the first to pro- Food and Agricuhural Organization. Yet vir- that we anticipate. For example, our heart vide a seemingly scientific basis for the tually all the British people were well starts beating faster at the mere thought of atmosphere of gloom that now prevails over nourished at that time and not afew of them having to run in order to catch a train at much of the world. They have been read, or were in fact overweight. In Great Britain, as some time in the near future; our secretion at least quoted, as gospel truth by millions in other parts of the world, people use in of various hormones is increased when we of people who have accepted the dooms- their diets and in most of their activities know that we shall soon have to face a day forecasts of mass starvation, depletion many items not entered in official docu- special situation, even one as mild as de- of resources, overwhelming pollution, and ments. Since the statistical records in Great livering a lecture to an unknown audience. political chaos sometime during the next Britain are vastly better than those in most, In a similar way, human societies can adapt

century. Many similar publications have re- if not all, other parts of the world, the Global to the future, even a distant one. By an- cently appeared. All of them take Ihe form 2000 Report probably justifies the phrase ticipating the probab e effects of situations "Garbage In, Garbage Out," which was they are likely to encounter in limes to come from Celebrations of Life, by Rene Dubos, coined to criticize the use of unreliable in- and by taking adequate Pleasures in ad- copyright £> I9P.1 ihe Ro:'e Oubos Forum. formation for the design of world models. vance, societies can prepare themselves. 72 OMNI Until now imporlanl changes took the tegrated with the effects of natural forces world, particularly in [he form of desertifica- world by surprise. Consequently, there was and' with the social structures emerging tion and of the destruction of the tropical no possibiliiy of affecting their occurrence, from scientific technology. The willed tuture rain forest, there are signs that several and it was difficult to control their manifes- is bringing about desirable changes based modern societies are learning to work with tations. Now, in contrast, the possible ef- on anticipations of effects and events that nature. fects of technological and social innova- have not yet occurred. In other words, so- An interesting aspect of environmental tions are discussed long before they be- cial adaptations to the future are taking improvement is that, in all cases, measures come manifest especially it ;hey are likely place now. against environmental degradation were to be dangerous. It is only during recent Forexample, environmental degradation taken long before the situation had become decades that a significant number of im- became a lively public issue only two dec- desperate. The air of cities had not become portant anticipations can be based on a ades ago, and most antipollution programs poisonous to a significantly dangerous wide range of reliable information and on are less than ten years old. Yet certain as- level before legislation was formulated and precise scientific knowledge. pects of environmental quality have al- applied to control urban air pollution. Lakes Anticipating the likely consequences of ready been vastly improved as a result of and rivers were far from being dead at the natural processes and of human activities control measures initiated during the 1960s time when control of water pollution was is quite different from predicting the future. and 1970s, especially in Europe and North begun. It was anticipated, however, that air The future cannot be predicted, for two-dif- America. The levels of social pollutants and water pollution would reach unaccept- ferent is that reasons. One prediction would have decreased in many large American able levels if !he emission of pollutants was require complete knowledge of the past as and European cities, indeed even in Tokyo. allowed to continue at the past rates for one well as of the present, which is impossible. Several streams and lakes that were so or two more decades. The measures to im- The other is that human beings nearly al- grossly polluted as to be qualified "dead" prove the environment were therefore taken ways impose a pattern of their own choice during the 1960s have been brought back not as a response to actual emergencies on the natural course of events. Admittedly, to a level of purity compatible with a rich but rather in anticipation of emergencies. there are aspects of the future that are and desirable aquatic life. Besides its preventive aspects against largely predictable because they follow Forests that had been devastated are anticipated dangers, adaptation to the fu- logically and inevitably from antecedent being allowed to recover, and massive pro- ture has begun to take a more creative conditions and events. grams of reforestation are being carried out character. For example, the phrase good Thus, the "logical" future imposes con- in several parts of Africa and Asia, espe- environment is no longer taken to mean activities, is straints on human but there a cially in China. Areas that had become de- only freedom from noxious influences; it "willed" future that is first imagined and that sertic are being protected against goats implies also the creation of surroundings then comes into being only through sys- and other animals and can thus reacquire a having aesthetic and emotional values. tematic planning and effort. The opti- diversified flora and fauna, for example, in City planners used to be concerned almost

I mists—and I think am one — are those Israel and even in some parts of the Sahara exclusively with public-health facilities, who believe that the willed future based on and the Sahel. While environmental degra- transportation systems, and the efficient humanistic values can be successfully in- dation is still increasing in many parts of the use of money and manpower in solving problems. They are now beginning to em- phasize, in addition, the role of neighbor- , hood parks, of pedestrian streets, and of "city centers" in the furtherance of social and cultural activities. The fear of urban agglomerations is encouraging attempts to divide them into smaller communities that are easier to apprehend and to manage. Creative adaptations to the future are the chief mechanisms by which human beings can invent new social structures on a ra- tional basis. The ability to anticipate long-range con- sequences does not mean that modern societies will necessarily be able or willing to act early and vigorously enough to pre- vent deleterious effects, Pessimists have good reasons to believe that someday, somewhere, a social or technological inno-

vation will be carried so far sofas! that it will cause irreversible damage to the human species or to global ecology. However, while a catastrophe following overshoot cannot be ruled out, there is reason for hope in the wonderful resiliency of natural systems and of human beings. Advances in knowledge will facilitate anticipating the long-range consequences of technolog- ical and social innovations and may thus enable us to undo the inevitability A biological problem that has recently produced a great deal of public alarm will "From the pressroom at the North Pole this has been a major policy address serve as a last example, and perhaps as a by Saint Nicholas, touching on such issues as the world economy, caricature, of the social process denoted the population explosion, travel problems In by the phrase adapting to the future. The certain troubled areas, world weather, flying conditions." new scientific techniques of so-called ge-

netic engineering ~iake it oossibletomod-

ON PAGE 1 14 .

ASHES

A man is haunted by an elusive memory

BY IAN STEWART

I Brachvogel lay sleepless on the bunk and listened lo (he fungus moaning. Chorisande. The room was comfortably warm, but if he lis- tened carefully, he could hear the distant dripping of meltwater from the evening frost. It was cold on Chorisande. When the sun warmed the ice fields, there was a slackness to the surface and free moisture in the air, but the only appreciable quantities of liquid water were those created by the artificial warmth of the Installation. The av- erage temperature was just below freezing and had been so for half a billion years. He remembered skating with his father on the frozen oceans: silver blades slicing the soft, just-damp surface Anton was a boy no longer, and Walter Brachvogel was dead. His legacy would not survive him by many more years: Tarkona- Chorisande Associates was on the verge of bankruptcy. Anton blamed Chorisande. He knew it wasn't rational, but he blamed her just the same. You bloody-minded, beautiful, deadly bitch of a plane! He went to the window and looked out. To the left, the ice field,

PAINTING BY EVELYN TAYLOR . 3

To the right, fifty-foot tree ferns, amber- and began a brief inspection. The gray- The skitter circled low its motor whining edged in the moonlight. Night breezes rus- blue ice, six hundred feet below, swirled stridently George Hazel settled it delicately tled the brittle fronds, muting the moans of inscrutable patterns like merged paint on the ice. the fungus. The wind died, and the moan- blobs on a much-used palette. The crawler was close by, and the noise ing resumed. George Hazel, the pilot, turned his head was almost deafening. Hazel produced Why does the wind stop the fungus sing- for an instant. "Crawler B44 just coming up two phase-cancellation helmets from a ing? So much about Chorisande was un- on the horizon," he said. "Shall I take her compartment in fhe skitter's side: combi- known. Tarkona-Chorisande had explored down, Mr. Brachvogel?" nation ear muffs" hard hats, and com- only the ice. Thai held riches enough. The Ahead and to one side, Anton could see municators. "Noisy animal, ain't she, Mr forests, which covered entire continents, the crawler: a yellow dot on a sea of gray, Brachvogel?" Anion nodded. were a mystery. attached to a taut black thread. He nod- The crawler was a simple box shape, Within a mile of the Installation— and that ded, and the skitter's nose dropped. Now resting on four enormous caterpillar tracks, was as far into them as he or anyone else more yellow dots and black threads came and fully automated. Its creeping forward had ventured — there were the tree ferns; into view, the threads radiating from an motion was barely perceptible, li dragged another plant with huge, fragile leaves, oddly shaped, multicolored structure that, its tail, a twelve-foot pipeline, behind it, blue and skeletal; translucent, slow-mov- even from that distance, looked three- adding sections in a spiral as it advanced. ing insects; segmented, ice-sucking dimensional. Brachvogel ran a gloved hand along its worms. A kind of dragonfly that could glide Process Plant B, flank, and yellow paint flaked off beneath on rigid wings whether clicked into a flight It deployed a total of seventy-four crawl- his fingers. configuration or folded flat beneath its ers, each using laser knives and rotary "Just normal corrosion, Mr. Brachvogel. body Slugs the size of a that cucumber ate cutters to gouge the ancient ice: a hundred The salts. Not like—" deep grooves in the fibrous trunks of the thousand cubic yards every working shift. "G19. I know, George," Brachvogel said ferns, depositing clumps of crimson eggs, The wet slurry of smashed ice flowed along irritably like cherries. And a creeping fungus that flexible pipelines to the plant, over a dis- "Yes, sir. Sorry. But Chorisande sure is a spread over the forest floor and out the onto tiresome lady. Listen to that ice screaming. ice and sang mournful songs when the She don't want to part with it." wind died. 7bo true.

Chorisande, I would give my soul to know They made their way to the observation your deepest secrets bubble. The interior of the crawler was a A short way into the in • Slugs the size of forest, a band jumble of machinery, which Brachvogel's around the coastline, where the moisture cucumbers ate deep grooves practiced eye resolved into some sem- balance was at some critical level of equi- in blance of order. Computation. Modulated librium, were huge, shapeless growths the trunks of of infrasound scanners. Maintenance robots. ice, convoluted towers and parapets and ferns. And a creeping At the front, the business end, rotating cornices, and hanging drapery, built by ' , fungus spread banks of cutters wreathed in clouds of centuries of frost, delicate and deadly until steam. At the back, the pipeline's black they collapsed under out onto the ice and their accumulated mouth. The whole machine shuddered weight. sang mournful songs continually: If corrosion was the main en- An ice lower had fallen on Walter Brach- gineering problem, vibration couldn't be vogel while he look when the winds died a walk in the forest with far behind. his son, Young Anton was found some "This'n's fine," Hazel said unnecessarily. hours later, cowering under a bush, bab- "Still on fhe top layer, of course. You wanna bling incoherently. And they had taken him see G19 now?" away from Chorisande, until the memories "I guess." It would complete the com- dimmed and he no longer knew what he tance of up to two miles. TCA had fourteen parison. had seen or thought he had seen. All he plants operating on Chorisande; between Hazel and Brachvogel made a rapid exit. could remember was that Chorisande had them they processed three hundred fifty A few minutes later the skitter was in the air killed his father. million cubic yards of ice per day. TCA's Anton had loved Chorisande, It was a logo was a rectangular box transfixed by a From the crawlers, the ice slurry went to difficult thing for a child to understand. He line. Its wavy slogan: we mine the oceans. the nearest plant— a system of desiccators never quite succeeded. Intellectually Anton knew that these fig- and purifiers, powered by a fusion reactor, And nobody had ever understood why ures were puny by comparison with the which extracted the minerals locked within Walter, usually such a careful man, had bulk of Chorisande herself. The ice fields it. There were phosphates, chlorides, sul- risked going so close to an ice tower would last ten million years. It would fake fates— enough to feed the chemical indus- Chorisande. The irony struck him. Now forty thousand years just to scrape off the tries of entire planets. Sodium, potassium, she was his, and he was losing her. She's a top fwenty feet. But numbers that big were magnesium, manganese, rare earths- pianet, not a lover. meaningless. even uranium and thorium, Chorisande's She's both. Walter Brachvogel had commissioned gelid seas were a chemical El Dorado, She's a murderess. the first plant when his son was one year which TCA plundered. Until G19 hit a snag. Tarkona-Chorisande Associates knew old; the others had followed hard on its It started to wear out. only the ice fields, the precious mineral-rich heels. Anton had visited Chorisande regu- The designers had allowed for wear, of deposits laid down when there was rain larly but to him the visits were just exciting course. The trouble was that they seemed enough on Chorisande to erode the moun- vacations. After his father's death he had not to have allowed enough. tains. To the company, the ice was no more avoided the place until, on reaching major- G19 was the first crawler to strip away the than profit figures in a computer file. But to ity, he had joined TCA's board of directors. entire surface layer within its allocated Anton, it was the ice that had killed his Not only did Patience Monteith and Gilles area. When it started on the next one down, father and was now devouring Tarkona- duFeu own two thirds of Tarkona-Chori- its cutters began to wear out faster than Chorisande Associates, and Anton with it. sande Associates, but they had been run- they could be economically replaced, and He returned to his bunk. ning it between for them more than a dec- it didn't take long to discover why. Sus- Eventually he slept, ade. The newcomer had a hard time. But pended in the ice, just below the surface, The following morning, soon after day- Anion had learned quickly and relatively Brachvogel could see a thick layer of abra- break, he took a company skitter and a pilot easily Chorisande was in his blood. sive particles as fine as dust.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 152 RELIGION IN THE TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY

.BY JAMES RESTON, JR. PAINTING BY SALVADOR DALI

B ny Graham, the Dalai Lama, Robert H.Schuller, Alison Cheek, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Daniel Berrigan,

William Sloan Coffin, Jr., Desmond Tutu, Truman G. Madsen, and Robert F Drinan on the Gods of the Future .

Editor's note: In planning this holiday issue, affecting priestly vestments, local insights seen as representing great purity and en- lightenment, its being that it can be Omni asked James Resion, Jr., td report on determining fhe manner of prayer. The au- danger it one and be- what will happen to religion in the future. thority of Rome, Canterbury, Geneva, and so pure that reaches no Reston, whose remarkable book Our Fa- Istanbul will diminish'. comes a monument toirrelevance. But the ther Who Art in Hell, on the jungle disinte- Future religion will ally itself far more with arch of salvation also has its own problems. gration of the Reverend Jim Jones, has re- the poor and the oppressed, looking with With all welcome, no dues to pay, there can ceived wide literary acclaim, searched out greater shame on its past associations with only be darkness.^ Coffin's preference is and interviewee! prominent religious figures the rich and the elite and the colonizers. It clear. The twenty-first century needs the throughout the world. -From this research will look back with pride at its pivotal role in. light on the hill. The church is at its best emerged Reston's following analysis of the liberation of Nicaragua and South Af- and most useful as a "faithful remnant," a "the new religion," as welt as the accom- rica. The future church will retain its central "prophetic minority." not foretell only of panying interviews with Vi/iiiiam Sloan Cof- imagery of God the Father, but it will place "Does that a church

purified I ask. fin, Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Billy Graham, God the Mother on a throne of equal power elected, monks?" Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Desmond Tutu, the and mutual submission. "That would be okay," he replies, "pro- Dalai Lama, Robert Drinan, Alison Cheek, But the most startling theme to emerge vided their influence radiates, provided Truman Madsen, and Robert Schuller. from these interviews perhaps is this: The biblical insights illuminate public life, as sturdies! thread throughout this tapestry is well as personal, private life, and the rec-

' salvation is for everyone, in- "In the waning days of the summer of 1981 the rising anxiety about nuclear holocaust. ognition that religion seemed to dominate almost every And this anxiety will create an ecumenical cluding us few monks." aspect of world news. In Iran the chief of movement that will force the world's politi- Coffin is preparing a long attack on the police and the chief prosecutor were as- cal leaders to address the ethics of nuclear Moral Majority, whose influence he de- sassinated, leaving only the charisma of armament, At the core of this nuclear-arms plores and whose very title he tinds ludi- the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to hold the debate within the Christian community will crous. There has never been a moral major- Iranian theocracy together. In Egypt Presi- be the question of whether to fight on ity, he declares. Morality never captivates stone the dent Anwar el Sadat raged at the militant the masses. The majority usually Islamic faction, while at the same time de- prophets among us. posing the Christian Coptic Pope. In Po- Predictably he does not argue against land the new Roman Catholic primate, having spiritual men engaged in society's Glemp, made overtures to the rebel- issues. He has always been as engaged as Jozef +What's new lious Polish workers' union. And in the any, and he has contempt for "the gospel of United States the Jewish lobby vowed to with the Moral Majority is private salvation." "Just me and Thee, fight the sale of sophisticated aircraft to Lord," he says with a shake of his head. Yet that they're all "cre- Saudi Arabia, while israeii Prime Minister if politicians would only move to the Menachem Begin journeyed to America merged together. These people ative edge" of their profession, ministers would not have to become involved, for they and met with Jerry Falwell, the founder and believe in God, leader of the Moral Majority. could attend only to the soul and "let justice Adam Smith, and George roll as mighty waters." Was it simply coincidental that all these down religiously influenced events were clus- Patton, but not "Jerry Falwell and his crowd cannot live together at one lime? Had religion with uncertainty," Coffin says, beginning to tered necessarily in that order.^ come to intrude more significantly Into con- hit "his stride. "The faith is what makes it possible to live with uncertainty, including temporary life, or was il simply reasserting its former power and influence? Will the intellectual uncertainty. So you can face a clarified. is trend intensify in the twenty-first century? future that' is open, not That particularly times like ours, Will the collective religious voice of man always scary, in grow louder or softer? How will the against the rising probability of nuclear when the currents of history are churning would rather churches themselves change in form and conflict or to resign oneself to the fact that into rapids. Fundamentalists world ritual, and how adaptable are the churches Armageddon and the fiery return of Jesus have a God that is cruel than have a invariably subor- to the new technology and the new family of Christ will finally be at hand. that is out of control. They the future? Let us go now to hear the words of our dinate God's love to God's power. reli- . conservative Together with these questions and with modern prophets . "We have always had gion, conservative economics, intense interviews of prominent religious figures. I tried to weave a tapestry of future religion. WILLIAM SLOAN COFFIN. JR. nationalism. What's new [with the Moral The dimensions emerge as follows: Senior minister at Riverside Church, in Majority] is that they're all merged together. There will be a far broader ministry, re- New York City, and former chaplain at Vale These people believe in God, Adam Smith, sponsive to life-styles, other than the nu- University, Dr. Coffin is one of America's and George Patton, but not necessarily in clear family, with rituals more sensitive to most outspoken religious activists and one that order. But if God is a God of history, divorced people and modern sexual mores of the few clergymen chosen to visit the then God is ahead of us or within us, as andthe special spiritual needs of women. U.S. hostages in Iran, much as He is above us. The history of There will be church divorces for all and He is a great, jolly bear of a man, who Christianity is characterized by an exodus" church marriages for homosexuals who sparkles with zest for this life and excite- that proclaims a New Testament, which in want them. ment about the future. He presides over a turn announces new wine, new song, a new The new religion will shift away from the church that has always been in the van- Jerusalem, a new heaven, a new earth, and community church to the television church, guard, always deeply engaged in social we'll all become new beings. So it is a very with spiritual persuasion based less on struggle. For him there are two images of future-oriented religion," doctrine than on the television perform- the future church, between which there With the threat of extinction hovering over ance of electronic preachers. But the effec- should always be "creative tension": the mankind, Coffin sees a hopeful process at tive television ministry will also depend on light on.the hill versus the arch of salvation. work, forcing men to accept the original follow-up missionary work by the estab- The church on the hill, like Riverside prophetic view of the planet as one. The lished church organization. The business Church itself, whose Gothic tower looks survival of the human race, he insists, has

skills of a church will determine its growth. one way to the palisaded shore of the Hud- always meant the survival of the entire The church of the future will have a more son River and the other across the steam- human race and its environment. local look, with local and national customs ing-, turbulent rooftops of Harlem, can be "There is a process at work in the world 82 OMNI that aNirms and protects rare and more of life. God must have been pleased when our moral awareness reached sufficient sen-

sitivity for us to abolish slavery, God will be pleased now with the long-overdue recog- nition of women's rights, the rights of the handicapped, of the poor, the rights of the

unborn, even the rights of whales. Nature is

included in the process: It is not just a tool-

box. So it is not a question of creating

human unity, but one of affirming it. It used to be that this part of the globe couid not protect itself against the other parts. The whole is the target of future war now The whole world lives on the target. So we are forced to affirm the ancient religious belief that we all belong to one another."

DANIEL BERRIGAN A Jesuit priest, Serrigan, along with his brother Philip, has become identified with civil disobedience dramatic protest M and against the U.S. military machine. Con- victed at Catonsville, Maryland, of destroy- ing draff records during the Vietnam War and again at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in for ar- AfVOR 1981, p-otesthg against nuclear maments, Father Bemgan awaits an an- swer to his appeal of his latest conviction. In the early darkness a man stirs in nightmare; Indistinctly in the mist he sees

the image of a man — perhaps it is hel — walking upon some unknown path. Under- foot, a rug rolls out before him at a steady pace. He plods on. Then he dares So look behind and sees, to his terror thattherugis rolling up. He begins to jog — an action he has always taken before to try to forget. But glancing backward again, he notices that the rolling rug is gaining upon him, and so he begins to run, faster and faster. But the rug ahead of him continues to unfold only at

a walking pace.' It will not unfold fast enough. He tries. He strains. But there is no escape. He is tripped up and flattened into the swirl.

This is Daniel Berrigan's image of the current nightmare that besets America.

The United States has lost its past. It is speeding up the present, but there is no- where to speed to. America, rolled into the process of time, ceases to be the master of time and becomes its victim. Berrigan's image is for the mass of Americans who have acceded to the "insane" nonfuture of nuclear armament. Each nuclear weapon, be it ordered, manufactured, or acceded to, further jeopardizes the human race, With each weapon, the ante is raised. "What Reagan pushes ahead of him psychologically and spiritually is what Dr. Robert J. Lifton calls 'psychic numbing,' 15 PR.OOFSCh -,•--"> induced by the weaponry itself. As the weaponry touches individuals, they are re- ally touched with madness, with a death of feeling and of compassion, We become a m& nation touched with moral leprosy, That's Hiroshima before the fact."

Reagan's image is not accepted by ev- eryone. There are many, like Daniel Berri- gan and his friends, who refuse to consort with the Beast. To accept the arms race is CONTINUED ON PAGE 136 *n

CHAGALL'S DIDLE

BY GINI KOPECKY '">b

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the style is unmistakable. Only Ihe subject matter is surprising. Not since TheRenaissance has an artist attempted a work as monumental in theme or execution as Marc Chagall's 105 hand-colored etchings of stories from the Old Testament- stories intertwined, for the ninety-two-year-old artist, with memories of his Jewish upbringing in the Russian city of Vitebsk. Like the Old Testament itself, Chagall's pictures depict mortal beings engaged in every aspect of human existence—' i and

him breath ol lite. Left: God. whose name appears in Hebrew letters, creates man and gives We mankind. Above: After the great flood, God sends a rainbow to Noah, a sign ol His covenant with despair, in love and war, in prayer and celebralion.lt is to the patriarchs and prophets, however, that he is especially drawn: Noah. Moses. Ezekiel. Elijah— men of passion and vision who were as often ridiculed as they were revered by their own people for being harbingers of new epochs and a greater destiny Chagall reinterprets these familiar stories, imbuing them with a quality of the miraculous and the fantastic. Commissioned in 1930 by French art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. the project was not completed until 1956, after the unfinished plates had been retrieved from their World War II

Above, clockwise front top left: Moses Before the burning bush; the Angel ol Death passes over Egypt; Moses on Mount Sinai; the parting ol the Red Sea Right: Jacob v/testles with the angel on the eve ol his reunion with Esau. hiding place and Chagall had resumed nurturing each illustration through multiple revisions. His total devotion to the project — a devotion that extended to the handcoloring of each individual print — seems to have drawn from him a mastery of style beyond his younger years. Of the 100 sets of etchings originally printed, as few as 5 are believed to have survived intact. One set was recently acquired and photographed before being sold to individual collectors by San Francisco's Harcourts Gallery, by whom these reproductions were made available.OO With a budget of only a fistful of dollars, NASA's new administrator prepares to make businessmen an offer they can't refuse IRJTERV/IEUU

From those to whom much is given much is expected, The 1954, performing submarine duty He received a master's degree man named administrator of the National Aeronautics in 1955 from the Harvard Graduale School of Business Administra- and Space Administration (NASA) is handed an awe- tion and holds honorary doctorates from Washington and Jeffer- some responsibility. His domain is the entire solar system and son College, in Washington, Pennsylvania, and from Embry Riddle beyond. His tasks include research into and development of all Aeronautical University, in Daytona Beach, Florida. facets of aerospace technology, exploration of other worlds, crea- Beggs spent 13 years in technical positions with Westinghouse tion of new industrial capabilities in space, searching for extrater- Electric Corporation, rising to the post of vice-president of the restrial intelligence, promoting scientific research, and dealing Defense and Space Center. In 1968 and 1969 he served as NASA's Washington political apparatus. His budget for accom- associate administrator of the Office of Advanced Research and \ with the undersecretary of transpor- i plishing all these objectives is considerably less than 5 percent of Technology. From 1969 to 1973 he was tation, In 1974 he joined General Dynamics Corporation, becom- I the budget for the Defense Department. director executive vice-president in charge of j James M. Beggs brings to Ihis daunting assignment a lifetime of ing a corporate and experience in industry and government and an enthusiastic ac- aerospace operations. He was responsible for four of the corpora- I

1 tivist's view of aerospace technology's importance to the strength tion's operating divisions, including Convair and Electronics. is of the of Governors of the National ; and well-being of the United States. Beggs a member Board fifly-five-year-old the National Industrial Association, and the [ Born in Pittsburgh, in 1926, the Beggs is a Space Club, Security in until Astronautical He is also member of the Na- : graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He served the Navy American Society, a a

tional Academy of Public Ad mini si ration, manned spaceflights into one corner. Omni: That's your first priority then? the American Institute of Aeronautics and I Beggs: don't think so. I think that battle Beggs: Yes. The media have proclaimed Astronautics, the American Society of was fought back in 1969. The ideas on the shuttle operational, it is not. We had a Naval Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi, the hon- the shuttle which is based were hashed out first flight. We'll have a second one, we orary society for engineers. He is also a then. The fact is that people are going to be hope, in the September- October [1981] director of the. Consolidated Rail Corpora- there, and the real question right now is, time frame. Then we'll go from there. As- tion and of EMC, Inc. fly?" "Who should suming everything goes well— and we all A businessman who flies his own piane. Omni: Will there be shuttle flights with hope and pray it will, and I believe it will- an engineer who worries about the quality celebrities aboard? then, as we progress toward the time when of American education, a space enthusiast Beggs: Sure. I think so it is operational, it clearly becomes lime to who understands the role NASA must play Omni: For the promotional value of it, or think about what we can do with whatever in basic research, Beggs is still enough of a because people want to go? resources have become available. I hope realist to know that reconciling NASA's Beggs: Everything in this world has an that we could get several new starts going. many goals with the budget strictures of the element of promotion in it. When Jim Webb Maybe not in two years, but certainly in the Reagan White House and the Office of was running NASA, it was his view that we next three or four years. Management and Budget is no enviable ought lo get a very large spectrum of soci- Omni: What would be your personal pref- task. ety involved in the program. And, as you erence for a new program? Beggs is a crisply articulate man who know, got he everybody involved — every- Beggs: The thing mentioned most often is seems equally at home discussing the role that body he could. Some people he a permanent station in low-Earth orbit, or, of scientific research in strengthening the dragged in kicking and screaming, but ultimately, a permanent station in geosyn- national economy or the role of grass-roots they came. And when they got here, they chronous orbit. That appeals to me. space-advocacy groups in promoting a found they liked it. I think the same thing Omni: That's a major commitment. stronger space program. He is clearly a applies to the future. If this program is Beggs: A long-term commitment — "big-picture" thinker who foresees NASA going to be what we hope it will be, we want commitment of the size we made when we assisting private industries to develop new started the shuttle. But it would provide us technologies in space. the basis for doing a lot of other things, like Shortly after his appointment con- was more sophisticated planetary exploration. firmed by the Senate in July, Beggs publicly The ability to do the science from a perma- suggested that President Reagan set a maintain nent station would be of greater signifi- new goal for the U.S. space program; Vo the cance than anything we're thinking about establishment of the Space Operations NASA's thrust, we must have today The potential of eventually develop- Center, a permanent manned space sta- new programs. My ing some commercial payoff certainly tion in orbit. would be enhanced if we had a permanent Beggs was interviewed priority is a permanent a few weeks be- space station. fore his Senate confirmation by Omni Edito- station in low Omni: What are NASA's plans for getting rial Director Ben Bova at NASA head- more geosynchronous orbit — industrial participation in space pro-. quarters in Washington, DC. Also present grams? during the interview were Drs. Hans Mark, a platform Beggs: I don't really know that there is a NASA's deputy administrator, and Jerry plan, for planetary exploration^1 other than trying to tell people, "Here Poumelle, writer and space activist. is a great potential: why don't you all come

and explore that potential with us?" I believe Omni: Congratulations on your appoint- that after we have been flying the shuttle for

ment. Or maybe I should say, welcome to a or will year so : we start to see some com- the hot seat. mercial fallout. Once we get some of that, I

Beggs: Thanks. This is, I think, a very in- a very broad spectrum of people involved think there will be a lot of folks who will look teresting . time— a difficult time. Budgets in it. We don't want just scientists and en- at that and say, "Gee whizz, there is a po- are likely to remain tight for the foreseeable gineers'. tential there. Let's explore it and see what future. At the same time, I think, the pen- Omni: We've had suggestions from Omni we can- develop." Then you get the most dulum has swung in the direction of re- that readers there be a national lottery so creative minds in industry starting to think newed recognition on the part of the public that ordinary citizens can have it. a chance to .about I don't really think thai there has that the space program is important. ride the shuttle. been a lot of sound entrepreneurial thinking Omni: you think Do the shuttle has played Beggs: The big thing, to me, is to kids get devoted to space. I think as a beginning an important role in making people realize involved. If we can get them thinking about you've got to get up there and do it. the space program is here to stay? the potential and the possibilities, the ideas It's like a favorite story of mine. Michael Beggs: Yes. The real importance of the will come from them. Faraday was guiding the king [of England] shuttle is that in a few years are not we We must try to capture the minds of the through his laboratory, and the king going to conduct any spaceflights without kids. You know, the aerospace industry is stopped before something. that Faraday people going along; that transcends every- growing old. In fact, the average age of the was doing and asked, "What's that?" Fara- thing else. But ever since the manned twenty-two thousand I engineers had day proceeded to describe it to him, and space program began, there's been a very under my responsibility at General Dynam- the king said, "What good is it?" Faraday strong and vocal body that says that any- ics was forty-five. I over spent seven years thought for a moment, then said, "What thing we want to do in space can be done just trying to move that average down a few good is a baby?" more easily and cheaply without people. years, to start bringing in fresh blood. Omni: There's another version of that slory. Unmanned space research is really where Omni: What about funding for the next The king asked. "What good is it?" And it's at. couple of years? It's going lo be tight— we Faraday answered, "I don't know, but If you have the experiments you want to all know that. But, on the other hand, some someday you'll put a tax on it." do in ' clearly mind, then that statement is of the R and D expenses of the shuttle Beggs: But I like the first version, because correct. Butjhat's not the name of the should be declining. Will there be room for this particular thing is in its infancy. Space game. The name of the game is flexibility, new starts? has great potential. There is immense sci- judgment, intelligence, and imagination. Beggs: Two years is a very short time, I entific fallout and scientific benefit from Those are much more valuable. think the first thing we must do is make the this. But beyond that, there undoubtedly Omni: But there is still this drive to push shuttle operational. will be some substantial commercial bene- 94 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 146 It chews up the brain.

It kills suddenly. And nobody knows what it is AGENT X

BY FRANKLYNN PETERSON ANDJUDI KESSELMAN-TURKEL

Restless and ravenously hungry, the killers fanned out in search of living food. Their goal: to invade the body of any healthy organism, capturing its life-force for the production

of still more lethal agents. Conceived by science-ficlion writer Ralph Milne Farley in a 1936 story entitled "Liquid Life." the gelatinous monsters were minuscule, viruslike mutants that matched humans in intelligence. They were able to pass through filters fine enough to trap

all known viruses. And the only chemical that could destroy them was carbolic acid. Today 200 researchers throughout the world are racing to unravel the mysteries of a thing that could have stepped right out of Farley's fantasy. This thing

is also a deadly mutant thai passes through filters

fine enough to trap all known viruses; it appears to be vulnerable only to carbolic acid. Scientists call it

PAINTING BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN 3

viroid, viruslike agent, scrapie agent, and To wipe out a disease, you generally National Institutes of Health (NIH), in

other names just as vague. We'll call it must know what's causing ft. But by 1954 Bethesda, Maryland, and started publish- Agent X. scientists knew only, that scrapie was ing his findings. A brutal but insidious murderer, Agent X transmitted from animal to animal some- One of Gajdusek's papers was read by enters living organisms, settling happily in how, by something. Because sheep didn't William Hadlow a veierinary scientist who and causing no trouble for years. Then show scrapie symptoms until the third year, had spent most of his career tracking down

suddenly it strikes with a vengeance that scientists named the causative "thing" stow scrapie. Hadlow, with NIH's Rocky Moun-

has jarred medical science. Victims first virus. Later it was pointed out that minks tain Laboratory, in Montana, quickly recog-

become too dizzy to walk, then too ill with a disease called transmissible mink nized the extraordinary similarity between to stand. Their thought processes gradu- encephalopathy (TME) showed similar kuru and scrapie. In a letter to The Lancet, ally slow until they seem senile or de- symptoms. TME, too, was attributed to slow he made the brave leap to the theory that mented. In a year they are dead. virus, again pretty much on the basis of a both diseases were caused by the same So far Agent X has been detected in scientific hunch, mysterious agent nature only in sheep, minks, and hu- Back then scientists were relatively cer- Following Hadlow's suggestions, Gaj- maris — particularly one Mew Guinea can- tain that scrapie couldn't spread through dusek spent years observing the lab chim-

nibal tribe. Because it has been so elusive, the air, in water, or by chance contacts, panzees he had inoculated with homoge-

scientists suspect it might be the cause of a which are normal routes for viral infections. nized brain tissue from kuru victims. In wide range of unexplained debilitating dis- They suspected that scrapie got around 1963, a few years after the inoculations be- eases: multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid ar- only by direct, intimate contact, for exam- gan, the first chimps developed kuru, and

thritis, and even diabetes. It cannot be ple, when a healthy sheep ate a placenta Gajdusek concluded that the disease cured by interferon, radiation, or any of the left behind by a diseased sheep. This was could be transmitted from one animal or virus and bacteria killers devised by man. effectively confirmed when Richard Marsh, person to another. Convinced that the Until the discovery of Agent X, the ordi- a veterinarian at the University of Wiscon- Fores passed along Agent X via can- nary virus was the tiniest known organism. sin, demonstrated that TME and scrapie nibalism, Gajdusek persuaded them to

Smaller than a single human cell, it consists end the practice. Now the disease no merely of a strand of nucleic acid (a gene} longer strikes members of the tribe. surrounded by a protein shell. Without the Because kuru was a cannibals' disease,

protein-synthesizing machinery found in it received more attention than the sheer other living cells, the virus can neither grow number victims would have warranted. ^Victims of nor reproduce. So, like Farley's fantastic become But Gajdusek soon learned that another, far

little particle, it perpetuates by invading too dizzy to walk, then too less publicized neurological disorder— other living organisms, using their cellular Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) — had ill to stand. They machinery to manufacture more virus. markedly kurulike symptoms.. Victims lost Agent X seems to reproduce in much the sink into-a world of madness" the ability to walk or talk, finally relinquish- same way. However, scientists scrutinizing and confusion as ing even the will to live. In every case the its structure can find no protein shell and no brain had been literally eaten alive. their brains are chewed to a trace of nucleic acid, the building block of Following his hunch, Gajdusek inocu- genes in every other form of life. Agent X spongy pulp. Within lated chimps with tissue taken from CJD cannot be classified: It is not really a virus, about a year they are dead victims and found that'after years of incu- but rather a bizarre mulant that changes bation the monkeys came down with kuru. form from one generation to the next. Al- Obviously CJD and kuru were caused by most impossible to detect, it is so tiny that 1 the same villain, Agent X. Kuru, Gajdusek billion particles could fit on the head of a hypothesized, might have begun when the pin one millimeter in diameter. The same Fores ate a relative who had spontaneously pin could hold a third as many polio vi- were one and the same disease and that developed CJD. More important, Gajdusek

ruses. Researchers on the track of this ruth- minks caught it by eating scraps of realized thai Agent X was probably at the less scavenger expect they will eventually acrapie-infected sheep. root of other debilitating disorders of the have to broaden, or even redefine, terms Then, in 1957, an American pediatri- central nervous system — Parkinson's dis- like virus and gene. When they do, they cian named Carleton Gajdusek stumbled ease, for example, or Pick's disease, and may have to draw up a new definition of life. onto the trail of Agent X while visiting a even Huntington's chorea. Agent X can be traced back to 1755, friend in Mew Guinea. Gajdusek, an intense When Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize, in when English sheep farmers petitioned young man with piercing brown eyes and a 1976, for his work, he used his prize money Parliament for relief after massive numbers rapid clip to his speech, met a district med- to help educate Fore youngsters. Relatively of sheep died from scrapie, so called be- cal officer who told him about a strange little was known about Agent X at the time. cause the sheep first showed signs of the neurological disorder. It was found only The shadowy substance had eluded all illness by scraping against posts and among the Fores, a group of cannibals, the scientists' efforts to catch a glimpse of it rocks, apparently to relieve itching. Later officer said. The disease, called kuru, killed under electron microscopes, to define its they lost the ability to walk, and still lafer about 1 in every 100 Fore people, mostly chemical structure, or to explain how it their sense of balance was so disrupted women and children. The stricken were first could wreak such havoc. Total knowledge fhey couldn't even stand. Scrapie symp- unable to walk, then unable lo talk or even was limited to a few startling facts: toms appeared most often in the third year see. They sank into a world of madness and • Agent X caused scrapie, TME, kuru, of a sheep's life and usually killed the ani- confusion, and inside "of a year they were and CJD, mal before it was four years old. Today dead. • Agent X had a slower incubation period scrapie is known to be caused by Agent X. So fascinated was Gajdusek that he than any microorganism known to science. A nineteenth-century scrapie epidemic stayed in New Guinea for a year, trading • Unlike bacteria, viruses, and even in Germany was considered the agricul- axes and tobacco for the tissue remains of tumors, Agent X did not spark the body's tural of equivalent the black plague. By the kuru victims. He was able to prove that kuru immune system into action. It caused no early 1950s scrapie had become too costly chewed the brain to a spongy pulp, espe- fever, no interferon production, and no a killer to be ignored, taking 1 sheep out of cially the cerebellum, which controls motor identifiable antibodies; only— eventual- about every 100. So in several countries function. But nowhere could he find the ly— death. agriculture departments began eradica- elusive particle of destruction. In 1958 he For years the investigation of Agenl X tion campaigns. accepted a post as visiting scientist at the was drastically limited by the enormous 98 OMNI '

time thai it look to do a single experiment. and even bombarded it with radiation. In ered on Earth until now, it's been nucleic Marsh studied Agent X by injecting lab this way he gathered enough information to acid that controlled the transmission of ge- animals with scrapie, then watching lor re- remove one contaminant after the next: netic information from one organism to the sults. For each experiment he had to obtain After each procedure, he simply injected next. All living cells discovered so far-

diseased tissue, "brew" an extract of Agent the resulting solution into heallhy mice. If healthy human cells, bacteria, viruses, tu-

X, and then inject it inlo a variely ot animals. contaminants were removed and the solu- mors—require nucleic acid to reproduce. The animals were observed as they slowly tion was purified, mice exposed to a more Because Agem X goes -eplicate, some- incubated the substance— for up to three powerful dose of Agent X would become thing must be supervising the process. But years. Then, and only then, could they be sick more rapidly with less inoculant than so far Prusiner's intensive search for nu- killed and their tissues be examined for before. cleic acid has proved fruitless. And that's

evidence of disease. Because it some- Each time a method worked, Prusiner the most fascinating part of all. If nobody

times took as long as five years to get a would use it to make batches of anew, more finds nucleic acid, we may have to revise all single result, it's small wonder that Marsh is refined solution. The purification went previous concepts of how genetic informa- eager to abandon his approach in favor of rapidly because Prusiner used a method tion is passed along. Someday soon one of the 'newer "biochemical technique's" de- that enabled him to meassre the strength of these hypotheses may be proved true: veloped by such scientists as Stanley the agent in a fraction of the time taken by • Nucleic acid, such as DNA, is not needed Prusiner, of the University of California at other researchers. Each time he removed a to sustain life in spite of what scientists

San Francisco. contaminant, he learned something new have thought. If Agent X can transmit genet-

Prusiner; thirty-nine, is roundish and about the chemical and the physical prop- ic information without nucleic acid, it willforce mild-mannered, a bit like a complacent erties of the agent. the scientists back to the drawing board carpet salesman. He was first fired with The remarkable outcome is that he and for a new explanation of reproduction. curiosity over the mysteries of Agent X his colleague Frank Masiarz have made • Agent X replicates with the aid of nucleic

while he worked as a medical resident in batches of Agent X that are 1 ,000 times as acid from the cells of the organism it has

San Francisco. There his case load in- powerful as any found in nature. This lethal invaded. Thus, it works like a biological cluded a patient wilh CJD. So amazed was switch, turning on systems that cause the Prusiner by the woman's rapid neurological body to produce lethal chemicals. debilitation that he stayed in California to • A liny bit of nucleic acid may yet be found

track down the substance that was making in Agenl X. If it is, it would probably contain

her ill. Among the mosi brilliant and ener- one fourth as much information as the iAn American doctor getic newcomers in search of Agent X— he smallest virus. That would create a di- frequently puts in seven days a week at his stumbled onto the deadly path lemma: Agent X is enormously sophisti- lab — he assembled a team of ten re- cated, and its many "behavior of Agent X while patterns" searchers from such diverse fields as suggest the presence of a large mass of neurochemistry, ceil biology, enzyrnology, vacationing in New Guinea, nucleic acid. and immunology, "to have an expert on 1 where he learned of • We. may never find one answer. Instead, hand, no matter what direction our re- Agent X might be mutating constantly, al- a bizarre neurological disease search might lead us in." ways one step ahead of body defenses —

At the outset Prusiner was disturbed be- found in a small, and researchers-. If it has the ability, as well,

cause no one had yet isolated a pure sam- to repair itself quickly il may isolated tribe of cannibals.^ be vulnerable ple of Agent X. Without such a sample, he to radiation and life-destroying chemicals;

knew, it would be virtually impossible to it may only appear to be invulnerable. This learn much more about the deadly particle. might explain why it can. lie dormant for so So he set out to isolate the agent, hoping to many years, and then cannibalize the brain produce an unconlaminaled sample lhat in just a few months. could be analyzed — and eventually de- Super X has allowed Prusiner to go further These hypotheses have added new ex- stroyed. than anyone in characterizing slow virus. citement to Agent X research. In its last

To make' large batches of the agent for For instance, he has established that it con- heyday, the drama of a cannibal disease

his first experiments, Prusiner injected tains protein, though it does not seem to brought new people and new money into mice with brain material from sheep lhat coat the organism, as it does in viruses. the field. This is about to happen again;

had scrapie. When the mice died, Prusiner He's also established thai if the protein is Scientists struggling to comprehend this their removed brains and ground them into removed , Agent X loses its inf ectivity. Once bizarre form of life are sure to shake things a pasty liquid. the nature of the protein is determined, up, casting serious doubt on some of Prusiner reckoned that out of the entire physicians will be able to test for infection molecular biology's iron tenets and ob- paste sample, only 1 particle in 1 million efficiently. This is a prerequisite for any form literating others. In the process they could was Agent X. To separate that minute quan- of treatment. gain enough insight to cure diseases that tity from the mass of brain-cell material, he Prusiner has also documented that the have plagued man for centuries. put the paste in a centrifuge and spun it at agent is hydrophobic, that is, that it dislikes Prusiner recently jet-hopped to three successively greater speeds. When the materials watery and feels most at home conferences in less than a week. "When I centrifuge whirled slowly, the heaviest par- around fatty substances, such as mem- used to run around the world giving pa- ticles spun out of the paste; when it whirled branes. It also means that Agent X parti- perSi my fellow scientists wanted to know quickly, lighter particles flew Prusiner away. cles probably gather together In well- what I was wasting my time for," he says. learned that Agent X was a middleweight protection organized clumps for mutual "But this trip was different. Wherever I went, particle, removed when the centrifuge against water. people kept saying to me, 'Boy, Stan, are turned at 50,000 revolutions per minute. By When challenged, Prusiner recently you lucky you got in when you did!' "DO spinning batches of his paste at just that learned. Agent X panicles arc defended by speed, he was able to produce the most a coating of membranelike fat from the For Further Reacting The Cellular Basis nf ;.';c In-rr^ine Response. concentrated solution of Agent X ever. body of the stricken person or animal. Thus Golub, Edward S.: Sinauer Associates, Inc., Bui while this_ sample was stronger than hidden, they are enormously difficult to Sunderland, Mass., 1977. before, Prusiner knew that to produce pure identify or destroy. Kuru, Early Letters anri F.e.'o Notes from the Col- X, he would have to remove many other Prusiner and others are now trying to find lection ofD. Carlelon Gajdusek. Gajdusek. D. contaminants. So he subjected the purified out whether Agent X contains nucleic acid, Carletor.. and Farquhar, Judith: Raven Press, paste to hundreds of chemicals, boiled it, such as DNA. In every form of life discov- New York, N.Y, 1980. 100 OMNI VISIONS OFTHE OCCULT

3Y DOUGLAS COLLIGAN

roiiwElJ^by layingWvarious objects- *"'

%Jh Mr

directly on of the mysterious part is the , wispy feathers— top '"*S on the emulsion. Monroe Herts while experimenting with some chemicals that were " "is. Suddenly figures came alive in

i. He got his next surprise when he .JK. [Am 1 "In I'iWiW iX'ffilr .,,,...,, „-ultist Alice Bailey, that refers to

ny: going from one slate to another through the i n his process as a form of fire. In fact, their volatility has a gas mask when he's in the

chemistry doing its own thing," he says, "but I alwaysget something beautiful. "DO FICTION

An adolescent journeys to hear the majestic last rites for a long-dead Earth VOX OUTMRICJt BY MICHAEL BISHOP

falher had Harmonists generally call it) science; he had shown only been tuning ihe is not truly duplicable by any polite interest in my Iyvolcano for the human-scale recording collection of preadapted past year. His work was in system, and I was eager for insects from the Tharsis preparation for Ihe decennial firsthand experience of the S'.eppe; and, although he

Day of Diapason , when we ancient volcano's voice. I had listened dutifully to three who. have made a home of was also eager to see my of my melodeon the once-desolate mojaves falher again. compositions {at my and himalayas of Mars While supervising the mother's dogged bidding), salute Ihe long-dead planet tuning of the several afterwards he had where our species was born. hundred painstakingly dispensed rote praise rather

I had just turned eight, but cored-out calderas and than incisive criticism. His our patriot population vents of Olympus Mons, my mind had been elsewhere. observes a double year, father had come home for Vanora, my mother counting by the six hundred only brief visits. These resented the Day of eighty-seven-day period in obligatory "rests," mandated Diapason as much as which Mars revolves around by the church, he had spent Theon, my father, revered it. the sun. A colonist on Titan poring over computer To her it represented not only or Ganymede, harking back diagrams of the great a disaster for the continuity to Earlh-slyle dating, would mountain's bowels, collating of our family life but also a say I was fifteen and a half. and memorizing the perverse wallowing in the Though fast approaching chromatic readouts of its fao'ec destruction of Earth. adulthood, I had neverheard glassy flues. As a result, he Why must we carry on so my father or anyone else had made no real luss over about what was lost forever? play the mountain. The Vox my improving grades in beginning only ayear after Olympica (as devout Krystic history and hydraulic their bond-covenant, my

PAINTING BY M ATI KLARWEIN father's first stint as Memorialisl had almost "Why do you say that?" commission not for the honor of it but be- destroyed their marriage. Somehow, "Because you're older now, child, but cause he wants to be able to hear music though, they had survived the separations, scarcely any wiser." again in the only way he really can —

the misunderstandings, the arguments. Fi- I was sitting at my. melodeon, a gift from through his bones." nally birth in Tithonia, my Spaulding,.West Theon on my seventh birthday. I had been "Then why do you begrudge him?" where Vanora headed one of the Northern filling our bunker with frisky runs and grace Stung, Vanora leveled an appraising

Hemisphere's ground-based divisions of notes. Now I turned the melodeon off and glance at me. Then her expression soft- OSAS (Orbital Solar Amplification System], covered its keyboard. ened. "First, because he told me this would had confirmed their faith in the benefits of "Listen, Gayle, the ceremony's tradi- never happen again. And, second, Gayle, reconciliation. I was the tie that binds. tion-bound. The Memorialist plays what because the Day of Diapason's a Har-

Seven years laterthe church had again every other Memorialist since Zivu, the first, monist anachronism. It's disruptive of the selected my father to oversee the prepara- has played. Zivu established the program. new order we've established, and it's mor- tions af Olympus Mons, and Theon, de- Your falher isn't going to squeeze in a little bid in its celebration of the poisoning and spite his many intervening promises to my Gaylean ditty as a'sop to your vanity." death of our home world."

mother, had accepted the commission. "I know that, Mother I was only talking." "It doesn't celebrate. Mother. It me-

I was on my father's side, and I told Va- "Well, your talk of joining him under the morializes." nora so. mountain is nonsense, too." Vanora dismissed my view of the matter

To me Theon's selection by the Har- "He said I might." by picking a thread from her tunic and

monists seemed a signal honor, and I was "Gayle, he probably wasn't even listen- dropping it to the floor. I was lucky that she prepared to forgive him a hundred humiliat- ing." Vanora's voice conveyed her concern was talking at all. Ordinarily except when ing slights if only I could sit beside him in as well as her exasperation. "Did you know arguing with Theon and allowing her feel- the mountain organ room on the day he that the Memorialist hears only the ghost of ings to run away with her, she avoided dis- made even distant Hellas ring. When he his own performance?" cussing the topic in my presence. That she played, the whole planet was supposed to "The ghost?" had initiated a conversation about the Day teeter in its orbit. I wanted to be with him, "It's true. The keyboard room is sound- of Diapason with me— well, that was a booming out a diapasonal lament for proofed. Everyone entering it— tradition- breakthrough akin to faster-than-light

long-dead Earth. He had hinted that this ally, the Memorialist and a single techni- travel. I tried to press my advantage before might be possible. Perhaps he would even cian—must wear absorbent plugs and a it fled at that speed. let the volcano give prodigious voice to one pair of padded earphones. Zivu went deaf "What was Father's first performance

of my melodeon sonatinas. I had written an hymning Earth's lost glory. Knowing full well like?" especially good one since his last visit to what the result would be, he performed the My mother looked at me, then let her Spaulding. entire day's program without protection." gaze swing past the redwood statue of "Gayle," my mother said, after listening "Father's not deaf." Ares guarding the corridor to her night to this feverish recitation of my hopes, "you "No, but his hearing's impaired. Some- chamber. "I'm afraid I didn't hear it, Gayle. I shame yourself with every word." times I think he accepted this second didn't want to hear it."

1 "You didn't hear it?'

"I felt it," Vanora said, intercepting my .

stare. "Or at least I think I did. OSAS held a training program for executive candidates in Stanleyville, Northwest Hellas, two

weeks before the Day, and I stayed there, using my leave time, even after our training

sessions were over. I was in the bunker of a government hospice in the Southern Hemi- sphere when your father played the moun-

tain. I felt the music he was making, and an officer at the nearby OSAS facility record-

ed it on a seismograph." "You could have got back in time to hear him, and you didn't even make the effort?" "That's right."

I shook my head. "That's astonishing. Mother." Vanora did not reply. "Are you going to listen to him this time?" "Spaulding's much closer to Olympus

than Stanleyville is. I suppose I'll hear your father's performance. I'm going to spend the day down here, though, with our sound units turned up and my ears plugged." "That's spiteful, Motherl Sheer, irreligious spite/"

"Your father's the religionist in this family, Gayle, though he's pulled you that way, too.

I just don't have any desire to hear the music he makes for a foolish memorial cer- emony."

Controlling my outrage, I said, "I do."

"I know you do. Step aboveground on

the Day of Diapason and you'll hear it "/ am the ghost of Christmas Past, providing, of course, that you accept everywhere— hour upon hour of merciless, Einstein's theory of relativity." unending bombast. But legislation in the Parliament at Chryse promises to make this year's ceremony the Harmonists' swan which front the Tharsis Steppe. My father the sterling quality of my instrument, song, at leas! so far as that ogreish moun- received mail and occasionally slept in another gift from Theon, and I stopped be- tain is concerned. So listen well, Gayle, and Hardscrabble, which lay more than fore finishing the sonatina and returned remember what you hear." twenty-one hundred kilometers northwest both the mouth organ and my clumsy score

satchel. I ate dried beeicakeanda "Goodnight, Vanora." I stood up, of our home in Spaulding, to my a Coprates, then brushed the wrinkles from my clothes, and To get there, 1 was going to have to pass seedless tangerine from strode past the tutelary statue of Ares to my through several government redwood stretched out to sleep. Around noon I was tiny room. My own mother was a skeptic groves, dairy farms, winter-wheat collec- awakened by cricket song. and an enemy tives, and mining hamlets. My course Instantly alert, I searched for my self-ap- "Goodnight, child," she said, resigned to pointed me straight through the famous pointed alarm clock. Most crickets do not my si Wilder Plains, separating the two north- chirp during the day, but perpetual dusk ernmost volcanoes of the Tharsis Ridge, has superseded night on Mars and a few

A week before the Day of Diapason I ran Ascra and Pavo. If I made it through that cricket species have so far accommodated full daylight I this even does away from home. I carried with me an Isid- pass by my second day of travel, would be to pattern that ian silver harmonica, a printout of my doing well. Everything depended on my not inhibit them. I found my minstrel in a only of white on the south side of a sonatina "If I Forget Thee, Elysian Earth catching rides. In a week not even a patch moss of Yore," an enameled box in which to towering, three-legged war machine could nearby redwood, caught it between my house captured insects, and a satchel for walk to Olympus. cupped palms, and eased it into my perfo-

I It white, not a my clothes. I left at night, when the OSAS That first night, though, deliberately rated box, was my cricket—

veils throw a bronze dusk over Tithonia's avoided people. I ran through the oxygen- pink-eyed albino but an emerald-eyed giant redwood groves, for then a brown- exhaling redwoods like a two-year-old, my mutant of a species I had never seen be- clad figure among the trees blends with the heart bursting with unwritten melodeon fore. I took it with me.

If I antique shadows like an otter or a deer. music, I was free. anyone stopped me,

As for Spaulding, a government town could show him my birth card, which Early that afternoon I left the forest and where the door to every buried house re- showed me to be old enough for freelanc- labored to a hilltop overlooking the Wilder kilometer-wide sembles an upright marble grave mark- ing, and explain that I was a Harmonist Valley. Beneath me was a er—well, no one Ihere saw me take my novitiate on my first solo pilgrimage to the tributary of the Canal Irrigation System leave. Holy Mountain. That was true, pretty much. (CIS), carrying water from the northern Tithonia, Isidis, My destination, of course, was Olympus It fell short of total truthfulness only in that I polar cap to Blackshale, Mons, the enormous shield volcano in the had not registered my intenlions with the and other equatorial regions. This particu- Martian province informally known as church. lar canal was the Wilder interprovincial lovers. Blackshale. The mountain's chief city is a Toward dawn I sat down beneath a red- Tributary: CIS-WIT, to acronym well-to-do vacation community, incongru- wood, emptied my pockets, and played "If I Gazing down, I was stunned by the ously called Hardscrabble, on the eastern Forget Thee" on my harmonica. It sounded amount of activity, both mercantile and rec- flank, high above the Olympus Palisades, tinny and pitiful there in the woods, despite reational, along the broad concrete aprons of the locks. Like an immense liquid python, a strip of silver water curled away to

' the northwest and into a forest of dark green conifers. Up and down the middle of the canal moved colorful barges, while bathers and holiday anglers made use of the peripheral areas specifically set aside tor them. Dock workers and freight vehicles labored noisily on the quays, and hundreds of gaily dressed people from nearby town- ships mingled among the wooden booths and striped canvas tents of the canalside markets. Spaulding, by comparison, was a

drowsy memorial garden. I ran down the

hill, it seemed unlikely that anyone in this

busy, festive place would know or care that I was a runaway. After buying a cup of milk and a shell sandwich with some of last year's emer-

gency scrip (it was worthless at home, but

negotiable on the canals), I sauntered along the quays, looking for up-channel

transportation. No one paid me any mind. I spilled most of the granulated beef from my shell sandwich, but a black dog and a pair of cheeky fulmars cleaned up after me. No reprimand from angry authority figures. But no advice about how to catch a ride

into Blackshale, either. It seemed that three quarters of the water traffic was coming

down the canal. I despaired of reaching my father before D-Day. Surely, though, there had to be other pilgrims journeying up the CIS-WIT to hear the Holy Mountain hymn

the planet of our origins. I would join them. spilled ink on a piece of paper and then folded II in half-" Ev- Unfortunately, I could not find them. eryone along this lock of the Wilder Tribu- CONTINUEDONPAGE11B —

"Oh, Rudy had the most vivid nightmares Whelans! One comes to the gallery busi- imaginable as a child. Everyone accepts ness, after all, because one lacks the

RINBT1ME them quite literally. Of course, as Rudy means to be a collector. I'm sure I ex- says. .they're not to every taste. One sample plained all this yesterday." horror insisted— crone's finger. "Isn't lhal always the way of ii was enough for me. But people goto "You did, Mother. But you also with galleries, though? But is self-advan- movies, don't they? It's the same principle." if you'll remember— that Mr. Whelan should tage that imporlant to you as an artist? "Cradle robbing is not the same as any- not stop recording till he was back home it's in thai ring there to be an What does money matter if you enjoy thing, a crime this state, and and put to sleep. You wanted abundantly the pleasures it can buy?" is evidence." element qt surprise, in today's recording.

"Yeah, but you'll enjoy the reruns. You "There was nothing illegal in any of But, as I pointed out then, we would have to and your customers." Rudy's recordings. They were undertaken explain this all over." National Endowment of you, to "I wouldn't deny that. But whal better with a grant from the "And so we are. It's good Rudy defense. against satiety than to awake each and conducted under the strictest psychi- be so patient with us. You won't have to day to a present unshadowed by the past? atric supervision. Every ring is fully docu- tomorrow. We'll stop recording in a moment, mented. And from a strictly ethical point of and then, while you put the finishing Candidly I consider the loss of short-term

it lo the dear it been, memory a great blessing. It allows me to view, surely, was a kindness touches on dinner— how long has terrible live for the moment." boy to exorcise the memory of such by the way, Mr. Whelan, since you've eaten "In any case," said Rudy "you'll get a dreams." tournedos Rossini?— he can audit the ring quid pro quo. After each recording session "Except, Mother, thai as a result I went on he's making now." you'll be allowed to check out a ring from having the nightmares." "You're assuming that I've agreed to all theory, Rudy," Muriel Ihe gallery's current collection, excepting "That's only a this," I pointed out. some few rare recordings that have only scolded. "All children have nightmares. It's 'And so you did— yesterday."

a stage they go through. You just had a "Yesterday I hadn't just gone through one or two replays left. I assume that's what you were after when you broke in here." special talent. Why in the world are we dis- purgatory." this I thought we'd settled Whelan, pish. Tomorrow "If the ring you left with me last night is cussing this? "Oh, pish, Mr. any sample of your collection, I'm not en- years ago." today will be yesterday. We must live (or the ticed." "Because Mr. Whelan didn't enjoy his present. Even the Bible says so, some-

it tor "What ring was that, Rudy?" Muriel private viewing." where. Mr. Whelan, I implore you. Try asked. "Oh, yes. Well, Mr. Whelan, you must one week. You see" — she leaned forward wisely next time. Try athletics. confidentially went out of focus — "I "One of my nightmares, from when I was choose more and

that ii It picks you up wonderfully, and we've got a have been put on this merciless diet. No four. I did warn you, Mr Whelan, might be too strong tor your taste, but you flipped fine stock. Rudy takes a group of young cholesterol, which means, in effect, no for the price tag." men skiing every year, and they all have a sauces. Virtually no desserts but fresh fruit. lovely salt, "I don't believe that was a nightmare. lovely 'time. You can have the same No beef in any form. Think of it! And no That was real." time, and / can have my own collection of Mr. Whelan! What kind of life is that?" ,"

"So what you want me to do is . . To eat for me. Mr Whelan. Rudy is a

wonderful cook, and when he's not in the > mood, the city's full of restaurants. My re-

sources are limited, but I can still afford a table at La Pentola." "But surely you don't need me for such a ."

. . . . . a "A bit part?" Rudy asked sarcastically "If you mean to say," Muriel said, "that U^^H"-' someone else could make such recordings for me, you don'! do justice to your own artistry, Mr. Whelan. Believe me, my dinner table has auditioned hundreds of would-be JPJ artists. None of them had your lasfe, your d gusto, your concentration." dV °oWsf ; "Well?" Rudy demanded. replied, not? Like Shake- "Well," I "why BWs fa " speare says, the best revenge is living ra i '^m well." ffij; % While Rudy went off to the kitchen and ~— Muriel replayed our dinner ot the night be- j j fore, I let the gallery's two guards set up a 4 fl* Ringmaster so that I could audit— and thus td be able to recall — the recording I'd just"

that it will never be possible to a significant from an ecological point of view I learned, KR DO/ABC Colorado Springs degree because the complexity of higher for example, that the kinds of microbes in 'KOMU7NBC Columbia/ a organisms implies a high level of integra- good rich garden soil would do poorly or Jefferson City tion, which would be profoundly disturbed die altogether in a sandy, acidic soil or in WFAA/ABC Dallas/Fort Worth by an important change in any one of their any soil placed underwater, The adaptive WXYZ/ABC Detroit constituents. Yet several institutes of bio- relationships between any particular type KVIQ/ABC Eureka ethics have been created in which physi- of soil and its microbial life are extremely WFFT/IND Fort Wayne cians, biologists, sociologists, jurists, arid complex and of great importance because KJCT/ABC Grand Junction theologians are assembled to discuss the they involve the very creation of the earth's WOTV/NBC Grand Rapids medical, ethical, legal, and theological as- surface. WLRE/IND Green Bay pects of changing human nature that might There would be no real soil on the sur- WGHP/ABC Greensboro/ be brought about by methods of genetic face of the earth if it were not for the pres- High Point/ engineering — yet to be imagined. Thus, we ence of microbial life. There would be only Winston-Salem try to adapt not only to the future, which is the inanimate chemical constituents of the WCTI/ABC Greenville/New Bern being created by the enormous strides of planet, as is now the case for the surface of WLYH/ABC Harrisburg/ scientific technology, but also to the future Mars and the moon. The humus that con- Lancaster imagined by science-fiction writers. verts the chemical constituents of the earth WVIf/NBC Hartford surface into fertile soil and that covers the KPRC/NBC Houston CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS bedrock is produced by microbial life. WJKS/NBC Jacksonville Though biologically the same, human How it all began is a mystery, but we WJAC/NBC Johnsiown/Altoona beings have been able to create an im- .know that humus is constantly being pro- KMBC/ABC Kansas City mense diversity of cultures and ways of life duced by the soil microbes as they da- KADN/IND Latayetfe through adaptive mechanisms. The word compose the dead bodies and products of KVVU/IND Las Vegas adaptation, however, has several different plants, animals, and other forms of life. The KABC/ABC Los Angeles meanings, because fitness can be characteristics and amounts of humus in a WLVY/ABC Louisville achieved in many different ways, particular place, furthermore, depend WITI/CBS Milwaukee On the one hand, adaptation can be upon the chemical composition of the local KMSP/IND Minneapolis brought about through Darwinian evolution soil's constituents and upon other local en- WABC/ABC New York and therefore result from specific changes vironmental factors that determine the WAVY/ NBC Norfolk/Portsmouth in the genetic DNA molecules — a process kinds of microbes that grow in that particu- KETV/ABC Omaha that usually requires many generations. On lar place, Each type of soil, in other words, KMIR/ABC Palm Springs the other hand, adaptation can be results from the creation of a system in WEEK/NBC Peoria achieved much more rapidly both through which fitness is achieved between the total KYW/NBC Philadelphia physiological responses and through so- environment and its microbial popula- KPHO/IND Phoenix ciocultural manipulations that do not re- tion— a fitness that determines in turn what WTAE/ABC Pittsburgh quire any change in the genetic consti- species of animals and plants are most KPTV/IND Portland tution. We humans are most likely to be successful on it in a particular climate. The WDDD/1ND Paducah comfortable and successful if we make genetic DNA determines the potentialities WPTF/NBC Raleigh/Durham conscious individual efforts to achieve and constraints of each species living in WROC/NBC Rochester . physiological and social fitness' to the and on the earth's surface, but all manifes- WGRF/IND Rockford places where we live, work, and play, and tations of life are the expressions of rela- KOVR/ABC Sacramento especially to the people with whom we tionships conditioned not by the DNA KPLR/IND St. Louis deal. The physiological and sociocultural molecules but by the creative interplay be- KUTV/NBC Salt Lake City mechanisms of adaptation are of far great- tween microbes and their soil environment. KFMB/CBS San Diego

er practical importance than the Darwinian I shall illustrate these relationships with KGO/ABC San Francisco genetic mechanisms. an example also taken from my own work KCOY/CBS Santa Barbara/ There is more to adaptation than the as a medical scientist — an example that Santa Maria achievement of fitness. In the majority of has in fact conditioned my interest in KING/NBC Seattle cases, the successful interplay between WTOG/IND Tampa biological adaptation, especially in human people and the physical and social envi- life. In the late f920s I worked as a micro- WWTV/CBS Traverse City/Cadillac ronments in which they develop and func- biologist on lobar pneumonia in the hospi- KVOA/NBC Tucson tion involves the emergence of attitudes, tal of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical KGCT/IND Tulsa qualities, and structures thai amount to a Research. We knew that the pneumococci WRC/NBC Washington. D.C. true creative process. For example, we be- responsible for lobar pneumonia are cov- KTVH/CBS Wichita/ Hutchinson come adapted to dangerous environments ered with a mucous layer, a capsule that WKBN/CBS-- Youngstown or to difficult tasks by developing greater protects them against the natural defense resistance or new skills. These creative ef- mechanisms of the human body. This mu- fects of adaptive processes have been cous layer is made up of a complex sugar,

greatly neglected, and I consider them of which we called capsular polysaccharide. Your taste in cars has changed. Your taste in musk has changed. It's time for a Sanyo.

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There was [hen no known way of destroy- against a great variety of bacterial dis- as an adaptive response to a certain ne- ing the capsular polysaccharide except by eases, including lobar pneumonia. cessity proved that microscopic organisms treatment with strong acid, which of course Having established the antiinteciious ac- possess potentialities that are expressed

famil- I could not be-used in the body. Being tivity of the microbial enzyme, tried to de- only under certain conditions. I postulated iar with the potentialities of the soil micro- velop methods for its production on a large that this biological law was applicable to bial population and with its ability to de- scale, and this led me to an unexpected other forms of life, including human life and compose even the most esoteric kinds of discovery that has influenced all my sub- human behavior. This was a mechanism of substances, I postulated that there proba- sequent life. I had no difficulty in producing adaptation very different from that bly existed somewhere in nature a kind of huge amounts of the soil microbe by cul- achieved by Darwinian genetic processes, microbe that could feed on the polysac- tivating it in a rich bouillon, but to my sur- which in higher forms of life take place

it charide by digesting wiih a particular prise and disappointment, the microbial slowly over many generations. I sub- enzyme. The word enzyme is the generic mass thus obtained did not contain the an- sequently developed other examples of term for proteins that enable all living ticapsular enzyme I was interested in, I adaptive enzyme production, and ever things, including microbes, to utilize food. eventually recognized that this enzyme since that time— more than half a century

In 1929 I separating only succeeded indeed in was produced when the soil microbe ago! — I have been obsessed by the con- from the soil a certain type of microbe that was deprived of other nutrients and forced viction that all of us are born with the poten- could feed on the capsular polysac- to feed on the capsular polysaccharide it- tial capabilities. .tar. many different life- charide, and from it I separated the en- self or on a related substance. The adap- styles, but develop only those that can be zyme thai digested this substance. Ani- tive response to the necessity of using the evoked into activity by the proper condi- mals infecfed with pneumococci could polysaccharide as food was thus a creative tions and for which we make the proper then be completely cured by injection of one, namely, the production of an enzyme. kind of effort, more often than not out of the enzyme, which destroyed the capsular For good scientific reasons, biochemists necessity, polysaccharide of the pneumococci in and geneticists who later collaborated on In nature, creative adaptations can also their bodies. related problems of enzyme production commonly result from the fact that the vari-

The anticapsular enzyme I prepared in coined the phrase induced enzyme, but for ous forms of life exist in intimate associa-

1929 is the firsl antibiotic produced by a reasons of biological ohilosophy, I still pre- tions with other forms not genetically re- rational scientific method in the laboratory. fer the phrase adaptive enzyme, lated to them. Such biological associations

But although highly active against pneu- I was naturally excited by my finding, in involve animals, plants, and microbes in all mococcal infeciions in animals, it was nev- part because of its scientific originality, but sorts of combinations. They depend tor

er tested in "human beings because of the even more because I immediately realized their survival on changes that make the difficulty of producing it in a pure form on its relevance to other forms of life, and es- associated species better adapted to one a large scale and the discovery in the early pecially to human life. The fact that the another, usually with creative effects. In- 1930s that sulfa drugs could be used enzyme was produced in a very short time deed, many types of organisms long 116 OMNI thought to be well-defined biological spe- cies have turned out to be associations of several different species. For example, the sea animal called the Portuguese man- of-war consists in reality of at least three different species that have banded to- gether in the course of evolution, One spe- cies constitutes the float, a second makes up the fishing tentacles that capture plankton, a third carries out the digestive functions. The various organisms constitut- ing the Portuguese man-of-war are so in- terdependent that they do not live long after being separated from one another. The word symbiosis was coined more :<• than a cenlury ago to designate the biolog- • ical associations be: ween algae and fungi

that produce lichens, and it has now been extended to many other types of associa- tions between genetically unrelated or- ganisms, Etymologically, symbiosis simply

means living together, but it is now used almost exclusively in its initial historical sense, namely with the added meaning that each organism contributes to the wel-

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persona that is unique, yet remains part of the cosmic and human order of things. Human beings have been and remain uniquely creative because they are able to /llitalia ^' integrate the pessimism of intelligence with Ski lift to the Italian Alps. the optimism of will. DO and canal tugs flash VOX OLYMPICA "I'll give you a ride," Harbin said. "What's Ihe lethargic barges for pay?" by us in the glitter of the airboat's ceaseless "Wait a minute. Oona said she was call- spray. Harbin slowed down only when we tary was pursuing secular matters— trade, ing in a favor, remember?" had arrived at another lock level. water games, day labor, holiday court- "The favor's letting you aboard, upstart. Here, as if piloting a helicraft rather than ships, and eating. A haggard veteran of the What's for pay?" a water vessel, he would adjust the controls the wail. This stun- expedition against the Argyre Separatist My heart sinking, I showed Harbin the to power us up and over Army was hawking tickets for the Recom- last of my scrip. ning maneuver, he~later told me, would pense Lottery from her powered wheel- "Thai won't do. What else have you got?" have been impossible on Earth, where significantly stronger I exerted chair. I bought a ticket with five pieces of my searched my pockets. My harmonica gravity had a tattered scrip. came into my hand. I turned it out so that force. of "Isn't there any way to get up-channel, the airboat owner could see it. The sky turned bronze, and the lights "Silver?" the other mercantile craft looked like gems

She folded the scrip into a deerskin spor- "From Isidis," I boasted. "The best." floating in amber syrup. We continued to

ran .in her lap, then pointed into the crowd "It's small, though." He took the har- skim along. In fact, we traveled for nearly

north of me. "Go to Quay Number Twelve, monica from me and examined it closely. ten hours, with only two brief breaks, nei- ask for Harbin, and tell him old Oona's call- 'All right, Gayle, here's your fare. I'm assum- ther of which gave me enough time to ing in a favor.'' ing you play this thing. You do? Good. All serenade Harbin on the harmonica. The

I our to the "I don't need a favor. I need a ride." right, then. You play for me whenever ask conifer forests on left gave way

"If all you have is scrip, child, you need a you to, and when wegettoWIT'sEnd— you sprawling irrigated pastures of government favor. Go on. Find Harbin and tell him what know, the beginning of the Blackshale dairy farms as we passed through the Wild- I've said." Tributary— you give up the harmonica and er Plains, On the far horizon the peak of native Mar- Backing away, I thanked the crippled go your own way. Agreed?" Olympus Mons, where even

I gear, sergeant repeatedly. She waved me on. I Although I thought about if for a minute, tians dare not venture without oxygen reoriented myself among the streaming finally agreed. grew dimly visible. pedestrians and counted off every quay The peak was naked, wavery brown in twilight, for several weeks ago the Har- until I had found Number Twelve. There, Harbin's airboat sprinted northwest on a the beside a ladder, sat a short, burly man in a cushion of downblasling air. Water spewed monists had paid OSAS to melt the summit

dirty blue pea jacket. Older than my father, up beside us from the vessel's sculpted snow The runoff, I knew, would have turned he was also wearing stained coveralls and hydrofoils, and the battery-powered fans the mountain's lower skirts a stunning, replenished most of the boots. I approached and told him what the roared like miniature cyclones. So long as deep green and sergeant had instructed me to teli him. Out we were on the move, there was no ques- minor tributaries of the local canal system. still not to of the corner of my eye 1 saw a dilapidated tion of my playing the mouth organ, nor But we were close enough see airboat gently breasting the swells that could we really talk. below Ihe mountain's timberline. " at out- broke against the canal wall. Holding the sides of my chair, I watched Around midnight we docked an post called Parkhill, a trading center built of mediate between these realms for the tribution when you've wound down for logs and sod, with latex calking in the many people who lack his gift. Through good."

chinks and prefabricated plastic shutters either their own devout efforts or the salvific Pulling away I drained a last drop of beer on the double-paned windows. talent of a mediator like Theon, a longer or a from my stein. The owner, who knew Harbin, gave us a more vita! life comes to those who search "Surely you must have a moral, upstart. late supper of beer and fried squirrel, for and find the crystalline harmonies un- Most preachers— Harmonists, Syncretists, which we consumed on a wooded hillside dergoing the whole of Nature. Such is my whatever other moufhy kind — most of 'em overlooking both the trading post and the credo, and I outlined it enthusiastically. end up with a moraf." canal. vibrating My body was from the "You talk even fancier than you play," I stared at the pilot defiantly. "Just this, long, noisy ride, and I ate greedily to over- Harbin noted. Harbin; The entire universe, the whole staff come my fatigue. When I had finished, I was not finished yet. "The volcanoes of God's harmonic thought, sings through

Harbin demanded that I play. Willingly surrounding us— Olympus ahead, Ascra the consciousness of every human being, enough, my hands shaking, I complied. behind, Pavo and Ars to the south— they're but few of us train ourselves to hear the

Bittersweet ballads, lively jigs, and familiar frozen music, Harbin. The entire physical melodies. And some of us." I added point-

Harmonist hymns — music that I accurately universe is God's dream of creation in- edly, "are more deaf than others." surmised would appeal to an uneducated scribed as a secret crystalline music. You "Well, I'm not deaf to that singing in your bul soul like airboat pilot. independent my and I are parts of the dream that have pocket. What have you got there, upstart?"

"Not too shoddy for an upstart," he awakened. We must awaken the rest. We Stunned, I realized that Ihe cricket in my afterward. commented must draw the music of God's thought out box had begun, quite faintly, to chirp, I had

"My father's Theon the Memorialist." of the physical substances embodying it. forgotten about the creature. Folding back

"Ah, so that's why you're heading for the That's what the. colonizing — the warming, my pocket, I turned the perforated box out mountain." (It had not occurred to him to- the watering, the seeding — of half-frozen onto the hillside. Then I picked it up and doubt my story.) "Well, maybe, you'd better planets like precolonial Mars is all about. began stuffing grass blades and sprigs of not tell every traveler along the way who Pilot. That's why we're here." clover-through the tiny holes. It was a won- your daddy is." der the insect had not suffocated. As soon "Why not?" as the box had fallen from my pocket, of "Harmonists— mouthy ones, anyhow— course, the cricket had stopped singing, are none too popular in Blackshale this but it appeared little the worse for close year. The hospice keepers in Hardscrabble confinement, and I was relieved. '•Harbin's airboat wo'uid like to send Theon on a half-round "You're not planning to keep it, are you?" trip to the bottom of the CIS-BIT" sprinted northwest on a "Well, I found it this morning when—"

"Why?" "Let it go." cushion of

"Because the government's ordered a I looked uncertainly at the airboat pilot. three-day evacuation of the communities downbiasting air. Water "Let.it go," he repeated more forcibly around the volcano. Everyone's got to with- "What do you want to keep the little fiddler spewed up beside " draw at least two hundred kilometers from for, anyway 9 us, and the battery-powered the Olympus Palisades. Some have al- "I collect singing insects. Cicadas, crick- ready started pulling out. That's a dandy " fans roared ets, grasshoppers. It's a hobby of mine. I've fuss for those folks, just so the church can been doing it since—" like miniature cyclones!^ turn the tallest mountain in the solar system "Collect 'em! Caterwauling Krystos, up- into a wind-spittin' calliope. Me, I'mrapstat- start, what for? Are you afraid you're miss- ic this is probably the last decennial it's ing a note or two of God's great hidden ever gonna blow." symphony? Do you think you have to pick

Bitterly I pointed out that Harbin would 'em up secondhand? Where's your faith, not be alive for the next Day of Diapason, "Theology's never been my strong suit, upstart? Where's your faith?" " anyway. upstart. I'm here because after the Punitive "Listen, it's not —

"Don't be so sure. My mother, without Expedition to Ihe Argyre I saved enough to "If you want a ride to WIT's End with me, genetic reconditioning or the usual butt- buy an airboat. Beats doing butt work in a upstart, you're going to have to let that pale minded immortalist diets— my mother lived government bunker, wouldn't you say?" little fiddler loose." to be sixty-one. Why on Earth, she would "Operating an airboat is what you do to I tried to stare Harbin down, but that was

have been well over a century old. These accommodate to physical reality, Harbin. impossible. Finally I pulled the top from the days lots of folks get older than she did." Too often we let that side of Nature get the capture box and bumped Ihe white cricket

"Most of the ones who do are Har- upper hand. Earth was blooming, unfreez- gently into a patch of clover, where it was monists." ing, awakening, bul people unaware or un- conspicuous against the green. "Maybe."- caring that the implicit harmonies of God's "Now give me the box," Harbin said.

I nodded at the trading post below us. thought were finally manifesting them- "What for?" "Ask Parkhill's terminal for an actuarial selves killed the planet before its music "To pay for your ride:"

readout. What I say is true, Harbin." was fully audible. We betrayed ourselves. "I thought you wanted the harmonica."

"1 upstart. I've never understood 1 charge "Well, The result was not simply death for our do. want the box, too. I always that." world but a lingering"— I searched for a more for well-tuned hypocrites than for "Whosoever is harmonically composed word— "a lingering dissonance in the lives live-and-let-live folks with lin ears." delights in harmony," I quoted. of those who escaped the catastrophe. At "Oh, I see. You've found out my father's "Nor that, either." all costs, we must save Mars from that kind Theon the Memorialist, and you're going to

I explained that the basic ordering of the of betrayal, in order to save ourselves, too." gouge me for having a well-known father."

physical universe is essentially crystalline. I was preaching. Although the look on "You don't see anything. And you don't

Because music also has a crystalline struc- Harbin's face conveyed a wry regard for hear so good, either, even if it's not because ture, it constilutes an important seam be- my precocious eloquence, he obviously you're deaf." tween the spiritual and the material worlds. thought it both misplaced and haughty. I He strode down the slope to Parkhill's

Spiritually hungry huran beings (I lectured promptly shut up. trading posl, lo surrender his stein and the old man) have a deep-seated urge to The pilot reached over and rumpled my wooden bowl and to scribble a farewell to bridge the two realities through music, and hair. "Go ahead. Get it all out, upstart. I've the owner on the slate hanging beside the talented adepts like my father must got plenty of time. Just don't expect a con- door. After seeing to our p.-ovisioning, Park- Alba, saluted me, leaped his air- native of this boisterous frontier town, No hill had gone backlo bed. I followed Harbin Lower He sprinted off at twice. around like a puppy, for withoul his airboat I boat over the lock wall, and one looked me would never reach Olympus. north over the water. His was still the only At the aerodrome I engaged in some suffered several vessel on the canal, and 1 stood on the vast, imaginative haggling and

We reached the end of the Wilder Inter- blank apron of the automated lock and discouraging setbacks. However, I finally of the provincial Tributary a little before dawn, watched it go cycloning out of my life. connived my way aboard one skyliner dirigibles that cruised back and Traffic here was nonexistent; we had the Then I turned and walked westward into canal locks and the countryside all to our- the antique desolation of the Tharsis Pre- forth between Volcano Flats and the East selves. colonial Preserve, Olympus Palisades. My story was that my Harbin made me disembark on a lock Lizards, birds, and rodents live.. among parents, trade representatives from Epur, apron from which the volcanic surface of the rocks of this prehistoric landscape. on the Jovian satellite Ganymede, had left the ancient Tharsis Steppe was visible. Un- They do not contribute to the precolonial me in town in order to take a three-day redeemed basalt and jumbled rocks rich in authenticity of the park, but they made my holiday by themselves in Hardscrabble. now, the Iron oxide. A primeval deserl in the midst of passage through its barrens less lonely But they had been gone a week irrigated pastures and lovely evergreen and therefore more endurable. money they had given me to get by in Vol-

Flats run out, and I feared that groves. In fact, the naked area— known I hiked for nearly six hours along a well- cano had befallen today as the Tharsis Precolonial Preserve marked trail and at last emerged into the some terrible mishap had them. stony sprawl of Volcano Flats, a lively city The manager at the hospice where they . — had been set aside by the government as a commemorative park, Because few with an aerodrome, dozens of wide pedes- had planned to stay had recently told me never latter-day Martians care to remember what trian thoroughfares, and a host of carven- by tellaser transmission that they had

weeping, I our world looked like before the Warming, looking beige buildings whose windows even arrived. Frantic, almost service however, no one was about to give me winked in the sunlight like murals of ham- begged the agents of the dirigible transportation farther west into Blackshale mered copper, The city was full of people, to give me passage to Olympus Mons to

of continuing Many of them, it became clear, were find out what had happened, Although Province. I saw no prospect my journey other than by foot. affluent evacuees from Olympus Mons, these people tried to refer me to local gov- of ernment authorities for help, a woman I tourists out well ahead "What am I supposed to do now?" who had come asked Harbin. D-Day, going back to Hardscrabble for an enter- streets that father tainment contractor overheard my pitiful "Take a hike through the park" — the des- I told no one on the my ticket for the next I tale a ert, he meant — "and if you keep bearing was Theon the Memorialist. Nor did say and bought me pilgrim to the Mountain. flight. toward the mountain, you'll soon run up on that I was a Holy name Ardath. She sat Volcano Flats, It's too big to miss. You Instead, after asking directions to the The woman's was in dirigible's passenger should be able to ge! help there. Just don't aerodrome, I swung along past the Vol- beside me the plied with questions that tell 'em you're a caterwauling Harmonist." cano Flats Carnival Grounds and the gondola and me full of Harbin had dry goods from NewTithonia Blackshale Livestock Emporia as if frivolity made me stammer, blush, and finally, identity sur- to deliver to a crater community called and commerce were my birthrights and I a remorse, confess my true The prising upshot of my confession was that Ardath found the truth harder to swallow

than the lie I had told at the aerodrome. Disappointed, she patted my knee and folded several pieces of planetary cur- rency into my hand, not scrip but money, nearly a hundred legitimate marsnotes. "Gayle, maybe you won't feel compelled

to counterfeit identities for yourself if you have a little money ready to hand."

"Please, Elder, it's not-"

"I don't know what it is, Gayle, Never

t mind, though. I think I understand, was young once, too." Ardath rose and went aft into the dirigi-

ble's library. Miserable, I looked out the window at the deep green landscape roll- ing by beneath us, Because of the impend- ing Diapason, the gondola was virtually empty, and Ardath did not return to her seat beside me. At dusk we tethered at an aerodrome below the Olympus Palisades, above which lighter-than-air craft may not venture

without special permit. I disembarked on a marshy pasture below the great volcano. The iodine of twilight bronzed the entire world. Beneath the cliffs, two kilometers high, you could see neither the mountain's cloud-ringed summit nor its lava-coated skirts, but the distant din of running water attested to the success of the snowcap's carefully channeled melt. -***&& While the other dirigible passengers straggled across the landing field to a vil- "The following changes of address are effective as of December 24." lage of A-frame lodges, I made for the cog-

lift depot. There I used a little of Ardath's "

money to purchase a ride to the top of the stringed instruments knitted its various Spaulding. Tellase your mother, and let her Palisades. rooms together as surely as did the crystal know you're coming. Otherwise, Gayle, I'll statues lining its corridors. In the inform ihe Ecclesiarchal Council I'm resign- An hour later I was in Hardscrabble, a communi- ghost town of glass chalets and pueblo- cation center Doloro put through a tellase ing and take you home myself." style apartments built of rock and extruded to my father in the keyboard room deep in "In Spaulding I'll hear nothing!" of the third try, is cacophonous to foam. I sought out the Harmonist cloister the bowels the mountain. On "What loud and close above the village. My knowledge of The one of Theon's technicians answered, and hand acquires, with distance, a mellow Lore of Krystos got me past the cenobite a few minutes later an image of my father's harmony. guards stationed outside the gate, and face was floating in the projection cylinder. I parried the epigram: "I'll retreat io Vol-

Flats with the other evacuees, but I'll I "Gayle!" cano when I showed them my birth card, sud-

I remain there until after denly became an honored guest. "You said could come." the Diapason. I want

to yesterday. to hear it, Father! I to hear it!" Inside, I told a youthful cenobite named "Vanora was through me want For some minutes Theon's face floated Doloro what I had come for. Like Ardath, he She was afraid something terrible had did not believe my father was Theon, in happened to you. Gayle, you can't stay. You expressionless' in the translucent cylinder. spite of my birth card and my facile grasp just can't!" Then it said, "Leave your sonatina with Do- of Harmonist dogma. However, his training We argued, and Doloro discreetly left the loro," and it faded from view. By making a and his natural courtesy did not permit him communication center. Theon adduced concession, I had called my father's bluff. to dispute my claim. He merely mentioned reasons for my returning to Spaulding, and Doloro returned and helped me reach that most of those at the Olympus Cloister I either countered these or attacked the my mother in Spaulding. We awakened her, had abandoned the mountain last week. general thrust of my father's argument, and she spent a few minutes trying to

They would not return until after the Dia- whichever seemed the more promising shake the sleep from her head. I explained pason. He and the other cenobites still course. Finally, weary of our exchange, my what had passed between Theon and me,

present would depart in another three father threatened to abdicate the respon- then told her that I would meet her not in days. Meanwhile they were carrying out sibilities of Memorialist in order to discipline Volcano Flats but on an artificial hill several their traditional duties and guarding the me. Someone else— Eldora, say, or Kier- kilometers north of the city. This was a Har- cloister against vandalism. Theon might or nan— could earn the glory for which he had monist retreat, where many cenobites and might not be my father; Doloro's remarks speni the last six hundred days laying the pilgrims, according to Doloro, would gather groundwork. This frightened me, and to hear my father's performance. implied, but I would not be permitted to threat remain on the Holy Mountain any longer even in his air-conditioned cage under the Vanora protested. She wanted me to than bona fide servants of the church. mountain he could see the cold fear in my come home at once, and she had no inten-

"I want to hear my father play." eyes. tion of meeting me at a Harmonist gather-

"Very well, but you don't warm your "I wrote a sonatina for you," I pleaded. ing place. hands by sticking them into the fire." "For me?" But I had just learned a deceitful debat-

Wind chimes hung in the red-glass tow- "For Earth, Father." ing technique from Theon, and I explained- ers of the cloister, and the quiet sawings of ,"Leave it with Doloro, and go back to that if she wished to see me again, she

" "Magenheim, I'd tike to tap your fertile imagination. must make the journey to Harmony Knoll spent the entire flight playing ceramic vibrating minds, each brain a crystal. and meet me there on Diapason Eve. flutes and singing Harmonisf rounds. The sun rose at our backs, and the first Vanora was chilly. An old deep utterance of the Vox Olympica Otherwise I would ride the canals to some My reunion with faraway plain or canyon and never again ecclesiarchhadgiveffusatentinlhecityof sounded across the land. A murmur of awe ran set foot in West Tithonia except by a va- tents facing Olympus Mons, and my Our feet trembled. through our ranks like a ripple of wind over grant whim. Unlike my father's, this threat mother and I shared this diaphanous wheat. second note sounded, was one that the threatener felt capable of chapel— it seemed to have been made of a field of A carrying out. lavender scarves and oiled rice paper- and the sky seemed~to scintillate the way a spill of whiskey enlivens a shallow pan of "I'll be there, Gayle,.but I'll remember like strangers who do not understand each water. third, a fourth, a fifth, a dozen more this." other's language. I slept on one side, she A out over the plains of Doloro led me to a night chamber. Later, on the ofher, and when I tried to apologize notes boomed several for blackmail bringing her tea or Blackshale, and the power of this stately dreaming, I heard harsh thudding my by to their knees. The sounds, and in the morning a cenobite apples from the fellowship center, she ac- melody forced people solar-amplifica- named Talitha told me that a small gang of cepted these gifts without speaking. ground was quaking. The planet to adolescents from Hardscrabble had come 'Are you sure you still want me to come tion veils high above the seemed well light, up to the cloister and stoned its unbreaka- home with you?" ricochet sound as as this first ble towers ot rose glass. Doloro, Risa, and Vanora smiled, for the first time. "Of It went on for twenty minutes, ringing hymn.- The silence after the two constables from the village had routed course I do. It's going to be lonely without the troublemakers. The protests this de- your father." polyphonic caroling of the mountain was cennial were mild, primarily because ev- "He'll come home, too, Mother." like a drought, a famine, an extinction. I was eryone understood that there would never "That remains to be seen." afraid to look up. If I did, I would find that the of Mars had peeled back to be another. "Whose fault will it be if he doesn't?" atmosphere crystalline The church could no longer afford to fi- "His. Mine. Who knows, Gayle?" reveal a blackness in which the nance the attendant evacuation, and local We did not talk about the matter again, arrangements of the stars shadowed forth law-enforcement units no longer wanted io and on Diapason Eve every cenobite and God's primal thought. If I looked up, I would organize and police the withdrawal. Those pilgrim on Harmony Knoll stood on the hill- hear as well as see that thought, no on the who opposed the Day of Diapason were side keeping vigil with chants and musical So I did not look up, and one father began play- finally inclined to be tolerant of those who prayer candles. Vanora and I kept vigil, too, hillside moved. Then my second movement of the requiem. cherished it. The Parliament had written gazing westward at the colossal blue-black ing the their objections into law. silhouette of Olympus Mons. Near dawn The sun continued to rise and our adoptive her to into mine, planet to stagger in its orbit. Two days before D-Day, I accompanied she allowed hand creep most of the Hardscrabble cenobites io and we waited together. There were more Or so I imagined. Harmony Knoll. We floated back across the than a thousand of us waiting for the uni- Laler the manifold vents and calderas of para- volcanic plains in the gondola of the same verse to sing through our individual con- the volcano gave out recognizable " Earth of sympathetically phrases of "If I Forget Thee, O Elysian dirigible that I had boarded with Ardath. We sciousnesses, a chorus of Yore." Theon worked them into the vari-

ous movements of Zivu's original program . and played them back and forth through the laments, the paeans, and the hal- lelujahs. On the winds howling so sweetly from the mountain, clouds broke apart, and like a mantle of audible fallout my sonatina traveled ever outward. face wet, I looked at Vanora. Her was radiant. She squeezed my hand, and we stood together in the ocean of sound, lis-

tening to its cunning surges and imagining unknown or half-forgotten referents for its themes. Neither of us had ever heard the sea before, not really, but now, thanks to Theon and the Vox Olympica, we had.

Three evenings later, after Vanora and I had returned to Spaulding, a flickering of household lights indicated that visitors stood outside the upright cenotaph of our door. Expecting only the evening post or perhaps one of my mother's OSAS col-

leagues, I rode the entry platform to ground- level and opened to our callers. "Father!" Supported by a young believer unfamil- iar to me, Theon gave me a wan smile and touched my lower lip with a trembling finger. His face was horribly bruised. A

gash in his right cheek had not reacted well

to its first subcutaneous treatments, for the lips of the wound were livid.

"This is Corydon," my father said, nod- ding in the direction of the young man. "He's brought me home."

Too shocked to speak, I wrapped my arm about my father's waist and led him onto ing. They seemed to take no notice of me. killed. That's the way it always is."

the platform. He was strong enough to "I thought you wouldn't come home," my "Hush," my father admonished me.

stand without my help, but I insisted on mother whispered. "It makes me sick— angry and sick."

lending my hip and shoulder. Meanwhile, Theon stepped back and tugged on one "Just as it does Corydon and all the other wearing a half-angry, half-bereft expres- earlobe to suggest that he had not really young ones," Theon replied. "Go above- sion, Corydon remained outside. heard her, and Vanora repeated her last ground, Gayle. Give your mother and me a "A small band of anti-Harmonist fanatics words aloud. chance to lay our ghosts to rest without—"

met our dirigible at the Volcano Flats aero- "Why would you think that?" he asked "Without my interference," I bitterly con-

drome," he explained, his voice deliberately her, still gripping her shoulders. cluded, loud. "Had several of us not fought back "Years of argument; years ot hostility, But Theon merely looked me toward the

fiercely, they might have killed your father." years of trying to accommodate ourselves entry well, and I followed his meaning look "The authorities intervened," Theon re- to each other's belief." Though on the edge onto the platform and from there upward minded Corydon. of tears, my mother did not ease herselt and into the lonely memorial gardens of the

"Only when they saw that we might inflict back into Theon's arms, "Or lack of belief, I dusk. Here, cursing both my parents, I

a few injuries, too. I have only contempt for should probably add. Finally the connec- wandered about among the tombstone the so-called authorities, Master Theon." tives snap, and everything disintegrates." doorways like a spirit seeking its body's

My father invited the young man in, urg- Theon shook his head. 'And years of lov- grave. Predictably I soon tired of this game ing him to rest a little before journeying ing each other Vanora. You can't leave that and sat down in the grass bordering an

' back to Harmony Knoll. out. It's unheard music — sweeter, far sweet- orchard of flowering apple trees. "Now is a time to be with believers," en than all the desperate clangor of those Somewhat later Theon emerged from our Corydon said pointedly. "For an entire day other things. You know that, don't you?" doorway and climbed the vast communal Master Theon, you knitted all the patterns This response appeared to embarrass lawn to the orchard. He took up a sentry together, revealed the latticework behind my mother She glanced at me, then pulled position only a couple of meters away Lift- Creation. You c:d this magnificently, sir, bui gently away from Theon's hands. ing his bruised face tome s:

patterns asunder again, and today— for- the OSAS facility— everyone old enough to beyond the canted solar veils. Although I

give me, sir— today I am unable to face have heard the Vox Olympics two or three tiled not to, I found myself sneaking glimps- even one more such person." times before— well, they're all convinced es of his dark, heavy-jowled profile. Before my father could reply, Corydon that no performance in memory can rival "There's Phobos," he said presently.

turned and strode oif down the green hill- this las! one. They're sorry there's never I looked up and saw the inner moon

side toward the silver tracking discs and going to be another. They're genuinely come floating by. It always reminds me of a

relay towers of the OSAS facility. sorry, Theon and I suppose I am, too." pitted hominid skull, and so of Earth, and I

Theon and I descended into the house. A 'After people have: succeeded in murder- shuddered to see that tiny lunar death's-

moment later, in the center of the music ing something important," I blurted, "it be- head passing over our township. Another

room, he and Vanora were silently embrac- comes fashionable to mourn what they've emblem, it seemed that night, of our failure to deflect Martian institutions and mores from the self-destructive course taken by the majority of our home-world forebears. Another word tor fear. Phobos; another word for failure.

"I'm not going to let it end this way," I told my father, loudly enough to penetrate his incipient deafness, "Let what end this way?" "What we believe in. I'm a Harmonist. Three days ago you played the mountain, but tonight you seem to have given up." Theon turned toward me. "I've given up trying to badger a good woman into putting

on a belief system that doesn't fit her" "But everyone's gof to—" "Everyone's got to nothing, Gayle. For anyone past puberty intolerance is an un- atfordable luxury. I'm not giving up. I'm

merely passing the baton to you. If you don't try to beat everybody over the head

with it, you may be aole to coax some singu- lar music from your own spiritual resources.

Do you understand me? Your own, not this - or that other poor beggar's."

Suddenly, as if palsy-stricken, my hands were shaking.

"That's where it starts, Gayle. Do you un- derstand what I'm telling you?"

"Yes, sir." A chorus of crickets had begun singing in the grass beneath the apple

trees. Weeping, I went to Theon for warmth

and reassurance. I was weeping, I realized, not merely in filial gratitude but in the painful knowledge that Theon could no longer hear the crickets' faint, stridulous music. My heirloom. And my charge. DO .

4Sfar Flight disks_ will add untold chapters to the notorious history of the UFO hoax3

ArUTH^fUlA"

UFO investigators ,"fo mpk have had a slow year, i teen-ag but ihings should filled garment bags pick Up oncG Terry with hot air and gen- Gudgel starts selling erated hundreds of his illuminated fris- reported sightings. bee. Gudgel, presi- (Gudgel himself at- dent of Heatherland, tempted to launch Inc., in Rochester, hot-air UFOs when he New York, designed was a teen-ager "but the Star Flight disk so they always bombed that people can play out at about fifty frisbee al night. The feet.") Sophisticated disk's resemblance students at Caltech to a flying saucer, he launched UFO" adds, "is just a happy weather balloons, in- coincidence." cluding one with four Gudgel says that highway flares rotat- any observer watch- ing beneath. .ing his spinning disk Gudgel's new disk, from the ground will however, will make it see trails of light that simple for any tech- connect three glow- nical ignoramus to ing centerpoints to perpetrate a UFO nine glowing spots at hoaxwithaflickofthe the rim. Tiny batteries wrist. A fleet of Star at the center of the UFD UPDATE Flight disks, at $9.95 disk power three red diodes that are tar brighter than Ihose apiece, might cause as much havoc as the Caltech effort. found on watch faces and calculator displays. Optical According to UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass, many of the fibers transmit the red light to the rim of the disk, where it sightings might never even be traced to Gudgel's disk emerges from nine small portholes. because observers may fail to get the details .straight. For With the disc's sinking appearance, it's no wonder that example, when the Caltech students launched theirflaring people can be fooled. Last year, when Gudgel demon- weather balloon, reports attracted widespread attention strated a six-fool-diameter version of his disk at the New until the hoax was revealed. Even so, there were no con-

York State Fair, its resemblance to a UFO was remarkable. sistent observations of the balloon or of its four rotating On a clear night the standard 9.5-inch-diameter model lights. According to Robert D Parker, one of the Caltech should be just as convincing, particularly if the Star Flight hoaxers, "Some people even said the UFO played strange is launched away from trees and other objects that could music and emitted some kind of perfume." aid observers in gauging its true size. Right now a few Star In his book UFOs Explained Klass laoc cd the problem Flight disks are available in the Miami and Rochester "Ufological Principle Number 1"; "Basically honest and areas, but once Gudgel expands his efforts nationwide, intelligent persons who are suddenly exposed to a brief,

will if . many-new chapters be added to the already-long, not unexpected event . , may be grossly inaccurate in trying particularly honorable, history of UFO hoaxes. to describe precisely what they have seen." If the Star Successful launching of home-made UFOs has gener- Flight disks soar aloft, we may have a chance to learn ally required technical skill. During the Sixties and Seven- exactly now inaccurate. — JEFF HECHT

131 PREMATURE THAW but the other branches of the Cryonics Society con- When the Cryonics Soci- tinue doing business, at ety of California, in Berkeley, least for awhile. was founded in 1965, it of- Public opinion varies re- fered to freeze the newly garding the future of dead in liquid nitrogen for cryonics in this country. the sum of 320,000. Sus- Robert Ettinger, known as tained at -350°R the the father of cryonics, con- corpses would be loo cold to siders the incident a typical decay, the society said, and accident that could have in the future, if a cure were to happened in any industry. .be found for the disease lhal Others disagree and con- tno deceased died of, the sider the cryonics business body could be reanimated aripoff. John Gill, secre- and healed. tary of the California Ceme- Just recently, however, the tery Board, says, ".Cryonics booming cryonics enter- is obviously consumer fraud, prise, which claimed more They can't do what they than 1.000 members and promise — that is, bring you had offices in five cities, was back from the dead." In

dealt a deathblow. A Califor- summing up, he says, FRENCH FLYING I of 11 panels, eachcontain- nia Superior Court this past "There is no known technol- SAUCER I ing 49 electromagnetic cir-

June awarded three families ogy available today to prove cuits. It works, says Ladrat, nearly $1 million in damages that cryonics works and is a Jean-Claude Ladrat, by magnifying the pilot's against the Cryonics 3oc>ery viable method of preserva- foreman at a small timber willpower, thereby generat- for gross negligence and tion."— Harry Lebelson firm in southwestern France, ing a force field powerful fraud. The families involved has spent the past ten years enough to counteract the sued after finding that the "/ don't want to achieve building a flying saucer in earth's gravitational pull. bodies of relatives in cryonic immortality through my work. his backyard. By 1978, with the motor suspension had thawed and I want So achieve immortality It all began one evening in complete, it was time to start decomposed. The California through not dying." 1969 as Ladrat, then a mer- work on the hull— several company no longer exists. — Woody Alien chant seaman on a Scan- layers of plywood, plastic dinavian oil tanker, sailed sheeting, lead, and alu- through the infamous Ber- minum to protect the craft muda Triangle. Ladrat, who from magnetic and gravita- had been staring at the tional forces. stars, was struck with the vi- Today the Ladratan One is sion of a magnificent flying almost complete, and the

saucer. Every detail of the date for its maiden flight is craft's design was revealed, drawing near. Whether or not Ladrat says, and the course one shares Ladrat's "minor" of his life was clear; he doubts about the final suc- would have to get to work. cess of the venture, one Nine months later Ladrat thing is sure: For once pho- moved to the farmhouse that tographs of a flying saucer would become the base for are clear, distinct, and in

his activities. It took him focus. — Philip Black seven years to build the craft's motor. Situated under "He had only one idea, and the pilot's seat, this cone- that was wrong." shaped engine is made up — Benjamin Disraeli ArUTOMATTEE

ESP BELIEVERS UFO PORTS

Parapsychologists — the For years UFO buffs have folks who test clairvoyance tried to build a landing port and telepathy in the labora- for extraterrestrial as- tory—believe in ESP. That's tronauts, in 1973, for exam- the not- very-surprising con- ple, a retired Marine major clusion of two recent surveys planned to make dummy fly- of parapsychologists across ing saucers to attract alien the country. pilots, but his funds ran out. According to the first Now, however, the dream is study, conducted by the coming true. Parapsychological Associa- Last summer a 15-acre tion, 88 percent of those who plot at the foot of Mount belong to the association be- Rainier, in Washington State, lieve that ESP has been was dedicated Spaceport either "positively" or "proba- Earth by the New Age Foun- bly" demonstrated. The dation. According to its younger members of the or- mayor, the Reverend Harold ganization are less certain, R. Price, of Tacoma, the site however, with a mere 74 per- may soon warrant its own HUMAN COMBUSTION Washington Hospital Center, in Washington, DC, for one, Jack Angel, a traveling says that Angel may have sa csman on business in taken an antibiotic con- Savannah, Georgia, report- taining sulfur. One adverse

edly burst into flames while reaciion to such a drug is asleep in his mobile trailer. shrinkage of skin and blood Believed by some to be the vessels, creating the ap- only survivor of spontaneous pearance of a burn. human combustion, Angel Before his experience was left with a hole in his Angel earned £70,000 a year chest, fused vertebrae, and and was in peak physical

an arm so charred it had to condition. Now collecting cent professing overwhelm- be amputated. Social Security checks, he Pes: Office designation. ing faith. In the second sur- According to David Fern, a is a mere shadow of hirn- If the Rainier site is too dif- vey, conducted by two pro- Savannah physician sum- se f. confined to his Atlanta ficult for the aliens to find, fessors at the University of moned to the scene of home. Though he has no they may still reach a Pittsburgh, 68 percent of the Angel's accident, his patient memory of the incident, saucerport recently built in parapsychologists ques- was obviously a victim of Angel clings to the belief that Lawson Valley, near San Di- tioned said they had "com- spontaneous combustion (a his injuries resulted from ego. Port owner Ruth Nor- plete" faith in ESP. and 22 bizarre molecular reaction, spontaneous combustion. man, of the Unarius Educa- percent said their belief in Dr. Fern says, that causes — Harry Lebelson tional Foundation, believes ESP was "strong." people to burn up inside). that a landing will occur

Which professional group There is no other plausible "The Kentucky meal shower, there before January 1, 1982. is most skeptical when it explanation, he contends, which attracted so much Norman is so sure that she comes to ESP? Ordinary because objects in the attention recently, has now has added another $1 ,000 to psychologists. Indeed, ac- trailer were not the least bit been supplanted by a rain her wager with Ladbroks In- cording to yet another sur- singed. Thus, Ihey could not of live snakes in Memphis, vestors, a London betting vey, only 5.5 percent of all have set Jack Angel on fire. Tennessee." agency. Ladbroke will osvcholoais'.s believe in Others disagree. Dr. Mar- —Anonymous report in pay her $1 million if the land- ESP.— Kendrick Frazier ion .jCdan, of the burn unit at Scientific American, 1877 ing occurs.— Margaret Sachs 133 "

AnJTI*nnATTER

RUSSIAN SLEEPTALK tape, Professor Lee Croft recognized eight or nine Wilma Sutherland. Of Russian terms, including Mesa, Arizona, was rousted pjanj, which means "a from her dreams whenever drunk," and prostividno, or her husband, Gene, talked "excuse me, it's evident."

in his sleep. Groggily perk- Croft learned that Gene ing her ears, she would Sutherland's one previous make out words and phrases experience with Ihe Russian and, satisfied that nothing language had occurred dur- was amiss, immediately ing World War II, when the fall asleep again. U.S. Army united with the One night recently, Red Army at the Elbe River. though, the babbling that As far as Sutherland re- woke her was different- membered, hone of the Rus- more excited and agitated, sians he met taught him any and rife with sounds like Russian words. Croft sur- "ski" and "vich" repeated in mised, however, that the ex- a thick, unfamiliar accent, perience had left a deep im-

None of it was intelligible. pression on Sutherland, HYPNOREADING Somewhat unnerved, etching the phrases into his Wilma got a tape recorder to subconscious. High-school students in a capture the gibberish. When Finally the local newspa- darkened Los Angeles she played the tape back to per got wind of the Russian classroom shut their eyes Gene, he had no idea what dreams and ran an article and listen to the lulling voice the sounds meant or what with a photo showing Gene ot a hypnotist. He reassures had triggered them. None- under the covers. Suddenly them that they will learn to theless, because they re- droves of reporters, religious read faster with each pass- minded herof Russian, she zealots, and even "para- ing day, and as he speaks, called the foreign language psychological authorities" they visualize the words of an department at Arizona State. were beating a path to the imaginary book gliding past Hearing the 40-minute Sutherlands' door. They their field of vision. When does not take the pleasure urged the couple to try hyp- the session is finished, out of reading — a complaint nosis and pseu do- psycho- they are given homework: often leveled 1 at more con- logical ploys to find out daily self-hypnosis ses- ventional speed-reading Gene's secret and told them sions in which they repeat systems. "Improved skills that his ability to talk Rus- the instructor's suggestions acquired during practice sian was caused by every- again and again. sessions are automatically thing from reincarnation to The students are learning used during the normal wak- demonic possession. Gene hypnoreading, anoft-beat ing state," Lilienfeld says. was even accused of being speed-reading method de- The Los Angeles School an unwitting Soviet tool, con- veloped by Live and Learn, a District has taught hypno- tacted—and manipu- nonprofit educational foun- reading to students and lated— by the Russians dation in Sherman Oaks, school counselors since through telepathy. California. According to pro- 1978. Participants say they Whatever the explanation, gram directors Michael read three to five times faster the Sutherlands don't care Lilienfeld and Steven Snyder than they did before. much anymore. Hounded successful students must — Margaret Sachs and exhausted, they have practice under hypnotic gotten an unlisted telephone trance daily for several "The stuff o( the world is number and cannot be weeks. While the program mind stuff.

reached. — Mark Teich requires a strict regimen, it — Sir Arthur Eddington "

"derives from the ancient Greek word for once so sconrul of Television because of its RELIGION announcer." In ihe Greek city-states the use as an enlertainm.ent medium, are now announcer traveled aoout. proclaiming the purchasing prime time. The advent of news. As applied to the writers of the four cable television and the deregulation of the to partake of an anti-Eucharist a leasl of gospels, the word evangelist means Ihe airwaves will make more lhan 100 channels

cannibals. I ask him about the MX missile. announcer of the good news of salvation available before the year 2000; available "What should be the appropriate Christian arc the persor'iication of the Holy Spiril. equally, Graham notes, to religion and response?" Graham sees his mission as essentially smut. The tube, consequently, will make the "Any Christian worth his or her salt re- tha! of an announcer, the clarifier of the forces of Christ and those of Satan both fuses io enter into a discussion of the in- Word of God in areas generally net accus- stronger a: the same lime. sane. It's Iks joining !he cast of Marat/ tomed Io hearing Ihe Word. Inevilably ihe emphasis on the "per- Sade. All that frenzy, nonsense, babel is The success and power of the Graham formance" of the television minister will suicidal. One must close that debate, open sermon are attributed in an authorized grow, and competition "cr 'Bines w N'oNow.

the New Testament, and take the real news, biography to "its almost artless simplicity," While Graham 'denies that he' is part of the the good news." "its breadth of ele"ien:ary exposition about electronic ministry, he is comfortable with

I put his own question to him, posed in Jesus from His birth to :he Cross and Res- entertainment parlance. By appearing on his latest book. Jen Commandments for the urrection and coming judgment." But television every Sunday, one builds a nar-

- Long Haul. "What if Ihe good news remains Graham thinks of himself more in the tradi- row and limited audience, he believes, and

only in the past and the bad news awaits us tion of the roving preachers, such as he is careful not to be overexposed. in future?" the George Wniteteld. leader of America's "If I come on periodically n prime-- me "We are sleepwalking," he says. "The Great Awakening, and John Wesley, whose television, the audience is much greater," disease hits our people in several ways. methods Graham has studied .carefully he says. "Our Nielsen rating will go up to

Temporally, it wipes out the past and makes In the modern world the evangelist has thirteen or sixteen percent." a future less likely. The Iwo things go to- the freedom to address conlroversial prob- He is resolved not to compete with the

gether. If you don't know the past, you are village church, however, for he thinks that if really writing off the future." television were Io replace local parishes, As dangerous as Father Berrigan feels the whole concept of the church would be the world has become, as close as the lost. Television should be viewed solely as earth may be to the situation where "these an adjunct of the church "to stir up religious kThe Bible silk-s'jked chamclers wilh their manicured feelings," especially in those who don't hands on their children can reach over the mentions a total oi 22 signs normally attend church services. But the child's shoulder and press a button to kill signaling the real problem of the future will arise when a children thousands of mi;es away," the television preacher announces the gospel priest does not see Armageddon quite like, onset oi Armageddon, and one way and the parish preacher an- say, Billy Graham. For starters, Berrigan Billy Graham nounces it another. believes Christ has already come; he has In *he proire r ar-or o f o,i::s anil m t-ne discerns them ail converging seen this in his own work and the work of his words of self-proclaimed prophets— 400- friends. More important, the evil signs in the now lor the people in Los Angeles now claim to be world may not be the indication of the "end God, he says— Graham sees the mark of first time in history.^ lime" at all. but mere "seismic stuffings, the Devil. How then is a television v ewer to "shadowy reminders" of the possible. know the sincere from the insincere r e. - "If we lie around weeping about the state gious performer? of the world .and waiting on Christ, that's "The Bible teaches that we are to learn !o magic. It is not enough, not human. We discern the Spirit," he tells me. "When we were called upon to do more in the world lems, Graham believes, where the tradi- are walking with the Lord, He gives us the than weep about the state of affairs. With tional church experiences difficulty. powe" as Cnrislians. to discern belween that stance, there is no impulse to resist the "'[The tradilional church] is on Ihe horns good and evil. The believer should not be Armageddon." of a dilemma," he says, his voice fading in fooled. The person who is not a believer In short, Armageddon is overrated. and out across the telephone from his and who does not know the Lord can easily "It is just one image out .of many in the mountain retreat. "11 would like to adapt, but be fooled and easily be misled."

Bible thai deal with ihe end of time. It is a it's held back by the teachings of the Scrip- "You don't think ihe believer can be mis-

waste of human energy to concentrate on tures. There's only so much flexibility They led''" I ask. one biblical image to the exclusion of many, have to say, for example, that homosex- "He can be misled for a while, but he'll

many others. So many beautiful images! uality, as taught in the Bible, is a sin. .But it's soon wake up if he's a true believer. My wife The bridal image, Ihe image of Ihe great only one of maybe a hundred or two hun- was sitting beside ihe head of ihe counter- r"easl. Ihe Euch.arisl. which is eternity itself. dred sins— I've never counted them— and feiting division of Scotland Yard some lime

We tend loward Ihe image of the bloody no greater a sin than a lie or jealousy or ago at a dinner, and she said, 'I suppose battle and af thai stuff, because we are so greed or prejudice or lust. In this genera- you spend a great deal of time studying bloody and violent ourselves. There's tion, it's been pulled out. It's been so pub- counterfeit bills and coins.' He replied. 'No,

something in us about that image, as much licized that almosi everywhere you go, if I never look at-them. I study the real thing

as about God. We deeply want things to you're a clergyman, you're asked about ii." constantly' If you know the real thing, you'll end. that way." On "wo aspects of twenty-first-century be able to detect a counterfeit." religion, Graham is already a special wit- Of all the participants in this inquiry, BILLY GRAHAM ness; the power of television and the shape Graham was the most certain aboul how A spiritual adviser to presidents and a of Armageddon. He speaks pointedly to ihe impending Armageddon will unfold. minister whose crusades are attended by me about both. Thetime of reckoning is"re'a!ively near," he millions ana whose television programs are The revolution that television has fo- observes. The Bible' mentions some 22 viewed by tens of millions, the Reverend mented goes far beyond the "parachurch" signs signaling the end time, and Graham Billy Grahanris the world's best-known preachers of the Sunday morning air- discerns them all converging now for the

evangelist. waves, Graham thinks. It has now reached first time in history. The signs are interna- "Evangelist," Billy Graham instructs me the most conservative elements of the tra- tional (wars and the rumors of war), cultural from his home in Montreal, North Carolina, ditional church. Even the Southern Baptists. (movies like The Exorcist), satanic (devil =36 OMNI worship in this country and elsewhere), accept its inevitability? sincere and destructive, she says, they natural (starvation in many parts of Africa. "We're to live pure lives as though Christ would see that America and the world are Asia, and Latin America), and mysterious were not coming for ten thousand years, now already in a post-Christian era. Q'Hair (UFOs). When Armageddon is upon us, the and yet we're to watch for Him and have this thinks religion is more a stimulant than an world will pass through "terrifying events." hope in our hearts; If man does reach Ar- opiate. Like sports, it is only one of a which will involve much killing, but not mageddon, God has a plan for the human number of means Americans employ to kill enough to annihilate mankind. Or Ar- race. This gives great incentive to all kinds their boredom. mageddon may involve interplanetary war- of good works. To attempt to bring about as Q'Hair proposes -to puncture the hypoc- fare, but not sufficient to destroy the solar much of a heaven on Earth as we possibly risy and sanctimony of the churches and to system. Christ will intervene at the last min- can, as Christians. We're to be the salt of remind Americans that church and state ute "to save mankind from itself." the earth, and we're- to be the light of the were separated in our Constitution for very

"Does that not make it simply a matter ot world." good reasons. Her refrain is constant: More

degree?" I ask. "To qualify as Armageddon, killing and wickedness have been perpe- doesn't the cataclysm have to be great, MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR trated in the name of God and religion than wi(h much killing, but not so much that America's most famous atheist, Madalyn for any other cause. Unabashedly elitist, knowledge and mankind would be wholly Murray Q'Hair is .best known for her suc- she cites her upper-middle-class roots and eliminated?" cessful lawsuit to remove Bible reading and pitches her message :c "he m:ellectual elite recitation schools. rising influence of fun- . "I can only speculate, like anyone else." prayer from the public while ascribing the he says. "My own judgment would be that Were Madalyn Murray O'Hair's philoso- damental Christianity and the Moral Major- [Armageddon] will involve a great many phy to be adopted by our society gradually, ity to the lowest social classes. She scoffs armies a.nd peoples from north, east, this examination of future religion would be at a country that could now peg Billy south, and west, gathered in the Middle quaint indeed, The influence of theology Graham as a liberal.

East to war against one another. They will would diminish so significantly that religion It is hard to talk to. this abrasive Texas have the power to destroy a substantial would become only a mild curiosity. lawyer and social psychologist without portion of the human race, but God is not Atheism is still accepted by only a.small debating with her. Her contentiousness going to permit it." minority of Americans. Billy Graham con- comes across naturally She is more com- But Graham sees beyond these terrify- tends that more people attend religious fortable in criticizing the nonsense of con- ing events. His is a glorious vision: a world services in America every Sunday than at- temporary religion than in expounding on

of true justice and permanent peace, with- tend all the sporting events held in this the future of atheism. Still, I press the point out soldiers and police, where the lion lies country combined in an entire year. with her. I ask about the perfect atheistic down with the lamb, where there will be no Madalyn Murray Q'Hair might respond: world of the future. weeping and no suffering. In short, the But which do Americans care about more, "There are five insane ideas that should world created for Adam and Eve. their religion or their sports? If people were be outlawed," she declares. "First, violence

Why then should the believer not rejoice only honest with themselves, if they would between individuals and nations; second, at the prospect of the cataclysm, or at least recognize their religious mouthJhgs as in- slavery; third, racism; fourth, sexism; and

138 OMNI fifth, God — a god that gives punishments or rewards in the afterlife, so, that you re- move yourself from everyday life or abdi- cate the use of human reason." "Might these be called the five atheist

commandments?" I ask. "Oh, no," she objects. "Atheism has no commandments. Well, only one com- mandment: Thou shalt use thy mind, use reason in everything that thou doest, and never stop the process of learning." "But religion exists as much as- anything to address the meaning of life," I parry

"The meaning- of life is simply to live," she replies, "not to prepare to enter a heaven or elude a hell, but to actualize your potential and to ameliorate the. human condition. All other forms of lite help their own pack. The human community alone fights within its own species for the elimination of that spe- cies."

What is the perfect atheistic world ot the future? O'Hair sees it as a world without hypocrisy, with the greatest possible indi- vidual freedom, free universal education, sensitivity to the health of the race and the preservation o( the environment, equal jus- tice as a reality, with an emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual. In short, a worldwide Jeffersonian democracy.

It sounds good, I think, but will the atheists in the Soviet Union and China es- pouse it?

DESMOND TUTU Black Anglican bishop and head of the

South African Council of Churches, Des- ' *v'j ... JhBt 4 mond Tutu is an eloquent figure in African Christianity. Because Bishop Tutu is often kept under house arrest for statements and actions thai advocate the liberation of his people, I thought it best that we speak first about Christianity in black Africa as a whole. Clearly, the bishop is excited by what is happening in the African churches. With the liberation of most African nations, one might have thought that the Christian churches would suffer, associated as they had been with the colonial masters. In- stead, church growth since liberation has been dramatic. Soon, Bishop Tutu asserts, Africa may be the most Christian continent in the world. The rapid growth of Christian- ity there is due to !he essentia! spirituality of the black African, he suggests. "An unspiritual, irreligious African is al- most a contradiction in terms," he says. Bishop Tutu applauds the great energy obvious in the Africanization of Christianity Mr. now taking place. Black theologians are busily at work in adapting Christian thought to local circumstances and argue intently that God was present in Africa long before Western missionaries arrived. In 1975 a new Anglican liturgy was devised, contain- ing many new prayers drawn from African insights and harmonious with the African's exuberance. African vestments are replac- ing Western ones. Incense and candlelight Jack Daniel Distillery, Lent Mot low. Prop.,. Inc.; fill the churches, lending a luminous quality Route 1, Lynchburg (Pop. 361), Tennessee 37352 to worship. Dancing, clapping, and "sing- "

20 years' study— and inp lustily' accent ihe new services. black in South Africa, facing a white rem- scholar lama after in possession of nuclear weapons, before he gave a series of lectures at Har- "I was thrilled to attend Roman Catholic nant vard Divinity School on "Emptiness and services in places like Cameroon and must view this problem in a special way. Compassion." Ghana, seeing how they use Ihe things ot "It is not being melodramatic to say that Great person- if To speak of the future with this the soil, preaching that the Incarnation [the we could have a scorched-earth policy is speak of ihe present and the pasi: doctrine that God took on human form] the whites thought they had had it. They age to of history are like the currents sanctified the whole of our life. We don't could do a Samson on us. Since they would The currents they could very well say. a! the bottom ot the~sea, where the moiling need to be circumcised, as it were, into be destroyed, or of sand is insignificant and constanlly Western Christianity first. We come to God 'Well, let's all be destroyed together, take Everything changes, perhaps as who we are, where we are, with our gifts away as many of them as possible,' changing. even the institution of the Dalai Lama. and our insights, in order to enrich the total "But nuclear weapons can be packaged wouldn't this fourteenth incarnation is the church of God in the world." small," I insist, "so that they have Perhaps It matter. If the institution is Step by step we inch closer to the issue to take away whole cities, but only neigh- last. does not

it will be retained. If not, it will be at hand. How will the black churches deal borhoods, such as Soweto." useful,

with anger? When the cataclysm comes, "They could do that," he admits. "But I discarded. "Despite external program, basic human will the churches be in the middle of the suspect it would be such an act of despera- suffering eternal," he says in his fray? Or will they, like Gandhi, be propo- tion, such an extreme situation, they would remains bursts of broken English. "Old nents of nonviolence? fear the reaction of the world. That would staccato

If didn't age, disease— these will always be with us. In South Africa race is never very far spell curtains for them. the West do order suffering, mental develop- I face from our consciousness. Virtually anything anything about it, I'm just as certain as can In to ment is necessary and helpful. To utilize we do, say, or think is affected by the ob- be that the Socialist world wouldn't just look material in the proper way, to session with race. The main hope for a new, on. However you look at it, the use of nu- progress maintain human value above material more just, more open society lies with the clear weapons, no matter where or how mustthink inwardly and have churches. They demonstrate as their chief limited, would trigger World War III." progress, one clear of the human ilself." consideration that there is no Jew or Greek, a awareness the present the Dalai Lama and his no male or female, no slave or master, no In day Tibetans in exile are often consid- rich or poor, but all one in Christ," he says, fellow esoteric curiosity. But a Dalai Lama quoting St. Paul. ered an his Potala in Lhasa, Tibet, "This idea can be quite explosive, The reestablished in ^Though in the world of the twenty-first church must concern itself with the mar- would provide the moral voice. No ginalized ones: the oppressed, the down- past the church associated century one more powerful voice- longer could that Buddhist pontiff, even in trodden. It must be the voice of the itseif with the the ot Tibet, represent ihe pu- less, b;e the prophetic church, declaring remoieness upper class, it is now safety oi isolation. itself against injustice. The very credibility rity and

' What are ihe chances for his return? In of the gospel of Jesus Christ is always at < identifying with last years discussions between the risk when the church aligns itself with the the two the poor. The poor and the leaders have rich and the powerful. Dalai Lama and Chinese An invitation to return has been ex- "It is very difficult to see how other lead- the powerless begun. His Holiness is in no hurry. ership [outside the church] can operate are the peopie of the future^ tended, but What happens to him personally "is not reasonably freely. I would say, our society is hopeless without the church." important." "What about anger?" "We must reach a certain stage where are "I'm not sure we're handling that ade- the majority of the Tibetan people condition [for re- quately Some try to compartmentalize life, happy. That is the main will see. In the by saying that anger, which is obviously a THE DALAI LAMA XIV turn]," he says. "Then we highly volatile and political thing, does not The pontiff of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism future a new attitude may come. The

replaced. But I quite belong in the realm of the religious. and the spiritual and temporal leader of the Buddhist faith cannot be ground between That's one way. The other is to stress that Tibetan people, His Holiness was forced believe ihere is common particularly the higher form of biblical tradition takes all of life seriously. into exile by the Chinese Communists in Marxism and There is nowhere where the writ of God 1959. He now lives in northern India and Buddhist practice."

I ask. At first he does not run. We have a gospel that speaks awaits the day when he can return to Tibet. "What is your dream?" when he about grace for sinners, but that also chal- To have an audience with the Dalai Lama seems not to understand and, interested in lenges the social and economic system, is to be in the presence of considerable, finally does, not to be much not merely providing palliatives, preaching gentle power. William Sloan Coffin re- the question. friendly attitude. that things will be okay upstairs, giving marked that he could never quite tell with "More harmony A more with a hostile them a kind of 'prophet of the post-mortem Buddhist priests whether their simplicity Less suspicion. Not living toward one another. If we develop pie.' God is a God of grace and truth, but was on this; or the other, side of complexity altitude that all beings also one of justice." With His Holiness, there can be no ques- the proper attitude human after ihe same, crises can be handled coolly, The issue of nonviolence, as it is per- tion. Yet as he held my hand at length are more understanding. ceived in the American experience, is a our conversation and smiled and joked, he with more patience, With that, may have luxury for the South African black, the might have been a jovial, disingenuous vil- Not using weapons. we bishop asserts. "Quite a few of us on the lage priest, not the spiritual and temporal a belter world. That is what I believe. And only alternative." inside feel the peaceful, nonviolent options leader of 100,000 refugees, the symbolic you see that is the simple, without compli- have not yet been exhausted. Massive re- leader in exile of faraway Tibet. If religion is kept for his cated theology, he believes, people will not sistance may still turn the trick. But the au- He was in the United States sec- differences. thorities will act against any resistance. We ond major visit, and we met in a stately argue over unimportant religion become a are running out of peaceful options," mansion down a remote, deer-traveled dirt "How can universal

I try. Although Bishop Tutu is anxious to be off road in New York's Catskill Mountains. He more powerful force?" after bestowing the Kalacha- "It is complicated, difficult," he answers. to his next appointment, I ask him one more rested there greaiest moral question. Spiritual leaders in Ihe West per- kra Initiation upon the faithful in Madison, "What do you see as the ceive nuclear holocaust as the central Wisconsin — a ceremony that lasted three challenge of the future?" Professor Jef- moral challenge of the future, but surely the days and thai can be conferred only by a He lurns to his interpreter, 140 OMNI "

"irregular" frey Hopkins, of the University of Virginia, there is no relief. . . . That's okay, it the 29, 1974, in Philadelphia, in an for a translation. They talk back and forth in Nicaraguan model is followed. Nobody ordination, conducted by three retired Tibetan for what seems like an eternity. Fi- wants a. Communist state or heavy Cuban bishops over the objections of the Presid- nally His Holiness turns back to me. influence. There is no one model for the ing Bishop. For two and a half years the

"The question is not very clear," he says. future. But all over the continent, priests are ordination was generally considered "il- ' ecclesiastical trials of telling people, 'Cry out for justice I legal" and led to ROBERT RDRINAN Drinan sees abortion more as a question ministers who allowed the 11 to perform A Jesuit priest, Father Robert Drinan was for now than for the future'. He cites the priestly functions. In 1977 the Episcopal elected to Congress "from Massachusetts statistic that there are 40 million abortions House of Bishops finally approved the or- in 1970, then withdrew from elective politics worldwide in a year. In the Third World 80 dination of women and recognized the or- in 1980 after receiving a papal decree for- million infants are born annually, but 25 mil- dinations of the original 11. Cheek is now bidding further elective political activity lion will die before the age of five. Still, Dri- the director of the Well Woman Project, in

Drinan, who is president of Americans nan is opposed to abortion on moral Philadelphia. - for Democratic Action, teaches law at grounds and thinks the U.S. government Cheek saw her ordination in 1974 as a

Georgetown University, in Washington, D.G. should not be involved in the question. metaphor. It was as if she were standing Father Drinan's departure from elective Drinan, like Father Daniel Berrigan, be- upon a great cliff, perhaps in her native politics on orders from Pope John Paul II lieves that nuclear holocaust will be the Australia, looking outtothesea, watching a posed dilemmas for himself, for the Roman chief moral problem of the late twentieth wave in the far distance form, swell as it

Catholic Church, and for the United States. and twenty-first centuries. At the Vatican II drew inevitably nearer, crest frighteningly, He accepted the Vatican decree with "pain ecumenical council, in 1965. 2,200 Catho- powerfully, and then crash upon the beach. and regret," not "pretending to under- lic prelates proclaimed that nuclear The year 1974 was the time for the Epis- stand" why the Holy See had chosen to weapons should never be used for any copal Church to face up to women's equal- silence the one priestly voice in Congress purpose, offensive or defensive. As far as ity, the time for the church's slowly receding while it permitted priests to continue in top Drinan is concerned, the council waffled patriarchy to yield. administrative posts in other nations, Yet Cheek approached her ordination as Obedient to church authority, Drinan a sad event of the spirit. It was the end, she stands in sharp contrast to the Reverend feared, a spiritual death, for she fully ex- Alison Cheek, an Episcopalian. Together pected to be deposed afterward, not sim- they draw an issue for the future: Can ply branded as a bogus priest, but re- Q~he world is ecclesiastical authority keep pace with a moved as an Episcopal deacon as well, turbulent and ever-changing world? Will its sick and getting sicker. Not only in her investiture as a deacon of laws and practices remain relevant to moral "Sodom and the church, but also in the Philadelphia or- problems in the future? When the estab- dination ilself, she had sworn to obey any lished church ceases to speak to the mod- Gomorrah were mini- "godly admonition" of her bishop, "I knew ern world, must the priest accept his San Franciscos. jolly well I was not going to obey godly superiors' orders? Or should he reject them admonitions [on women's issues], and I There is a tendency dramatically? thought of Martin Luther: If you must sin, sin'

I sinning boldly." I had heard speculation that two reasons toward radical boldly. So took that vow, Looking back now on her original dis- lay behind Pope John Paul's decision: that individualism," says MadsenJ the pontiff had become increasingly dis- obedience, Cheek hesitates to say that the turbed about the political involvement of success of her action validated a tech- priests in Latin American revolutions, par- nique for updating canon law. "For most of ticularly in Nicaragua, and wished to send us there was no technique involved. We a symbolic warning to all priests by silenc- were doing what we had to do. It was pow- ing Drinan, and that, by representing a lib- on the issues of manufacture and posses- erful because we weren't playing politics." eral constituency that favored abortion, sion for deterrence. Again his horrifying Cheek is part of the Episcopalian clergy, Drinan, as a Catholic priest/politician, had statistics: 50,000 nuclear devices extant with the church's blessing. Yet she feels become a liability. now, 30,000 in this country, and 3 more autonomous, almost longing for the old

In his disheveled ofiice at the George- manufactured every day. At Vatican 111, Dri- public image of disobedience, rather than town Law Center, Drinan addresses both nan asserts, the church should declare the new subtle discrimination of the problems. With Latin America having a their very possession immoral. church. population of more than 350 million and "The possibilities [of nuclear warfare] Cheek focuses on the "whole woman" of representing half of those in the world who seemingly grow more possible every day. the future. To that new woman, a rich spiri- adhere to the Roman Catholic faith, Drinan The proclivities of mankind to do evil are tual life is central. Its shape begins with sees a significant moral shift. Whereas in always present. We have to prevent that discarding the outmoded practices of a the past the church had associated itself from happening." But how? "Through the patriarchal Christianity. "Humility is wom- with the upper class, now it is identifying collective religious voice of mankind, It will an's sin," she quotes. with the poor The poor and the powerless, require a huge moral force that we can't The "problem text" in the Scriptures he says, are the people of the future. even estimate." about woman's submission to man must "There will be more situations like But when Ronald Reagan's defense mean in the-future mutual submission. The Micaragua, where the church will promote budget comes in the next session to the spiritual difficulty for women will be "to political liberty and economic freedom. House floor, there will be no bony finger to claim the whole of themselves and not feel

The Catholic Church does not stand punctuate the air, filled with hot talk about guilty about it." By so doing, women "grow aside. ... For the first time Christianity pre- the vulnerability of our 30,000 atomic de- to full maturity in Christ." sents itself as a religion that favors the vices. To make his arguments effectively, Much in the traditional church is not

. . condition of today's poor. . Inevitably you're going to have Drinan must hope for a certifiable political suited to the women, political revolutions. appointment, presumably in another ad- but that will change. The wife in the nuclear

"If Rome knew more about it, it would say ministration. family represents only one life-style. What Nicaragua is a very interesting experi- about the single woman, the divorced ment," Drinan continues. "Many Catholics ALISON CHEEK woman, the gay woman, the adolescent? believe that Nicaragua could be a model of Episcopal priesthood was conferred on The new whole church must have a place what could happen in all Latin America if Alison Cheek and ten other women on July for them all. And, she says with passion, 142 OMNI [his split between the spirit and the the seemingly temporal matier of MX mis- refuge, to which the wounded would return. body— so solid in the traditional church's siles. Whenever this prophet speaks, he This is only one of a number of identifica- attitude toward women — must go. "Women reveals God's will for the Mormon faithful. tions with Israel. Mormon Utah is America's want io be able to come to church as whole "Our fathers came to this western area to Israel. The river that flows from Utah Lake people, and not have to leave a part ot Ihem establish a base from which to carry fhe (their Sea of Galileo) through the desert to behind. In the church, women should be gospel of peace to the peoples of the the Great Salt Lake (their Dead Sea) is the able to talk about anything." world," the statement read. "It is ironic, and Jordan River. In a century and a half, Mad- Even the central image ot God the Father a denial of the ver.y essence of that gospel, sen says, "Mormonism has recapitulated a will change radically. God the Father will that in this same general area should be minihistory of the Jews, with its genesis, give up power to "God the Mother." The constructed a mammoth weapons" system exodus, struggles, persecution, and even early, feminine interpretations ot Christian- potentially capable of destroying much of occasional destruction."

ity, lost atter the first century, will reenter; the civilization We plead with our national So in these latter days the Mormon must Old Testament image of God as a mother leaders to marshal the genius of the nation seek to live a saintly life in the midst of dangling Her child on Her knee, and the to find viable alternatives." From the point turmoil and with the expectation of war. words of Jesus, wishing He could gather of this statement, the Reagan Administra- "No one should rejoice in war, but it is the Jews of Jerusalem to Him "as a hen tion began to reconsider whether the pro- part of the prophetic future. We must be doth her brood." posed MX system was feasible. A region sturdy and peacelOving even in the midst of Yet women ironically will not want to give closest to anything res en-, cling a theocracy war, but thai is the test. If we welcome it in a up "father language" or "father symbolism" in America had profoundly challenged the bloodthirsty spirit, we are not Christians lightly In fact, Cheek says, with a touch of nuclear-arms race. and not Mormons. It is a matter of faith and wryness, the father image may even "Why is the MX a moral problem for the of attitude."

strengthen, because many modern women Mormon Church?" I ask. After all. the Mor- find a scarcity of reliable earthly fathers in mon stance wherever the church exists has ROBERT H.SCHULLER the temporal world today, and thus they been io support civil and military authority. Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, in Gar- long even more for the heavenly Father. den Grove, California, and creator of the television program Hour of Power, which is DR. TRUMAN G. MADSEN seen by 3 million viewers in the United The Richard L. Evans Professor of Reli- Slates and Australia, Dr. Robert Schuiler gious Studies at Brigham Young University, claims that he is the most widely known '•People in Provo, Utah, Dr. Madsen is a noted Mor- were meant churchman in America. mon scholar and a theologian of the to live in a garden, with the "I had this big dream of a dynamic minis- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. try with a beautiful church," Dr. Schuiler sounds of water, the The vision of the future Dr. Madsen pro- writes. "I dreamed of a staff of eight minis- pounds is both hopeful and apocalyptic. whisper of wind, the fragrance ters, of a thousand lay people doing the counseling, the work. But my His enthusiasm stems from the certainty of of grass. Later leaching, the the Mormon view and the joy of sainthood; dream was stalled. All the 'Possibility Think- Schuiler will say the Santa trapped in a his gloom comes from his surety that dis- ing' I could muster left me cord can only grow worse. Ana Freeway adds a corner. For two years God tested me, to Mormonism is the fastest-growing reli- make sure He could trust me, before He touch of realism to the mix* gious persuasion in the United States. By began to give me the success He was to the year 2000, it expects to attain 20 million planning. That was easy for God to do, members, a figure exceeding worldwide keep me humble. His biggest task was to Jewry. Soon a tower will rise outside Salt keep me believing bigger and better and

Lake City that will beam a television signal more beautifully than I had ever thought

around the world. It will enable a peasant Conscientious objection, even in this broad before. There are, I had to learn, no mam- outside Calcutta to get on a bicycle and sense, is something new to Mormons. moth tasks, only small minds." generate the energy to tune in a concert "[The destruction of innocent life] is part One fruit of Schuller's big dream is the

from the Mormon Tabernacle. But this of it, but it is more the impact on the com- magnificent Crystal Cathedral. Designed would only aid, not replace, the missionary munity itself. So complex a system would by architect Philip Johnson, set amid glass zeal of the church. Mormons rely on the involve a revision of the very nature of life in office buildings and aesthetic shopping

one-on-one approach. At Brigham Young the two states [Utah and Nevada]. It would malls just off the Santa Ana Freeway, in University. missionaries are trained by the bring in massive industrial components, Orange County, it is an extraordinarily im- battalion. Thirty thousand of them are out in severely affect our meager water re- pressive symbol of the future, an architec-

the field, ail over the world. The hope is that sources, build heavy-duty roads through- tural concept Schuiler calls "biorealism." each will log in a new convert every month. out our region, introduce great numbers of "The human being was meant to live in a Madsen thinks the challenge of the future people indifferent to our community life. We garden," Schuiler tells me, "where the is noi so much to adapt to modern reality as would pay a price, a moral price, for a mis- sounds of water, the whisper of the wind, to restore traditional verity: the family as the sile system that may or may not demon- the fragrance of the growing grass, the core of love, the body as a temple, God as strate itself as a proper mode [of national touch of the sun on the skin are all a part of the Father. defense]." us." Later he will say that the sound of the

The world is sick and getting sicker. Perhaps the Mormons would succeed in Santa Ana Freeway adds a touch of realism "Sodom and Gomorrah was a mini-San siopping the MX, at least its deployment in to the mixture. other fruit of his big dream is the Francisco. . . . There is a tendency toward their gardens and parking lots, but this was The radical individualism." only a fleeting moment in a wider, grimmer Hour of Power, deemed by many the per-

The irony of 1981 is that this, the most process. fect marriage ot religion and Hollywood. politically conservative of America's major "Discord is not going to decrease," Mad- An autographed photograph of John religious sects, has done more to affect the sen declares. "Time will come when you Wayne decorates the backdrop of Schul- central moral. concern for the future than have to take up the sword against your ler's desk, near one of Billy Graham and the any other. On May 5, 1981, the eighty-two- neighbor or flee to a few havens in the world snapshot of Schuiler with the Pope. year-old Presidenf of the Mormon Church, where there are solid communities de- Silting in his office, atop his Tower of the living oracle, as he is called, Spencer W signed to promote peace." Hope, across from the Crystal Cathedral Kimball, made a major pronouncement on Zion is the name he applies to this safe "campus," gazing out on the freeways and 144 OMNI "

office buildings and ihe hot plain where Schuller Says 500,000 hurting people

if I hunger for spiritual upNftment, I feel as am with the hotel magnate who started out with a simple root-beer stand. Schuller began his California ministry preaching in a drive-in movie theater The marquee once announced the Sunday feature: "Someday

Is Today, Featuring Robert Schuller with a Supporting Cast of Thousands." As a communicator to small minds, as a packager of salvation, Schuller is unparal- leled. "Losers can be winners." "Bloom where you are." "God has no wastebas- kets." 'Attitude has no latitude." "No gain without pain."

It is as if he is saying, "I'm okay. You can

be, too, and make a tidy fortune as well, if you will only dare to begin." Schuller con-

fers upon this message the imposing title of

his "theology of self-esteem." And it sells. "In the latter part of the twentieth century we are experiencing nothing less than a theological reformation as deep and abid- ing as the event in the sixteenth century," he says enthusiastically, alluding to the Protes- tant Reformation. Religion at present, particularly evangel- ical Protestantism, he believes, rests upon embarrassing the sinner by fostering shame and fear as the lash ot redemption. He means to accent the positive.

"Self-esteem is the central verity, the north star, the central mark of the emotion-

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reader could easily discern the auihor's cast three characters in SOUNDSO bias. The Dialogue a heated debate: Salviati, the learned sci- entist, was clearly Galileo himself; Sa- gredo. the intelligent layman, hung on Sal- viati s every word; and Simplicio, as GOOD IT KEEPS simpleminded as his name implied, naive- ly and unconvincingly defended the an- cient Earth-centered system. Galileo had stacked the cards in his own favor, and. not AWAY. surprisingly, the sun-centered system THE BAD emerged victorious at Simplicio's expense. In relying on the backing of the Pope, Galileo had made a serious miscalculation. Writing the book in straightforward Italian rather than Latin, he forced church au- thorities to view it as a revolutionary exposi- tion instead ot as an abstruse academic exercise. The heliocentric system it clev- erly advocated seemed to violate intuition; even today we speak ot the sun as rising and setting, as if we were watching from a fixed point in space, Worst of all, Galileo's enemies convinced Urban VIM thai Simplicio, the half-wit, was a scarcely sub- tle substitute for the Pope himself. Shortly after the publication of the Dia- logue, the Inquisition banned the book and charged Galileo with heresy. Though sev- enty and in poor health, Galileo was unable to avoid another trip to Rome. At the trial he presented a defense of the theory, parts of which have since been shown logically false. But not even irrefutable logic could have defeated the dogma of the Catholic Church, and Galileo ultimately succumbed to the pressure and recanted his views, "I,

. . Galileo Galilei, . abandon the false opin- ion that the sun is the center of the universe and immovable, and that the earth is not the center. ..." Back at his villa in Arcetri, now a suburb of Florence, Galileo was ordered not to pub- lish and not to entertain visitors, He was granted one brief release from house arrest and visited at his son's home in Florence, across the Arno River. Though his villa is now in a woeful state of disrepair, the Mu- seum of the History of Science, in Florence, elegantly displays what remainsof the sci- entist's instruments, including two of his telescopes. Confined, going blind, Galileo dictated his Dialogue on the Two New Sciences to a student, reviving his three fictitious debat- ers in a discussion of motion and vibration. Through a friend, he arranged to have the manuscript smuggled to Holland for publi- cation in 1638, later feigning surprise when the edition showed up in Italy.

Even at his trial, Galileo had the last word. After his humiliating recantation, he is said to have mumbled a last defense of an or- biting Earth: "Nevertheless, it moves. "DO FUJI AUDIO CASSETTES. *» Sound, pure and perfect.To take vou where you want to be Novell Brasch is toe author o> a newly released I t book. The Birthplaces of European Science, * I; l " ...anytime you want to be there. published by Ur.iiea Technologies Corporation, * * . , * . ., . ®3 =i35IF„ Fric:cF:l!.U!iA v: ,:tTa,e v.sfon F if , Al y !0 Hartford, Connecticut. M,,.,.: e D 35J h s lje „y a ought to bring the shuttle through to a irUTERV/IEUU demonstrated capability, and then seek some way of transferring it to either another THE ******* government agency, a quasi-governmenl

fits, just as there have been since we en- agency, or a private agency. tered the era of aeronautics and astronau- My personal predilection would be to try

tics. What it is, is not very clear right now. making it a commercial enterprise. But as government is the major cus- But in another ten years, I suspect, there long as the will be' a new administrator sitting at this tomer, that's going to be a hard sell. The table, discussing how the nation is going to next step would be a half-private, half- deal with an explosion ot commercial activ- public agency. Trans porlation is a good

ity in space. example of partnership between govern- Omni: Do you see NASA taking a more ment and private enterprise. The govern- active role in trying to persuade industri- ment took on the construction of the infra- alists to get on board early in Ihe game? structure, and the private sector runs on the Beggs: Well, my experience with the busi- infrastructure that the government creates. sense, the shuttle is a transportation ness community— in which I have oper- In a ated for twenty-five years — has been that, system not unlike some of the things this unless you can show business people, in country pioneered in its infancy. George hard cold numbers, what the earnings ot a Washington proposed the Chesapeake venture will be, you're not going to get them and Ohio Canal, and that was a means to interested. provide access to the riches of the West. In Just waving your arms and talking about a sense, this is a means of providing ac- of potential is not going to get them coming in cess to what we hope will be the riches here with money We've got to show them space, and, therefore, the government ought to be the enabling hand. some payoff. Now, as I say, I am thoroughly convinced that the future payoff is there. But at some point the canal was turned But the way to attract the business com- over to a government-type corporation that munity is to find out what is possible and levied tolls. Maybe this is the same kind of time I there'll then work it out in a business plan and thing. don't know Surely be a rhumb-indexed $12.95 system for present it to them as a commercial oppor- when we'll have to invent a Regular edition $11.95 operate. As Deluxe edition 514.95 tunity As time goes on, and if we do indeed somebody other than NASA to should properly be a RANDOM HOUSE uncover those opportunities, my intention I say, this agency is to make that kind of business analysis pioneering agency in research and tech-

and present it to them. nology. is that, once an agency 1 hope that they will also do it themselves. My observation

operational entity, it tends to- I think that if .we continue to fly frequently, as becomes an we learn, and as we publicize what we devote most of its energies to operating Are You Ready To learn, we will find the more creative minds and too little of them to doing the research, in industry will say, "Hey, here's a possibility because the operational problems are Travel To The Stars? of making some money." They will do their daily and the research activity can easily own analyses. We've seen the beginnings be put off until another day. It's the most exciting reality of all— star flight!

It's the u 111 mate spaceflight, of it in the communications area. When the Omni: Ted Sturgeon once said that NASA's Award-winning science writer Robert M. Powers, first commercial fallout from space oc- most astonishing achievement was to author of SHUTTLE: THE WORLD'S FIRST SPACE- curred—namely, the communications sat- make mankind's greatest achievement SHIP and PLANETARY ENCOUNTERS, now imag- ellite—it wasn't long until the financial dull. In sense, that's true. For years ines the trip Dl Hie future— our first interstellar look a flighlt community was most anxious to invest NASA told the public that Apollo 14, 15, and OF ultimate grand THE COATTAILS GOD Is the money. It was no trouble at all to sell shares 76 were exhibition games, that nothing im- adventure in which generations of star travelers of stock in Comsat, If memory serves, it portant was going to happen, you don't journey iv.no and cy-'o in 5 ccniemec sriv.rrjn- meni descji-id ic hum-in comfort, programmed was oversubscribed. have to watch. And nobody watched them, Irom launch to landing 0- a star loce:ec «o.:'h of Omni: So you believe the business com- whereupon (he television executives killed the celestial equator. munity will get actively involved in space the coverage of our lunar missions be- Science writer Robert M. Powers has cowered ten operations once the shuttle op- of their low ratings. launches from Kennedy Space Center and wit- becomes cause

'.' nessed :hn kino In'di'os n- Mars. He is a fellow erational, Beggs: The problem with this country is of the Royal Astrono Beggs: If it becomes a commercial real- that the public has a fairly short attention member of the Amerii ity—maybe in ten years or so— a NASA span, and it is very difficult lo keep putting Association for the o Advancement of Science. administrator is going to be sitting here, on spectaculars that will keep people's at-

Just Published St 5.95 trying to figure out how to shuck off this tention. I will not argue whether NASA han-

large operational -esponsioility, because it dled that well. Even if we had done it well;

is dilutive of the basic reason for this agen- even if we had been superb in staging and

cy's existence, which is research and publicizing what we were doing, I think it ----- technology. We're not an operating agency was inevitable that the American people

We never have been one, and I hope we will would eventually lose interest. These are

never become one. long-term programs. It takes ten years or Omni: Do you think NASA should operate longer from the time we start planning until

the shuttle as a transportation system, or we actually fly hardware. And it is tough to

hand it over to some other agency or com- sustain public and political interest for that pany? long a time. the moti- Beggs: I chaired a panel at the National Omni: What do you see as main Academy of Public Administration several vation behind the U.S. space program? years ago, when NASA had asked us to Beggs: It's the knowledge — the human look at that. Our conclusion was that NASA knowledge. Carl Sagan says we live in an age when people are intensely interested DO YOU KNOWA in the expansion of scientific knowledge. It's a very interesting, wonderful time to live, SPACE CADET? when you come right down to it, because I think the public is interested in knowing Evs'y^ocy k.nT.vs i Space Cads:' Now you can give them their very how the universe began and what the ijv.'i" Space Cade: cap wiih official Batch and "scrambled eggs" on edges of the universe are. How does the the brim. Two sty es ;o choose Pan; one size fits all. Order row for your favorite Space Cadet, whole thing fit together? That in itself, I think, is motivation for continu- a wonderful DELUXE CAP in military fatigue or shiny Black satin $10.25 '* % ing the space program. -,'"' REGULAR CAP in red, black, green, purple, sky blue. With the space telescope in operation, navy or yellow S9.25 £, we'll be able to peer out close to the edges

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So do the Japanese. I think we're going to see some competition from the devel- oped countries. It's a healthy thing, This is an area in which we can compete with our friends and our potential enemies in a fairly benign environment. There's relatively little chance that we're going to go up and shoot

each other. It's easier to do that down here than it is to do it up there. Omni: Yet the Soviet Union objected to the shuttle on the grounds that it's a military vehicle.

Beggs: Well, shucks, if you listened to Soviet leaders, you wouldn't do anything. Anything that enhances the capability of this country to do things that the USSR can't do is a threat as far as the Russians are concerned. Omni: Well, there are military missions tor the shuttle, and the U.S. Air Force is talking about developing its own shuttle. Beggs: Well, of course there are many mili- tary applications in space, the most impor- tant of which is the reconnaissance that we've been able to conduct. It's made pos- sible the negotiations of arms agreements that have succeeded because space re- connaissance has enabled us to verify and

enforce those agreements. That, I think, is a

great example of what can be done. If you're going to shoot someone, you don't

have to go out into space to do it. Omni: Unless you want to shoot down an ICBM. Beggs: All right, there may be some mili- tary applications,, but they are largely

defensive in nature. I have studied the liter-

ature, and I have not seen anything pro- posed that is truly offensive in nature. They're not dropping rocks on other successful public subscription of that type into the same class with placing a solar-

it if it satellite in space, which is also a people's heads. They're keeping others is not very likely. I would welcome were power from dropping rocks on our heads. successful. Obviously, some things have very interesting idea, but very expensive Omni: How do you feel about the grass- more public pizzazz ihan others. Halley's and a pretty tough thing to mechanize still on roots movement that's developing — the Comet is very popular. There are probably when power is relatively cheap L-5 Society, the National Space Institute, more worthwhile scientific things in which Earth. discretion- and other. political-action groups that are people would not be as interested. Omni: If Congress-were to put solar-power pushing for a bigger and stronger space Omni: Is there any chance NASA will send ary money into the budget for a 7 program? out a probe to meet Halley's Comet? Some satellite, would you feel differently

said that if NASA could get twenty Beggs: If Congress were to say, "Let's Beggs: I think it's healthy and is typically have

possibilities, yes, I think it's American. We tend to be a people who million dollars in the 1982 budget, it could explore some form associations lo promote common ob- be done. an interesting thing to do. Thinking of just cents involved, we aren't jectives. In a democratic or representative Beggs: The money isn'l Ihere, and the the dollars and- yel. may be there someday. There system such as ours, it's the only way to mood of the administration and Congress there We

it. time humankind is using build political muscle. Politicians are much is not to put it there. I think we've missed may cornea when that power stations in more impressed by the power of a group Personally, I should like to have seen a so much power than they are by the power of an individual, probe, because the Soviet, European, and space would become desirable, maybe economic grounds, but purely on the unless an individual is extremely wealthy Japanese probes are not all that sophisti- not on of more energy without suf- There are other desirable consequences cated. We would have done it better, and G'ounds gelung ill consequences of from fhe formation of such groups. One is we might have found out some interesting fering any of the generating energy. that they do. indeed, give us -a voice to and worthwhile things about comets. But, mat that ought to go publicize what is happening, not only in on a list of priorities, that doesn'l rank very Omni: Do you think NASA for capabilities and technologies NASA, but in the world at large. We can high. new specific bring out in the open the various studies Omni: Some people have talked about the rather than missions? and the many scientific speculations about possibility of sending nuclear wasfes off Beggs: We've always had a mission- or shuttle, or what the future might hold. All.this is good. the planet. Do you think that is feasible? oriented focus: Apollo, the

It's feasible, but expensive. My some other program. And I think the ten- And everyone needs to get involved, I be- Beggs: lieve. Not getting involved in something that friends in the nuclear- power industry claim dency has been to say that within those interests and stimulates you is not healthy there are cheaper ways to dispose of broad programs we have developed the necessary for the human mind and body. wastes. Of course, this' is something with technology and the other things Omni: You recall how private citizens got which the environmentalists are intensely to make the mission a success. Right now point in program together and donated money to the Viking concerned, and I think rightfully so. Per- we've reached a fhe to new capability — Fund. Many of the same people are now haps it is possible to do that when it looks where we have come a trying to fund a probe to Halley's Comet. more economically feasible than if does the shuttle. " fulfillment of John E Ken- I that It is what fi afraid that the probability of a today. It's an interesting idea. But put the nedy said twenty years ago about our be- coming a spacefaring nation. Okay, we're about to become a spacefaring nation, in the sense that we can fly routinely in space. Maybe what we do nexi is build the perma- nent space station. Maybe it's a more ex- pansive scheme— one that says we go from a permanent station to replicating machines on the moon to the manned ex- ploration of Mars. Maybe we start mining the resources of the moon and utilize those resources to expand the horizons of what we're doing in a permanent space station. Omni: You don't see any of that as fantas- tic or nonsensical? Beggs: No. One can raise questions — as Senator William Proxmire does all the time— about the cost-benefit tradeoffs, but not about the technical feasibility.

Omni: I wanted fo ask you about interna- tional cooperation. The United Nations has enacted the Moon Treaty. How do you feel about it? Beggs: About international cooperation or about the Moon Treaty?

Omni: I think everyone favors international cooperation.

Beggs: Well, I don't think that everybody's

in favor of international cooperation. I think

we're in favor of it. I don't know how much

the rest of the world is. I think the Europeans

have participated when they have felt it was to their advantage.

It's an attitude that has been fostered

since World War II, when this country be- came a dispenser of largess, and other countries have picked and chosen what they wanied from among our offerings. The European community now has a greater economy than the United States has. They cerlainly don't spend near the Y)u never forget money in advancing the frontiers of sci-

ence that we do. I believe they could if they wanted to. I think they should spend more. yourfirstGirl. Instead of picking and choosing only those things that they feel are to their benefit, they should also share in some of the things that

cost money but don't look as it they have an

immediate payoff. I don't know that we're going to drag them into a fuller cooperation without really giving them equal partner- ship, which they properly should have.

Whether Ihey would take it or not, I don't know. The French m gh! still go off and do their own thing. Omni: The Moon Treaty, to many people, seems to be aimed at preventing free en- terprise in space.

Beggs: Well, the United Nations, I think, has had a policy of trying lo develop re- sources for "the benefit of humankind." My view is that the development of resources

can be done more readily and efficiently if we open space to free enterprise. The facts are that people seem to work best when they work in an environment of enlightened self-interest, And sooner or later the United Nations will come around to this realization.

I think it will probably be later rather than

sooner, because they still seem hell-bent on making sure everybody shares and shares alike, which is the division of zero by a large number

Omni: What do you do if a shuttle crashes?

Whal if there is a real failure in a test?

Beggs: I don't anticipale we will lose a

spacecraft, but if we do ever lose one, well,

we had the Apollo fire. It set our program

back. It hurt, and it would hurt here, too. But we'd pull up our socks and go on from there.

When you're engaged in the operation of flying machines, which fly statically unsta- ble, you've got to worry. And you have to handle them very lenderly We intend to do that. This is a good crew They're very expe- rienced. They've gone through a lot to-

gether, and they understand, I think, the risks we take. We don't fly unless we feel

we're ready We don't fly even if, at the last minute, we think something is not right. We will continue that policy. My experience with flying machines has always been that you treat them gently, and you fly them as much as you can, and as you fly them, you learn, and the more you learn, the more you're able to improve them. Pretty soon the operation of them becomes routine.

Let's face it. Safe as commercial aviation

is— and it's the safest form of transporta- tion known to man— we unfortunately still experience an occasional catastrophe. And you have to worry about an occasional accident. Omni: When ttie shuttle becomes opera- tional, will you fly in ft?

Beggs: Id love to. I love to fly. Nothing would please me more. DO "

was to assess the mineral potential ot "Can we relocate the crawlers?" Brach- FISHES Chorisande, for the benefit of the Asterope vogel asked. "Skim a bigger area?" Bank's accountants. Chemically this stuff is "No. You can't extend those pipelines rPOT'ifiF ?L harmless and unimportant. The abrasion indefinitely. It shaves too much off the profit Now looking despondently at the dis- problem just wasn't appreciated by the margins." mantled carcass of crawler G19, Brach- chemists who—" They all nodded. They also all knew that vogel's mind went back to the disastrous "And the engineers?" Monteith inter- there was no way to relocate the Plants: day when they had realized that this en- rupted menacingly. Those were permanent. The economics of gineer's nightmare was more than just a "They needed more than the cores could the project were predicated on ice miles local accident of topography. tell them. Bulk samples, for stress-strain deep, not twenty feet, and every proposal analysis and so forth. So they dug them- made in the next twenty minutes foundered

". . . You mean to say this junk covers the selves a nice, big, deep pit— at the edge of on that discrepancy. whole bloody planet?" fhe ice field near the Installation— to keep Brachvogel asked how much time was Ray Czerny, technical coordinator, nod- transport costs down. And they managed left.

ded unhappily. "All the evidence points that to pick one of the few places on Chorisande "We've already got forty-eight crawlers way, Miss Monteith." where the particle layer wasn't. Some kind outside their planned zones," said Czerny, Patience Monteith was a tall, forceful of shielding effect of the coastline." "and another seventy on a slowed cutting .woman in her late seventies, though she Gilles duFeu was five years younger than schedule. Wifhin six months we'll have half looked nearer forty, thanks to expensive Patience, but he looked fwenty years older. the crawlers laid up. That will reduce turn- medical treatment. Her close-cropped He leaned forward in his chair with the ten- over severely. The Asterope Bank isn't black hair and her flashing eyes were en- tative movements of a man whose joints going to be happy." tirely her own, however. So was her mouth, were no longer supple. "What caused it?" "To hell with the bank!" Patience ex-

and everyone knew it. Czerny watched her "Geology says it was planetwide vul- claimed, "I'm not happy. I want an answer

face and waited for the explosion. It came. canism. That's why it's spread so evenly to this, and I want it fast. Develop abrasion- all-laser "Then why wasn't it spotted years ago?" over the whole surface. Round about the resistant cutters. Change to an In front of Czerny was a pile ot yellow- time the oceans started to freeze, there system. Find new ways to strip the ice. Find bound reports. He pushed them to the cen- was a lot of volcanic activity. The. ocean something better than pipelines to carry

ter of the table. "It was, but its significance surface froze and unfroze repeatedly in the slurry" wasn't understood when the original sur- cycles, and the dust settled in bands below "I assure you we're pursuing ail of those vey's samples were analyzed, and nobody the ice. They think that a near-miss with an ideas. Miss Monteith. But there isn't much

followed it up. I've been asking for funds to asteroid perturbed Chorisande's orbit and room to maneuver. For example, an obvi- do a new survey for three years now, but triggered the—" ous approach is to liquefy the ice com- — Finance vetoes the idea every time I "Damn Geology's theories," Patience pletely, filter out the abrasives, eliminate the "Keep to the point," said Monteith. said. "The question is, What in the hell can cutters altogether. But there isn't the spare

"The main purpose of the original cores we do about it now?" energy. The fusion generator doesn't have

COCHIN

"Do you get the feeling that Blitzen won't be with us much longer?"

152 OMNI —

It was obviously ridiculous, and Brach- vogel said so. "Not with a loan from the AB," Patience reminded them. "Based on the production increase we'll get." "Philosophical fun and games... "For God's sake, Patience!" duFeu pro- tested. "You can'i just go around setting fire of very high order from the authors «f immoral. forests are a to planets. It's Those "* unique. Beautiful. Unexplored. We haven't Godel, Escher, Bach and Brainstorms any idea what's in there. We—" Pulitzer Prize-winner Douglas Hofstadter and the philosopher Daniel "We are heading straight for the As- Dennett take you on a mind-jolting exploration of art and science, terope Bankruptcy Court, Gilles! Chori- humor and philosophy, to probe the meaning of self and conscious- sande's no use to us if we can't extract its

n<'$-:, "The authors supply extracts from literature (Borges, Lem) and minerals. Immoral? So is poverty I What are scientific reports (A.M. Turing, John Searle) that reveal the complex- a few dragonflies and some screeching ities, idiosyncracies, and sheer brilliance (and folly) of man thinking fungi compared to what a warmer Chor- about himself The quandary of human self-representation isande will give us?" is brilliantly explored in this cunning, interdisci- "They don't screech. Patience," Brach- plinary banquet of food for thought!' vogel said. "They moan. It's a wonderful,

—ALA Booklist resonant sound, almost like a chant. I used

rith equally wondrous to love listening to it when I was a child on cnmentaries." Chorisande." Chant? A threnody. Anton —Martin Gardner was having trouo : e reconciling conflicting emotions. For Chorisande. or my father? Kirkus Reviews Both? "Patience, how do we burn them, anyway? The conditions don't strike me as being suitable for forest fires." "Particle beams. Bring in an orbital pro- jector and sweep the continental mass in short bursts. The bank will pay." .4;; Alternate of the Book-of- "Mo!" duFeu shouted. "It's a world, not an ilic-Morith Club (Science) it." entry in a ledger. I won't permit 70,000 copies in print "Fair enough." said Patience. "But Anton $15.50 at bookstores

and I outvote you. Don't we, Anton?" BASIC BOOKS, INC. "You're trying to rush me." Brachvogel 10 E. 53 Street, New York 10022 answered. "I need time to think it through." "We haven't got any time! The bank will the capacity for that much energy." "The idea's as old as ihe hills," said call in our current loans soon." inter- "Bring in another one," Monteith said. Czerny "Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "But ... the government," Anton "Patience," duFeu said, "do you re- traps radiation, and up goes the tempera- posed. "We'd never get a license for action scale." member how long it took to commission the ture, Chorisande is so finely balanced that on this look of disgust. existing one? And we're still paying off the just a couple of degrees would do it." Patience shot him a loan." "Great," said Brachvogel. "So where "Honestly, Anton, do you think the govern-

"It's a pity, though," said Anton. "With does all that carbon dioxide come from?" ment will interfere with a nice little terraform- liquid water instead of slurry we could up "We take advantage of Chorisande's ex- ing operation?" production no end. Get rid of the crawlers, tensive forest cover." "Terraforming?" a shorten the pipelines, cut channels for the "I thought vegetation absorbed carbon "Of course. Chorisande would make melted ice to flow in. We could borrow dioxide, not produced it," said duFeu. beautiful terratype world if the climate were forested conti- pretty much anything we needed, on the "Ordinarily jt does." milder. Warm oceans and strength of that kind of increase, and—" "So how are we to persuade the forests to nents. We replant, of course. Conifers,

"Yes, and if pigs had wings—" give instead of take?" maybe." "Okay Patience, keep your hair on. We're "Burn them," Czerny said. "And the animals?" asked duFeu. insects! call ani- all as upset about it as you are." "What?"- "Worms and You those Mr. calculate nothing worth speaking of on "I am not upset! I am merely trying to—" "Burn them, duFeu. We mals?There's "Patience, dear," said duFeu, "do try to that-" Chorisande except ice." live up to your name. We need cool heads." "Hold on," Brachvogel said. "Just how DuFeu clenched his fists in frustration. "In that case," Patience replied, "you can much of the forest do you propose to burn? "We don't know that. We don't know any- stick them in a bucket of ice slurry." That's a delicate ecology," thing." " "Well, actually, the optimal — Patience nodded. "Exactly. So there's' About the only thing that came out of that "Oh, for Christ's sake. Czerny!" Patience nothing on central file to prevent our going meeting, apart from an ill-concealed air of reverted to character. "We burn the lot, An- ahead. If we move quickly, the project will panic, was a decision to send Anton to ton! What's the point of half-measures? The be a fait accompli. The AB doesn't antici- make an on-site investigation. And now he more carbon dioxide, the quicker we get pate any trouble." She shot a glance at returned from Chorisande to the Asierope Chorisande warmed up!" Anton. "Well? Are you capable of making a Distributor with a report that held little en- Oh, Chorisande, what have we come to? sensible commercial decision without get- couragement. The meeting at which he Out of the corner of his eye, Brachvogel ting sentimental?" for "Sentiment was due to present it turned out to be even saw duFeu's face. DuFeu looked stunned. That was too much duFeu. more traumatic than the previous one, but Brachvogel said, 'And how long will this be damned! Anion, she's asking us to kill a for different reasons. take to get results, Patience?" planet." They never even asked to hear his report. "To fire the forests, three to four months. It was a mistake. It reminded Brachvogel Instead, they talked about the green- To melt enough ice to get production going of what Chorisande had done to his father. house effect. properly, five years." Chorisande the murderess. How neatly

154 OMNI a "

half- symmetric to kill in return! And while part of It wasn't much better from the ground. "The clean-up team called them him was thinking, It's stupid to wreak ven- Mostly it was obscured by swirling fog. The bears. Gallows humor, but it's appropriate. part reached a air srnelled wrong: damp ash and wood- There must have been millions of them in geance on a planet , another decision. smoke. Even now, a month after the fires the forests. Maybe more. We have no real

"Okay Patience. We'll play it your way. had died, even through a face mask. / idea; we . . . The lucky ones near the edges

Bring on the incendiaries. It's an evil an- never realized it would be like this. And made it to the ice. The rest— they burned, 1 But the the swer to an evil problem, but I don't see any there was another, indefinable smell — guess. ones who escaped choice." You blackhearted bitch. And he smell of death. flames didn't last long. Suffocation, lack of wasn't sure whether he meant Patience or DuFeu had met him when the shuttle food, poisoned by gas — they were heaped Chorisande. landed and taken him to the Installation up, in places. A dead continent bordered

without saying a word. Something was hor- by corpses. I think I'm going mad, Anton. them. you think of the It was the directors' job to. decide policy, ribly wrong. We did this to What do nothing more. With the decision taken, its "Where's Patience?" greenhouse effect now?" implementation was in other hands. One oi "She's shut herself in her room and re- Anton was feeling sick. He turned his the benefits of a hierarchical structure is its fuses to see anyone," duFeu said flatly. eyes from the holo of fhe crumpled corpse. moral insulation. "What? Patience? But she was so happy "Hell. They're only animals. Wedidn't mean

Brachvogel took an extended vacation about this project" to do it. But it's done now anyway, isn't it?" away from the Asterope region. He told "Yes. She's not the kind you'd expect to "Yes. It's done." himself that he deserved it, but the truth crack up, is she? But I'm afraid she can't "So nobody's going to worry about a was that he couldn't face the prospect of take the way her fait accompli has turned bunch of animals." actually watching Chorisande's forests out. Neither can I, Anton. But at least it was "I do. Patience, too. So will you. I think burn. never my idea." you do now From time to time he got digest reports of "Cracked up? Gilles, what the hell has "Yeah. But worrying won't bring the half- the project's progress: financial arrange- been happening? Has someone found out bears back, will it?" ments, legal requirements, logistics, tem- "No." porary evacuation of personnel and "So what's a bunch of animals compared equipment. It was easy enough to begin to Chorisande's minerals?" Revenge with: The fine print on a bank loan seemed should be sweet. Why isn't it? Justice is — light-years away from the nasty fact of an ughi I can't speak the word. "She killed my It mistake. orbital particle-beam projector. But the nar- £ was a father, Gilles. Why shouldn't we kill her?" really listening. "You tell rower that gap became, the greater the It reminded Brachvogel of DuFeu wasn't me, Anton," momentum of its closing, By the time what Chorisande Brachvogefs doubts had become painfully "I don't know anymore, Gilles." He half-bears — conscious, it was too late to stop. had done to his father. .paused. "These — these When the report arrived saying that the Chorisande the they're very familiar. I just can't quite place ..." burn-off had started, he tore it up, and he them murderess. neatly was in a black depression for a week. Pa- How "We know so little about them," said lived, they lived. tience was like a dog with two tails; duFeu symmetric it duFeu. "Where they how seemed to have retreated within himself It's all gone forever. Were they solitary, or did would be to kill in return! 9 7 and hardly communicated at all. Anton's they group into herds What did they eat?" spirits rose and fell, depending on whom "Fungus." he talked to. After the burn-off had been "Eh?" completed, he tore up the next six reports Brachvogel said, almost dreamily, "We unread. He was beginning to feel a little saw some eating the fungus. Daddy and happier when duFeu contacted him with a what we're doing here? Is that it?" He me— we saw them. Just before he was person-to-person freewave call. struggled to control his emotions. killed. We were hurrying back to tell every- ." 'Anton, "I'd like you over here right away" "No. But they will. And then . . He saw one." in trance. For second "Oh, hello, Gilles. I haven't seen you in Brachvogefs puzzled face and shrugged. He was almost a a ages. What's the rush? And where's here? "I'll show you." He tossed a pile of holo- he seemed to shake it off. "That must have How is Patience?" graphs onto the table. "Take a look at been why he got careless and passed too "It's urgent. Extremely urgent. I'm on these." near an ice tower. Chorisande. So is Patience, but I'd rather The first appeared to have been taken on "I'd forgotten all about it, but now it's all not talk about that. Get on the next cruiser the ice field near the coastline, probably in coming back. I was too young to appreci- tell and come as quickly as you can." infrared to pierce the fog. It was hard to ate it, but 1 remember how excited Daddy

I remembereveryrft/ngl" He "But why? I thought everything was run- for sure; everything had changed so much. was. Oh, God, ning smoothly. I'm not sure I—" The ice was littered with strange, shape- stared blankly into space. "For God's sake, Anton, get over here. less humps. DuFeu put one hand on his shoulder. "I'm Move." The next was a close-up of one of the sorry, Anton. Did you watch them long?"

Anton felt his depression coming over humps. It was blackened and crumpled, "Quite— quite a long time. They were, him again. "All right, Gilles, if you insist. I'm like a dirty rug thrown carelessly into a kind of — collecting the fungus." on my way. But why, damn it?" heap. But if you looked closely, it was pos- "Grazing?"

Gilles looked anguished. "I can't say sible to make out the bone structure. "No, more like harvesting, I suppose. over the freewave, but Patience's fait ac- It was an animal. Something like a bear, They were putting it into huge baskets,

fur. . compli is looking a little sick," he said. And except that only the lower half bore woven from some sort of reed . ."His voice he cut the connection. There were more holos: One showed the trailed off, and his eyes stared.

Anton stopped, feeling depressed and face. It was sunken and deformed. There 'Anton," said duFeu in a stricken voice, began to feel scared. were no bacteria on Chorisande, but tis- "are you sure? Baskets?" His face was

sues still undergo chemical decomposi- ashen.

From space, Chorisande had always tion. There was something familiar about it. Wo more than your dead fungus shall I been a sparkling jewel, dashed with green "Dear God," said Brachvogel. / didn't sing again. O Chorisande. And I called you and brown. Now it was just a featureless know, I didn't know, I didn't know. "This is murderess. Brachvogel nodded once and gray blob, like a ball of mud. awful. What are they?" held his head in his hands. OO 156 OMNI Images from the year 2000 PHDTD CDRJT By Geoffrey Golson

iecaught glimpsesof the view camera and a 21 0mm Schneider An update of Michelangelo's Sistine f% creating : depicting I (future in the photographs Symmar f/5.6 lens. Budde achieved the Chapel fresco God mm ^Jsubmittedinresponsetoour background star patterns by backlighting Adam was produced by Third Prize- of York City. request for images from a.d. 2000. pinholeson a black field, exposed winner Jan Hartley, New creator of a Photographic foresight was best separately through two star filters. Here, man is the divine Pentax expressed by First Prize-winners Joan Hall Second Prize-winner Rick Ueda, of lesser being. Hartley used a slides of the robot and John Budde, of New York City, in Burbank, California, portrays a stark Spoimatic to shoot their collaborative effort on a symbolic finality in his Year 2000 setting of a broken hand, the human hand, the stars in the spaceship offhe twenty-first century. Hall sculpture on rocks. This photograph was background, and the aura around the were com- constructed the mixed-media assem- also taken with a 4" x 5" view camera and fingers. The (our separate slides bined and photographed with a Forox SS blage, and Budde photographed it multiple-exposure techniques and was 5" with Ektachrome film.DQ in multiple exposures with a Sinar 4" x recorded on Ektachromefilm. camera, loaded

158 OMNI EMRTH

have various kinds of cancer. Although vin-

< blastine and vincristine sales totaled $35 million worldwide in 1979, the actual value of these drugs — inlerms of the economic productivity of the lives saved — may be more than fiftyfold that amount.

\ "It is not uncommon for otherwise ordi- nary plants to produce invaluable medi- cines," says Norman Farnsworth, professor of pharmacognosy (the science of medicines derived from nature) at the Uni-

; versity of Illinois Medical Center in Chi-

cago. "Roughly twenty-five percent of all prescription drugs in the United States are

.; derived from higher plants. These medi- cines have an annual market value of about

< six billion dollars. And yet the amazing thing is that today there is not a single drug company looking for new drugs in plants native to the United States. "The best way to get funds for drug re-

' search," Farnsworth asserts, "is to find out

: who's sick in Congress or in the President's

'. Cabinet. They started looking at plants as antitumoral agents only when John Foster Dulles [then the secretary of State] was found to have terminal cancer. More than fifteen letters sent in ; hundred were by MATHEMATICAL GAMES— After 25 years of writing his popular games column in people, suggesting cures, and a very large

Scientific American, Martin Gardner is retiring— to work harder on other projects. In i number of those letters mentioned piant a rare, i=xc:u2ivc interview, Omni senio to Gardner about remedies." Uri Geller, ESP, hoaxes (including offers preliminary strategy Alice in Wonderland, perpetual-motion machines, : Farnsworth a calculators, com- Gardner's own). Fermat's: Last Theorem, the fourth dimension, i to estimate the total number of medicines of the fundamentalist discovered in untested plants. puters, creativity, the "aha!" experience, the consequences .: that can be Christian explosion, and nearly a googol other topics. Watch for the funny business 1 "Since fewer than five thousand species When our games editor talks. to their games editor in the January issue of Omni. ': have been thoroughly investigated for drugs, and roughly fifty plants are used in

WHERE FLESH AND STEEL MESH — An eerie mix of organic and man-made ': the drugs now sold in pharmacies in this inspiration country, that . textures characterizes the art of Marshall Arisman, whose springs from i one can expect about one the social unrest wrought by science and technology. His paintings, with their. - percent of the plants will eventually prove

If surreal aura and futuristic sheen, convey the trapped, helpless leerirc. of men who \ to be of value for drug production. the have been reduced- to cogs. in a machine, Don't miss Arisman's disturbing vision of total number of species remains constant,

mechanized man in January's Omni, timed to coincide with an exhibition of his work. , nine thousand new medicines might be discovered." MAGfC MIRRORS— Television technicians are about lo turn passive watchers into Farnsworth cautions that his analysis active participants who can create images on the screen. Like the mirror in Disney's applies equally to all species of plants and Snow While, new video systems- answer questions and extend our view. behind ; cannot be used to select which individual

closed doors. They can also take people at their, own pace on tours through the • plants should be preserved. But if his esti-

streets ol villages, the halls of an art gallery, the fuel lines of a jeep, and the arteries : mate is accurate, medicines found in rare of a human body. Some have screens shaped like faces that nod to whispered and endangered U.S. plants will someday

secrets. To get an advance look at future viewing, read Omni next month. [ have a yearly market value of about $1 bil-

t lion in this country alone. "There is a gold

MR, HYDROGEN— You can drink the exhaust of the mail trucks in Independence. i mine out there," Farnsworth says, "and ev- M'issouri. That's because Roger Billings has converted the engines of these trucks erybody is bypassing it." lo- run on hydrogen. Not only do engines that use hydrogen produce water as a Wild plant species are also essential for by-product, but they deliver more energy per pound than any otherfuel, synthetic or ', high agricultural productivity. Since 90 rwise ads the vanguard of the hydrogen-power movement, telling i percent of the world's food supply is ob-

people all across America how to convert their car, house, helicopter,. or boat to ; tained from plants, insects and blights can hydrogen. There's even a town in Iowa that's using his. ideas. to become. the first cause serious global consequences. enable wild plants to resist in- hydrogen- powered community. Learn in the January issue of Omni, how this : Genes that

abundant resource could make this country energy-independent by the year 2000. i sects and diseases must continually be

• transferred to food-producing species to

SCIENCE FICTION — In January Omni presents an exclusive excerpt from Barry B. 1 prevent crop failures such as that which

Longyear's novel Elephant Song, the latest installment of the continuing history of :- destroyed 15 percent of America's corn in

the interstellar circus ship Baraboo. Longyear. winner ot the Hugo, Nebula, and I 1970, at a cost of nearly $500 million.

Campbell awards, is the author of City of Baraboo arid Circus World, ;he -wo I The race between plants and disease

popular forerunners of Elephant Song, And an unusual detective is. sent to sort I organisms runs uncomfortably close. New

' out what .seems .to be a simple reincarnation mix-up in John Shirley's "Triggering." strains of wheat, for example, last an aver- age of five years in the American Northwest before the ever-present pathogens close in. In Extinction, the Ehrlichs emphasize that the loss of genetic stocks in the wild increases the probability of large-scale ag- ricultural failure, which could then lead to political turbulence and even nuclear war. Large crop failures can also be expected. Despite the fundamental importance of plants, the U.S. Department of the Interior

has recently decided that it is more impor- tant to protect any fish, amphibian, reptile, TELEPATHIC bird, or mammal than to protect an en- COMMUNICATION dangered plant. Alarmed by this newly formulated federal policy, several organiza- tions are initiating preliminary cost-benefit INTUITIVE assessments on their own. The New York INSIGHT Botanical Garden, for instance, has estab- lished a new Institute of Economic Botany, and California's Governor Jerry Brown has directed the California Gene Resource Program to prepare a list of plants that are of real and potential importance to the state and to outline procedures to save them. But governmental and scientific pro- Behind Your grams are encumbered by red tape and a scarcity of funds and facilities. By the iime Conscious Mind

important plant species are identified, it may be too late. That is why a group of WHY LIMIT YOURSELF to concerned botanical gardens and soci- five senses? There is a greater eties has taken matters into its own hands world of realization behind your by beginning a program of foster care for outer self. Impressions of these plants. Called the Rare and Endangered extrasensory powers occasion- Native Plant Exchange, this plan calls for feeling giving endangered plants to people who . ally arise. The strange will provide homes for them and who will of impending danger— an intui- return seeds and cuttings at the end of tive hunch— receiving another's each growing season. Records of all plant unspoken thought— these indi- and seed exchanges will be maintained by cate unused potentialities. participating botanical gardens and soci- They are natural phenomena. eties and in the computer system of thB To understand, develop, and City University of New York. direct them can transform your Cost-benefit analysis is only a first step. It whole personality. They pro- is a necessary tool to translate the value of per- plant species into terms that everyone can vide greater insight and understand regardless of his or her political sonal achievement. or economic interests. But economic FREE BOOK analysis can assess only a portion of the The Rosicrucians, a worldwide value of plants and cannot in and of itself cultural organization (not a re- save any of them. "Fortunately," the ligion) have the facts about Ehrlichs write, "the accelerating rate of ex- your extrasensory powers. A tinctions can be arrested. This will not be easy and will require concerted action by free book The Mastery of Life millions of people. But no tasks are more tells how you may share this important, because extinctions must be practical knowledge. Use cou- stopped before the living structure of our pon or write to Scribe bgv planet is so weakened iha! at a moment of

stress it fails and civilization is permanently disabled." 3fie ROSICRUCIANS "We can save our native endangered (AMORC) San Jose, California 95191 U.S.A. plants il we work quickly," says Bruce Mac- Bryde, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rush me your free catalog! Scribe BGV 1 'And the chances for each species improve The ROSICliUCrANS (AMORC) with everyone who volunteers San Jose, California 95191 U.S.A. to help. "DO Address Please send me a complimentary copy of the For information about hov. yen esn participate City in book "THE MASTERY OF LIFE." the Rare and Endangered Native Plant Ex- State Zip change, please send a self-addressed, Clip And Mail Coupon Today To: stamped envelope to Plant Exchange, c/o New Edmund Sc entitle Co.. De:y. o2 i KN?.; York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458. Please Edscorp Bldg., Barrington, N J. 08007 include $5 if you want an Endangered Wild No, 3362 c1981 Edmund Scientific Co. Flower Calendar and information about en-

1 " dangered plants is m i)n::omos available. J '

Omni Productions International Ltd. would like to thank the following individuals and corporations for their generous contributions to the success of the television series Omni: The New Frontier. Host: Peter Ustinov Executive Producers: Bob Guccione, Kathy Keeton Senior Producer: Vivian R. Moss was my philosophical phase," he says. "Aft- Director: Andrew C. Wilk er that I became more and more convinced Set Design: Danilo Donati that the private sestor should take over the Music: Paul Baillargeon exploitation of space." Directors of Photography: Arthur Albert. Mark Benjamin, John Bonnano, Ted Churchill, Alan Daler, He began knocking on doors in Houston Flynn Donovan. Nick Doob, Robert Elfstrom, Boyd Esius, Paul Goldsmith, Howard Hall, Tom Hurwitz. Chuck Levy. Rick Makarnes. Ralph Neson Sandi Sisse.. Jyarna Taylor, Burt Van and soon caught the ear of the Chamber of Munster, Gordy Waterman, Raul Zauritsky Commerce and its president. ex-Houston Post Production Supervisor: Roberta Friedman Production Manager: Stephanie Hochrnan Field Mayor Louie Welch. Hannah was invited to Producers: George Ancona, Joan Reisrter Auritt, John Borden, Ann Eisner, Riva Freifeld, a dinner early -in 1980 to persuade local Milton Gi:isber;j. Vicon;: Hamburg. Irrre Ho'vath H.arciy Jones. Roger Phemx Tom Simon. Ira leaders of the need for private investment ' Wohl Film Editors: Werner Eundschun. InsCarn. Will am Daugrtoiv Jill Demoy Nei' Kaufman in space. "I thought it would ignite them Jonathan Levy, Dennis O'Connor, Jonaihan Oppenheim, Samuel Pollard, Ray Anne School, and that we'd really gel some interest up," Wendy Wank, Graham Weinbren he says. "But nothing happened." Associate Producers: Larry EngeL Joanna Hatlery. Sydney Johnson, "onis Shoumatoff, Barbara The only thing to come out of the dinner was an introduction to Hudson, who Special Segment Supervisor: David Hanser Music Editor: Todd Kasow Sound Editor: Skip Lievsay had Assistant Post Production Supervisor: Y Sue Thorpe Production Controller: Curtiss Say black put together a slide presentation about the Publicity Promotion Supervisor: Leslie Jay Assistant to (he Producers: Larie Adato, Assistant to exploitation of space. Hudson was one of the Director: Ruth Foster the growing number of people who make a living championing space exploration. Production Facilities: Glen Warren Studios Post Production Facilities: Broadway Video Matte The two men began to talk. "I im- Photography: Don Dixon and Pete Turner Openjng Titles and Special Effects: Ron Hays Music was Image pressed with Gary," Hannah says. Hudson said he could make a. rocket for about $5 Omni Publications International Ltd.: Ben Bova, Owen Davies, Frank DeVnc. Geoffrey Golson, million. Hannah said it had to be less. Hud- Paul Hiir.s Marc. Kaplan. Hildega'd Kion Kathleen MoAuliffe, Scot Morris, Kathleen Stein, son came up with a nofher figure, and even- DickTeresi. Michae 'i\'cir:r.;l;iSK Bub Guocone. Kathy Keeton tually ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: the two decided it could be done for about $1.2 million. Mai; una I Aeioriaijiic;. ar.cl Space Administration Scand Video, Sweden "It look me about a year to get fhe money

Dents u Corporation assembled." Hannah says. "Mostly it was New Otani Hotel, Tokyo people I'd done business with- 1 had all the Iwanami Productions funds in hand in March of 1^81, and we Kunio Kadawaki incorporated in Austin under the name Dr. James McAiea'. FMV Associates Percheron Joint Venture." Dr. Kevin Ulmer, Genex Corporation Hudson had the first rocket ready in Dr. Stephen Turner, Bethesdn Researon Laboratory about five months, but it was far from easy. Dr.- Forrest L. Carter, Naval Research Laboratory Richard Feldman, National Institutes of Health "We ran into one dead end after another," Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratories Hannah says, "but Gary always worked us

Columbia University Psychology Dept. out of them. About once a month t thought Scott Nourok and Robert Scopatz this wasn't. a good idea." Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration But soonfhe rocket was being loaded on MIT Architecture Machine Group a truck for transport to Texas. GCH had interactive Video" and "Rutan" produced for Omni by Peace River Films planned to launch from the tip of Matagor- The Human Growth Foundation da Peninsula, but landowners there raised The National Pituitary Agency Motion Control. Inc. questions about the group's liability. It was Defense Depot, Ogden, Utah decided to move to Matagorda Island and John Chester, Chaos Audio a farm run by one of the investors. Dr. Clive Saunders, U.M.I. ST. The plans were to test-fire the engine in a Roswell Park Memorial RoberfG. Hughes, Ph.D.. Institute 5-second burst, then go for a longer, 25- James B. Gioer Un.vcrsiiy of Illinois. Urbana second burn, with a launch to take place National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases several days later. The tests were delayed The Upjohn Co. several times, however, because of weather National Cancer Institute The National Science Foundation and technical problems. The Federal Avia- Bally Manufacturing Corp., Pinball Division tion Administration also was slow in acting Frank Bristow and staff of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the group's request to approve the Dr. Joseph Waltz, St. Barnabas Hospital launch, although the go-ahead was given Brooklyn Botanical Gardens the day the rocket blew up. Drs. S, and H. Colon and Or Romita and members of the NYU Microsurgery Team Hannah says his investors considered National Training Evaluation Center the entire venture of a gamble at first, with- Jerry Andrus, Linn Benton Community College out much chance of success. "It wasn't Dr. Stephen Jacobsen, Center for Biomeoica: Desion Univcsiiy of Utah until we got the rocket up on the pad that Myron Youdin, M.E.E.; Ruth Dickey. M.A., O.R.T., NYU Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine they really it work," says. Belle Wineberg and Ellen Watermen Project Access, Mid-Manhattan Library thought would he Peter Thompson, Otis Elevator Co. Hannah believes the explosion is unlikely Sharp Electronics Co. to deter investors. "We tried to break this Pnr.a ionic Co. into small chunks. What we're doing is a ot Tai E. 1, Friedman,- University Fioiida, ahassee logical one-, two-, three-step approach. U.S. Navy We'll keep going as long as we can. If \ lose James Oberg and Stackpole Books {NEW EARTHS) an investor, I'll see whether I can find Chris McKay University of Colorado someone else. When we run out of funds, Basset Maguire, University of Texas we'll quit. That's free enterprise." DO 163 OMNI novel, and this is one reason why more and feasible, Benford builds a near-future

Dune-sized epics are now being written. scenario we can truly believe in. Another drawback of dislant-system- Likewise, Poul Anderson (using the 30NTIWUI iOMPAGI planet stories is that, despite their often pseudonym Winston R Saunders) has writ- Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Dark- socially relevant themes, they may actually ten a series of stories about life in a col- ness, in which the alien world is simply a seem less relevant to our own lives than onized asteroid belt. (These stories have convenient place lo situate an evolved, an- earlier types of science fiction. When The been collected in a book entitled Tales of drogynous version of the human race so as War of the Worlds was first published the Flying Mountains.) Anderson, like Ben- to dramatize a social message about sex (1898) — and again when it was first ford, is scrupulous about his science; we roles. Le Guin's more recent book The Dis- dramatized on radio in the Thirties- can be sure that what we read is not only

possessed employs the same technique, people could take, it seriously because plausible but possible. this time with political implications. So, too, anyone could look up and see Mars shining And then-there are books about orbital do Norman Spinrad's The World Between in the night sky. All the other plane! stories, space colonies, built according to the and Joanna Russ's And Chaos Died. through the Sixties, shared a similar power. model proposed by Gerard K. O'Neill in his Books of this kind are really no different The unfamiliar and frightening scenes they nonfiction book The High Frontier. This sub- from Gulliver's Travels or even Lord of the contained were set right here on ourceles- ject is one that authors have only just begun Flies. Each of these writers imagines a tial front doorstep. Stories taking place on to exploit. Ben Bova's Colony was one of self-contained society cut off from every- remote planets can never seem so imme- the first, describing the political machina-

day life. Swift and Golding chose isolated diate, and therefore can never be so tions involved in establishing a man-made

islands. Writers of science fiction, reason- threatening. environment in Earth orbit. More recent is ing that if Lilliput existed, it would long Not all writers have chosen to shift their Worlds, by JoeHaldeman, the first part of a since have been mapped by satellite, feel stories far from home. Those who decided trilogy that will furnish us a full tale of a that they have to resort to an unknown to deal with moons and man-made space society of space colonists whose lives, be- planet for the story to be feasible. environments are still working within the liefs, and morality evolved in ways unheard One problem in this sort of fiction is that solar system. They have to be more careful of on their home planet, Earth. such locales don't really work in stories less about scientific facts and plausibility, and While distant- star- planet stories allow than novel length. When we all believed in this in turn means lhat the stories are harder much more creative freedom, science fic- the dry of sands Mars and the steamy to write. Bui there's still room for adventure. tion is most powerful when it tells about swamps of Venus, a writer could evoke a Gregory Benford's Jupiter Project is a events that may come true within the read- setting with a few quick paragraphs and classic example. The novel takes place on er's lifetime instead of taking us away to then get on with the story. Today the writer and around one of Jupiter's moons. It's not lands of make-believe. This kind of science has to specify every detail of his chosen a very friendly habitat; so the characters fiction has superseded the old-style planet world,, from the edibility its of vegetation have to be protected from it by various stories, portraying the kind of tomorrow we to the color of its sky. It is not easy to con- cumbersome man-made environments. By want and alerting us to the unpleasant vey so much detail in anything less than a sticking meticulously within what is known worlds we may inherit instead. OO

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Total amount enclosed S I brows, which took several hours to apply each morning). "What people will do when they're freezing," Annaud hypothesized,

"they cannot do in a studio. I needed more

than talented actors. I needed talented ac-

tors in good physical condition. I told them

it would be horrendous. I told them they would spend a week waist-deep in the freezing water of Ontario's Georgian Bay. They said, 'lcandoit,'Tmahiker,"Giveme

a chance.' I told them, 'If it gets too painful,

don't come to me. I thought it would be more painful.' So they never came to me." They went instead, after two days in the marsh, to the producers, complaining, "We are dirty. We are filthy. We are doing hard work fourteen to seventeen hours a day, up to our necks in ice water, with nothing on but our furs." They were given wet suits. After three days in the marsh, they went to their union, crying, "We have chills and abrasions. Our skins are ravaged by old- age stipple, prosthetic glues, body paint,

and the alcohol used to remove it all." They got no response. On the fourth day in the marsh, the script "It's an unusual request, but yes called for Rouka, the tribal idiot (Gary you can delete the radio and install Jensen." Schwartz), to commit suicide. He dashed across the bog, seeking a hole deep enough for drowning. A dozen Ulams, Did you know a lot of new cars can be ordered without their factory installed shivering, shouted, "Die, die!" Rouka dived sound equipment and its cost is taken off the base TMJTkJCnWT for the bottom. Clutching reeds, he re- price? It's called a "delete" option. Investigate it. fj r,\\ 3Jjill mained submerged. *Annaud was dis- you'll exercise it. After hearing Jensen® want to car audio pleased; "You look like you're swimming." After three takes, he ordered a hole drilled When it's the sound that moves you. in the marsh floor. Two takes later, Rouka deceased, Schwartz very nearly so was

cage containing embers. It's smoking. The rushed to a hospital. Legs numb, the soles smoke disappears. Do they have io say of his feet turning blue, he was diagnosed RL/ "Oh, hell, the fire went out"? as hypothermic. As one, the Ulam de- So much of our image of prehistoric manded, and received, up to $250 a day in man feels safe and comfortable on a walk mankind, developed by just such deduc- stunt bonuses. through the woods, but Naoh always had to tive reasoning, is mired in aesthetic con- All of this to avoid lantaisie imbecile. be poised for flight from danger." ventions. Is this the customary portrait of "I don't want to say that I'm accurate."

Burgess, who had developed an argot simian savages? They are conventional. Annaud declared. "Though I tried my best, for his London toughs in A Clockwork Bare skeletons tell no such tales. With four that was not my purpose. My purpose was Orange, worked in a manner analogous to tribes to distinguish in the film— the Ulam, to show human feelings. My responsibility Morris's: by deductive rather than inductive the Ivaka, the fearsome Wagabu, and the was to make a picture that works." leaps. Ultimately he contributed about 150 cannibalistic Kzamm — you can imagine Does it? Except for some misgivings words to the Ulam vocabulary, but no the scale of deductive reasoning required. about the potential level of violence por- grammar. There were to be no noteworthy A heavy burden fell on costuming. trayed (he preferred to reserve judgment Ulam orators. Burgess selected Indo- John Hay, designer, on location: 'Animal until a screening of the final print), Morris European roots. For example, because the bones found with human skeletons of this was willing to allow that Quest for Fire rep- most important Ulam concept is fire, period indicate that the men were hunters; resents an adequate, even admirable, par- Burgess reckoned that its real name, like they got the best furs. Women got scraps." able of modern life. that of God among the Jews, would be The Ulam men are wearing bear and "In terms of basic social behavior," he forbidden, unspoken. He therefore named wolf. The Ulam women are wearing wallaby, said, "we've probably changed far less tire atra, from the French word a~tre cat, coyote, fox, and wild dog. The Nean- than most people imagine. A number of ("hearth"). Alramori (atra plus the root of derthal Wagabu are wearing hair suits with genetic suggestions — not genetic instruc- the English word moribund) would mean nylon body-suit bases; the hirsute Kzamm tions; that makes it too fixed— tend to keep "the fire dies": the most solemn proclama- are wearing bones for ornaments; the des- us at the same level of protecting our tion an Ulam could make. ert Ivaka are wearing paint and masks. young, loving our mates, defending our ter- "We know in that period," Annaud ex- Hay purposefully selected third-quality furs ritories, and caring for our group. plained, "that humans had small vocabu- from Hudson's Bay Company — stiffer, "Jean-Jacques is the first truly sensitive laries." Burgess's vocabulary is for ar- cheaper, and sparse of hair— then added director to have tackled the problem. If you ticulating exclamations but not for dia- dye, wax, soap, and rolled oats. Each Ulam put Raquel Welch in a fur bikini, you've got logue. He gave us ri-mar-giom ("come costume weighed 40 to 60 pounds — more the potential to make a bit of show biz, back") to shout, because "ugh, ugh, ugh" when wet (and they were often wet). razzmatazz hokum — and very entertain- sounds absolutely ridiculous. Neverthe- The suffering endured by the actors, ing, too, in its own silly way. But if you do less, in Ouest for Fire we understand from many of them mimes and athletes, contrib- what Jean-Jacques has set out to do, you situations, not from learning words. What uted to the realism (and this was not limited have the potential for making a really major could the Ulams possibly say? They have a to the wax dentures and latex prosthetic tilm contribution. "DO 164 OMNI agements donated elecmcity and man- SAVE BIG at power. cost for planning executing ULPTURE The and ELEK-TEK the three-hour event came to $10,000. After he had a list of participants, Pel- instruclions, volunteers chore- letier made blueprint grids of each build- jMMk SLIMLINE Shirtpocket Styled transmitted ^^^W Power Packed Programmable ographed the lights, moving them a bit east ing's windows. He pored over the blue- building managers and electrical ^MFlcd problem solvers or west at certain times. "I was conductor prints with as well as creator," Mooney recalls. engineers, locating paces; where constant warn Hewlett In July 1979 Mooney, along with 12 volun- light (machine and computer rooms) or the by Packard CALCULATORS I&J teers, arranged 2,400 automobile .head- complete absence of it (air shafts) was of critical importance. Then he designed HP-11C Scientific 100 lights, 2 miles ot aluminum rods, 30 miles of copper wire, and 2,500 yards of fishing line each building's specific light pattern on the HP-12C Financial. 115 to form Chicago Light Lines. This quar- grid and composed an individual visual HP-41C $189 tfMgt ter-mile-long light sculpture originated, he score for each. says, from "the stream of car It all started, Pelletier says, with the »-41CV 249 B headlights moving along Lake Shore Drive." moon. "The moon is a form. The sunlight 95 Optical Wand HF Mooney's first impulse was "to create that we see reflected from it creates a two- Card Reader 165 [Q light, not as illumination, but as form in dimensional pattern on its three-dimen- Printer 285 IHj space, and to give a sense of colors and sional form. Lights from within buildings at JdRAH.> -M" .:.... 75 EB fluidity." Auto headlights are one of his fa- night destroy the buildings' form. My inspi- vorite materials. "They are common to our ration was the light pattern of the moon." in. Module [tor hp=ici... 23 |JB -' urban and industrial heritage, yet once Since the success of Night/Light. Pel- HP41 APPLICATION PACS extracted from that, they become merely letier, with choreographer June Anderson, titles of 4KPacs 25.50 lamps, raw materials. So with them we can helped found Moondance, an outdoor titles of Pacs 38.00 BK create objects with new life." evening light, dance, and music perform- [Not including Petroleum Fluids Pac) In Chicago Light Lines, which cost ance by 15 light-bearing dancers. Moon- $200,000 to assemble, Mooney used verti- dance uses chemical light tubes and HP-97 S575 light wands held by the danc- HP-67 295 cal rows of car headlights standing six feet fluorescent HP-38C 115 high. Each row contained seven lights, ers, who wave them to the accompaniment HP-37E 59 each sealed behind a gel. The amber, blue, of music to form patterns punctuated by 115 HP-34C and white headlights were computer- flashing emergency strobes. The perform- HP-33C 09 brighten in slowly ance won Pelletier the 1981 Lumen Award, HP-33E 49 controlled to dim and HP-32f 43 changing patterns along the quarter-mile the electric-light industry's highest honor. length of the piece as spectators walked This December Pel etier takes his night vi- among the lights. sion a step further. Provided he raises the The Los Angeles piece, Siarsteps. $25,000 necessary to produce his next

sprang from that Chicago work. Though it nightscape, he will "play" the World Trade doesn't employ any actual automobile Center, in Manhattan. Using a variety of will parts in the piece itself, it does incorporate colored gels, he cover 7,000 windows the car as an instrument of the work: Most of the quarter-mile-high building, creating people see Starsteps from their cars on the a geometric slained-glass effect on the freeway just as they see the notorious face of the twin towers. The HP-85 Personal Computing System for Hollywood sign nearby. The stepped form Pelietier's ultimate dream is to arrange Professionals helps solve difficult engineer- of the 133-foot-long sculpture also reflects up to 20 World War II General Electric arc ircblems and simplifies financial analysis Mooney's interest in early Celtic and an- aerial surveillance searchlights on the HP-85 is a powerful BASIC languagE Some of summit of Mount Monadnock, near his puterwith keyboard, CRT display, printer cient architectural monuments. tapa drive complete in one compact unit these shapes, called maslabas, were used hometown. Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Then, without tht (HP-S3 is the same as above but in Chicago Light Lines as well. by varying the heights and lengths of each, Pelletier, thirty, has also been fascinated light, he will synchronize them all to create by the artistic potential of light in vacuums geometric shapes on the night sky and light in darkness. That and his vision of Mooney, likewise, is moving toward more the. urban postindustrial environment as conceptual light sculptures. Beginning al canvas were the two basic elements of Lake Michigan's Navy Pier, he hopes to £631 B PAINTER Night/Light. The density of light from build- Irace an axial light line around the earth, 5A PRINTER ings siluated close together along Wall and he's aiming to complete this global 7S25B PLOTTER Street and the reflections they made on the light wrap for the 1992 Chicago World's

.->; :- Ill I East River gave the scene as viewed from Fair. Using light from multiple sources, lisle" PLUS the Brooklyn shore a dreamlike quality Mooney will draw a continuous plane of APPLICATION PACS It took an entire year from the initial idea light perpendicular to the earth's surface. of Night/Light to the actual moment when Stationary searchlights will span landmass- Pelletier and his crew began to turn on the es; mobile searchlights mounted on mov- lights behind 3,691 windows. The work ing barges will illuminate water areas- began with a letter-writing campaign and seas and rivers; inaccessible places such hours of meetings. Finally Pelletier, who has as jungles will be lighted by lasers or worked with lights for eight years, secured searchlights from airplanes flying eight permission from the managements of 12 miles above the earth. "The viewers will buildings, including Chase Manhattan, have to conceive of the piece conceptu- American Express, Manufacturers. Han- ally," Mooney explains. "If you are in Burma, over Trust, and Citibank. He gained the you can see only what's there, not what's on sponsorship of Consolidaled Edison, the the other side of the world. This piece will International Centennial of Light, and the be similar to the imaginary tracing used to Public Light Fund. Several building man- show the path of a satellite. "DO accomplishments in a rapidly developing field, Jeong talks about 3-D television and QOGRAPHY movies as well. Invited to the Soviet Union Dnnrui in 1976, he viewed the latest advance against Turkey in 1877 and 1878. The pearl there, a holographic movie screen for a is now available handles sparkle with brilliance. Actually the 70mm 3-D film. "It was forty-five seconds to the blind and pistols are a hologram of their real counter- long, and the screen was made out of ellip- image to each physically parts, permanently ensconced in Ihe Mili- tical mirrors that directed the individual seat. It showed an actress walk- handicapped tary Museum, in Sofia, Bulgaria, a country that's been taking the lead in holography ing at you with a bouquet of (lowers cover- in on cassette tapes. for artistic purposes along with the Soviet ing her face. But if you moved around Union. Both countries are embarked on an your seat or stood up, you could actually All inquiries should be ambitious program of pulling all their na- took around the flowers and see her face. conventional movie made directly to tional art treasures onto holograms. As is not so with a could not focus on the screen ' RECORDED PERIODICALS, Jeong's own favorite hologram is one he screen, you did with a grani from the Veterans Adminis- at a fixed distance, because when she Division of Volunteer Services tration. Large in terms of most holo- would come nearer to you, you'd have to for the Blind, your eyes to the closer distance." grams— 18" x 24"— it depicts an actual focus 919 Walnut Street, human skeleton whose hands, are seen Television, he says, is another story. "Holography gives you too much informa- 8th Floor, holding Ihe hologram. Looking at it, your it comes to television. There own feeling is one of introspection, as if it is tion when Philadelphia, PA 19107. an X ray of your body, only so much more aren't many people interested in looking under John Chancellor's chin, for example. ONLY the blind lifelike. The hologram is on permanent ex- different hibition at Ihe- Chicago Museum of Holog- Besides, we'd need an entirely or handicapped should raphy, America's second such museum format and have to get away from the idea apply for of its sides. and its largest. This country's first is located of a box with a screen on one cylinder in the mid- this service. in New York City and was founded by Tracy You'd probably have a of Jeong's first workshop dle of a room instead. You have to change There is a Jackson, one thetnedium completely or not at all." nominal charge. students. "Making and understanding holograms The development of holography, of are two separate Ihings," he reilerales. 'An course, has not been uniformly smooth. promise too artist comes in and wants to make one and Early entrepreneurs tended to Bia!er:iorroic^n,-,i^-ip : ,.i!i,!si«mentandcircula- much, take too much money, and do very il later. I to known as a m(ActofAugusi 12 i;<7i;. -;er.lion 36S5. Title 39. understand want be to name "1 little. Holography started get a bad '-• -illed States Code:. 1 '. I of Implication- OMNI teacher, not as an innovator. So my major Filing: Oclober 5, 1981 3. Frequency ol threatened with the dismal fate of 2. Date of interesl is in simplifying the procedure. Ac- and was ' nonthly 4. Location of known kept holog- tually some of the best holograms are the quadraphonic stereo. What n: 90S Third Avenue, New York. simplest, and upgrading the equipment raphy alive, according to Jeong, was its applications. Important in meas- ' the publishers: 909 Third Av doesn't necessarily mean you'll make bet- practical Names, addresse reveal, for in- Y 10022. 6. ter ones." urement, holography can of publisher, editor, unci managing edilor: Put holograms stance, how much teeth move when they " Laser light is used lo make t arid tdto-. R C. Gut-clone. 909 Third Av when a because, unlike ordinary light, it is cohe- bite or the movement created :, New York, N.Y. 10022 Managing Editor. Pat 7 crankcase vibrates. . 909 Third Avenue. New York. NY 10022. rent, that is, all the light coming out of the and tide tosses of stockholders are coming to the Owner: The names laser is of the same wavelength and the Now the artistic uses ownino. 0' holding oi'o oer,-ent oi 'nor-.: of lo:al lightwaves are lined up in step with each fore, and Jeong claims there are more arr.our'-.i ol stock OMNI Publict no Inle-nalioria crest to crest. Ordi- people in his workshops interested in the Limited, 909 Third Avenue, New York. N.Y. 10022. other, trough to trough, technical. "It took H C Guccione 909 Third Avenue, New Yor nary light, as from a light bulb, is a mish- artistic end than in the (or 01" Iho Guccro,"0 photography to 10022. A Trust the Bene'ii H C. mash of different wavelengths and is totally one hundred fifty years for Family. Georgetown Grand Osyman. B. Known disorganized. evolve to its present state, and holography Ftondho^de-s. Mortgagees, and other security hologram, you aim the is following the same sequence of evenfs. It lolot'-s jiviinii oi holding ono pcrr.enl ei ire re of So, in making a F.nioiirr: n-.u'tnage:-.. or ollioi swjr- called a takes patience. First we got an image, now of rs.1 of bonds laser beam into a special mirror, lies NONE Average number of copies of each is full color." beamsplitter, which lurns it inio two smaller we have motion. The next step :-.riuoiiuri!'d pre^edifg '2 nootlis A Torn. nun S.:or bui identical beams. One beam, called the The inierest in holography is worldwide. roooros ponied. 1.200. 'SB B. Paid Circulation: a In September Jeong traveled to Peking (his iiS;,os Ih-ough sealers ;jnd oarr e-s. street von- reference beam, travels unimpeded to holography work- lors and courier sa:cs. 55?. 155 M;:i;i <;L.bs;.no- photographic plate, The other, Ihe object native city) to set up a lotal pain crcr.i a:\ow. 7IB.9-.U D ons.21" ?E>5G b.eam, is aimed at the object to be holo- shop at the request of the Chinese so they ilribution by mail, carrier or other means, gramized — say, a Darth Vader doll— then can train their own people. I! Sr mples on to the same photographic plate. The Of course, holography continues to be hologram reference beam arrives at the plate wiih all misunderstood, too. The second did, of Chinese ivory horse, its waves still in step. The object beams, Jeong ever a for his however, will have been distributed by was purchased by Hugh Hefner f single i with large collection. An unknowing cleaning 1 Darth Vader. When the beams collide i o F i 1 o date. A. Total numb- it dusty, sprayed 1.173,369. B. Paid circulatio each other at the plate, an interference pat- woman thought looked ihrouoli dealers and carders, sireoi naked holographic tern is formed. some ammonia on the 549,434. Mail su out. It won't be "If creating a hologram seems difficult," plate, and wiped the image 209,018. C. Total paid circulation. 758. Jeong suggests, "can you imagine how long, though, Jeong insists, before that children will bringing imples, Com pi iimo mar/ aid other mysterious photography must have sound- cleaning woman's be Copies distributed to news her an earlier 6.900 CM ed to people who never heard of a lens holograms home to show as d. 404,052. E.Tolaldisu bulio- scrawlings with before? But children in school today know generation brought home use, left-over, unaccounted. 5 a laser and holography are. It's like crayons. printing, 3,955. G. Total, 1.173-.369. : what lebyw playing wiih levers and pulleys when we (Jeong offers a free instruction sheet on : Robert were growing Up." do-it-yourself holograms. Write him at Lake Not one to be satisfied with his present Forest College, Lake Forest, IL 60045.JDQ ,

The ten best games of the year

B'y Scot Morris

getting In just four years, games have gone from opponent that flips all the pieces for you ones are yours. That takes some

I thought it played a Simon to Milton to Space Invaders to on a liquid crystal display (LCD). Other used to. Otherwise,

I love the automatic Rubik's Cube. In 1981, a year that marked companies have reversi computers (they very good game, and a retreat from the all-electronic gameshelf, can't call them Othello, for copyright doubling cube." product was easily the ingenious reasons) and may even have slightly the top 3. PACMAN2(Entex:S60) puzzle designed by Hungarian architect stronger programs. But since we have yet Erno Rubik. This year his cube was to beat this Gabriel machine at skill level 3 The latest craze at those family silly or rightfully enshrined in the Museum of (there are eight levels), we have a way to amusement centers is a "gobble be Modern Art, in New York City, while just go before worrying about which machine * outside, Taiwanese knockoffs of the cube beats which. were being hawked on Manhattan street Just to be sure, we checked with the corners. In our September 1980 article on world's top-ranked player, Jonathan Cerf the cube—the first mass-media treatment son of the late Bennett Cerf, the first to take this toy seriously— we concluded non-Japanese champion since by saying, "We await the first divorce suit tournaments began in 1977. "I think the in which Rubik is named as corespond- Gabriel game is best for most people," he ent." In March of this year Helga Martens, said. "It's portable, with no bagful of twenty-one, of Bottrot, Germany, filed pieces, and it's sufficiently challenging to for divorce from her husband, Carl. give a good game to almost any player."

I lost The grounds: Since she gave him a Has it ever beaten him? "Yes. have Rubik's Cube for Christmas, he has been to all three machines— the Gabriel, the

paying more attention to it than to her. Fidelity, and the Great Game Machine-

In keeping with the electronic slowdown but only occasionally. I still think humans of 1981, our list of Ten Best this year are better players." includes only four action electronic games 2. COMPUTER BACKGAMMON of the Simon and Space Invaders genre. (Mattel: $90) Other electronic items are either novelties or hand-held versions of classic board Here's excellent solitaire backgammon for games. Three winners are completely times when you can't find someone to play nonelectric. with or when you want to learn strategy at The ten games below are listed not by your own pace. Set any of six skill levels; order of preference but by price, from use the computer's electronic dice to most expensive to least. Prices are provide random rolls, or enter your own approximate and tend to be on the high dice rolls. A built-in doubling cube adds side. Shop around for discounts. realistic challenge: When you think you're ahead, offer to double the stakes; either 1. COMPUTER OTHELLO (Gabriel: $120) the machine accepts your offer, or you win Once upon a time there was a game immediately. called reversi: played on an eight-by-eight Stronger backgammon programs can of board, it had 64 reversible pieces, black be had, but not with the convenience on one side and white on the other. When, this hand-held, computer-controlled for example, black outflanked white on display. How good is the game? We any line— vertical, horizontal, or diag- decided to ask Lee Genud, thirty-seven- onal—the surrounded white pieces were year-old mother of two from Long Island, flipped over to black. With one move the New York, who last July in Monte Carlo board could alter drastically. beat all comers to become the first woman Recently Gabriel Toys reintroduced ever to win the World's Backgammon reversi under the name Othello and Championship. "I was very pleased with Above, trom top: In a photo Ideal Toys said Gabriel's the Matte! program," she told us. "It was brought it renewed attention. couldn't be taken, Sky-Writer writes, and moves only slogan, 'A minute to learn — a lifetime to fast and made very few errors. The on. Sky-Writer hovers over two Rubik's Snakes. all pips master," accurately sums up the game's thing I didn't like is that the LCD Air Traflic Control and PacMan, two of the year's simplicity and unexpected depth. look alike, and you have to check the best electronic action games, are unique in Now there's a portable-computer arrows below each point to know which both their concept and their appeal. 170 OMNI "

gobbled" game called PacMan. What's PacMan is the most successful arcade an exciting new aspect to the game." the appeal of crescent-shaped heads game this year, eclipsing even Asteroids Enter the winding labyrinth alone or race racing around a maze, chomping and the venerable Space Invaders in the against another adventurous warrior. Find white dots, fleeing deadly "ghosts," quest for quarters. the room containing the treasure and get it gobbling "power energizer" dots that PacMan is the first arcade game to back to your own secret chamber without temporarily make the ghosts quiver with attract large numbers of female players, being attacked by the fire-breathing vulnerability, all for a few extra points? We too, perhaps because of its lack of dragon or waylaid by the other warrior. As don't know, but the fact remains that violence and laser-zap weaponry. you make your way down twisting tunnels,

Now there are hand-held versions of sound effects tell you whether you've PacMan, and we judge Entex's the best. bumped into a wall, stumbled onto the You can play against the machine, after treasure, or awakened the dragon. Place deciding the number of ghosts you want to markers to indicate walls, or negotiate the take on, or against someone else who passages from memory The computer controls the attacking ghost. This two- creates a new labyrinth each game so that player capability is one feature even the the passageways are never the same. arcade game doesn't offer; another is a 6. SKY-WRITER (Ideal: $30) mute switch that silences the incessant beep-beep-beep. Most important, this This is one ot the strangest devices we've

game does away with that annoying sound seen. It's not really a game, not even a

of quarters hitting other quarters. great toy We can't recommend it for repeat-

play value: Once you've tried it a few 4. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (Bandai: $50) times, you'll probably leave it on the shelf.

This is a one-of-a-kind electronic game; What's it good for? It's good for showing

there's nothing else like it on the market. to people who have never seen it before.

.We found it to be the most difficult of If your friends are like ours, the reactions this year's games— and also the will be unanimous: "Incredible! I don't

most nerve-racking. believe it! How does it work?" The radar screen shows a six-mile There are seven red lights on the front radius around the airport. You've got one and a keyboard on the back on which you plane heading east on the runway at 60 can enter your name or any message of up mph and accelerating 8 mph per to 40 characters. Wave the wand back and second— still not fast enough for liftoff. forth, and there in the sky is your name in Another is approaching from the east, lights. With every sweep of the wand you

three miles out, at 280 mph and 1 ,000 feet, see not only whole letters but whole words, while decelerating 4 mpn and dropping 20 as in the photo at top left.

feet in altitude every second, What do you If you come up with a use for this item, do now? You can adjust altitudes and air let us know We're thinking of keeping one speeds, but which plane should you in the car, for sending nasty messages to control first? Hurryl tailgaters. Plan on crashing a lot of planes before 7. KABOOM! (Activision: $22.95) you get the hang ot it, but then prepare for

a very exciting game. After 15 minutes you It wasn't easy picking one TV-game may be ready to go on strike. cartridge for this list. While Atari put out

5. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS COMPUTER LABYRINTH GAME (Mattel: S45:

Gary Gygax has licensed this first finally had to give the nod to Activision for From top: The vicious tamtfix, an unnatural electronic version of his popular fantasy selection IrornOuirks. Board games come to such creative games as Skiing. Tennis, game, the small screen in Computer Backgammon Dungeons and Dragons. Freeway, and Kaboom! and Othello. TV game Kaboom!, shown with Imaginative role-playing is deemphasized Activision makes only software for the electric Dungeons and Dragons and here, but, Gygax says, "the introduction of Atari game system. Most Activision nonelectronic Roaring 20s board games. the computer as the Dragon Master adds personnel are ex-Atari programmers who

J PAGE 176 171 MARTIAN LASER

ByJeffHecht

because it would be absorbed by mole- a trillion-watt laser sitting in you need a pair of mirrors, one on each There's cules closer to the surface. the sky, but don't panic. The side of the laser medium. To do that on huge Charles Townes, who shared the Nobel USSR didn't put it there. Neither, Mars, Mumma suggests mounting Prize in physics in 1964 for the theoretical for that matter, did the United States. mirrors on two satellites aligned so that behind the laser, has speculated that Man-made lasers cannot yet produce part of the sunlit atmosphere always lies work earlier discovery of cosmic masers might more than a lew million watts and only for a between them. He hasn't calculated how ground-based physicists matier of seconds, and nobody on Earth much power would be produced. The plan have helped develop the laser. It might seem that has yet placed such a laser in orbit. requires some formidable engineering, discovery of a natural laser would have The laser is high in the Martian and Mumma admits it's "not likely in the atmosphere, where nature produces foreseeable future." been even more effective. In reality scientists who found the conditions similar to those inside a Natural masers (the microwave analogs however, the interstellar Martian laser relied on the fact that it emits man-made laser. It may have been of lasers) are abundant in narrow range of wavelengths. operating continuously for millions of clouds, but Mumma says that the Martian only a very source is first laser for which there is To detect it, in turn, requires a light years, but it wasn't discovered until 20 emission the that emits a narrow range of wavelengths— years after Theodore H. Maiman built the definite evidence. He also suspects that man-made carbon dioxide laser, in first laser. Discovery of the Martian laser ammonia molecules near the poles of a

it takes a laser to find a laser. has earned recognition for NASA astron- Jupiter may produce laser light, but that short, The Martian laser turns out to be omer Michael J. Mumma; it's also earned emission is sporadic, and he has been surprisingly efficient. About 0.003 percent him an invitation to testify in one of the unable to explain convincingly the of sun's energy that reaches Mars is most complex patent cases in history. underlying physics. Other planetary the laser light, not bad for a fluke That's not the ordinary result of atmospheres may also produce re-emitted as encouraging news for astronomical research, but then the Mar- stimulated emission; even Earth's of nature. That's NASA group trying to develop tian laser isn't exactly ordinary. For one atmosphere may do so. However, the another pressures, which solar-powered lasers for spacecraft thing, the light it produces isn't channeled process requires low propulsion and power transmission. J. H. into a beam like the light from a man-made occur only high in the atmosphere, and Lee, of Vanderbilt University, and W R. laser. To extract energy in a beam from any Mumma says that we would never see of NASA's Langley Research laser, including the Martian atmosphere, laser light from our own atmosphere Weaver, Center, now hope to better the 0.1 percent efficiency of their first solar-pumped laser. Discovery of the Martian laser was also good news for people fighting a patent on light-powered lasers issued in 1977 to Gordon Gould. A natural phenomenon is generally considered unpatentable. Thus, the Control Laser Corporation, of Orlando, Florida, accused of infringing Gould's patent, has asked Mumma to testify when

its case goes to trial. Meanwhile Gould's lawyers contend that the "natural phenomenon" criterion applies only to chemicals known and used in the United States before the patent application. Like everything else in this tangled affair, the issue is complex. Gould's original patent application was filed in

1959, but it ran into a lengthy series of legal obstacles involving patents filed by

Townes and others. It was not until 1973 that the Martian laser was detected on Earth — by Townes, of all people— and it was 1980 when Mumma's group identi- fied the emission as being laser light. patent had been granted. OO 'io:r: Ucr-\c>~. man! Da a source o! 'jwi-jainnnis kieciricai power By then the PHEruanriEruM

lightning to spot possible forest fires. He ! ~'ty ot capturing

lightning strikes over a period of tirr

Deeks lakes the cap oil when \~

i Nikon F-2 to photograph J --'irome25film.Oa

PI :

depth of the cube, but don't be surprised, yourself playing with this either, if you find FORurin EMfUlES one more offen. }NTINUEDFROMPAGFt< COMIINL^C -:OVl PACF I? MENTIONS HONORABLE Asimov or Vomisa? know the machines well. looked at many If Isaac Asimov's "collapsible universe" Kaboom! is a sleeper. The game itself is In preparing this review we final list. theory, described Tfi "The Very Large Lion simplistic, with no variations. The graphic more games than could make the of favorite also-rans. and the Very' Small Mouse" [August 1981], display is rather plain— a mad bomber at Here are some our could ever be borne out, would not life, as the top of the screen and three water buck- 1. THE GREAT GAME MACHINE module with which a we know it, also run backward? ets at the bottom that you move left and (Applied Concepts). A used. To conceive of the universe expanding right. But when the bombs start dropping variety of game cartridges can be contracting any number of times is and we're madly sloshing buckets back The module, with Morphy chess, is $295; and cost $100 easy enough, but io conceptualize the ef- and forth, miraculously catching more than additional cartridges about of this on our lives is notso easy. Picture We ever thought possible, we're hooked. apiece. Available now: reversi (Othello), fect this-: mother would have to "unborn" her When we have to catch them at 13 per blackjack, checkers, Kriegspiel. In the A does Mr. Asimov think? second, we can even ignore the absurdity near future: backgammon. Scrabble, child. What chess Elizabeth Behler that gravity seems to be speeding up as Monopoly. A unique feature is three (Gruenfeld), mid- Chagrin Falls, Ohio the game goes on. programs, for openings dle games (Morphy), and end games 8. QUIRKS (Eon: $12) (Capablanca). Individually these car- Isaac Asimov replies: / don'! think we ought tridges have memories of 12K, 8K, and 16K, to take the "running backward" of the uni- Quirks is your chance to play God— or and verse quite as literally as Ms, Behler sug- Darwin. Create thousands ot weird-looking respectively. Play them in sequence program, the most gests. !f. in a contracting universe, entropy plants and animals, "quirks" of nature. you've got a 36K chess powerful on the market, able to solve all spontaneously decreases, then lite might Make them fit to survive in the changing problems. For informa- si/// live "forward" as far as consciousness climates of ocean, jungle, forest, plain, and mate-in-eleven (!) Concepts, 207 North is concerned, but with different kinds of desert, and adapt them well enough to tion write to: Applied as tar as the outer world is withstand challenges from other Quirks. Kirby Street, Garland, TX 75042. experiences Even concerned. Since we have never lived in a An original and very clever idea from 2. LIGHT FIGHT (Milton Bradley). is universe, we can't be sure of those original and clever people who the manufacturer admits that this game contracting created Cosmic Encounter, For intormation two years behind its time. The technology the consequences. Still, this write to: Eon, 96 Stockton Street, Dorches- here is not exactly sophisticated. to reaction time, eye-hand Balanced Mind ter. MA 02124. is a challenge coordination, and visual memory. It's fun Now psychiatrists are under fire for misdi- 9. ROARING '20s (Yaquinto: $10) and'deserves more success than it proba- agnosis [Mind, September 1981]. profession or science has reached Here's a board game that lets you be a bly will get. No Space launches abort, lawyers mobster on one turn and a police commis- 3. AMERICAN EAGLE SAILPLANE. perfection. disbarred, are missel, and some sioner on the next. As a crook, you pull a Here's a rubber-band-launched, radio- are bones for pill s _with enormous research behind big job somewhere in the city, then high-tail controlled glider, especially designed always free of flaws. your getaway car down narrow streets to first-timers. The styrofoam plane can with- them — are not Psychiatrists. are. the only persons your hideout. As PC, you control ten police stand occasional crashes. For safekeep- deal with the mind and, as doc- cars and set up roadblocks to prevent the ing, we left ours in a tree in Hancock, New trained to too. It's disappointing gangsters from reaching their hideouts. Of Hampshire. From Cox Hobbies (about tors, with the body, didn't also mention some of the course, for a percentage of the take, you $90). that Omni psychiatry that might be persuaded to have engine trou- 4. STAR FLIGHT ELECTRONIC DISK. For spectacular successes of every day. ble. Dealing, bargaining, and treachery are nighttime frisbee flying. Uses three re- occur Robert G. Bruce allowed! chargeable nickel-cadmium batteries (in- Acting Director We found this to be easily learnable and cluded), which light three LEDs near the Mental Health, Inc. enjoyed by people who aren't game nuts. center; fiber optics carry light to nine spots Los Angeles, Calif. DO Most games we checked had long, in- on the rim. A little heavier than most disks, if volved rule books and required some war- is still a lot better than those luminescent gaming experience. Exceptions that are fliers that lose their glow after a minute or CREDITS 131, for the full worth checking out include Amoeba Wars two. (See Antimatter, page s; page and Circus Maximus (Avalon Hill), story on this gadget.) From Heatherland, . page .. Emerson Street, Rochester, NY pas Apocalypse (Games Workshop), Spies Inc., 770 a page (SPI), and A House Divided (Game De- 19613. Sam Hsiel- page 38, Tuny H Hong signers Workshop). 5. ODDS-ON BASEBALL AND FOOT- 32, BALL (Low Voltage Games). If you like 10. THE MAGIC SNAKE watching baseball or football on TV, here's (Hirsch Company: S10) hils/BI -1. ',:.- ingenious idea to increase your enjoy- an 47 Bottom, C-;:.js Vlevcr.-B ,i;:k 5; :p B ge4Btpp.© felt (imprinted eafibo Can Professor Ernd Rubik do it again? Will ment. It's simply a piece of .;• -9B with football on one side, baseball on the his new creation, the Magic Snake, surpass f-P :',: poker chips, a sheet of Ben the phenomenal success of 198Vs Wonder other), a bag of and ..ia- , B ;-r-K S:a-: page50 bottom, -";- Toy, Rubik's Cube? rules. When a player comes to bat, place FpII ..,. pag^ Si _S9. ol')-.r.(]-.-!L:i- Ol !-'i!-- Probably not. Don't expect this to be as your bet whether he will strike out (pays -it ;,',:. ;*. page 132 be challenging or as frustrating as the cube. 4-1), fly out (3-2), walk (6-1), orhrt a home 132 top.

If prediction comes true, It's more of a fiddling toy; something for the run (9-1). your n paga '' 'mi. otherwise lose your ottom 0- j|--r ;' 1 nMf: coffee table. It is made up of 24 half-cubes collect from the bank; square surfaces into long chips and place your nexi bet. There are joined at their a 171. *«.: (tors page 172. Ur -.: psge

opportunities for football. ;.;.»;.! dui*-.;. panel ! chain or snake. It comes packaged as a similar betting \n Ui< vioi : , write to: Voltage . =m 8 ball, but it can be twisted into a Scottie dog, For information Low 193 .-;.: psgais. ij!nPar.:loe:pag g Finch; a swan, a frog, a whole variety of shapes as Games, PO. Box 136, Postal Station "T," yet unnamed. Don't expect the intellectual Toronto, Ontario, M6B3Z9, Canada. DO 176 OMNI '

we come before you ioda- as a as "of chiidbearing age" at fourteen. With

1 " from per- spokesparse- tor the Pioi. 3. Plurality, a .some reservations, stemming group pledged to bring an endt the sonal experience in the sixth grade, we decision sens ntles trillions. will accept the Census Bureau's Another group callingit Mora.! The mandatory defloration of ail females a must be prescribed by law Majority (a name to wnich a cm, edly, it- age fourteen has precisely as much rich: as v e to ours) (Rightihere. weaenvi we run up ra^ been campaigning to theb snning of against a small cor million females abortions The Creator, the Mora Majonty the Untied States had 87 over -fourteen and only SO million males assures us, orcainec that nan sou i, over thai age. We are not yet certain which- it refuses to define, :ome permit existence at the moment c 'cone eption; Whether" it would be better (o providing a therefore, aoorlion =n any imes polygamy— the Mormons precedent— or better to-admit that mu'oer. We will not quest ic nthe gvidence good is perfect an d simply let sin offered in support of this c no theocracy

' continue \c :aKe care of i:.;. rasn-.ucn a:: none is offer utwe All females musi oe requ-rec by law Pefe/eii isnoi agile Go.:; j enough. Our own personaldivm 'eve ation was eiihe-r io marry c lo become state- imparted Sous wnile we w hedita- Supported rno;iiers within 28 cays c> offer ^on. trying ;dly to undent mana-rche. The failure to accept an K of purpose ;n:o^c shock ay e. What sperm from any human male less than consa .gummy sna:: be a could Hebe :ryino to le!l l a answer second-degree

: sudcienlysiT;Oteusiikea hurdc class A —scion-ea- io- un ess it be provec curing tne female's mos What's so-special abou fertil: ation? to have occur 'ed ferule pe-iod when una bea^cny :f. Why should that bethe !| 0.0c for- the

1 precautions, mens^ua-; -m.w creation of a-so.ul? Is a. flo er re a tjower despite svi ar -i0 Par ;heu:-;iao. LAJDRO uriLii ti-.o oee arrives"" Is a a

: By Spider Robinson

: "all the souls at once and ..placed them latent "in the belly of Eve, set like so many trillions of timer ovens 3

cumstances.By. ->se vaiia-nf servai oduced 1.32873

people oar square miie t( level.ap'proximating.thai.

Japan and roughly hat ir