Omni Magazine (October 1988)
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SPECIAL TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE HUMAN CLONING: THE MIRACLE THAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN Y > NINE GREAT nJjHmTTTvli HAVE STUMPED 'M \h\f\ ROBOTS THAT i THINK LIKE INSECTS-ANDHOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN HOW SCIENTISTS CREATE NEW LIFE FORMS onnrui VOL. 11 NO. 1 OCTOBER 1988 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON ED TOR PA-RICF ADCROFT GRAPHICS D'-::C"Q^ FRANK DEVINO EDITOR AT LARGE: DICK TERESI MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE FOX ART D : RFC "OR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM CONTENTS PAGE FIRST WORD Omn/ Then and Now Bob Guccione 8 and Kathy Keelon OMNIBUS Data Bank 12 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 16 FORUM Psych o Experiment Results Sherry Baker 20 STARS Wor c's Biggest Telescope Ron Schulte 24 EXPLORATIONS Fossil Wars Douglas Preston 26 BODY "asx^' Syndrome Nancy Rons a 28 SPACE The Intelligent Starship Bill Lawren 30 MIND Heart Sickness Paul Bagne 34 EARTH juiicIu ^lia'rnacy Sy Montgomery 42 ARTS Video Diversions Kevin McKinney 46 RE-CREATING LIFE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MIT'S Insect Laboratory Fred Hapgood 38 CONTINUUM The Problem Wkh Sex. ere. 49 DOUBLE TAKES The Making of a Clone Carol Kahn 58 A STAR IS REBORN GelBhrrv Makeovers Ellen Kunes 66 NATURE'S SINGLE PARENTS Plcioritsl. Reproductive Modes Nina Guccione and oe Fodor 72 CHILD OF A LESSER GOD Artificial Liie Forms Ed Regis and Tom Dworetzky 92 THE LAST FREAK SHOW Gsne-ics Progress" Christopher Lasch 116 201 OMM'S PHOTOVORE Make '•'bur Own Robot Jonathan Connell HANN'BALS ELEPHANTS Fiction Robert Silverberg 82 SIX FLIGHTS OF FANTASY Fiction: A Collection T Coraghessan Boy 98 ?-!:. iv Short Jrban Tales Carol Oates, Barry N l.''i Z' Howard Waldrop, K At Jeier, and Daniel Pinkwate LEE COUNTY'S Dennis Stacy and 106 LIZARD MAN the Backyard Baftier Contest Kevin McKinney INTERVIEW M. Scott Peck Diane Connors 124 GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE Cd'locn Pictorial Frank Coiham 133 IN A WORLD LIKE THIS Fiction Nancy Kress 140 ANTIMATTER Motivating UFO Research, etc 153 STAR TECH Photography tor the Year 2000 226 GAMES The Walkalong Wing Scot Morris :_: LAST WORD Humor: Sily Superconduction Terry Runte ::: slianal Ltd., OMNI [ISSN 0149-6711} is XlrT'Vll'y.-ii'ie ./iiLil ^^"\w: 1965BrcaO*3y Rendered in a renaissance | CB8. POSTMASTER: Seno mood, this month's 1. Copyright© 19BB Q cover is by Los Angeles PiinlMiior': artist Jean Francois Podevin, whose son William :;"r;s r.i-v: posed tor the piece. <::. pi^i:as or p^'TH. Called The New Generation, :r. .:>;;r. Si'iue ;op* US., AFO, anO Canada. T it was originally an ad for computer hardware. 4 OMNI " . — .:' .' clus've, to its innumerable but interre- ii • . i'. it r NTs.f rsi FIRST . ique, WORD," a declaration of hope and inter; master file in ..vhioh each book is ,:,.'>• i that pioneered a new era in science i,. ;.„. .- ''I., ' journalism;. Other publishers, notably related to the whole. And one day (or so Time, Hearst, and even The New York my natural optimism te-s me) thai key Times, among ihem, encouraged by the will be found. It already exists, in part, In young magazine's unique character every scientific and philosophical probe founded the cfutcri of ever undertaken, it exists in every work and appeat : competitors "hat kept us so high on our of art, in every note of music, In the ikgh' -'.. 0' -.toes. But GMNi was special and today, . a frightened bird, or in the odor of with more than 5 million readers per loveWT-, month, its foreign editions in place or in -the science of the making, its books and newsletters, subjective vision. ! was determined to medicai editions and audiotapes, televi- reconstruct the world around me . sion series and specials, OMNl has to divine new disciplines . new become Ihe b : ggest selling and most relationships. My interest in the natural widely read science : magazine in the world, therefore, was singularly without world. A fitting tribute to the mar; whose limitation Un-nl mosi found art and vision foretold the future and whose science to be compatible. We appea' to original manifesto we proudly reprint pursue the same goals —the absolute our special sense of here. Kathy Keeton knowledge ol own reality; the objective reality of the scientist reality the artist. ft was. OMNI that I summoned up from' and the subjective of the host-cool morning el' my youth. OMNI. men. is my compromise FIRST OMNI-, born in the breathless dreams of of interest thai long-ago child . St was much and inquiry. Like many of She more in industry, sma-er then . a toy . the Size of a progressive ideas our OMN: LfUDRD matchbox ... a fiat, thumb-polished, evolved slowly, if not uneventfully, over a silvs'y case bursting with exotic wires created i By Bob Guccione and and tubes. When held i: to my a few magazines in my time concep- * forehead, I codd see the future: ispect of Kathy. Kee.ton . ... ; Time may have transformed my OMNI, each of them myself, but OMNI was pure - but ils properties remain she same. differenl. it was a creation of joy QThereisa of r Us magic has become the alchemy as if I were fulfilling ine other half universal architecture :i n .,:,-.,:':,'., that boyhood dream. .!''. .'! publican-. technology. The idea of a science-related . of infinite : OMNI will continue to "sec' the future tipn was not in Itself new: science fiction elegance and logic from ... a future of growing Inteiiectuaf vitality, was still, a guestionable art form struggling of expanding dreams and infinite hope. for status and recognition, and such all things which 'The human mind," Albert Einstein matters as LlFOs, ESR and parapsycholo- animate and inanimate ones said, "is not capable of grasping gy received copious •: not sensational- : tine umversc. We ate like a little child, ' he ized coverage elsewhere in the media. seem to deriveS continued "entering a huge library. Each of these ostensibly incompatible The wans ate covered to the ceiling with .elements, however, had something crucial books in many different tongues. The in common. Each representee (anO child knows that someone must have contributed to) an ever-changing, written these books. It does not know sometimes indistinct, but always compel- who or how. it does not understand the ling :ffontier,of intellectual and philosophi- languages In which they are written. cal inquiry. This then, Is the editorial Bu premise of OMN' -an original if not arrangement of "he books — a mysterious controversial mixture of science fact, order which it does not comprehend, e paranormal: but only dimly suspects." The "unknown" had become the subject Like Einstein's hapless child of human of intense public interest. Institutional ity, i too am acutely aware of my failure religion with its implacable dogma :, .-,..... .... .... increasingly tailed So satisly our spiritual ir-ent of these works. Their languages needs. Latter-day successes in science eveda me. and ' nave title understanding andtechni ony 1 ,i una our of Iheir internal order. But I am fascinated awareness of the unknown tasier than the to behold them if only to speculate, on church could rationalise. We rose from their content, knowing ihat, collectively, an intractable position of simple, unques- they explain the mysterious forces that tioning faith to one of acute, cultural -shape our destiny. concern for null", and knowledge. There is a universal architecture of i designed OMNI in the shadow of Ins btlnlte elegance end logic from which ail gathering stt things animate and inanimate seem io trag eand' ' derive. There is continuity ;o the interflow religion, between knowledge and faith.. O' hme and space ... a harmony of discipline- without intellect and invention between mind and taking another in its place. The frontiers are matter , . the world perceived anc the of human knowledge and experience world perse. forever changing, forever expanding, i All my life I have been fascinated with and at the very dawn • ho sublime structure o! funster's library of time, must make our common peace m , -o\ with chanae if we are to survive tne next mv 5 r 100Gyears.OO — — NTRIBUTORS annruii OMi'li ^HOTOVORE only I had a double, or if only I had based form like clay (among other This month you don't have to flip to Iffour hands." Such murmurings, as inanimate substances) and endowing it the end of the magazine for the games well as much wailing and gnashing of with the ability to live, think, and repro- to start. The House ot Seagram's teeth, were heard through the Omni duce. Contributor Ed Regis and associ- brings you eight brainteasers excerpted halls this month. Putting together our ate editor Tom Dworetzky report on from Omni's two books ot games. biggest issue ever to celebrate our tenth the progress and problems of this intri- Pull it out and keep it, because once anniversary has surely tested our guing endeavor in "Child of a Lesser you've figured out the answers, you'll devotion, ability, and sanity. We passed! God" (page 92). (Maybe science will wan: the booklet handy for the eight But how much easier it would have create a pei that doesn't need feeding drink recipes. been if we'd each had a clone. or walking.) And if you enjoy intellectual challenges, This is not the wisfrful thinking of 20 A robotic "roach," on the other hand, you'll love reading "Lee County's Lizard years ago. Cloning a human is becoming has been developed ai the Artificial Men arc Other Unsolved Mysteries" increasingly realistic. The ground- Intelligence Lab at MIT. Can a puppy be (page 106). Dennis Stacy and associate breaking work with frog cloning was far behind? Designed with a brain like editor Kevin McKinney compiled nine impressive but not as exciting as this an insect's, this robot, called the Omni special mysteries, ranging from the year's cloning of cows and sheep.