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. photovore, is capable of several types of disappearance of Atlantis to the Mammals are certainly a quantum step behavior. Senior editor Pameia reappearance of the Lizard Man closer to. human beings. Weintraub coordinated this project—the South Carolina's version of Bigfoot. The Carol Kahn has coauthored, with Paul first of its kind—with the roach's creator, tenth unexplained phenomenon could Segall, the soon-to-be-reieased book Jonathan Connell, and technical illustrator be one that you supply.
Living Longer: Growing Younger. Kahn, Jana Brenning. The best part is that Fiction edi'or Eiien Dauow, who's in her Omni feature "Double Takes" the instructions to build your own photo- responsible for a number of Omni's (page 58), tracks down and summarizes vore begin on' page 201. The most awards, commissioned some exclusive the research on human cloning. The sophisticated consumer robot available, fiction for our anniversary issue. In
story of mirrorlike biological replication it can be assembled for about $75. "Six Flights of Fantasy" (page 98) six is intricate, the ethical and political The imagination can spawn an endless famous authors, including Joyce Carol
aspects are complicated, yet somehow variety of new life forms. Contributing Oates, tested their powers of tmagi nation. Kahn managed to weave these compo- editor Ellen Kunes asked a number In a longer piece of fiction, "In a World nents into a clear, concise, and of celebrities how they would redesign Like This" by Nancy Kress (page 140), we thoroughly engrossing article. themselves. In .'A Star Is Reborn" (page see how easily our sense of reality can Another group of scientists is intro- 66) you can read what Tony Curtis, be threatened. ducing a whole new generation of Malcolm Forbes, and John Cleese, After ten years we're finally "perfect"
artificial life forms. These innovators among others, would change about bound, that is. From now on, no more
hope to combine the impulses of living themselves if given the chance, staples. And if we look as good as organisms with the tools of computation Some of the 'Omni staff felt that a tan we read, it's thanks in great part to art to create new life from scratch. The and perhaps eight consecutive hours director Dwayne Flinchum and his process involves taking a noncarbon- of sleep would do the trick in their case. unflinching staff. DO LETTERS connnnuruicMTorus
Twenty-one-gun Salute Who You Gonna Call? In her article ["Starship Enterprise," July Kudos to Tracy Cochran for "The Real 1988] Beth Karlin unashamedly Ghostbusters" [August 1988]. At a reported the military backgrounds of time when most writing about ghosts is George Koopman and Paul and Bruce either tabloid twaddle ("Does Elvis's Roth. In today's atmosphere of growing ghost eat spectral bacon -and -peanut- disdain for the military's involvement butter sandwiches?") or small-minded in scientific affairs, many writers would "scientific" scoffing (why is the American have been tempted to downplay or Psychiatric Association phobic about omit the military pasts of these three ghosts, anyway?), her sensitive account industrious pioneers. The idea of military of the men and women working on a involvement in space ventures is justifi- shoestring and a prayer for truth comes ably unpalatable to mosl scientists. as a breath of sweet, reasoned air.
Its contribution to our present knowledge Loren Eiierman of rocketry, however, is immeasurable New York and should not be forgotten.
John R. Gaines I propose that psychology professor Batesville, MS Charles Tart's suggestion —that computer-monitored electronic sensing He Who Labs Last devices and infrared photography be As a longtime Omni subscriber, I've used to investigate hauntings—be never before had reason to write, though applied instead to study those who claim
experiences. If I truly enjoy every issue. But my enjoy- to will out-of-body ment hit a snag with the July issue. psychic Ingo Swann would submit to
Everything was fine until I reached Joe tests during which he would command Fodor's supposed humor column [Last his own ghost-in-the-machine to exit Word, July 1988]. Animals who suffer his body and be present at the editorial and die for mosily worthless and offices of Omni while recorded on meaningless experiments should not be infrared film, the scientific community made light of—it's a crime against would be compelled to embrace the reality of forces. nature. I shan't cancel my subscription, paranormal but please don't prini items of such Anthony Hans Klotz poor taste again. Babylon, NY David Kveragas Clarks Summit, PA "I" for Incomplete
If I were a teacher at Jerry Grey's A Red Planet? metaphorical school ["Making the Grade,"
In your article "Of Mars and Men" [Space, July 1988], I would say the Soviet Union July 1988] Isaac Asimov characterizes has a recent history of steady space the struggle between Communism achievement with assignments turned in and democracy as a "petty difference," on time and extra-credit work. Ameri- Counf me out. I'm interested in space ca's recent history, on the other hand, is but not if it means tossing my principles that of a student who has conceived out the window. I have lost inierest in the idea of a mind-blowing multimedia "lobbying" activities typified by the term paper presentation but has failed to postcard mail-in campaign you endorsed hand in the minimum required ten- in your "space issue." Face it: The page manuscript. Russia's average is Planetary Society would have us march the best in Ihe class right now. Unfortu- arm in arm to Mars with the wardens nately for the United States, perfor- of the Gulag—not an appealing prospect mance, not dreams, is the measure of in my book. success in school. Gary Dameron Steven E. Long Fairborn, OH Felton, DEOQ PSYCHIC PSCORE! FDRunn By Sherry Baker
— questions about the object "Is it shiny?" different target from the main group.
"Is its geometry mainly circular?" "Is it To prevent anyone from leaking infor- ^^V their eyes, opened their minds, very dark?" and so on. mation about the identity of the target and attempted to see across lime and Because the participants were objects—a top hat for the main group space. They were participating in what exposed to the same issue of Omni and a French horn for the control group— parapsychologist Russell Targ calls and. no doubt, to many of the same the objects were picked by a computer the largest experiment ever conducted newspapers, TV shows, and more, the only after Omni's October issue had in which volunteers used psi to identity test had a built-in problem—how to gone to press. objects randomly chosen by a computer. make sure that the impressions people Among the readers who answered Targ, who heads the National ESP came up with were not simply the result of the invitation to test their psychic abilities Laboratory in Portola Valley, California, some shared stimuli. "We had to was a woman who sensed that her designed the Omni psychic test that ran consider the stacking effect, a phenom- target was metallic. More images flick- last October. He wanted to gather enon that occurs when some common ered through her mind. The thing was evidence of remote viewing —the ability influence acts on a group of people and shiny, she concluded, and it made to glimpse an objectwhose identity causes them to answer questions a musical noise. After answering the couldn't be known by any ordinary means similarly;" explains Jerry Solvin, para- questions, she wrote the object's identity or senses, only by extrasensory percep- psychologist and statistician at John F across the questionnaire: a French horn. tion. For the experiment, interested Kennedy University. Solvin assisted She was absolutely right. "Several readers were asked to pick a relaxed in designing and analyzing the test. "For people in the main group said the object time and place, empty their minds, and instance, say a star is the target in a was a hat," notes Targ. "But that ask themselves what their target object remote viewing experiment, and an response wasn't specific enough to be would look like (the items were held actual star has been in the news. But considered a direct hit." by psychic Hella Hammid). Any impres- when people come up with 'star,' you Targ is currently recruiting partici- sions or visions were to be written don't know whether it's due to the news pants for other remote viewing experi- down or sketched. After resting for a stories they've been hearing or to ESP." ments. For information write to the minute, the test volunteers were to To control the stacking effect, 500 Omni National ESP Laboratory, 80 Haylields answer -21 yes-or-no descriptive readers were chosen and given a Road, Portola Valley, CA 94025. DO
The two target ob/ec ! chosen for the Omni remote viewing experiment a 3. lop hat (main group) and a French horn (control group).
20 OMNI By Ron Schultz
^^^ telescope wiih the biggesi mir- further and lurther back in time. How image, the system must provide align- #^^» ror catches the faintest those galaxies are distributed and how ment that is accurate to better than m \ celestial rays —those that they have changed are critical a millionth of an inch—about the distance have traveled from the greatest distance questions. Their answers will have a spanned by ten atoms. and have taken the longest time to substantial bearing on our theories of the. Potential difficulties also complicate reach us. This is the light that started evolution of the universe." Nelson says. trie manufacture of the Keek's segments.
its trip near the beginning of our Personnel from Caltech and the An astronomical mirror usually has a universe—the Big Bang. University of California, under the single symmetrical, concave surface that
The soon-to-be-largest such tele- auspices of the California Association enables it to focus light. The Keek's scope, called the Keck, has now for Research in Astronomy, are oversee- mirror, too, is symmetrical, but each of passed a critical juncture in its six-year ing the Keek's creation. Their design its segments has a specific nonsymmet- construction schedule —the successful aims to overcome the greatest enemy of rical contour, similar to that of a potato production of the first of the 36 separate large mirrors— gravity, These monstrous chip. Opticians at segment manufacturer pieces of its high-tech, multipart mirror. glass slabs can weigh tons. If they itek Optical Systems in Lexington, As project scientist for the Keck sag under their own weight, they become Massachusetts, must first polish the fronts observatory, however, Jerry Nelson has impossible to focus. No one has yet and backs of the three-inch-thick glass more than just an interest in the succeeded in building a structure able discs, which are shaped like giant telescope's design and construction. to rigidly support a one-piece mirror contact lenses. Using levers to bend a
His desires help to put the ultimate the size of the Keek's. mirror's surface, they polish it to a smooth purpose of the mighty Keck into clear So the telescope bu'idcrs turned to a symmetrical shape. When they release focus: "I want to look at the most distant multipart mirror design. Aligning all the levers, the lens springs into the
galaxies in the universe," he says. He the different pieces of glass, however, is -epurecl nonsymmetrical configuration.
hopes to study those galaxies with no simple task. To focus all 36 surfaces The job of producing just one of these the very high red-shift patterns that of the Keek's 14.2-ton reflector, a segments would once have taken close indicate they are the ones moving away computer must adjust each segment of to a year. Now with computer-aided from the earth fastest. "I want to know \\-,e honeycomb-shaped array every stress polishing, it takes only three what the galaxies are like as we go half second. To produce a perfect months. A device called a profilometer monitors the polishing process, telling the opticians when they have obtained the correct shape. Next the properly polished blank undergoes more precise testing at a three -story-tall facility that
simulates conditions in the real telescope. The glass chip is cut into a hexagonal shape. Then craltsmen drill holes in the blank's underside and attach a portion of the mirror -support system. This reinforcement combines a disc that provides radial support; a post; and three flexible, mullijointed pieces that branch out from a central point to form a spider-arm support— called a whiffle- tree. The term is actually a nineteenth- century word referring to the pivoting crosspiece that allowed draft animals in a team to move somewhat independ- ently while pulling a wagon or carriage. The goal of this elaborate structure is to absorb any stress that might change the segment's surface. The major kink in this mirror-building process is the uncertainty over how The edge o: n:ght 'A'lih the Kec^ ra;ss::c::9 ,,.'.'.' zeer ia'in& !har\ ^ much the blanks will warp once Lhey are
24 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 217 FOSSIL WARS EXPLORMTOfUS By Douglas Preston
f% anna buy a dinosaur? What's excavating the celebrated Seismosaurus. worrying about your safety." Fossils have always been bones of rill y0Ljr fancV ? An Edmonto- In fact, with the growing value of «v %m saurus from Wyoming costs fossils, even specimens already in contention, even among professionals, just $300,000. including delivery and museum collections are at risk. "Speci- In the nineteenth century it was common assembly. Too much money? At $25,000, mens obviously pinched from some for paleontologists to spy on one a saber-toothed cat from the Oligocene museum's collection have turned up on another, raid one another's quarries, is modestly priced. If you'll settle for the market," says Nicholas Hotton, and steal fossils. Today rumors about a souvenir from the Paleozoic, the nauti- head of the Smithsonian Institution's fossil thefts by scientists abound. The lus-shaped goniatite cephalopod, just division of vertebrate paleontology. controversy between commercial two bucks, is a steal. Museum employees and volunteers have harvesters and paleontologists, however, Go to any gem and mineral show and often had access to bone storerooms. has added a whole new dimension. you'll find all kinds of fossils for sale, After a major theft a few years ago, In 1964 paleontologist Jim Jensen of many far from cheap. They're showing the Smithsonian's directors increased Utah's Brigham Young University up in chic galleries with price tags more security measures to protect the discovered the remains of the rare appropriate to the sculptures of Henry museum's vertebrate collection, placing Hypsilophodon, the best specimen of Moore than to the old bones of Hyraco- many bones under lock and key. the dinosaur ever found in North America. don. Dinosaur fossils have even been "There are incredibly valuable speci- Having removed the fossil still embed- found in Harrods, the London department mens being sold overseas that Ameri- ded in its matrix," or stone encasement, he store. The buyers come from all over can scientists may never have the took it back to his lab, only to realize
the world, particularly Japan and West chance to study. ' ados paeontological that part of the skeleton was missing. He Germany, and range from museums consultant Jim Madsen, a crusader returned to the dig site to retrieve the wanting a big public attraction to against commercial fossil harvesting. rest of the bones but found that harvest- businessmen looking for something to "The harvesters trash quarries with ers had destroyed the site, digging up hang over their fireplaces. indiscriminate digging, and they break pieces of bone to slice, polish, and To justify the exorbitant price tags, the law. People who come out against sell. "We may never find another Hypsi- Peter Larson, one of this country's them' are threatened or ignored. It's lophodon, and we'll never know what leading fossil dealers, explains that it as ugly as the drug trade, and you start it looked like," Jensen laments. takes 15,000 hours to dig up a dinosaur There's no single law, however, that skeleton and then reconstruct it. "So governs fossil digging. Harvesting we're really. talking about twenty dollars on private land, of course, is perfectly an hour," he says. Since he sells most of legal. And many Western states issue his rare specimens to museums, Larson leases for digging on state-owned land, adds, he's careful to record such requiring the harvesters to turn over necessary scientific information as any bones of new or rare species. The whether the bones are from one dinosaur problem is that harvesters don't always or a composite of several; diagrams of inform the' government of unusual finds. bone placement are included as well. As a consequence, Wyoming officials While many paleontologists say have begun offering rebates on license that Larson is a responsible and careful fees as an incentive to turn over operator, some disapprove of his work. valuable specimens.
Fossil dealers, they say, deplete dinosaur, It's almost impossible, however, to fish, and other rare and often unusual catch someone poaching fossils on bones. As a consequence, paleontolo- federal land. In Wyoming, for example, gists are often unable to collect the the U.S. Bureau of Land Management bones for university and museum (BLM) has only two agents responsible research. In a market where foreign for its 18 million acres of land in the museums and individuals are willing to state. In addition to iossil poachers, they buy fossils, American museums may also have to deal with oil and gas be forced to pay high prices for fossils. thieves, illegally grazing animals, squat- 'At three hundred, thousand dollars ters, archaeological looters, and a per dinosaur, fossil dealers will put host of other offenders. museums out of business," says Utah's Earlier this year the BLM agents state geologist David Gillette, now Hones <; comwHor;: '.v.'::; ,7 axh:.:ir,a mum? apprehended two fossil harvesters 26 OMNI ON PAGE 178 — —
THE PASTEUR SYNDROME BDDV By Nancy Roosa
The questions began in 1985 chemical compounds for their capacity not possibly be coincidental, and he when the first scientist Irom the to induce genetic mutations could wrote to Frangois Jacob, the institute's molecular biology labs at the possibly have led to relaxed safety president, urging him to reevaluate Pasteur Institute in Paris succumbed to standards in the labs. Dedonder's decision. At the end of April, cancer. Yves Malpiece, had who When Malpiece died in 1985 Kelly still the institute directors announced that worked in one of the labs for just six did not believe that the staff's cancers a ten-member commission headed months in 1980, was thirty-three when were related to her work. A number by Professor Jean Bernard, president of he died of Ewing's sarcoma, a form of her colleagues, however, disagreed the French Academy of Sciences, of bone cancer usually peculiar to and persuaded the lab directors would conduct an investigation. children. Earlier that year, Francoise Maurice Hofnung and Pierre Tiollais—to Kelly died on May 4. Three days later, Kelly, a fifty-year-old senior researcher request an inquiry. In March 1986 Dedonder sent a terse memo to his working with oncogenes—genes that Tiollais wrote a letter to institute director staff, calling for an immediate reinforce- have the potential to initiate cell growth Raymond Dedonder, demanding an ment of security measures in the labs. typical of cancer—had been operated inquiry. Dedonder refused. By April of He ordered all unit chiefs to "reestablish on for a malignant tumor. Some of the lab that year Kelly, who would be dead the classical measures of protection" staff began to suspect that there might withinthe month, began concurring with and to "establish a protocol for the be a connection between these two the prevailing wisdom in the labs: The utilization of mutagenic substances." cancers and two cases of non-Hodgkin's cancers were connected and were Initially, Dedonder's memo did not lymphoma found in 1981 and 1983 in related to the work being done. She cause much of a stir. His staff was to a pair ol thirty-five-year-old researchers confided in Lazare Goldzahl, a nuclear reread it with greater care on June who'd worked in the same labs. By physicist. She also changed her will, 5, when the weekly newsmagazine the end of the year, a fifth cancer had adding a codicil in which she asked for L'Evdnement du Jeudi broke the story of been diagnosed among the workers an investigation. the Pasteur cancers to the public. this time a rhabdomyosarcoma, or Intrigued, Goldzahl conducted a Later that day, institute spokesperson muscle tumor, ir aihirty-six-year-o.a preliminary irqu ry. canvassing cancer Dr. Caroline Chaine made a brief state- man. And there was to be a sixth case specialists around the world. The results ment, but she disclosed little specific of cancer among the ranks —yet another convinced him that the cancers could information. Chaine identified the two case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, dead scientists as 'A' and "B," described which would be diagnosed and reported a total of only three cancer cases, and by the patient, a thirty-six-year-old refused to specify the types of cancer man, in May 1987. that had been sulfered. She chose initially slow to respond to situation, the instead to stress that the scientists' institute officials finally ordered two research was unrelated to their cancers. investigations— one internal and the 'All three of them were checked other international to determine — what regularly by doctors at work, and no link, if any, might account for the cluster of evidence of a professionally related cancers. The results of the internal disease was discovered," Chaine said. investigation are due to be made public Le Monde, France's daily newspaper, next year. In the meantime, Pasteur featured the story in its front-page spokesmen have refused to release the headlines for the next two days, June 6 names and prognoses of the four and 7. The paper identified Malpiece researchers still living and won't even and Kelly by name and described both describe the precise nature of the work their work and their cancers. Staff being done in the two labs. We do know reporters interviewed a number of that all six researchers used radioactive Pasteur researchers, who criticized the materials and recombinant and DNA directors. "It would be maddening," that one ongoing project called for said one worker, "if in this temple of testing industrial products, which triumphant science they did not seek to spokesmen won't identify by name, for understand what has happened." Le their ability to cause cancer. Several Monde also reminded readers of a of the institute's researchers told the similar incident at a genetic institute in journal Science that pressure to fulfill- Orsay, a suburb of Paris, where three lab commercial contracts for testing new Cell break: Escape ol the cancer genes? workers were diagnosed as having 2B OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 176 STARLIGHT EXPRESS
By Bill Lawren
dream has been with us powered by what amounts to a sort of the opposite direction at equal speed.
The flight: nuclear wasle: the subatomic fragments Thus a vehicle capable of intersteilar since the dawn of manned to escape the limits of our produced when atoms are split apart travel would have to be thrust forward by own solar system, cross the yawning during nuclear fission reactions. Once an exhaust almost approaching the reaches of space, and explore the stars. harnessed and propelled out the back of speed of light. He also knew that during So far that dream has been constrained a rocket, this "fission fragment" fuel, fission, atoms fly apart at speeds of by the awful distances involved— our Chapline maintains, could generate about 7,400 miles per second. If properly nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, rocket velocities of up to 18,600 miles harnessed, he figured, those fragments at to is 25.5 trillion miles away—and by our per second (10 percent of the speed of could propel a spacecraft up light. inability to build a rocket fast enough to light), making it possible to reach Alpha one twentieth the speed of Thus, traverse those distances in a reason- Centauri in only 50 to 100 years. according to Chapline's calculations, a able time. (An Apollo-type Saturn 5 Furthermore, Chapline says, a prototype fission fragment rocket could theoretically rocket traveling at 25,000 miles per hour of this vehicle could be built lor a deliver a 500-pound payload to Alpha would take about a billion years to reasonable amount of money—perhaps Centauri in about 100 years. reach Alpha Centauri.) as little as $50 million —with existing The central problem lay in devising a There have been plenty of proposals technology. In fact, he contends, for an system that would capture fission for breakthrough rocket designs to unmanned interstellar observation fragments from a nuclear fuel and direct reach the stars. The trouble has been mission the fission fragment rocket is them out the back end of a rocket to
that they have all depended on technol- "far and away the most practical idea provide the necessary thrust. Over the ogies that won't exist in any but the that's ever been proposed." next several years Chapline devoted longest-term tuture— until now. Chapline began thinking about an much of his spare time to designing just Enter George Chapline, a theoretical interstellar spacecraft some ten years such a system. The result, published radically physicist at Lawrence Livermore ago. It was a basic law of physics, this year, has at its heart a new National Laboratory in Livermore, he knew, that the speed of a spacecraft design for an onboard nuclear reactor. California. For the last year Chapline depended on the velocity of its exhaust; The reactor would contain almost micro- has been working part-time on plans for the action of the exiting exhaust gases scopically thin fibers coated with an interstellar craft that would be would simply cause the rocket to move in nuclear fuel— either curium 245 or americium 242. Surrounding the fuel would be "moderator" material made of carbon 13 plus deuterium in the form of some organic material such as heavy wax. The moderator would control the rate of the nuclear reaction by modulating the rate at which neutrons hit the mass of fuel. Once the reaction "heated up," millions of atoms would break apart, their fragments escaping at high speeds from the surface of the fibers. A magnetic field generated by the rocket's motors would gather the fragments and channel them out the back of the rocket to provide thrust. The efficiency with which the motor
directs fragments is crucial: To reach Alpha Centauri in 100 years, for instance, the motor must be about 70 percent efficient. "Right now," Chapline says, "it would be relatively easy to build a prototype fission fragment rocket with,
say, fifty percent efficiency." If fueled by cheaper uranium or plutonium, such a rocket, which he estimates would
Gone tission; Nuclear propulsion may drive the first earth ship to Alpha Cehtauri. cost up to $100 million, could generate 30 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 138 —
DARK HEAR! nniruD By Paul Bagne
sounded forth a Irumpet of it by expressing or suppressing it." have followed the health of these subjects. Hewarning and alarm," eulogized For ten years Williams has searched Among the tests given was a person- a friend at his funeral. "He for the "toxic component" in Type A ality analysis developed at the Univer- sensed the sinister nature of the menace: behavior, a mishmash of attitudes sity of Illinois, Urbana, by renowned Communists infiltrating our institutions including ambition, urgency, hostility, psychologist Raymond Cattell, founder and subverting men's minds." Senator and impatience. A decade ago studies and director of Honolulu's Cattell Joseph McCarthy passed on in 1957, in indicated that Type As were at twice Research Institute, who set down 16 fhe prime of life, lips silenced, said his the risk of heart disease. Williams's factors he thought accurately assessed devotees, by vindictive foes who research, however, has suggested that personality. He invented names for censured him, crushed his spirit, and only anger, hostility, and cynicism are each; Factor L is "protension," meaning ruined his health. Actually, if psychologi- true risk factors. He cites two of his "inner tension projected outward." Most cal factors did contribute to the many studies, which show death rates to be might call it suspicion. Like the others, ailments that ultimately took the four to seven times higher among people factor L is scored on a bipolar scale demagogue's life at forty-eight, it's more with hostile attitudes. Long-term from 1 for a trusting nature to 10 for likely that McCarthy's own character— research on thousands of subjects is high suspiciousness. a cynical, mistrusting, and suspicious needed to confirm early findings, but it "McCarthy's way of projecting suspi- nature— killed him. appears that hostility may be as bad cions onto other people illustrates high "One aspect of hostility is particularly for the heart as high cholesterol or factor L," says William Lohss, a psychol- predictive of bad health in general," elevated blood pressure. ogist with the Institute for Personality reports Redford Williams, an internist To test whether the mistrustful die and Ability Testing in Champaign, Illinois. with ihe psychiatry department of Duke younger of all causes, not just heart "But his level of suspicion was so
University Medical Center in Durham, disease, the Duke researchers took exaggerated it was almost pathological." North Carolina. "That is the cynical advantage of a project started in the Political writers described the senator mistrust of human nature and motives. Sixties at the university's Aging Center. as shrewd, dispassionate, and calm This is a person who suspects that Then investigators gave 500 middle- as he pursued the elusive Reds he others are not trustworthy, who aged and older people a variety of loathed. "He is an engine of outward experiences more anger and copes with physical and psychological tests and fury operating in an inner mode," wrote William S. White in The New York Times. Some of McCarthy's personality traits may also explain why his factor L
took on the hostile form it did, says
Lohss. "Fury is not a necessary element. In fact, some high factor L people can project their tension through creativity in arts and sciences," he adds. People scoring low on factor L tend to be accepting, tolerant, and adaptable, perhaps naive. Those scoring high tend to be irritable, aggressive, critical, and dogmatic. They do not forget criticism and are bothered by what others say
behind their backs. "It's not as if these people are paranoids," says John
Barefoot, a Duke psychologist. "It's just that some are less trustful than others." Barefoot participated in the 500- person Duke study matching personality traits to mortality. After factoring out smoking, cholesterol, alcohol intake, and other health risks, the Duke team concluded that those scoring very high on factor L when the study began in Cardiac alert: A suspicious and cynical may render you prone to a heart attack. 1969 were at 40 percent greater risk of 34 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 214 IT'S ROACH MOTEL ARTIFICIAL IRJTELLIGErUCE By Fred Hapgood
you or I were assigned the job of For the past four years, he has been their machines with simple environments Ifdesigning a robot vacuum cleaner, we designing insectlike robots that adapt to featuring unreflective and unadorned would probably be at a loss when it dirt, noise, chaos, and confusion. He walls, highly controlled and standardized came to figuring out how to get it to has given them a battery of skills that will illumination, and uniform corners. But clean corners. Rodney Brooks has come enable them to negotiate all sorts of usually the machines have broken down up with a solution, however, which is terrain —wide-open spaces, tiny anyway. The world, it seems, always of the reasons one he's director of openings, rooms with lots of obsiacles. manages to seep in. the mobile-robots group at MIT's Artificial He even knows what to do with the Brooks is confronting the problem Intelligence Laboratory. dirt a small vacuumbot ingests. head-on by building robots whose "If your robot looked like a contempo- "It could go to some central location function is to wander around and interact rary cleaner," vacuum Brooks points and get rid of the dirt there," he explains. with humans and other robots in the out, "it would probably be too large to "But that means having extremely good real world, which in this case means the into get the corners. To do that you navigation abilities and a detailed map work spaces and offices of his group. might need a second, smaller robot. It of the house. A better plan would be for This is a landscape of old pizza cartons, could be about two inches in diameter it to use- sound sensors to listen for camera tripods, bicycles, reflective inch thick, with six and an legs sticking the big vacuum cleaner. When it heard surfaces (chrome legs, mirrors, glass),
out of it. it itself Once had dragged the machine, it would run to the middle of rock-climbing boots, piles of soda cans, the floor across and used its legs to the room and dump its guts, leaving circuit boards, ski poles, nests of wiring, determine when it had reached a wall or (or the mess the big guy to cart away. and stacks of computer printouts. It corner, it could start picking up dirt "Such is the future" Brooks says, is a world in which students stride down and shoving it into its belly." smiling broadly. halls while reading a book, in which Brooks has the gift of laying out the Historically, he says, the machines doors fly open without warning. To be solution to a problem in as much detail as built by robotics researchers have been truly mobile here means being able if he were describing an already existing limited in their ability to deal with the to maneuver in and out of elevators and reality. And, in fact, in Brooks's lab, real world. Some researchers have up and down stairs. small six-legged robots already exist. overcome this problem by providing Building robots that can live in such a varied environment has led Brooks to a new philosophy of robot construction, one currently V " attracting considerable U ;^i^,,,„ -Hi ; --itffMf-: .-una *'-'t< Hi, ,L interest in robotics circles around the t. : ^' 3£$:?Hf i *BfcRR world. His goal: a machine that is as |g=n:ilf capable as an insect of negotiating the '*• IM2E * j fljjSj world, a machine that can traverse all sorts of terrain with the finesse— if V* * * * ^B^fc* not the speed— of a cockroach. That,
he explains, is why his laboratory is E2tiLi-MJB&' *£2j : are built with a single processor mp* is IS l.#w*^ ' running "'' '-* "'• :'' ' a single m> ' *iT ll:-**»»«fi- program," he says. "Such a "?»»«?•* - [-. i ; -*~% , " W * || ) | system is inherently fragile; one glitch i anywhere and the whole enterprise dies." Instead, Brooks is building robots with a host of general skills that run 5 || ji$T^ » F simultaneously and independently. There m is no single locus of control, no central 1'- :m ""Z map of the environs. The enormous advantage of this :«mfv.ii : itj approach is that each skill can be designed separately, debugged, and manipulated without crashing the whole. Rodney Brooks's robots crawl oi : circuit x legs and have boards (above) for brains. Similarly, if one of these skills, or 38 OMNI CONTINUEDON PAGE 173 AMAZON APOTHECARx EARTH By Sy Montgomery other potent cancer ^^ rriving at an Amazon village as and acting director of the garden's new In their quest for biologists from the botanical M^^^ a doctorate student in the Institute of Economic Bofany. drugs, will bulk samples # % late Seventies, Michael Balick In fact, many important modern drugs garden collect 1,500 was greeted by a wrinkled old woman have come from plants: Penicillin hails from 500 to 700 plants each year. The and a group of Bora Indian shamans from a mold; cortisone is derived from researchers can limit their search thanks who were laughing uproariously. He yams: and the muscle relaxant tubocu- to tribal medicine men, who help by in asked his bilingual guide what the woman rarine from curare, an extract from an directing scientists to plants they use had said. The translation: "Too bad Amazon vine used by Indians for arrow their own pharmacopoeias. this guy didn't arrive a few years ago poison. Atropine, a drug for stomach Once collected, the plants will be garden's herbarium in when we still ate people. He would have ulcers, comes from the belladonna shipped to the fed the entire community." plant; the tranquilizer and high biood New York and to the institute's labs improved form of Now a decade later, Balick and a pressure drug reserpine from India's in Maryland, where an team of field biologists from New York's snakeroot; and codeine from the opium analysis will light the way. Traditionally, Botanical Garden are working with poppy of the East. researchers studied chemicals by tribal villagers to scour the Amazon Basin A powerful cancer breakthrough took watching their effects on mice with a for a different kind of fare: the next place in the Fifties, when the rosy single form of animal leukemia. In a generation of anticancer drugs. periwinkle yielded the first truly effective quicker and more selective screening Hoping that the search will yield drug for fighting childhood leukemia. process, which the institute is now plants with some anticancer activity, the Locals in Madagascar had used an developing, extracts will be tested National Cancer Institute has awarded extract of the plan! for lowering diabetics' against up to 100 different strains of a five-year contract to the Bronx organi- blood sugar levels. When studied in human cancers growing in test tubes. In will zation to collect specimens from the American labs as an insulin substitute, it addition, all the extracts collected rapidly disappearing jungle. So far only was completely ineffective. But scien- be kept frozen for possible reexamination working to develop 1 to 5 percent of the Amazon's 80,000 tists found that it dramatically reduced by researchers plant species have been studied. white blood ceil counts, actually bringing new anticancer screens. "The rain forest is a veritable chemical about remissions in 85 percent of child- "Nature contains a lot of novel and factory," says Balick, an ethnobiologist hood leukemia cases. unusual molecules that the chemist at the bench may not have ever discovered," says Gordon Cragg, a scientist with the natural products branch of the National Cancer Institute. The institute is so enthusiastic about this approach, in fact, that the $2.6 million overall grant for the program includes contracts with thejvlissouri Botanical Garden, now collecting plants in tropical areas of Africa, and the University of Illinois in Chicago, currently seeking plants in the jungles of Southeast Asia. But if laboratory scientists are acquiring a new reverence for tropical plant life, it is not one shared by loggers, farmers, miners, and cattlemen working in tropi- cal countries themselves. Ba'ick points out that thanks to those people, rain forests worldwide are being destroyed at a rate of many millions of acres per year. As this land disappears, the cultures with which it is linked will vanish as well. "We have at most twenty years to do this inventory," says Balick, before the rain forest—and its rich pharmaco- : virtually e/.'.'S.-.'/'ei : e waiting. poeia— is destroyed. DO . Regardless of ...Gore-Tex' what falls out of the sky. . Keeps you warm and dry Comfortable, stylish clothing Protection. Comfort to a degree never known before. 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Box 302 Microscopic • And countless other challenges into every inch of fabric. Department OM10 holes, each far too small for water Nashville, TN 37202 or charge bv calling 1-800-999-8286 1 TWAINS OF VIDEO ART By Kevin McKinney Every day for hours at a time I ofZelda. And they gave me the same goes crazy for it. I know a guy from would see an eerie light coming culture spiel I gave Joe." IBM who has the system wired into a through the crack of the A recent survey by the newsletter wide-screen television that hangs from doorway and hear strange sounds Computer Entertainment indicates that the celling, and the full stereo system is emanating from Joe's room," says Mary 76 percent of its 12,000 subscribers plugged into it." Nissenson, a former news reporter own at least one video game system. Nintendo parties, moreover, are and anchor for the Chicago television Mosl of the models are the NES. This becoming the "hot new wave of social station WBBM. closely depicts the video game market interaction, sort of like Trivial Pursuit Convinced that her stepson was in general: Nintendo of America controls was,""Stover adds. "Six or eight people devoting too much time to his video nearly 80 percent of video game sales, get together, Set up several video game games, she gave him her "culture spiel" with Sega and Atari sharing the rest. systems, and have them going at the to encourage him to expand his mind. (None of the systems are compatible.) same time. They go on for hours and get At his urging, however, she agreed to let According to Nintendo's own surveys, pretty out of hand." him show her why he was so wrapped 30 percent of video game players are Most often playing Nintendo's Super up in the games. "His next complaint older than eighteen. Product analysis Mario Brothers, which pits workmen was that I was hogging his system," says manager Howard Phillips adds that Mario and Luigi against supernatural bad Nissenson, now president of Foresight about 20 percent of those who call guys, the partygoers will play one-on- Communications, her own television Nintendo's game counselors are adults one and team against team, Stover production company. requesting game play advice—for explains. When someone approaches a Like a growing number of adults, themselves, not for their children. new level of the game that no one else Nissenson has become not only a video "For someone who thinks he has a has reached, however, a camaraderie game player but a Nintendo Entertain- pulse on what's going on, I was surprised takes over as everyone cheers on ment System (NES) expert. "I've come by how many adults are into video the individual player. The parties are out of the closet," Nissenson openly games," says Brett Stover, an executive similar to the 250 Nintendo "Fun Clubs" admits. "Much to my parents' dismay, producer tor cable television's Financial organized by kids around the country. while they're reading Dostoyevski. News Network (FNN). "Every college- "When video games first came out, I'm busy plodding through The Legend educated adult I introduce to Nintendo they were simply considered toys and not something that adults would get LEVEL- involved with," says Phillips, who began ** 3li as a Nintendo warehouse manager — niirTi but preferred playing the games to a lii unpacking them. (Now he gets paid to -sr &§ *» play them.) "Now that young adults who played them in the early Eighties are maturing, video games seem to ^H be breaking into adults' awareness." But even adults who didn't play them when they were younger are discover- ing that today's video games are very sophisticated. Expanded memory chips coupled with the same kind of micro- processor found in Apple No and Commodore 64 personal computers, the systems are advanced computers ._'.,.„. dedicated to playing video game cartridges that are computer programs. The NES, for example, can handle 64 times more data than earlier systems. The graphics are more dazzling, the colors (as many as 52 on the screen at a time) are more effective, and the I sound more realistic. Not for kids only: Adults find today's video games sport sophisticated software and graphics. Indeed, the Consumer Electronics 46 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 216 CDruTifuuunn THE CLONING OF AMERICA McDonald's hamburger is the same in Los Ange- genes because, like bookstores that don't follow a formula, it increases the of adaptive traits (or ideas) . — les, Miami, and Branson, Missouri. So are Ken- chances new and more tucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut pizza. New getting into the system. housing developments in all parts of [he nation Diversity is also minimized by clonal reproduction. A species build the same house over and over again, shifting only the that clonally reproduces is just one large, fragmented individual angle of the home or the position of the garage for distinction and can hold only a minimal amount of genetic information. And then there are the movies: Alien, Aliens, Rocky /, Rocky It. New species arise much less frequently among these organ- Rocky HI, Rocky IV. America, it seems, has become a country isms than in sexual populations. In fact, most nonsexual spe- of repetition, of clones from sea to shining sea. cies are of relatively recent origin and may not survive the slow The virtues of industrial uniformity—reliability, predictability, march of evolutionary time. They may simply not have the ca- and standardization—have been recognized since Eli Whitney pability to adapt to environmental changes. Similarly, cultural first manufactured interchangeable parts. In nature, with many clones may be slow to adapt to changing tastes, as may a plant and animal species consisting of exact genetic copies of religion, philosophy, or political party that finds ideological se- one individual, this sort of uniformity has been going on for curity in a narrow and rigid dogma. All may be headed for millions of years. By reproducing clonally (sans sex), species extinction in a changing world. wind up with generation after generation of the same genetic Sex may also have a number of short-term advantages that individual. The biological machinery needed for an organism speak to social as well as biological issues. Since each individ- to reproduce asexually, in fact, seems to evolve quite easily. As ual is unique, a predator or disease that has cracked the de- with a movie, once the characters have been created and the fenses of one member of the species will not necessarily de- general theme decided upon, it's easy to make a sequel. stroy all the individuals or the group as a whole. Each member In sexual reproduction, on the other hand, each offspring is of a clonal line, on the other hand, will be at risk from a common a novel entity with a genetic code of its own But sex is a hassle: predator or disease because each organism is genetically the Beyond the obvious problem of finding a mate, only half of each same. Agricultural geneticists found this out the hard way in the participant's genes get passed along to the next generation. early Seventies. A leaf blight in the South devastated thou- The clonal individual, which passes on all its genes, would ap- sands of acres all planted with the same strain of corn. pear to have a distinct advantage. Yet sexual reproduction is America, it seems', has much to learn from evolutionary bi- the rule, not the exception. What, one might ask, does nature ology. Problem solving depends on creative and novel solu- know that American culture doesn't? tions. When we find refuge in established modes of thought, For one thing, species that reproduce sexually can incorpo- we run the risk of becoming inflexible, clonelike creatures. Al- rate beneficial mutations more rapidly than those that keep put- though trends toward repetition and duplication are attractive ting out copies of themselves. If a good mutation appears in because they are cheap and easy, they are superficial solu- each of two different clonal lines, it will remain isolated. Among tions that ignore the complexity of our ever-changing world. We the sexually reproductive, however, two individuals bearing two need to cultivate an eye for deeper answers that come from different traits need only mate to begin spreading the traits unexpected places. We need a blending of ideas and a con- through the population. In the same way, if one chain of book- stant stream of creativity—from artists, poets, authors, and even stores follows one formula for selling books, and another chain scientists who think about sex, This may be our best defense follows another formula, then good ideas will not spread easily against an unpredictable future.—NORMAN C. ELLSTRAND from one franchise to another, The situation is obviously much worse when all chains follow the same formula. Sexual repro- duction creates the best environment ior the spread of good caruTimuunn The new science of gene- ' splicing has already given us giant mice, frost-resistant i corn, and sheep that look like goats. Now a Canadian scientist reports what may be the most unlikely bioengi- neering product to date: square trees. It started ten years ago, when Robert Fails, now ot the British \ University of Columbia in Vancouver (UBC), was working as an environmental biologist in Canadian forests. | After seeing the disastrous ; results of clear-cutting, "it "that ! came to me," he says, Ihere had to be a better i way to make wood." His in- genious solution was a "designer tree" with square [ a 1 trunk, so that significantly less of its lumber would ' be wasted in milling. As a graduate student, Falls concentrated on the cam- bium, the layer of cells just under a tree's bark that searching tor new "manufactures" new wood. Ultimately, by using still- Science Foundation (NSF), estimated that these unsolic- cruise ships and chartered ited visils ultimately resulted planes delivered as many as in the loss of as many as Not so long ago, Antarctica 3,500 visitors to Antarctica's 40 research days. "It used to was considered one of the icy beaches. The tourists be a delight when there remotest places on Earth, tramped through seal rooker- were only two to three visits a populated only by penguins ies, snapped zillions of year," says Guthridge. "Now and the few intrepid scien- penguin photos, even de- there's a real danger that tists who found it fertile, scended on the South Pole the research stations here will if frozen, ground for research. itself. Even more bothersome be swamped." Now, however, the peace to the scientists was the So what to do? The NSF and purity of both Antarctica tourists' tendency to pop in plans to organize more and the science conducted uninvited at research stations, orderly tours so that their there are being threatened by taking up scientists' time effect on science will be what may be the most dan- and disrupting ongoing ex- minimized. "That way," says gerous of all animals—the periments, most particularly Guthridge, "the tourists thrill-starved tourist. those thai were studying can see the installation Last year, reports Guy the effects of isolation on hu- quickly and then go away." Guthridge of the National mans. In fact, one report —Bill Lawren 50 OMNI secret bioengineenng tech- up very rapidly, Things like niques, he was able to play a galaxies could never even game of geometry wilh ths There may be more out have formed." cambium by manipulating cell there in space than empti- So Frieman and several production rates. The- results, ness. That seemingly endless colleagues are studying the now growing on experimen- vacuum may actually be a sea possibility that the vacuum tal UBC plots, are cedar of energy. "It's like a strange energy has been gradually and poplar trees whose fluid that's everywhere," diminishing since the Big trunks, if not precisely square, says cosrnologist Joshua Bang. It's not yet known why. are decidedly "squarish." Frieman of the Stanford But if it's true— if some A dedicated environmen- Linear Accelerator Center. amount of this energy has talist, Falls thinks his work "It's not tangible in any way. been at work throughout could someday have' consid- The only thing we can feel time— it would significantly erable impact on ihe world's is.itsgravilational effects" alter our understanding ol the forests. "This is a way qf It appears that the early evolution of the universe. taking some of the pressure universe went through a —Amy Mereson off natural forests," he con- series of dramatic transitions cludes. "Instead of taking starting out ho!, then gradu- what we can from natural ally cooling and expanding. In systems, we'll be able to de- the process, vast amounts sign systems thai produce of energy were generated, For almost 300 years the what we want."—Bill Lawren consumed, and released stringed instruments of It's almost certain, says Antonio Stradivari have been "Intelligence has a lot to do Frieman, that- when the prized by musicians for with what folks believe. Those cooling was done, much of their uniquely pure and pow- with smart kids, for example, Ihts energy still permeated erful tones. But what ac- are more likely to believe in space. But it couldn't have counts for that sweet sound? heredity," lingered at that intensity One investigator thinks that varnish that was identical to —Frank Clark for long. "Vacuum energy has a microscopic water fungus In a material called pozzolana, a negative pressure, it forces the lumber used for the volcanic ash from the Italian "He who laughs has not yet malter apart," he explains. "If instruments holds Ihe secret district of Cremona where heard Ihe bad news." a huge amount were around, (See "Stradivari's Secret," Stradivari lived and worked. —Bertolt Brecht the universe would blow Continuum, February 1987). Interestingly, pozzolana And now a team of scientists has been used for centuries at England's Cambridge to make a high-quality and University has found another extremely durable cement. In factor— a layer of special fact, Edwards speculates volcanic ash applied to the that Stradivari used the surface of the wood. material primarily to make his Peter Edwards and his instruments last longer and colleagues subjected frag- that the Strads' remarkable ments of an eighteenth- tonal qualities may have century Stradivarius cello to been merely an unintentional analysis by a technique by-product. called EDAX (energy disper- Does this mean the bloom- sive X-ray spectroscopy), ing of a new generation of in which a compound is latter-day Strads? "We've had bombarded by high-energy quite a few calls from instru- electrons, then analyzed ment makers," Edwards says. to identify each ingredient. "But I doubt that anyone The EDAX "profile" of the can turn out a Stradivarius Strad showed a thin layer be- just by using pozzolana." tween the wood and the —Bill Lawren 51 " " caruTiruuunn storing hydrogen Fuel, into the housing for the telescope. The images of thi Because the tank's access "' tating dust bowl of hatch is only 36 inches wide, lies, with topsoil swii the astronauts would insert in violent clouds and bankrupt a collapsible mirror through farmers trekking to California, the small opening and then seemed all too familiar this inflate it with air. Nein explains past summer. Farmers in that the tank would be filled such as drought-ridden areas of the with a gas, C02 , Midwest feared their fields that would emit a flash of light might be blown away once when struck by a gamma again, which is one reason ray passing through the tank Jim Germida's latest research wall. The mirror would reflect may turn out to be timely these light flashes onto as well as valuable, detecting equipment, Germida, a soil scientist at Astronauts in space suits the University of Saskatche- have demonstrated the wan in Canada, knew that soil feasibility of the plan by at- erosion can sometimes be taching an inflatable mirror to reduced by certain natural to a field's most erosion- 1-QVER a fuel-tank-base mock-up microorganisms that serve to prone "hot spots." Germida in Marshall's neutral buoyancy bind soil particles to one is also testing various diluting Just before the space simulator—a 40-foot-deep another and keep them from ratios that would make the shuttle enters orbit, its huge water tank that simulates being blown away by wind. substance cheaper to use. In orange external fuel tank microgravity conditions, Nein Were there man-made com- the meantime, he does is jettisoned from the craft says that if funded, the con- pounds, he wondered, that pass along one tantalizing and tumbles back down version could be performed could be even more effective bint: "The product that works to Earth. Although wasteful, by the late Nineties. at gluing soils down? He best," he says, "is white safety and necessity left —Oliver Fultz began testing commercial and pastelike. In fact, it looks NASA little choice about what products used to prevent soil a tot like Elmer's glue." to do with the tank until "A great many open minds erosion on slopes and even- —Bill Lawren now. A new plan being evalu- should be closed for repairs." tually discovered one that ated by the space agency —Toledo Blade did the job both in a labora- "/( is not true that life- is one would enable NASA to recy- tory wind tunnel and outside damn thing alter another—it's cle the fuel tank, transform- in an open field. Studies one damn thing over and ing it into an orbiting gamma also indicate that the com- over. ray telescope. pound won't contaminate the —Edna St. Vincent Millay The tank-to-telescope soil. Furthermore, it may project reflects an effort by even be biodegradable. "If people think nature is their NASA to develop new uses Despite its promise, Ger- friend, then they sure don't for costly space hardware. mida refuses to reveal the need an enemy. "This application would be a name of the product for fear —Kurt Vonnegut first step toward finding of engendering false hopes. new uses for these tanks," "I know people are desper- "It is of interest to note that says Max Nein, study man- ate with all the drought in while some dolphins are ager for the telescope project farming areas," he says. "But reported to have learned at NASAs Marshall Space it's too soon, and the product English—up to fifty words Flight Center. itself is very expensive. It used in correct context—no To create the telescope, would be impossible to use, human being has been astronauts would work on the even over a small field." reported to have learned empty tank in Earth orbit, He's now experimenting with dolphinese." converting the lower half, a Why waste a fuel tank when applying the product only 95-foot- long section used for 52 OMNI Inventor Benjamin H. Watson, an aircraft engineer from Renfon, Washington, has actually come up with a way of letting ordinary hu- mans walk on water. He has designed a pair of pontoonlike "floats," each equipped with seven-inch keels and eight gill-like flaps that open and close, propel- ling you forward with each backward thrust of the leg. The longer model can move 350 pounds of fisher- man, backpacker, or duck hunter at speeds of up to five knots. The walkers come with aluminum poles that have vented ends shaped like i jellyfish. A downward push forces air through the vents, moving you forward; when you lift the poles from the water, the vents collapse in preparation for the next push. "It's exacily like cross- * A '£ country skiing, poles and 1E all. only you're walking on water," says Watson, —George Nobbe right away," says Loren Hicks, Some of them fall down." a wildlife biologisl with the The railroad has done Tlrere's no point in denying railroad. And they're still on it everything it can think of, it: The black bears and three years later, coming short of establishing a forest grizzlies that live on the bor- down from higher elevations Alcoholics Anonymous, to der between the Flathead each fall when they would discourage the animals. and Glacier national forests in normally feed on fish and They've vacuumed the area; Montana have a serious huckleberries. they've covered it with dirt; drinking problem. Besotted bears present a they've spread quicklime It began in 1985 when 17 number of problems, as to dilute the taste and kill the Burlington Northern Railroad the railroad soon discovered. pungent smell. They even cars derailed near Essex. "The bears get really blitzed," doused the corn with diesel Montana, spilling 400 tons of explains Hicks. "Their reac- oil. Nothing has worked. corn across the countryside. tions slow, they're lethargic "With eight-inch claws, the When the opportunistic Some of them sit right down grizzlies just dug up the dirt," bears awoke in the spring, on the tracks with their heads says Hicks. "We had to they were drawn to the site by .in their paws, eating the rebuild the roadbeds. And the strong aroma of ferment- corn with a train coming right they actually like the iaste of Just when yt ing grain. "They were on it at them. They roll over a lot. diesel oil."—George Nobbe safe to go back in the water. " — CDnjTiruuunn MOON DRILL Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a drill that can bore through rock in the waterless, airless vacuum of space. It may one day be used to build an underground American base on the moon. The drill, originally de- signed for use on Earth, uses special metal tips that heat up, melting the rock. Unlike regular drills, the Los Alamos model would not need air or water to remove the cut- tings and cool the bits- meaning it would work well in space, Plus, as the drilled moon rock melted, it would get pushed into the pores around the drill hole and cool into glass, eliminating the need for supports tc hold the hole open. Why bother drilling through moon rock when we could set up a lunar base on the moon's surface? "The radia- tion environment is too ex- Sometimes it takes a Bozo to deal with bozos, or so two Cincinnati police officers say. Dubbed tt treme." says James Blade, a "Dork Squad," they help to defuse tense situations by clowning around. scientist at the lab. An on- the-surface moon base—for -OWNS askew to make suspects gist Donald Dossey, says that example, space station laugh, rearrange furniture Gardner and Broering's modules protected by some It's an age-old scam: One during a domestic squabble, ! technique works well in police sort of covering—would guy distracts your attention and pretend to be pizza work. "They interrupt pat- work only in the short run, he while another grabs your delivery boys. "It's the ridicu- terns with an incongruity to says. Once you start talking wallet or purse. But this time, lousness of the situation get someone's attention about a permanent or long- | the perpetrators aren't asking that makes suspects say, and pull them out of a dls- term moon base with a 1 for directions: they're goofing 'Hey, these cops are crazy,' ruptive pattern," he explains. few hundred people, how- off. And they're not bad says Gardner. Gardner, a 15-year veteran ever, you have to dig, "Ulti- guys; they're cops. The cops picked up their of the Cincinnati Police mately, " says Blacic, "we'll Cincinnati police specialist unorthodox methods from Department, is currently have to go underground Michael Gardner and his psychoneurolinguistics, ' teaching his slapstick psy- on the moon."—Devera Pine partner Michael Broering, a discipline that combines at the police | chology acad- dubbed the "Dork Squad" by communication theory with I emy. And though his course "Men become more civilized, fellow officers, use humor linguistics and psychology. will never replace traditional not in proportion to their | to distract angered people One of the fathers of psycho- police training, a little hard- willingness to believe, but in i and defuse dangerous neurolinguistics and director 1 hitting humor may occasion- proportion to their readiness situations. They have been of the Phobia Institute in ally be a cop's best to doubt." known to button their uniforms West Los Angeles, psycholo- weapon.—Bob Mangino — H. L. Mencken 54 OMNI — 3 of hydrogen gas. For the moment, the nose's We should have smelled it only application is in monitor- coming. After all, we've ing hydrogen emissions seen bionic limbs and artifi- trom experimental fusion cial hearts. Could a prosthetic plasma reactor cores. But, nose be far behind? Chem- Bastasz explains, the device ists from Sandia National could, in principle at least, Laboratory in Livermore, Cal- be used to detect anything ifornia, and Albuquerque, that contains hydrogen. New Mexico, report a devel- Other researchers are opment that may lead to looking for palladium equiva- the world's first artificial nose. lents that can sniff out ele- Bob Bastasz, Bob Hughes, ments and compounds other and their colleagues at than hydrogen. If and when Livermore were looking for a those materials are found, way to "sniff out" hydrogen Bastasz speculates, they atoms, which are emitted might be used in artificial from gas plasmas used noses that could detect gas in some experimental fusion from leaking stoves or even reactors, They knew that odors from spoiled food. an element called palladium "We're getting into science can act as a sort of hydrogen fiction here," he says, "but you filter, allowing only small might even be able to design hydrogen atoms to pass a wristwatch-size device tell level of through it. So they built a that would you the sensing device the size of a a pollutant in the atmos- pencil eraser that included a phere."—Bill Lawren palladium "screen." Once the hydrogen atoms pass 'There is much pleasure to through the palladium, they be gained from useless look strike a series of electronic di- knowledge." With only one arm each, robots on the space station won't counterpart from Lost in Space. odBs, thus registering the —Bertrand Russell anything like their television free run of the station, either; poke buttons [on the micro- instead, they'll run on tracks wave], since people have Remember the goofy- on the walls. to be able to use the micro- looking robot in Lost in Space As for their jobs, the first wave, too," says Purves. "We that screamed "Danger! robots on the space station don't want only the robots Danger!" and flapped its will be used to keep scientific to be able to prepare food arms every time Dr. Smith experiments running when we don't want to be totally them." Other embarked on yet another ill- there are no astronauts dependent on starred adventure? Good, onboard, says Byron Purves, tasks suitable for a robot Now, forget that image: The a manager for Boeing. include changing air filters robots on NASA's space Once the station is fully and washing wails. station won't be anything manned, robots wiil pitch in Purves expects the robots like that robot. with the cooking and clean- to save time and money: To start with, they won't ing: A robot will make dinner Because it will cost about even resemble a typical by reading cooking instruc- $20,000 an hour to fly an robot: They'll have only one tions from a bar code on astronaut on the space sta- arm—with seven "joints" a food package. It will then tion, the less often that astro- to it—and a video camera for set the microwave oven. naut has to wash windows, "eyes." And they won't have "We'll probably have the robot the better.— Devera Pine " CDRJTiruuurui Dn the backs of bank and credit cards, making them unusable. With the bright lights of the Great Western Bank cus- operating room shining tomer service supervisor down on them, a doctor and Cindy Waschkowsky of Liver- his assistant stand over a more, California, made the tiny figure on the operating connection. "Some people table, discussing his condi- said their cards weren't tion. "I accidentally broke the working right, and I had wire in his finger," admits friends working at other insti- the assistant, "so I soldered it tutions who were hearing back together." the same thing," she recalls. The patient, a customized, "One day things were slow, plastic operating dummy so I started asking questions named Eddie Endo, is part of to try to find out what was the Comprehensive Anes- going on." thesia Simulation Environment Waschkowsky queried developed by Dr. David customers with bum cards Gaba, assistant professor of about whether they worked anesthesiology at Stanford around computers orX University, Eddie was de- rays or at the nearby nuclear signed as a mechanical lab. But only one common guinea pig for anesthesiology denominator kept popping residents and students. In up: eel skin, one session on Eddie, a How could skin from dead resident may encounter more fish scramble the magnetic disasters than he or she is information on credit cards? likely to see in three years of Waschkowsky called some general practice. local scientists to find out. Along with an array of "Mostly they laughed," she electronics and computers, says, "and acted like I should Eddie Endo hooks up to be committed." operating-room monitors to Finally John McCosker, relay information such as director of San Francisco's blood pressure and pulse. Steinhart Aquarium, came up The dummy sports two with a plausible explanation: rubber balloon lungs, a pres- Eel skin is treated with pre- surized stomach, and one servatives that contain metal arm with tubes for intravenous lice in treating emergencies. ions. The tanned eel skin feeding. It also has the About 2,000 Americans is then rinsed with water, but ability to breathe, urinate, die or suffer brain damage in some cases the demagne- and vomit. "Vomiting is each year from anesthesia- In recent years increasing tizing ions are not completely a problem in surgery," says related accidents. Eddie numbers of slime and other rinsed off. Gaba, "because anesthetic helps prepare anesthesiolo- eels have been killed for their "That explains why not all blunts a patient's cough gists for the unexpected. skins, which are then turned eel-skin wallets affect cards," reactions, so it's possible to —Bob Mangino into wallets and handbags. Waschkowsky comments. suck materials into the lungs, But the creatures are reach- She notes that there's a But we don't make Eddie "We should take care not to ing from beyond the grave simple solution for eel-skin throw up that often because make the intellect our god: It to exact revenge—con- accessories that do pose of the mess." has, of course, powerful sumers are finding that eel- problems; Keep bank and Eddie's raison d'etre is to muscles, but no personality. skin accessories sometimes credit cards in plastic give anesthesiologists prac- —Alben Einstein scramble the magnetic sleeves.—Sherry Baker 56 OMNI /Advances in reproductive technology have opened the door tc true immortality: the living, breathing, thinking, yearning clone BY CAROL KAHN — — iWe might engender a community of "clonants" who share not only physical traits but a common way of thinking.^ In the late Seventies and early Eighties a brain would be removed from the clone Times startled its readers this past Feb- middle-aged man with the money to fund very early in embryonic life. As for the rest ruary, for instance, when it ran a front- impossible dreams began haunting the of the clone, grown to an appropriate size page picture of three black Brangus cat- laboratories of a small, select scientific and maintained in frozen storage, it would tle as alike as three proverbial peas in a fraternity. Its members were the men and be there when it was needed. As Adam's pod, Two other mammalian species women capable of performing nuclear body was damaged by disease, injury, or rabbits and sheep—have been cloned. transfer—a painstaking procedure in advancing age, the body clone could be And at least four companies are in a rase which the nucleus of a cell in the body is harvested for its parts—heart, lungs, liver, to bring genetically duplicated animals to used to "seed" an egg. The technique is kidneys, skin, muscles, bones, blood the marketplace. Indeed, plans for cloned better known as cloning, the making ot a all fully transplantable, with no possibility herds (where quality would always be biological double. of rejection. This first body clone could consistent) are already in the works. "The Although cloning had been carried out serve as the source for a second and then era of cloning has arrived," says Jim Robl successfully only in frogs, the man—call a third. Cloning would be the ultimate of the University of Massachusetts, a ma- him Adam, though that's not his real fountain of youth, a bottomless well from jor player in the race. "It is the next and name—hoped it could be adapted to hu- which Adam could drink again and again. perhaps the final step in genetic im- mans. His goal: nothing less than immor- But apparently Adam's fascination with provements in animals." tality. Specifically Adam was looking for genetic Xeroxing went beyond a brain- Cloned cows and sheep may have someone to create a "body clone," an in- less stand-in. One doner recalls the day ranchers buzzing. But could the age-old dividual identical to himself in every re- Adam came into her lab, threw his money dream of human cloning ever take place? spect save one: It would lack a brain. The up in the air, and spoke of supporting her In fact, recent startling accomplishments idea, advanced by University of Califor- research. Later Adam, who was by all ac- suggest that the cloning of people may nia, Los Angeles researcher Paul Segall, counts highly intelligent and personable, soon be here. A few researchers are in- was that the cells destined to become the came to her house for tea; there he spoke vestigating the possibility of using cloned of his interest in transferring the informa- embryo parts to repair damaged hearts, Previous pages: Fertility renegade Landrum tion from his brain to the brain of a clone. brains, and lungs. Others hope they will Shettles. This page, clockwise from left: UCLA cryonics .expert Paul Segall; Cam- "He wanted another him," she says, her soon be able to grow cloned body parts bridge University's John Gurdon; and Au- . eyes widening at the thought. in laboratory dishes, just as they now grow drey Muggleton-Harris ot the Medical Re- Today some of Adam's dreams are sheets of skin. And in an astounding search Council in Surrey, England. based on scientific fact. The New York technical feat, doners have begun to ac- 60 OMNI tivate dormant genes in a variety of cells; ever, creating genetic carbon copies was their work has important implications for the last thing on the minds of the cloning slowing the aging process and regener- pioneers. Instead, these researchers were ating limbs. But it is also a crucial step in interested in solving a conundrum raised cloning a new individual from the highly in 1892 by German evolutionary theorist specialized cells of an adult. Finally, re- August Weismann. cent techniques for in vitro fertilization, or As Weismann observed, there are two test-tube babies, provide the means by kinds of cells irUhe body—the germ (the which clones can be transferred from the sperm cells and the egg cells, which pro- lab dish to the uterus, where they can be duce the next generation) and the soma carried to term. Indeed llandrum B. (the cells of the blood, brain, muscles, Shettles, the controversial fertility pi- and everything else). oneer, insists that we may be able to clone Each somatic cell has two sets of chro- a human today. All it would take, he says, mosomes in its nucleus. When it divides are the right set of cells, which he claims into two cells, all the chromosomes dou- he has identified, and a lab. As Adam ble, and each daughter cell receives a found out on his quest, most experts complete double set. But when the eggs agree that human cloning is a lot closer and sperm are formed, by a process than was thought just a few years ago. called meiosis, the two sets of chromo- Once human cloning is a reality, will somes are broken up, and only one set people be bred like cattle? Will asexual goes to each of the daughter cells. Each reproduction replace the most delightful egg cell and each sperm cell carry a ran- means of having a baby? And even if the dom mix of half of an individual's traits; technology is available, should we avail the only time they have a complete set of ourselves of it? chromosomes is when their nuclei come Whatever the final answer to these together during fertilization At the mo- questions, there is no doubt that human ment of fertilization, life begins anew with issfes cloning has long exerted a pull on the an individual that is identical to neither its imagination. Who among us does not mother nor its father but rather is a 50- gawk at identical twins as though they 50 combination of both. were a tourist attraction? Starting out as a single cell, the em- Literature has treated us to a barrage bryo grows rapidly, not in size but in num- of clones. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New ber of cells—first two cells, then four cells, World, the Hatchery and Conditioning then eight, then sixteen, and so on. Soon Centers mass-produced human models the embryo is a mulberrylike cluster of like cars on an assembly line. Ira Levin's cells called a morula, scarcely bigger The Boys From Brazil featured 94 Hitler than the fertilized egg. As division contin- clones from which the notorious Josef ues, the morula turns into a hollow mass Mengele hoped to create the new fuhrer called a blastula (blastocyst in mam- Cloning even became front-page news mals), which is first hundreds, then thou- when science writer David Rorvik claimed sands of cells strong. in his book In His Image that an uniden- Early in division, all the cells of the em- tified millionaire had bankrolled un- bryo are indistinguishable from one an- named scientists to create an undocu- other. But later some of the cells begin to mented clone. specialize, and the process of differen- Although almost no scientists sup- tiation begins. As development pro- ported Rorvik's claim, many believe that ceeds and the embryo takes on shape cloning would open a cornucopia of bi- and form, more and more cells become ological options undreamed of by Mother committed to a particular pathway, Nature. A couple at risk of passing on an changing in form and function. The blood inherited disorder, for instance, could cells make hemoglobin; the muscle cells clone the unaffected partner. Infertile men make a muscle protein; and so on. or women who used their own body cells It's obvious that cells in the differen- to create a child would give the term sin- tiated state express only some of the gle parenthood a whole new meaning. genes present in the original, fertilized And a childless couple could each be egg. Weismann wanted to know what cloned for posterity. happened to the genes in the differen- As Nobel prize-winner Joshua Leder- tiated cells as the embryo developed. berg has said, cloning "places man on Were they lost as the cells took on their the brink of a major evolutionary pertur- specific functions, as Weismann be- bation." We could duplicate people with lieved? That is, did intestinal cells lose the genetic traits like night vision or the ability genes to make hemoglobin? And did to hear high-pitched sounds, We might nerve cells lose the genes to make mus- engender a community of "clonants" who cle fiber? Or did the specialized cells re- share not only physical traits but a com- tain all the genes, even the ones they no mon way of thinking, leading to an almost longer used, like a grown-up holding on mystical mingling of minds, "In a stretch to toys that are no longer played with? of imagination," says Joseph Fletcher, a If the latter case were true, then a sin- bioethicist at the University of Virginia, "a gle cell from, say, a nose or heart or eye lone biologist could carry a sampling of had everything it needed to produce a cells to a distant planet and colonize it." new individual. There were some early Despite the dazzling potential, how- attempts to unravel this mystery. But re- searchers were in the dark until a dra- reach the first major stage of embryonic poinly-toed South African clawed toad. matic 1952 experiment conducted al the development, a complete blastula. But Like Briggs and King, Gurdon began Institute for Cancer Research in Phila- each time, some of the 7,000 to 8,000 cells the nuclear transfer experiments by us- delphia lit the way. making up the hollow ball had failed to ing cells first from the early embryo and One of the scientists who took part in divide properly. Now she looked down to then from later stages of development. that early study was Marie Di Berardino, see a perfectly formed, basketball-like Finally he took cells from the intestine of today a professor of physiology at the sphere with bumps and rises on the sur- a tadpole; these intestinal cells were fully Medical College of Pennsylvania. Visit her face, indicating that the cells had fully differentiated, as could be seen by their lab, and you'll find it filled with dozens of cleaved. Hearing the excitement in the brush border, a highly indented surface frogs at all stages of development. Some laboratory, another colleague wandered that allows the cell to absorb food for the are tadpoles no bigger lhan an inkblot in. King handed the newcomer a pair of hungry, growing animal. with a tail; others have hind legs; still oth- forceps with which to turn the blastula and Using these cells, Gurdon was able to ers have begun growing their forelimbs. see that its cells had succeeded in divid- get a tiny percentage of the clones to be- There are frogs as small as a thimble and ing all the way around. come adult, sexually mature frogs. A few others large enough for French dining. 'This person— I won't use the name or of these even went on to bear young Some are produced by natural means, gender— looked, was duly impressed, themselves, showing that they had gone and others have been produced by the and left," says Di Berardino. "Then Tom through the entire life cycle and that they hands of Marie Di Berardino herself. sat down to look at his blastula and found were normal in every respect. The Di Berardino of today, a petite the person had squashed it and walked When he published a paper in 1962 woman with cropped gray hair, a quick away without saying a word. We all there was an immediate flap. Here was a smile, and a keen eye, bears a striking slapped him on the back and said, 'If it's young graduate student telling the team resemblance to the pretty, long-haired real, you'll do it again.'" that pioneered cloning thai they had brunet in a 30-year-old picture adorning It was real, and lhat year Briggs and somehow gotten it wrong. "My work in- the laboratory wall. The Di Berardino in King published their historic paper on the dicated that the genes were not altered Ihe picture is smiling as she stands next when the cell differentiated," Gurdon to Robert Briggs, who died in 1983, and says. "My interpretation was opposite the Thomas King, now deputy director of the one posed by King and Briggs." Lombardi Cancer Institute at George- But Gurdon had yet to reach (he grail town University. As Di Berardino tells it, of cloning: a fully functioning adult animal iOne doner recalls the trio got its start when Briggs gave her cloned from an adult cell. (Although the her first job out of college as a research the day Adam came to her lab, cells he used were fully differentiated, assistant in his Philadelphia lab. Soon they had come from a tadpole.) In 1975 threw his money in after that he brought in King, who had he finally cloned an adult frog using its just gotten his Ph.D. the air, and spoke of funding skin cells and got normal tadpoles. Al- Briggs the answer to the Weis- though two of his tadpoles actually wanted • her research. mann riddle, and the way to do it seemed underwent metamorphosis, turning into wanted to transfer the obvious: Empty an egg cell, put in the He frogs, they never did reach adulthood. nucleus of a somatic cell, and see what information in his The prize has eluded Gurdon to'this day. happens. If you could produce a com- Why didn't these normal tadpoles turn brain to the brain of a done3 plete animal in this way, then the genes into adults? Gurdon doesn't know for sure. of the somatic cell were still there. If you But today, talking from his office at Cam- couldn't get normal development, how- bridge University, where microscopes ever, then most likely something had and lab dishes range along the wall, and happened to those genes. his desk holds a small collection of rub- To do his experiment, Briggs would use first successful cloning of a multicellular ber frogs, he says he has an idea. Adult ihe species for which he was already animal, a tadpole. But the Weismann differentiated cells and egg cells, he ex- known in the field of embryology—Rana question of what happened to the genes plains, are on two very different time- pipiens, the leopard frog, named for the of somatic cells was still unresolved. The tables for division. The egg is on the fast spots on its back. cells used to make tadpoles had come track, ready to spring into action aboul He gave the job to King, who, after from early embryos that had not yet an hour after fertilization, while the far endless hours of trial and error, finally started down the path of differentiation. slower differentiated cell is programmed came up with the nuclear transfer tech- The Philadelphia team went on to per- to divide every two days or longer. So nique thai is still the basis of cloning to- form a series of experiments using cells when the nucleus of an adult cell is placed day. Peering through a microscope with from progressively later and later stages in a recipient egg, it is forced to divide dials and joysticks to allow precision of development. They found that with before it is ready. Chromosomes get left control, the doner sucks up an isolated each stage of development, the number behind or are torn apart. The result is that cell into a hollow glass pipette. The open- of tadpoles and frogs they were able to some of the clones have chromosomal ing of the pipette, which must be hand clone dropped dramatically. Finally, when abnormalities and may be genetic "mon- lorged to the exact thinness, is just wide they took cells from a very late stage of sters." And, Gurdon says, errors in the enough to break the cell wall but leave embryonic development in which the tail chromosomes may prevent the frog from the nucleus intact. Using the pipette, the begins to appear, they were not able to completing development. researcher removes the nucleus from the clone a single tadpole. As the organism Gurdon has tried to get around this somatic cell and injects it into the egg matured, the group concluded, the genes problem by doing serial transplants, in cell, whose chromosomes have been re- had somehow changed. which nuclei tram the cells of a clone in moved. So difficult is the technique that Meanwhile, across the Atlantic at Ox- an early embryonic stage are used to start even today few are skilled at it. ford Universily. a graduate siudent with a a new clone. This can be done over and Di Berardino still remembers the day in mop of sandy blond hair and a dreamy, over again, each time selecting cells from February 1952 when she walked in to Hamlet quality decided to see if he could the embryos that show the most normal work to find Tom. King dancing down the answer the Weismann question for him- development. It is this "selection of the corridor. Pulling" her into his lab, he self. Instead of using the leopard frog, fittest" that, Gurdon believes, allowed him pointed triumphantly to his microscope. however, John Gurdon decided to try his to end up with the two tadpoles that al- He had been trying to get a clone to luck with a different amphibian— the most made it to adulthood. 64 OMNI "By transplanting and offhand manner, seems far younger bryo splitting, tor instance, he could cre- number, we found that we did get a few than his forty-five years. Though born and ate at most four animals from a single fer- that had almost everything the parenl cell educated in Denmark, he speaks with a tilized egg. With cloning, on the other would be the limit. Starting had," he says. Indeed, he believes, if one' lilting English accent. "I think I'm more an hand, the sky single embryo, could theoret- I one did enough nuclear transfers, it would be explorer than a scientist. go through the with a possible to clone an adult trog today. same joys and fears people do when they ically clone a production herd in a year. Africa. Except," When the news that mice had been If a human being is ever to be cloned, walk into darkest he in al- however, scientists must first succeed not laughs, "you're unlikely to be attacked by cloned broke 1981, Willadsen had with a frog but with a mammal. In 1981 an embryo." ready begun to try it on sheep. two researchers, Peter Hoppe of Jack- After becoming a veterinarian and get- Willadsen knew that Hoppe and lll- son Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and ting a Ph.D. in physiology and immunol- mensee had worked by removing the nu- Karl lllmensee of the University of Ge- ogy, Willadsen went to Cambridge, where cleus of a fertilized egg and replacing it neva, created a media sensation when he began his journey into uncharted ter- with the nucleus from an embryonic cell. they reported they had cloned mice. The ritory. "There are very few things that are Because sheep, like mice, are mammals, newspapers and TV had a field day. The really truly new," he notes. "There are just Willadsen decided to use that method as tried, same question was on the lips of all the different and new ways of looking at well. But no matter how he he it to work. with its reporters and commentators: Now that a things. In my own experience I have made couldn't get The egg, mouse had been cloned, could humans three quite minor discoveries, and they newly transferred donor nucleus, re- be far behind? have kept me busy for fifteen years." fused to develop. Down on his luck, Wil- But the cheering stopped when two Doing that original work at the Cam- ladsen finally decided to take one last Philadelphia scientists, James McGrath bridge Animal Research Station, Willad- stab. Instead of using fertilized eggs, he and Davor Saltor, reported that they were sen was the first to make twins by divid- experimented with a few unfertilized ones. unable to repeat this work, lllmensee and ing a two-ceil sheep embryo and placing It was an immediate success. Hoppe had claimed that they had cloned each cell in the uterus of a surrogate ewe. "I did only one experiment, and if it it, mice using four-day-old mouse embryos He and his colleagues created the geep, hadn't worked I might have dropped long time be- from the blastocyst stage. But when an animal that, like the mythical chimera, and it would have been a I it admits. "But I McGrath and Saltor tried this, they found is made up of different species, in fhis fore tried again," he knew that not only did the blastocyst cells not case sheep and goats. He has even cre- then that this was significant, so I changed work, they couldn't even clone mice us- ated a lamb sprung from three embryos the'whole program to go after it." trans- ing cells from earlier stages of develop- fused together. This amazing animal ac- He began cloning embryos and uteri. ment. The only time they got normal em- tually ended up with six parents I ferring them to sheep And on March bryonic development was when they But while the results of this research 6, 1986, the prestigious journal Nature cloned from the two-cell stage, just after were spectacular, Willadsen knew they carried the news: For the first time ever, little had the fertilized egg had divided for the first had only limited application to mass farm animals— three lambs— time. Their conclusion, "that the cloning' breeding. Using the technique of em- been cloned. CONTINUED ON PAGE 153 of mammals by simple nuclear transfer is biologically impossible," shook the clon- ing community to its roots. There the matter might have rested, but by the time McGrath and Saltor's paper appeared in 1984, British researcher Steen Willadsen was already engaged in experiments he had no intention of stop- ping. Spurred on by the original report of mouse cloning, he knew he was on to something with immense practical impli- cations—the cloning of a farm animal. po— co—^o-oQ-Q^eo—ocy—^ Willadsen's company, Alta Genetics, in Alberta, Canada, seems the perfect set- ting for the brave new world of animal re- production. The animal shed, set on roll- ing farmland against the timeless backdrop of the snowcapped Rockies, is divided into two parts. On one side are the adults like Sophia, a supercow that will produce more than 1 2 tons of milk per lactation period (about a year), along with less illustrious cows that serve as surro- gate mothers. On the other side are batches of look-alike offspring produced in ways that would have stunned Old MacDonald—-calves from embryos that have been frozen and thawed, trans- V^SEt ferred from one cow to another, split in half or quartered, and, most recently, cloned. It is here that Willadsen has come to put the finishing touches on the work that is the biggest thing to hit animal breeding since Noah first selected ani- mals to go two by two into the ark. Dressed in a T-shirt and corduroy pants, Willadsen, with his brown bangs STAR S REBORf ARTICLE BY ELLEN KUNES Imagine inhabiting a new form, a the world's boldest dreamers to PAINTING BY MICHAEL PARKES n Clarke, au- Robert Jarvik, and Martina Navratilova. we make contact with alien life, then it will ArthurC. thor of 200!; A All are men and women who share an become even more important io enter into unrelenting drive to push past the human their way of thinking. Space Odyssey; If understanding of the we had no precon- body's physical and mental limits. At our I would foresee an behest they have imagined a new breed processes of mind and of consciousness ceived ideas and starting with a of human being, an exotic, intriguing race that would result in being able to play were blank sheet of pa- that will be in harmony with the wondrous back the life experiences of another in- habitat ot the future. dividual into our own mind—to have a di- per, -how would we rect experience of what other people's design an intelligent There feel like. I of course, organism? I Tony Curtis, actor: I'd memories assume, like my body made that we don't come uninvited; this would would be four [eyes] to provide all-round the highest part of platinum. If every- be a process of sharing by consent, not vision. They have to be at body were platinum, a rape of the mind. of the body, for good visibility. Getting rid a fundamental it would eliminate all of the neck removes color barriers in this Oleg Cassini, fashion designer: In com- weakness; we only need it because our world. There would parison to the animal world, the human eyes have a limited field of view, and we be no distinctions body is not very beautiful. In other spe- have to turn our heads to compensate. between us. We'd all cies the proportion of beauty is much The four eyes would be recessed, and be the same height, greater—just look at the lion, tiger, ele- the head would probably be covered with L, layer. would good-looking, rich—and made of metal phant. Our bodies desperately need the a hard protective The brain with interchangeable parts. You'd go into help of imagination and talent. When we be somewhere in this general region— the local body shop and say, "I'm ready wake up in the morning we realize we are you want the shortest possible nerve they for a recycling." They'd take you, melt you prisoners of our bodies and must make connections to the eyes, because important organs, down, reshape you, and you'd start all every effort to become desirable. That's are the most sense over again. why people like me, designers, are hired: Light is the fastest, longest-ranging car- to make people look better. But in the fu- rier of information. Any sentient creature able would surely take advantage of it. I doubt Mickey Mantle, Baseball Hall of Famer: I ture an individual will be to design had knee problems throughout my ca- his body at will — not by sucking out fat if a really advanced creature would have reer, starting with the 1951 World Series. but by preventing the accumulation of fat. teeth. We're rapidly losing ours, and it's One knee's been operated on three times, Designers only try to imitate the world of much too primitive to waste energy the other one twice. Casey Stengel used birds. Oh, to possess those colors! Na- grinding and tearing tissues when we that will the job more to say, "If that fellow had good knees, ture created the greatest of palettes; de- have machines do there's no telling what he could have signers only borrow that in a modest at- efficiently. Food intake would probably be to create more beautiful body. entirely liquid and their whole digestive done." Finally, I couldn't run and retired tempt a apparatus far more efficient and com- when I was ihirty-six years old. Most guys play until they're at least forty. So, I'd like Pierre Galletti, bio- pact than our primitive plumbing." medical engineer, to go back to when I was twenty-five years old. Stay there. Mentally and physically. professor of medical C from The Lost Worlds of 2001 , © 7972, by BB| at it if I science Brown I would have loved couid have had Arthur C. Clarke R-spr/nte/ by arrangement ""'••' limbs that never broke, ligaments that 1 'mmHB University: From a with Signet, an imprint of NAL-Penguin, Inc., 'I biological view- New York, NY) never tore, I would have been in a lot of the record books. Guys like Willie Mays, point, you cannot Stan Musial, Pete Rose— the guys-who prevent death. The Ivo Pitanguy, world-renowned plastic have the best lifetime statistics— never goal in redesigning surgeon; A cosmetic make-over can re- the is not to charge the body, but I wish I could pos- had any big physical ailments. If I could body immortal but to make them sess the creative mind of Voltaire, Cer- have been injury-free until I was forty make people possible late as pos- vantes, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, or years old, I would have hit seven hun- die as young as as Eliot. At the time I want to play dred home runs. sible. I would keep people in perfect T S. same shape for as long as possible, and then tennis like John McEnroe or discover Freeman J. Dyson, they would fail all at once. things as Jacques Cousteau does. I I could physicist, philoso- To live better in a future environment, I would love to adapt my lungs so pher, author of Infi- would have more redundant organs, just stay underwater longer. Think of the iso- nite in All Directions, as we now have two kidneys and two lation and quietness, in a way, it would like to the womb. professor at the In- lungs. I would like a reserve heart or the be going back stitute for Advanced ability to grow one again. We may not Study at Princeton need to have one in a fully functional Jeana Yeager, copi- of Voyager, the University: The most shape, but if we add some sort of em- lot important develop- bryo out of which we could redevelop one first aircraft to circle sin- ment in the future will when needed, that would be most useful. the globe on a tank of gas: It If I the gle be to acquire the capacity to enter into I had a choice, would like to have other creatures' minds, to be a bird or a most critical functions in the brain —the would be fun to have to whale or a tiger, William Blake, my favor- sensory and motor cortex— in duplicate. wngsand be able fly, but I rather ite poet, said, "How do you know but that If one part is destroyed, the other com- would every bird that cleaves the aerial way is ponent will takeover: be able to remateri- not an immense world of delight closed My redesigned, new brain would have alize—to transform to your senses five?" One day we shall telecommunications capability: a long- and move to another location in the mo- be able to break through and experience distance communication ability to relate ment of a thought. that ourselves. Most of our problems arise to several people at the same time. It's I'd eliminate the need for sleep. I never from our limited horizon —we are cut off very likely that the human population will see my bed as it is, because I do more from each other and from other species. 1 keep expanding, so the ability to relate than I'm physically able. I'd like to clone myself, but I'd central brain to keep If we could understand each other better, to more people at once may be an im- need a clone. we might also treat each other better. If portant evolutionary feature. track of each 68 OMNI — — ULTRA LIGHTS s ULTRA TASTE PERFORMANCE. i **m+m± SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide. Martina Navratilova, problems of everyday living twice as long was offered to me. Everybody wants to I fat and toxins. Then we could con- Mary McFadden, sistently done what I have asked it to do. one of Ihe greatest as our grandparents did. Al! I want is a go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. sciously control those levels and avoid fashion designer: I Mentally, I don't have to go into detail tennis of that lets live long you're See, I don't it's like the other I champions gene you as as know what on harmful side effects. would like to have an it's been superb. Emotionally, I've rarely all time, coauthor of healthy In other words, until you wear out, side. I'd like to try it out, but I'd like to ] Someday we may have an artificial eagle's vision, Then been unsettled even briefly. It would be Martina with George a la Oliver Wendell Holmes. Wear out, not come back if I didn't like it. It's an inter- heart that's implanted for a few years. I could see things as in the highest degree ungrateful of me to ! Vecsey (Knopf): As disease out. When my time came, boom. esting idea, isn't it, being able to trot be- During that time we'll remove muscle tis- far away as three ask for changes, even if only in fun. and far as my body is Let's do away with bed patients; let's do tween this world and the next? sue from the patient, create an organ cul- miles. I wouldn't I think I would not like to do it. concerned, I would away with diseasing out. ture outside the body, and grow a new want my body to age like interchange- I would redesign myself so that 1 Robert Jarvik, cre- heart with the individual's exact genetic past thirty because Jack LaLanne, fit- I able parts. If your needed to waste far less time sleeping. ator of the Jarvik arti- makeup and out of the individual's own I'm interested in 3 ness entrepreneur: knee is sore, pop it out and put in a new It would probably be great fun to have ficial heart: The most cells. reimplant I think If Then we will that organ sports: at thirty you're pretty much someone said I one. A rotating waist wouldn't be a bad wings and certainly solve one hell of a lot important function and remove the temporary artificial re- finished. In terms of mental achievement, could stay the same idea—my feet would always be pointing of commuting problems. we don't have is the placement device. With such advances, I suppose the limit for the fashion busi- in the right direction, improving my speed ability to forget. we would create a new life form, ness would probably be forty. seventy-three— I'd and agility. In my fantasy, I'd like to play ten- Dave Ftighetti, ace relief pitcher. New York Once you have been There is absolutely no reason why go for it. Who If I nis in total darkness, with only the lines, my Yankees: could redesign my body, I taught something, Bruce Sterling, science-fiction writer: I'd women shouldn't be as strong as men, I wouldn't? Things are opponent's racket, and the ball visible. would like two new feet. I have bunions, once you've had a like to be immortal, infinitely wise and mean, it irritates me why we can't beat pretty good right and both my big toes are shorter than very bad experi- powerful. I would go with a massively men on the tennis courts, for instance. now. I'd also like to I Malcolm S. Forbes, they should be. My feet hurt all the time, ence or have incorrect information in- 1 amplified central nervous system—to Rolls of flesh on ones stomach or on one's be able to hit a golf ball four hundred chairman, editor in except when I'm pitching. I also would grained in your mind, you can't erase it have subsidiary brains scattered hips or upper thighs are just totally dis- yards (I drive about two hundred forty chiet of Forbes like to have a right arm like my left one so or nol very easily. If we could genetically throughout my body, That way I'd have gusting, so there should be a new injec- now). I'd like to be able to do five hours magazine: If geneti- I could be effective with both of them. engineer and perfect the brain, then all perfect recall. I'd fine-tune the body's tion that could dissolve the fat and keep of exercise without getting tired. Now I cists really get going, memorization on demand and forgetting metabolic rate—no one would be fat or you in perfect condition. work out about two and a half hours a I want a health digi- Don King, boxing promoter, chairman and on demand would be very valuable. suffer from anorexia. Twelve fingers on day training for my next stunt—swim- tal readout that tells chief executive officer of Don King Pro- We also should be able to grasp infor- each hand would be better than five fin- Isaac Asimov, sci- ming from Catalina Island to Los Angeles you what vitamins or ductions, Inc.: I'm Superman already. My mation faster and be able to make objec- gers; our toes—they're atavistic —should ence-fiction writer: underwater. Twenty-six miles. It would be nutrients you need. mind is like Jonathan Livingston Sea- tive decisions rather than decisions function as well as our fingers. They At sixty-eight, my fun if we could swim underwater without I An alarm would go gull's. I'm a student of metaphysics— I fly based on emotional responses. And it should, at least, be able to grasp objects. body is approach- any kind of breathing equipment, If i could off—boom boom boom—and then the now. My body may be on the ground, but would be great if we could call up the Maybe we shouldn't even have legs—just ing the end of its do it, I'd swim through the Caribbean and readout tells you that you need X, Y, and my mind, my imagination is soaring above subconscious on demand and under- a second pair of arms. useful life. Physi- go to Cannes; I'd like to swim up to one Z. Or when some microbe was on the at- the earth. But I'd like a scientist to tell me stand those processes. I would iike to hook up to the senses of cally, I have avoided of those nude beaches there. tack, a digital readout would alert you . how to tap into the brain cells that I'm not The brain should have chemical sen- other people and other specie's, to ex- crippling or debili- I believe that anything the mind can before you became ill. using. sors to detect the level of many sub- plore, to discover what it 'eels like to be :jT:!,g diseases, and conceive the body can achieve. The It's debatable that we can handle the I'd take another one hundred years if it stances in the blood such as blood sugar, a bacterium, for example. my body has con- whoie key to everything is pride and dis- 70 OMNI C0N1INUED0NW1GE7B 71 * : * 4 Pages 72 and 73: L of the African violet (middle) can take root and m&s grow new plants. The asexual dandelion (top) ca reproduce itself, while sunflowers (bottom) rely 01 sexual reproduction. flower, a mem family, reproduces l_. relying on its yellow entice insects to pollin As any gardener might i pect, dandelions have another '" wav of ensuring that they i Raspberry bushes b( _r ecial stems that sprout n when their tips touch the soil, producing additional plants, in- fepend- plants. The kalanchoe plant Clockwise from center: Freshwater hydra; green frog emerges from duckweed; spotted whiptail lizard; sea stars; longtail salamander, able to regenerate lost tails; kalanchoe. v Left, from fop: Raspberry bush stems grow a new plant when the tips touch soil; mycoplasma, the 'im simplest living coll (red particles) on surface of an animal cell (yellow). Right: Walkingstick. duce. Tiny plants form the teeth of its fleshy ground and continue t_ 3 — "—* - thought of a relation- '"" ' d budding, ttr~ m gin as small knoU. .^....^ „.. Ml the side of the parent. Once they grow and form tentacles, they detach from the r \^ mplete organism—and t clone of the parent. aras can sexually reproduce " m. Scientifi- w* / which they prefer. d regei t into pieces, entire n rm from the individ- ..., its. Regeneration is ind of reproduction, as it c ise the cloning of Right: Italian bees. Males are born to breed, but they're doomed once they do. Center: A wrasse cleans a fish's mouth. Far right: Micrograph of shigella shows cell division through binary fission. Reggie Jackson, one ample, how do you improve the heart, of baseball's great- mechanically? We might be better off with REBORN est players, retired a third arm—you can do so much with from the Oakland As: two arms and two hands— but then the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 71 I dream of being design of the body would be disfigured, cipline. If people had pride and disci- a member of the Hopetully through genetics we will un- pline, everybody would be millionaires, Penske Racing derstand why certain people are more they'd be Miss America, they wouldn't be Team— to design prone to develop heart disease or other sick, they wouldn't be telling lies, they and race a car. That tragic diseases. When we know how to wouldn't be into dope. You have to train would mean my. replace defective genes, I would prevent for life just like you train for the Olympics, redesigned body would have to have the disease— abort it—in the embryo. attributes to make my dream possible. We also could implant a gene for lon- Jackie Mason, comedian, star o! The gevity. I would like to live another century World According to Me: I would come in Henny Youngman, comedian: I would love or so—as long as I stayed healthy. I threes— not just one person. Then you to live to the age of two hundred, I would wouldn't want to live in a diseased body. could meet three women and be in three redesign my body so when I celebrate To maintain good cardiac function, good apartments at the same time. I would have my two hundredth birthday I feel as good kidney function, good respiratory func- eyes in the back ot my head so I could as I do now. I'd invite everyone I know to tion—these are absolutely essential to see if people were talking about me or my party—providing they were alive, and good living. what kinds of faces they make after I I'm not joking I By then the world may rec- leave. I want a clone of myself in the au- ognize my fiddle playing; I would be John Geese, founding member of Monty dience who would scream it up it the au- asked to do a command performance Python's Flying Circus, actor/screenwrit- dience didn't laugh. Audiences should not before Isaac Stern. er, currently starring in the movie A Fish be able to leave the theater for at least Called Wanda; I wouldn't want to have two hours; their legs shouldn't function. Michael DeBakey, any extras— like three arms or five legs. Physical ugliness should be elimi- world-famous heart I'm rather content with what I have at the nated. If we want equality from a democ- surgeon: The more moment, thank you. I would take another racy, we should expect equality from God, you know about the one hundred years of living, provided that too. So everybody should either be body, the more you my body stayed in reasonably good beautiful or terrible looking; we should all have to admire the shape. A person could have so many be bald or all have lots of hair. Sexual or- way it's put together. more experiences and master so many gans should be near the ears so as soon I would have great more skills. I'd like to master meditative as you meet a person you could have sex difficulty redesign- skills to release the stress and tension with them wilhout taking off your clothes. ing the body. For ex- caused by the hurly-burly of life. DO The aliens are coming, the aliens are coming—and they're just in time to break up a cozy little tryst in New York City HANNIBAL'S ELEPHANTS BY ROBERT SILVERBERG HBHHI he day the aliens tended in New York was, of course, the fifth of May, 2003. That's one of those historical dates nobody can ever forget, like July 4, 1776, and October 12, 1492, and—maybe more to the point—Decem- ber?, 1941. At the time of the invasion I was working for the tight- ware division of MGM-CBS and married to Elaine and living over on East Thirty-sixth Street in one of the first of the fold-up condos, one room by day and three by night, a terrific deal at three thou- sand seven hundred fifty dollars a month. Our partner in the time/ space-sharing contract was a show-biz programmer named Bobby Christie who worked midnight to dawn, very convenient for all con- cerned. Every morning before Elaine and I left for our offices, I'd push the button and the walls would shift and five hundred square feet of our apartment would swing around and become Bobby's for the next twelve hours. Elaine hated that. "I can't stand having PAINTING BY MARSHALL ARISMAN — — all the goddamn furniture on tracks!" she at me, furiously pounding his chest There were seventeen witnesses to the isn't I — would say. "That how was brought Kong.' Kong! Kong! onset of the invasion. It had started, so up to live." We veered perilously close to I stepped into the path of one of the they said, with a strange pale-blue shim- divorce every morning at wall-shift time. southbound runners and said, "Hey, what mering about thirty feet off the ground. But then, it wasn't really what you'd call a the hell's going on?" He was a suit-and- The shimmering rapidly became a stable relationship in most other re- tie man, pop-eyed and puffy-faced. He churning, like water going down a drain. I spects, and guess having an unstable slowed but he didn't stop. I thought he Then a light breeze began to blow and condo, too, was more instability than she would run me down. "It's an invasion!" he very quickly turned into a brisk gale. It could handle. yelled. "Space creatures! In the park!" lifted people's hats and whirled them in a [ spent the morning of the day the aliens Another passing business type loping startling corkscrew spiral around the came setting up a ricochet data transfer breathlessly by with a briefcase in each churning, shimmering blue place. At the between Akron, Ohio, and Colombo, Sri hand was shouting, 'The police are there! same time you had a sense of rising ten- Lanka, involving, as I remember, Gone They're sealing everything off!" sion, a something's-got-to-give feeling. All With the Wind, Cleopatra, and the Johnny "No shit," I murmured. this lasted perhaps forty-five seconds. Carson retrospective. Then I walked up But all I could think was Maranta, pic- Then came a pop and a whoosh and tothe park to meet Maranta for our Mon- nic, sunshine, Chardonnay, disappoint- a ping and athunk—everybody agreed day picnic. Maranta and I had been lov- ment. What a goddamned nuisance is on the sequence of the sound effects ers for about six months then. She was what I thought. Why the fuck couldn't they and the instantly famous not-quite-egg- Elaine's roommate at Bennington and had come on a Tuesday? is what I thought. shaped spaceship of the invaders was married my best friend Tim, so you might there, hovering, as it would do for the next all say we had been fated along to be- When I got to the top of Seventh Ave- twenty-odd days, about half an inch come lovers; there are never any sur- nue, the police had asealfield across the above the spring-green grass of Central prises in these things. At that time we park entrance, and buzz-blinkers were set Park. An absolutely unforgettable sight: lunched together very romantically in the up along Central Park South from the the sleek, silvery skin of it, the disturbing park, weather permitting, every Monday angle of the slope from its wide top to its and Friday; and every Wednesday we narrow bottom, the odd and troublesome had ninety minutes breathless use of my hieroglyphics on its flanks that tended to cousin Nicholas's hot-pillow cubicle over slide out of your field of vision if you stared on the far West Side at Thirty-ninth and at them for more than a moment. ^The next day Koch Plaza. I had been married three and A hatch opened and a dozen of the a half years, and this was my first affair. the second ship landed and invaders stepped out. Floated out, rather. For me what was going on between Mar- Like their ship, they never came in con- the real space anta and me just then was the most im- tact with the ground. portant event taking place anywhere in monsters appeared. To me They looked strange. They looked ex- the known universe. the first aliens ceedingly strange. Where we have feet It was one of those glorious gold-and- they had a single oval pedestal, maybe didn't qualify as monsters blue dance-and-sing days that New York five inches thick and a yard in diameter, will give you in May, when that little win- at all. Monsters that drifted an inch or so above ground dow opens between the season of cold level. From this fleshy base their wraith- ought to be monstrous.^ and nasty and the season of hot and like bodies sprouted like tethered bal- sticky. I was legging up Seventh Avenue loons. They had no arms, no legs, not toward the park with a song in my heart even discernible heads—just a broad, and a cold bottle of Chardonnay in my dome-shaped summit, dwindling away to hand, thinking pleasant thoughts of Mar- a ropelike termination that was attached anta's small round breasts. And gradu- Plaza to Columbus Circle, with horren- to the pedestal. Their lavender skins were ally I became aware of some ruckus tak- dous consequences for traffic. "But I have glossy, with a distinctly metallic sheen. ing place up ahead. to find my girlfriend," I blurted. "She was Dark eyelike spots sometimes formed on I could hear sirens. Horns were honk- waiting for me in the park." the cop stared them but didn't last for long. We saw no ing, too: not the ordinary routine every- at me. His cold gray eyes said, I am a mouths. As they moved about they day exasperated when-do-things-start- decent Catholic and I am not going to seemed to exercise great care never to to-move honks, but the special rhythmic facilitate your extramarital activities, you touch one another. New York City oh-for-Christ's-sake-what- decadent overpaid bastard. What he said The first thing they did was to seize half now kind of honk that arouses terror in out loud was, "No way can you cross that a dozen squirrels, three stray dogs, a your heart. People with berserk expres- sealfield, and anyhow you absolutely softball, and a baby carriage, unoccu- sions on their faces were running wildly don't want to go in the park right now, pied. We will never know what the sec- down Seventh as though King Kong had mister. Believe me." And he also said, "You ond thing was that they did, because no just emerged from the monkey house at don't have to worry about your girlfriend. one stayed around to watch. The park the Central Park Zoo and was personally The park's been cleared of all human emptied with impressive rapidity, the po- coming after them. And other people beings." That's what he said: cleared of lice moved swiftly in with their sealfield, in were running just as hard the opposite all human beings. For a while I wandered and for the next three hours the aliens direction, toward the park, as though they around in some sort of daze. had the meadow to themselves. Later in absolutely had to see what was happen- Finally I went back to my office and the day the networks sent up spy-eyes ing. You know: New Yorkers. found a message from Maranta, who had that recorded the scene for the evening Maranta would be waiting for me near left the park the moment the trouble be- news until the aliens figured out what they the pond, as usual. That seemed to be gan. Good quick Maranta. She hadn't had were and shot them down. Briefly we saw right where the disturbance was. any idea of what was occurring, though ghostly, gleaming aliens wandering I had a flash of myself clambering up she had found out by the time she around within a radius of perhaps five the side of the Empire State Building — or reached her office. She had simply hundred yards of their ship, collecting at the very least Temple Emanu-EI—to pry sensed trouble and scrammed. We newspapers, soft-drink dispensers, dis- her free of the big ape's clutches. The agreed to meet for drinks at the Ras Ta- carded items of clothing, and something great beast pausing, delicately setting her fari at half past five. The Ras was one of that was generally agreed to be a set of down on some precarious ledge, glaring our regular places, Twelfth and Fifty-third. dentures. Whatever they picked up they 84 OMNI — wrapped in a sort of pillow made of a cops had everything sealed off." over again, Hannibal and the elephants. glowing fabric with the same shining tex- I pressed the button and the walls be- You remember how that was. When ture as their own bodies, which immedi- gan to move. Our living room and kitchen Hannibal set out from Carthage to con- ately began floating off with its contents returned' from Bobby Christie's domain. quer Rome, he took with him a phalanx toward the hatch of the ship. In the moment of shift I caught sight of of elephants, thirty-eight huge gray at- Bobby on the far side, getting dressed to tack- irained monsters. Elephants were People were lined up six deep at the go out. He waved and grinned. useful in battle in those days—a kind of early-model they were bar when I got to the Ras, and everyone "Space monsters in the park," he said. tank— but handy was drinking like mad and staring at the "My, my, my. It's a real jungle out there, also for terrifying the civilian populace: screen. They were showing the clips of don't you know?" And then the walls bizarre colossal smelly critters trampling the aliens over and over. Maranta was al- closed away on him, invincibly through the suburbs, flapping ready there. Her eyes were glowing. She Elaine switched on the news, and once their vast ears and trumpeting awesome pressed herself up against me like a wild again I watched the aliens drifting around cries of doom and burying your rose- woman. "My God, "she said, "isn't it won- the Mall picking up people's jackets and bushes under mountainous turds. And derful? The men from Mars are herel Or candy-bar wrappers. now we had the same deal. With one dif- wherever they're from. Let's hoist a few to "Hey," I said, "the mayor ought to put ference, though: The Roman archers the men from Mars." them on the city payroll." picked off Hannibal's elephants long be- We hoisted more than a few. Somehow "What were you doing up by the park fore they got within honking distance of of aliens I got home at a respectable seven o'clock at lunchtime?" Elaine asked, after a bit. the walls Rome. But these had anyway. The apartment was still in its one- materialized without warning right in the room configuration, though our contract The next day was when the second middle of Central Park, in that big grassy with Bobby Christie clearly specified wall- ship landed and the real space monsters meadow between the Seventy-second shift at half past six. Elaine refused to have appeared. To me the first aliens didn't Street Transverse and Central Park South, anything to do with activating the shift. qualify as monsters at all. Monsters ought which is another deal altogether. I won- She was afraid, I think, of timing the se- to be monstrous, bottom line. Those first der how well things would have gone for quence wrong and being crushed by the aliens were no bigger than you or me. the Romans if they had awakened one walls or something. The second batch, they were some- morning to find Hannibal and his army "You heard?" Elaine said. "The aliens?" thing else, though. The behemoths. The camping out in the Forum, and his thirty- "I wasn't far from the park at lunch- space elephants. Of course, they weren't eight hairy shambling flap-eared ele- farting time," I told her. "That was when it hap- anything like elephants, except that they phants snuffling and snorting and pened, at lunchtime, while I was up by were big. Big? They were immense. It put about on the marble steps of the Temple the park." me in mind of Hannibal's invasion of of Jupiter. Her eyes went wide. "Then you ac- Rome, seeing those gargantuan things The new spaceship arrived the way the tually saw them land?" disembarking from the new spaceship. It first one had—pop whoosh pingthunk "I wish. Bythetimelgottotheparkthe seemed like the Second Punic War all and the behemoths came tumbling out of it like rabbits out of a hat. We saw it on the evening news: The networks had a new bunch of spy-eyes up, half a mile or so overhead. The ship made a kind of belching sound, and this thing suddenly was standing on the Mall gawking and gaping. Then another belch, another thing. And on and on until there were two or three dozen of them. Nobody has ever been able to figure out how that little ship could have held as many as one of them. It was no bigger than a school bus stand- ing on end. The monsters looked like double- humped blue medium-size mountains with legs. The legs were their most ele- phantine feature — thick and rough- skinned, like tree trunks — but they worked on some sort of telescoping prin- ciple and could be collapsed swiftly back up into the bodies of their owners. Eight was the normal number of legs. but you never saw eight at once on any of them: As they moved about they al- ways kept at least one pair withdrawn, though from time to time they'd let that pair descend and pull up another one, in what seemed like a completely random way. Mow and then they might withdraw two pairs at once, which would cause them to sink down to ground level at one end like a camel kneeling. Their prodigious bodies were rounded, with a sort of valley a couple of feet deep running crosswise along their backs, and they were covered all over with a dense, stiff growth midway in texture between . Two hundred years ago, George Washington received a fine precision timepiece just like this p raFwgf 1 TvV- MF-s j^^L /jSSM -., p j — i^ l*\u- nNB |/a ^V r flslH s 1 Is U 1 ill 5V W^jnciwk ' ^l Li li^l 1 li#w?$^K$rd\ M 1 *IIS PffTT^ jgr 1 PI The Father of our Country always Pic . Tell the eby treasured the precisely calibrated turning the dial sunlight timepiece given to him by his focuses on the hi ig. And close friend and military aide the how \X-' ashing ton rsiiiSt Marquis de Lafayette. he measured each Ir was The Universal Ring Dial, the birth of our nation. now a prized collecror's item. imeral and letter — as Re-created in erched solid brass to well as the acanthus leal design — inaugurate the National Maritime is deeply etched into the imported Historical Society's official collection brass. Priced at $69. Available of tine hist only from The Franklin Mint. The Universal Ring Dial Pli-iuclniindtTiitrTric'I.TnivLrsa! Rii^Did in precision-etched solid brass expressly for me. And biil me in 4 monthly instalments of $ 17.25* each, beginning prior ro shipment. Tht hardwood bast. CITY, STATE, ZIP " fur and ieathers. There were three yellow that because they're the ones who came where there were expendable trees. The eyes the size of platters at one end and to us. We didn't go to them." mayor said he was studying the problem three rigid purple rodlike projections that She laughed. "It all sounds so absurd but that it was too early to know what the stuck out seven or eight feet at the other. to me. That Central Park should be full of best plan of action would be. Their mouths were located in their bel- creatures— His chief goal, in the beginning, was lies; when they wanted to eat something, "But what if they do want to conquer simply to keep a lid on the situation. We still after all, they would simply collapse all eight of their Earth?" I asked. didn't even know, whether legs at the same lime and sit down on it. "Oh," Maranta said, "I don't think that we were being invaded or psl visited. To It was a mouth big enough to swallow a would necessarily be so awful." play it safe, the police were ordered to very large animal at a single gulp—an set up and maintain round-the-clock animal as big as a bison, say. As we would The smaller aliens spent the first few sealf ields completely encircling the park shortly discover. days installing a good deal of mysterious in the impacted zone south of Seventy- They were enormous. Enormous. The equipment on the Mall in the vicinity of second Street. The power costs of this most reliable estimate was that they were their ship; odd, intricate, shimmering were staggering, and Con Edison found twenty-five to thirty feet high and forty to constructions that looked as though they ii necessary to impose a ten percent volt- fifty feet long. That is not only substan- "belonged in the sculpture garden of the age cutback throughout the rest of the tially larger than any elephant past or Museum of Modern Art. city, which caused a lot of grumbling, es- it air- present, it is rather larger than most of the They made no attempt to enter into pecially now that was getting to be two-family houses still to be found in the communication with us. They showed no conditioner weather. outer boroughs of the city. Furthermore a interest in us at all. The only time they took The police didn't like any of this: out in two-family house, though it may oftend notice of us was when we sent spy-eyes there day and night standing guard your aesthetic sense, will not move around overhead. They would tolerate them for front of an intangible electronic barrier at all; it will not emit bad smells and fright- an hour or two and then would shoot them with ungodly monsters just a sneeze ening sounds; it will never sit down on a down, casually, like swatting flies, with away. Now and then one of the blue Go- bison and swallow it; nor, for that matter, liaths would wander near the sealfield and will it swallow you. African elephants, they peer over the edge. A sealfield maybe a tell me, run ten or eleven feet high at the dozen feet high doesn't give you much shoulder, and the biggest extinct mam- of a sense of security when there's an an- moths were three or four feet taller than imal two or three times that height loom- 4/f began making that. There once was a mammal called ing over its top. the baluchitherium that stood about six- a sound. It was the kind of So the cops asked for time and a halt. feet high. That was the largest land Combat pay, essentially. There wasn't teen sound a piece of mammal that ever lived. The space crea- room in the city budget for that, espe- tures were nearly twice as high. We are chalk twelve feet thick would cially since no one knew how long the talking large here. are talking dino- aliens were going to continue to occupy We make if it was saur-plus dimensions. the' park. There was talk of a strike. The dragged across a blackboard Central Park is several miles long but mayor appealed to Washington, which staying quite modest in width. It runs just from the wrong way. A had studiously been remote from Fifth Avenue to Eighth. Its designers did the event, as if the arrival of an extrater- weird vertigo attacked me.9 not expect that anyone would allow two restrial task force in the middle of Man- or three dozen animals bigger than two- hattan was purely a municipal problem. family houses to wander around freely in The President rummaged around in the an urban park a mere three city blocks Constitution and decided to activate the wide. No doubt the small size of their National Guard. Thai surprised a lot of pasture was proving very awkward for spurts of pink light. The networks—and basically sedentary men who enjoy them. Certainly it was for us. then the government surveillance agen- dressing up occasionally in uniforms. The cies, when they moved in— put the eyes Guard hadn't been called out since the '94, "I think they have to be an exploration higher each day, but the aliens never Bulgarian business in and its current party," Maranta said. "Don't you?" We had railed to find them. After a week or so we members weren't very sharp on proce- shifted the scene of our Monday and Fri- were forced to rely for our information on dures, so some hasty on-the-job training day lunches from Central Park to Rock- government spy satellites monitoring the became necessary.,As it happened, efeller Center, but otherwise we were park from space, and on whatever ob- Maranta's husband, Tim, was an officer trying to behave as though nothing un- servers equipped with binoculars were in the 107th Infantry, the regiment that was usual were going on. "They can't have able to glimpse from the taller apartment handed the chief responsibility for pro- come as invaders. One little spaceship- houses and hotels bordering the park. tecting New York City against the crea- load of aliens couldn't possibly conquer Neither of these arrangements was en- tures from space. So his life suddenly was an entire planet." tirely satisfactory. changed a great deal, and so was Mar- Maranta is unfailingly jaunty and opti- The behemoths, during those days, anta's; and so was mine. mistic. She is a small, energetic woman were content to roam aimlessly through with close-cropped red hair and green the park southward from Seventy-sec- Like everybody else, I found myself eyes, one of those boyish-looking women ond Street, knocking over trees, squat- going over to the park again and again who never seem to age. I love her for her ting down to eat them. Each one gobbled to try and get a glimpse of the aliens. But optimism. I wish I could catch it from her, two or three trees a day: leaves, the barricades kept you fifty feet away like measles. branches, trunk, and all. There weren't all from the park perimeter on all sides, and I said, "There are (wo spaceshiploads that many trees tobegin with down there, the taller buildings flanking the park had of aliens, Maranta." so it seemed likely that before long they'd put themselves on a residents-only ad- She made a face. "Oh. The jumbos. have to start ranging farther afield. mission basis, with armed guards en- They're just a bunch of dumb shaggy Theust ! up about forcing it, so they wouldn't be over- monsters. I don't see them as much of a the trees. They wanted the mayor to do whelmed by hordes of curiosity seekers. menace, really." something to protect the park. The mon- I did see Tim, though. He was in charge "Probably not. But the little ones—they sters, they said, would have to be made of a command post at Fifth and Fifty-ninth, have to be a superior species. We know to go elsewhere—to Canada, perhaps, near the horse-and-buggy stand. Young- as OMNI — " Until hun- ish, stockbrokery-looking men kept run- "No," I said, staring. "That isn't so. You're she said, until nine. twenly-ono ning up lo him with reports to sign, and kidding me." dred hours, I silently corrected. he signed each one with terrific dash and He looked pleased, a "gotcha" look. vigor, without reading any of them. In his "Matter of fact, 1 am. The truth is that no- Another few days and we got used to crisp tan uniform and shiny boots, he body has the goddamnedest idea of what it all. We began to accept the presence must have seen himself as some doomed to do about any of this. But don't think the of aliens in the park as a normal part of and gallant officer in an ancient movie nuke strategy hasn't been suggested. New York life, like snow in February or Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, John Wayne And some even crazier things." laser duels in the subway. - bracing himself for the climactic cavalry "Don'ttellmeaboutthem,"l said. "Look, But they remained at the center of charge. The poor bastard. Tim, is there any way I 'can get a peek everybody's consciousness. In a subtle, " "Hey, old man," he said, grinning at me over those barricades'!1 pervasive way they were working great in a doomed and gallant way. "Came to "Not a chance," he said. "Not even you. changes in our souls as they moved about see the circus, did you?" I'm not even supposed to be talking with mysteriously behind the sealfield barriers We weren't really best friends any- civilians." in the park. The strangeness of their being I Their arrival had more. I don't know what we were to each "Since when am a civilian?" here made us buoyant. other. We rarely lunched anymore. (How "Since the invasion began," Tim said. broken, in some way, the depressing that life in our could we? I was busy three days a week He was dead serious. Maybe this was rhythm brave new century with Maranta.) We didn't meet at the gym. all just a goofy movie to me, but it wasn't had seemed to be settling into. I know I thinking, It wasn't to Tim I turned for advice on per- to him. that for some time had been as sonal problems or second opinions on More junior officers came to him with I suppose people have thought since Cro- investments. There was some sort of more papers to sign. He excused himself Magnon days, that lately the flavor of of them. life changing for the bond, but I think it was mostly nostalgia. and took care Then he was on modern had been it sour I for five so. becoming and But officially I guess did still think of him the field telephone minutes or worse, that was as my best friend, in a kind of automatic, His expression grew progressively more nasty, that the era I happened to live in unquestioning way. was a dim, shabby, dismal sort of time, small-souled, mean-minded. You know I said, "Are you free to go over to the Plaza for a drink?" the feeling. Somehow the aliens had that feetjng to lift. invading us "I wish. I don't get relieved until twenty- caused By one hundred hours." in this weird hands-off way, they had given 6/ saw an Elaine "Nine o'clock, is that it?" us something to be interestingly mysti- of sort of "Nine, yes. You fucking civilian." i scarcely knew. When I fied by—a sort redemption, a It was only half past one. The poor bas- rebirth. Yes, truly. tried one more tard. "What would happen to you if you Some of us changed quite a lot. Con- left your post?" time to make excuses for sider Tim, the latter-day Bengal Lancer, officer. "I could get shot for desertion," he said. ' the staunchly disciplined He , that hounded "Seriously?" lasted about a week in that mind-set. Then beast on the viaduct, she "Seriously. Especially if the monsters one night he called me and said, "Hey, pick that moment to bust out of Ihe park. glared at me fellow, how would you like to go into the war, old buddy." park and play with the critters?" This is with unmistakable loathing.^ "Is it, do you think? Maranta doesn't "What are you talking about?" "I to get in. I've got the think so." I wondered if I should be talking know a way about what Maranta thought. "She says code for the Sixty-fourth Street sealfield. they're just out exploring the galaxy." I can turn it off and we can slip through. Tim shrugged. "She always likes to see It's risky, but how can you resist?" the sunny side. That's an alien military bleak; Finally he looked up at me and So much for Gary Cooper. So much for force over there inside the park. One of said, "You see? It's starting." John Wayne. these days they're going to blow a bugle "What is?" "Have you gone nuts?" I said. "The and come out with blazing ray guns. You'd "They've crossed Seventy-second other day you wouldn't even let me go up better believe it." Street for the first time. There must have Lo the barricades." "Through the sealfield?" been a gap in the sealfield. Or maybe "That was the other day." "They could walk right over it," Tim said. they jumped it, as I was saying just now. "You wouldn't walk across Ihe street with lor drink. said you'd get "Or float, for all I know. There's going to Three of the big ones are up by Seventy- me a You be a war. The first intergalactic war in hu- fourth, noodling around the eastern end shot for desertion." man history." Again the dazzling Cary ot the lake. The Metropolitan Museum "That was the other day. Grant grin. Her Majesty's Bengal lancers, people are scared shitless and have "You called me a civilian." ready for action. "Something to tell my asked for gun emplacements on the roof, "You still are a civilian. But you're my grandchildren," said Tim. "Do you know and they're thinking of evacuating the old buddy, and I want to go in there and what the game plan is? First we attempt most important works of art." The field look those aliens in the eye, and I'm not to make contact. If we ever establish phone lit up again. "Excuse me," he said. quite up to doing it all by myself. You want communication, we invite them to sign a Always the soul of courtesy, Tim. After a to go with me, or don't you?" peace treaty. Then we offer them some time he said, "Oh, Jesus. It sounds pretty "Like the time we- stole the beer keg chunk of Nevada or Kansas as a diplo- bad. I've got to go up there right now. Do from Sigma Frap. Like the time we put the matic enclave and get Ihem the hell out you mind?" His jaw was set; his gaze was scorpions in the girls' shower room." il, it, of New York. But I don't think any of that's frosty with determination. This is Major. "You got old pal." going to happen. I think they're busy There's ten thousand Comanche coming "Tim, we aren't college kids anymore. scoping things out in there, and as soon through the pass with blood in their eyes, There's a fucking intergalactic war going as they finish that, they're going to launch but we're ready for them, right? Right. He on. That was your phrase. Central Park is some kind of attack, using weapons we went striding away up Fifth Avenue. under surveillance by NASA spy-eyes don't even begin to understand." When I got back to the office there was that can see a cat's whiskers from fifty "And if they do?'' a message from Maranla, suggesting that miles up. You are part of the military force "We nuke them. Tactical devices, just I stop oft at her place for drinks that eve- that is supposed to be protecting us the right size for Central Park Mall." ning. Tim would be busy playing soldier, against these alien invaders. And now you 1 90 OMNI CON : inuf:. . On PAGE 220 a that I recall the original era of my ¥ produce. Butiti ... me directly. Perhaps it just didn't really like me. Soon after, with no warning, I .' >v exp erience of this n otion, which a hac never felt befor , was breath , F l Br"i?ffi! 4"ii "Wffl^^ff wa. there, too. For could feel extends out of the fluid and the vibrations of his tedious, In my earliest days I had just a limited awareness of surround- . Since a crystalline structure— sort of net through which Death? Decay? it took me many months to realize the meaning of those words; but when I did, I could not believe it was true. Was I the child of a parent now long gone? Would I die, too? The de- I spair I felt was wrenching, for had come to love the melodious hum of the geos- phere, the stars I sense at night, and even the drone of my maker's thoughts, which give me comfort though they are dull. The inner musings of entities like this called A-lifers— are constructing actual calcium creature were once the stuff of critters, entities that consume energy, emit grade B movies. But today an eclectic waste, and even grow. Others are model- band of researchers— including com- ing the fundamental concepts of evolution- puter scientists, biologists, chemists, ary biology in complex computer-based physicists, and even philosophers—are ecosystems. In the here and now these bent on making the fantasy of artificial life computer models will help sctenfisH study come true. Their creations —known as how living beings interact with their envi- artificial life forms, or ALFs—are, quite ronment; in years to come they may en- simply, creatures that follow all the rules able A-lifers to design the full-blown soci- and patterns of the living, though they are eties they hope their ALFs will one day form. made not of biological material but of sil- In the foreseeable future A- :fers say the ' icon, calcium, and clay. myriad creations might include waves ot Some of the scientists— affectionately precfetdfS designed to rid society of its parasites and pests; artificial pets far more T Welcome: t i suited to urban life-styles than today's dogs A-liler Peter Oppenheimer's visions run an and cats are; and an endless march of scut unearthly gamut (aocknse -ram left}, the ar- workers groomed for dangerous jobs in tificial athlete; Wally, the nuclear whale; hors mines or along the ocean floor. The tough- d'oeuvres in orbit; and Mickey Moose. This est ALFs able to survive without oxygen page, top nghr Oppcnne^ier used mathe- — in zero gravity, of enduring matics to fast.-ion Hits conch shell Canadian capable researcher Przemyslaw Prusinkiev.icz cre- scorching heat and absolute cold— might ated flowers (above and right) thai "g.'O'.v" in explore ihe farthest reaches of space. accordance with the Hie cycles of :eai flora. Eventually, some pundits sugges:. A_Fs 94 OMNI — might exist not just because of us but out terns could neither solve novel problems tributed to a controversial new theory: that life from caldron of an impetus of their own. "I see what's nor pose original questions. Nor were they organic had evolved not a going on now in artificial life research as aware of their own existence. of primordial soup, as had long been could store en- much more signilicant than the first print- Carbon-based organisms— biological thought, but from clay. Clay ing press, the invention of air travel, or any- forms made with proteinlike organic ergy from the environment and transfer it thing else that human beings have done chains—had a whole different set of traits. back to organic molecules, which in turn since they got going," says J. Doyne Farmer Without exception they were born, grew, would follow the patterns of the clay to live of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at New reproduced, and died. They also evolved, and reproduce. This unique ability en- Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. which is to say that traits governed by abled clay to form the matrix for biological "We'll be the first species—at least on genes changed from generation to gen- life soon after the earth was formed. Earth—to directly create another species, eration as the forces of natural selection Today Cairns-Smith takes that theory maybe even our own successors." decreed which qualities were most likely further still. Not only can clay give rise to TTie full force of the ALF revolution won't to survive. As a corollary to this, biological organic life, he says, it may also be able to itself. lifelike virtue of clay, be felt for decades, but the first shots were organisms even mutated, every now and reproduce One fired during the field's recent inaugural then creating a more successful candidate for instance, is that it can transmit infor- conference at Los Alamos National Lab. for survival in the classic Darwinian mold. mation—something done by living biolog- There, in late 1987, man-made crystals They also interacted with their environment ical organisms through their DNA. When a grew in serpentine, eerily biological pat- and one another, taking in nutrients, for in- new clay crystal forms on an old one, the terns. Artificial living membranes made of stance, and excreting waste. Finally, bio- "child" often incorporates the distinctive, inert chemicals took in nutrients and ex- logical life possessed the trail of "emerg- individual electrical and structural charac- pelled wastes. Roboticists did their stuff: ence," a state in which unexpectedly teristics of the "parent." If the new crystal One ALF was a cat able to meow and fetch. complex wholes emerged from collections flakes off and goes its separate way, the Using computers as an artificial bios- of simple initial elements. This phenome- individuality and distinctiveness of the par- phere, some programmers had even cre- non crops up whenever bees build a hive, ent may live on in its progeny. ated entire ecological systems, including Once formed, notes Cairns-Smith, these mock environments populated by artificial clay crystals can actually undergo natural plants, animals, and worms. selection and evolve. For instance, he says, big crystals of The first rudimentary efforts to actually imagine a situation in which build a being from the inanimate go back clay made more big crystals while small QA mechanical duck lo the eighteenth century, when craftsmen crystals made small crystals. "One could constructed clocks with dancing figures with articulated linkages in picture these crystals at the bottom of a streambed, perhaps, where to be small is and chirping birds. One particularly ambi- each wing could tious individual created a mechanical duck to be successful. The small crystals might with 400 articulated linkages in each wing. quack, stretch, eat, digest, predominate, and the big ones might and eventually die out." It quacked, stretched, ate, digested, and evacuate, even evacuated, producing an "artificial" finally, and perhaps most important, clay an "artificial" stench stench that contemporaries declared ab- making can interact with iis environment. Its reac- solutely unbearable. These old automa- contemporaries tive surface plays host to myriad chemical reactions, necessary if a structure is ever tons, of course, were merely elaborate toys. absolutely unbearable.^ found excrete waste, or It wasn't until the twentieth century that re- to absorb nutrients, searchers on the forefront of the computer breathe. What's more, clay forms mem- revolution began suggesting that they branes, letting it interact with the environ- might be the ones to finally re-create life. ment without getting swallowed up. "The In the Seventies, at places such as Car- environment is a kind of stream," Cairns- negie-Mellon University, Stanford Univer- sperm and egg develop into a person, or Smith says, "and the organism a kind of sity, and the Massachusetts Institute of brain cells interact to make thought. turbulence in that stream. Membranes are Technology, computer whiz kids created These basic definitions of life have essential if this turbulence is to maintain its programs that beat champs at chess, and caused A-lifers to argue that being is not integrity and stay in one piece." robots that could—sort of—see and feel. really a thing but rather an organization— But does this mean clay is alive? Or that Artificial intelligence (Al) experts at a system that orders random matter in a in the future we can use it to fashion life Stanford University and elsewhere even specific way. As long as it follows certain forms of our own design? "Clay is a hardy managed to create a series of expert sys- patterns and rules, ihey say, any sort of form of low-tech life,' " Cairns-Smith be- tems— programs that contain the exper- thing could be alive: a batch of chemicals, lieves. "Biological life is high-tech; it is more tise of some human being. Constructed by traffic patterns, a collection of electronic productive and varied but also more vul- a computer scientist who has picked the impulses moving through computer chips. nerable to environmental stresses and far experts' brains and compiled a large col- All that counts is that these materials more complex. Surely," he adds, "there lection of rules in a given area of knowl- whatever they may be—have the right or- must be a more general sort of biology than edge, an expert system can dispense in- ganization, the 'right logic. "Life is not a fhe one based solely on DNA." valuable advice. Today there are literally substance; there's no living material,' " says Cairns-Smith isn't the only A-lifer to dream hundreds of expert systems in a wide range Oxford University biologist Richard Daw- of structuring ALFs from inorganic stuff. of areas, including mineral prospecting, kins, author of The Blind Watchmaker. "It's Fordham University systems scientist Milan medical diagnosis, fighter pilot assistance, just an incidental lact that real living things Zeleny has recently had the outrageous even the running of a factory that manu- happen to be made of organic, soft, idea of making a creature out of calcium factures concrete. One system, a so-called squishy stuff." chloride. Actually, Zeleny's endeavors psychiatrist, helps clients sort out their feel- University of .Glasgow chemist Alex- emerge quite naturally from his field of study ings and their very lives. ander Graham Cairns- Smith had these itself. As a systems scientist, he was inter- But as A-lifers pondered the essence of concepts in mind not long ago when he ested in studying the basic phenomena of computers, they realized that present-day suggested-we might make some of the first organization and complexity. And during Al just barely embodied the principles of ALFs from, of all things, clay. Back in 1985 his readings, he happened to stumble fascinating life. Even sophisticated expert systems, Cairns-Smith and San Jose State Univer- across some work on com- great after all, captured only rote memory—in- sity chemist Lelia Coyne, working inde- plexity by the French chemist and telligence in its basest form. Expert sys- pendently, announced insights that con- physician Stephane Leduc. 96 OMNI CONTINUED ON RAGE 164 URBAN RENEWAL By T. Coraghessan Boyle of firewood is over eighty miles away, in the Sanni Abubakar was on his knees. "Please, Tahat Massif. Thousands make the trek over sir, this is ungodly living. This is lustful and the sand for a bundle of sticks, then they sell degrading. We must put an end to it." the sticks back here for two American dollars I was wearing a fez. They'd brought me in apiece. No one can afford a hot meal." as urban affairs adviser to the governor, a 'Ah," I said, and my first thought was this: weak-chinned fop of a man who spent his days cold cereal. Suddenly I saw them all—every chewing khat and dawdling with his wives. My last basket weaver, goatherd, and jitney driver desk, carved from a single piece of bongo in town—hunkered over bowls of Rice Chex, wood, weighed over three hundred pounds. Special K, Froot Loops. But then I checked There was no limit to my power within the walls myself. What, after all, was the nutritional value of the city. "Yes, Sanni," I said, my voice of Froot Loops? Roughly the same as eating drenched with benevolence. the box in which they're packed, I sup- Sanni was a hard little rubber ball of a man, posed—and that would never do. roughly the shape and color of an eggplant. So then—and I was exhausted, remem- He was the intercessor between me, the gov- ber— I hit on sushi. What could be better? Nu- ernor, and the local people's councils. He was tritious, low in cholesterol, and it requires no forever in a dither about something. The first cooking, not a single blessed two-dollar twig. day I arrived from Century City—before I even "Sushi, Sanni," I said, "sushi." had a chance to try on my fez—he was tug- He gave me an odd look, as if struck dumb ging at my sleeve, harping about twigs. Twigs. with the brilliance of the idea. "Sushi?" he said. As if I didn't have enough to worry about, I could see it already. If they'd taught me what with the swooning deadfall of the anything at the Sequoit School of De- plane as we came in over the desert, sign and Urban Planning, it was to be the lingering queasiness from my fresh flexible. I was suddenly and dramati- inoculations, and my forthcoming cally expanding my vision of the down- meeting with the governor. Here I was, town urban redevelopment project to in- absolutely skewered with ex- clude a Japantown, thirty or haustion, and Sanni was forty sushi bars with gleaming worried afcout twigs. "What's black marble counters, slow the problem?" I'd asked him. fans, and paper lanterns. Uni, "Wood, sir. The people don't FLIGHTS Spanish mackerel and quail have any wood for their cooking fires. eggs. Wasabi. Sake. I was hot; I was ex- I was an innocent back then. "Well, why cited. I'd been on the ground less than two can't they go outside the city to find it?" hours, and already I'd resolved my first "Oh, they do, they do," Sanni crooned. major crisis. But now it was something else. "That's the problem. The nearest OF Every day it was something else. Camels FANTASY FICTION BY JOYCE CAROL OATES K. W. JETER BARRY N. MALZBERG DANIEL PINKWATER T CORAGHESSAN BOYLE HOWARD WALDROP PAINTING BY DOUG WEBB " — — defecaling on the tiles in the new Banni of the Land of the Rising Sun. "What's himself— Banni Said Ben-Banni Ban Said Ben-Banni Ban Tower Plaza, lepers happening?" he asked with a grin. found it in his heart to take some sixteen congregating in the tanning salons (in Sanni replied warmly ("The tubes, man, new wives into his fold; the Mercedes dealer distributor took their ignorance, their barbarity, they nur- the tubes"), but I merely shrugged, dis- and Haagen-Dazs tured the fond hope that the ultraviolet tracted by the problem at hand. We on a few more each, and even Sanni rays would cure them), skinks coming in couldn't have our new city streets looking showed up one afternoon in the com- off the desert by the millions to throw like the corner of Hollywood and Vine pany of two dark pubescent beauties who themselves into the reflecting pools at the I'd torn down ten square blocks of calci- flaunted almond eyes and tribal cica- AramCo Center Pavilion. And now this. fied mud hovels and the odd mosque or trices. One of my staffers—an otherwise Brasilia-in-the- competent fellow in the Redevelopment "Yes, Sanni," I repeated, "selling their two to achieve a kind of if I'd even to timidly bodies, you say?" desert effect, and I was damned Offices— came me and all submitted that he thinking I might He took me by the arm: I had to see have it spoiled by these beggars and was this myself, he insisted. As we left the of- their butt-swishing whores. take a daughter or two oft his hands. Well, I negotiating the fact is, I don't swing that way, and fices I'd personally designed—irides- I turned to Sanni. He was cent sea-green panels in a twenty-seven- his nigiri platter warily, the plastic chop- told him as much in so many words. story tower with a massive Oldenburg in sticks (we'd tried wood originally, but Within the week every unmarried girl the of twelve the atrium—Sanni filled me in. It was the people kept stealing them for their cook- in town above age had found drought, he said. Whole families were ing fires) hovering uncertainly over a slice a husband. The discouraging thing, coming in from the countryside because of tuna that looked a bit tired round the though, was that it didn't make a jot of their crops had failed, because the sea- edges. "Do you think they'd go back to difference Married or not, they still loi- sonal grasses were too sparse to sup- their villages if we put an end to the pros- tered round the stalled PeopleMover ex- of port their goats and kids But it wasn't just titution problem?" its, beneath the canopies the sushi the office build- the drought, it was the bright-lights, big- Sanni seemed almost relieved to set bars, and on the steps of city syndrome, too. Why sit counting your down his chopsticks. He sniffed suspi- ings, dressed like outer space aliens and toes on a goat-hair carpet in the middle selling their wares as shamelessly as be- I it. I'd of nowhere when you can play Space In- fore. I was frustrated, admit Here vaders in the umbrageous hollows of the created this artwork of a living space, this video arcade or stroll along the unmov- glowing canvas of a city, this monument ing belt of the PeopleMover, contemplat- tor them to live in, and their own petty ducked into ing a time when the authorities will throw 6We needs and wants were destroying ft For time there I just wanted to turn my back the switch and put it in motion? Edo Sushi. The place was a these people had on the whole business and go home to The problem was, deserted. The people no money. No money for sea urchin roe Wilshire Boulevard and the Avenue of the flown in from the Benihana's in Rome or hadn't taken to sushi. They'd Stars. But I was no defeatist. Be flexible, I told myself, be loose, be creative: There's for chocolate egg creams concocted in never seen a fish the Soft Rock Cafe on the Faisal Mezza- got to be a way. before, and their holy book nine. No money for food of any sort. Or lodging. They were crowding the pristine warned them about Two days later I had it. Sidi Boulevard Rodeo Drive I summoned Sanni and Ambak sidewalks of the eating uncooked flesh3 and littering the steps of the Wells Fargo Bubi, my Parsons-educated minimall ex- Building. In desperation, they'd turned to pert, and took lunch with them at the Soft selling their own daughters. Rock Cafe. I had the guacamole burger. I'd Neither Sanni nor Sidi was hungry. "I'm I was no longer a babe. been living in the city for almost four years now and willing to admit my mistakes," I said, dab- had seen my most daring dreams come ciously at his cup of green tea and threw bing guacamole from the corners of my to fruition, tangibilized in stone and steel it back in a gulp, as if he were a cowhand mouth, "and to learn from them." Soft rock overhead and plastic and glass. I knew a whore quaffing cheap whiskey. He gave me a hummed through the big smile. "I so," speakers, the volume so low it was nearly when I saw one. gap-toothed think maybe static. "One's de- We stepped out onto the boulevard, the For a long moment I kept him in sus- indistinguishable from sun cutting at my eyes like a knife, and pense, while the look of wisdom I culti- signs do not exist in a vacuum," I said. there they were. Dark-eyed, slim, tooth- vated in the mirror crept over my face. I "To implement them and be truly suc- less, in their leather miniskirts and fishnet laid the chopsticks carefully across the cessful one must make allowances for the stockings.- "Want a date?" they mur- wasabi dish, adjusted my fez, and let my local culture. I see that now," mured as we.strode by, Sanni and I, arms voice rise in a melodious wave: "Our new Sanni nodded sagely. He remained linked, like two old codgers on the Santa edict reads as follows: All single females obeisant, but I could see that lately I'd Monica Pier. 'A date, a date," the voices within the city limits must be married by gone down a notch or two in his es- whispered as we ducked into the cool next Tuesday, noon. Noncompliance will teem—the women were still in the streets, depths of Edo Sushi. result in banishment to the Tahat Massif, plying their ungodly trade, and it had to The place was deserted. The people there to gather wood in perpetuity' gall him. Not to mention the two new wives hadn't really taken to sushi, peeling off Sanni looked stunned. "Oh, sir," he said, he had to feed. I cleared my throat, took the shrimp and scallops and pink glisten- clapping his hands, "this is wisdom." a sip of my egg cream. "What I'm trying ing morsels of Norwegian salmon and to say is this: minimalls." off feeding them to their dogs and goats. As it turned out, it wasn't so wise after Sidi, who'd been drifting to the They'd never seen a fish before, and their all. Everyone got married—there was no barely detectable strains of "I Want to holy book had warned them about eating problem with that. In fact, for awhile there Hold Your Hand" (the Mantovani version), uncooked flesh. For a while they'd been my glittering city began to look like Las sat up rigid. enthusiastic about the rice balls, but even Vegas, what with the marriage brokers "If we can't eliminate the prostitution that was short-lived. Mohammed, our setting up in every spare office and door- problem, at least we can disperse it. What sushi chef, greeted us. He wore a white way, catfights breaking out over pro- do you think?" kung fu sash round his head, and the Ar- ' spective husbands, the streets alive with "Frozen yogurt," Sidi said. "Polio Gordo. abic characters on his robe seemed a the mumbo jumbo of haggling and bid- House of Siam. A one-stop cleaners. reasonable substitute for the ideographs ding and counterbidding. The governor 7- El even." 100 OMNI — A slow smile lit Sanni's face. I could see The stadium, built within the past tew I it I was restored to his pantheon. gave years, already looked, to his eye, discon- a beat, then I said, "Yes. The city will have certingly shabby: its walls of poured con- its suburban sprawl and its convenience crete rain streaked as if tear streaked; il stores, minimalls advancing into the walkways narrow, with a pervasive odor dried-up countryside itself, but there's one of damp, and of something more malev- thing I insist on." Sidi cupped his beard olent, like backed-up drains, Grit-en- in his hands; Sanni leaned forward. crusled weeds poked their way, like evil "In each minimall, no matter how busy thoughts, through cracks in the pave- or how high the rents, no matter who we ment. And -the size of the stadium, for get to anchor it—7-Eleven, Stop 'M' Go, which he should have been prepared, Shakey's —there's got to be one store was really quite . . . disconcerting. Rows devoted to one item alone." of seats, empty seats, lifted above him "Yes?" Sanni said. 'And what would that and behind him, on all sides, the space item be?" was the size of a small city. Approxi- Burgers were sizzling on ihe grill. mator half the seats were exposed in the Somewhere on the periphery of my con- harsh sunshine, and half were obscured sciousness I was aware of Barry Manilow in shadow that appeared too dark to be, limping through a string-infested version at this time of day, altogether natural. And of "Stairway to Heaven." I grinned. the cinder track, which should have been Flipped back the tassel of my fez. "Sim- no more than a mile long, stretched nearly ple," I said, the resonance of sagacity fill- out of sight, a foreshortened and dis- ing out my voice till it sounded as if I were tended circle. speaking through a trumpet, "twigs." He wondered suddenly why he had come to this place, what force had drawn THE STADIUM him. But of course it was too late to turn By Joyce Carol Oates back. He pulled the woolen cap down low on his forehead and began to run. There was a man, no longer young though And began to hear, almost at once, at not yet old, who, traveling alone in north- his back and rising vertiginously over- ern Europe, began to feel that his soul head, a low, murmurous sound, as of a was being drained slowly, almost se- great crowd. He could feel its collective cretly from him, drop by drop. He woke anticipation, its very nearly palpable ex- frequently in the night, in unfamiliar hotel citement; he could hear the humming of beds, his eyes opened wide and sight-. the amplifying system; the small black less, his damp hair stuck to his forehead. cinders crunched beneath his hard-driv- In the northernmost city of his itinerary, ing feet with a faint air of protest. The where, at the summer solstice, the sun thought came calmly to him; Here are line- barely set, and the sky was eerily illumi- ground bones, preceding yours. nated through the brief night, he knew Still, he ran. A small, solitary figure, himself close to oblivion. Why am I not he ran. more frightened? he wondered. Much of his life had been passed in a careful, civ- WEMPIRES ilized sort of fear, always under control. By Daniel Pinkwaier He had made this fear, and his control of it, more or less his life's work; his art, Yet I saw a movie on TV one Saturday after- now, alone, his senses alert to the point noon, ft was about a vampire. What a of pain, he was scarcely afraid at all. He good movie! supposed it had something to do with the The vampire was scary. He was real unnatural fading of the night. smooth. I liked his clothes. 1 decided I In the morning he stood shirtless at a would be a vampire. I asked my mother window of his hotel room, observing the to help me make a vampire costume. sky, which was a faint marbled blue, ra- "But Halloween is three months away," diant with Arctic cold. He drew a deep she said. breath and trembled with a sensation very 'Just the same," I said, "I'd like you to like bliss. Why so happy? he wondered. help me make the costume. Please." i He felt, in that instant, that all of his life, tually, she made the whole thing, it was his true life, still lay before him. very "good. Though later that morning he would be I smeared my face with white stuff my obliged to give a lecture at the university mother uses at night, and 1 rubbed my before an audience of several hundred hair with salad oil so it would be shiny I people and must dress the part, in ex- and smooth. I used a little red lipstick. pensive, custom-made suits—for he was, looked good. in his public self, a "distinguished" man Then I waited in the hallway for my sis- now he put on old clothes, running shoes, ter to come by. a woolen hat, and gloves. He left the ho- It is fairly dark in the hallway. tel and went to run in an enormous civic It was a big success. stadium that had been pointed out to him I turned up at supper in my vampire the day before by his translator. The air suit. Everybody thought it was cute. My was fresh and alien to the taste, blind- father took pictures. Every time I looked ingly bright, the wind so percussive it took at my sister she burst into tears. I prac- his brealh away. ticed doing vampire moves and saying — vampire things. The first problem came around the house, but I was not to dress the next morning. They wouldn't let me or act like a vampire at school. wear my vampire suit to school. I'll never get tired of being a vampire, I "There might be some cold chicken." "None of the other children go around thought.' "Cold chicken is good. Let's go down wearing capes," my mother said. My parents also said that if I didn't co- to the kitchen, Sonnyboy. Don't make "That's because they don't have any," operate, they would take steps. noise and wake up the family." I I said. "What steps would you lake?" asked. The vampires followed me down the "Look, you "can't go to school dressed "Steps," they said, 'fJust go to your room stairs to the kitchen. There-was most of a like a vampire." and think about it" cooked chicken in the icebox, and the "Why not?" I went to my room and cut out bats, I vampires found two big bottles ol ginger "Because I'm your mother, and I say hung them from the ceiling on pieces of ale. They ate the chicken and drank a lot you can't. You may put on your vampire thread. They looked pretty good. of ginger ale. Then they burped. suit when you come home." That night, when I was sleeping, vam- "Hey, Sonnyboy! Do you got any on- "Could I sleep in a coffin, do you think?" pires came through the window. ions?" they asked. They opened cans of I asked. I woke up. sardines, toasted slices of whole wheat 'This is getting weird," my mother said. "Hallo, Sonnyboy!" the vampires said. bread, and madesardine-and-onion After school, I went to ihe dime store "How's by you?" sandwiches. and got Ihe one thing I really needed "Wait a minute!" I said. 'Are you guys When they had finished those, they fake plastic vampire teefh. vampires?" poured cornflakes into bowls and sloshed "Wempiresl That's us!" milk over them. The next day my teacher sent a note "Real ones?" The vampires were making a mess of home with me: "Of course real! What did you think, the kitchen. They were having a good Dear Mrs. Harker, fake wempires?" time. They sang a song. Jonathan has been threatening to bite "And you can turn into bats?" "Sing the song with us, Sonnyboy!" the children in his class. I have asked him to "Anytime we like." vampires said. leave his fangs at home. I hope you will 'And you ... uh ... drink people's "I don't care for peaches. They are full have a little talk with him. blood?" of stones. Yours truly, "Phooey! What a disgusting idea! "I like bananas because they have no Mildred Van Helsing Where did you hear that?" bones" (Teacher) "Everybody knows that," I said. All of a sudden my mother was stand- "Phooey! From television you get such ing in the doorway. She was wearing her My parents had a little talk with me. ideas. Drinking blood—yich!" said the bathrobe. They said that they thought I would get vampires. "Now, for drinking, ginger ale "What's this? Vampires in my kilchen in tired of being a vampire. They said I could is best. Maybe you have some ginger ale the middle of the night?" wear my cape and fangs and things in the house?" "Hallo, Sonnyboy's mother," the vam- pires said. "There are crumbs everywhere," my mother said. "We having a party," the vampires said. "Out," my mother said. "Out?" asked the vampires. "Ouf now, " my mother said. "Well, good-bye, Sonnyboy," the vam- pires said. They climbed out the kitchen window. "I didn't know they would mess up the kitchen," I said. "Now do you see why your father and I didn't want you to behave like a vam- pire?" my mother said. "They didn't mean any harm," I said. "Go io your room," I went to my room. I looked out my win- dow. The vampires were making their way down the street. They waved to me. "Good-bye, Sonnyboy! Be a good wempire!" What neat guys! Nothing will ever change my mind about being a vampire. HOP SKIP JUMP By Barry IN, Malzberg In the distance Constanza thought she could see the Battery, the extreme south- ern tip of Manhattan with boats prowling the waters, the thin lights and suggestion of ships curving toward the night; nearer were the heavier, blooming lights of mid- town Manhattan, the suggestion of mo- tion within. But in the tight confinement of the car iiself, looking af the George CONIINJLDONPAGE180 — LEE COUNTYS LIZARD MAN AND OTHER UNSOLVED MYSTERIES BY DENNIS STACY AND KEVIN McKINNEY Scientists who solve mysteries are Glen Kuban eventually found faded bluish- often awarded academic acco- gray and rust-colored stains that indicated lades and Nobel prizes; amateur the "human" prints were actually dinosaur « anomalists receive a tootnote in toe prints. Kuban not only discovered no history books at best. To explain evidence of human-dinosaur coexistence the origin of the universe, for example, Bel- but also caused paleontologists to reex- gian priest Georges Lemaitre proposed the amine their ideas of the stance and pos- idea of a "big noise." The explosion of a ture of dinosaurs. single mass of material, he suggested, "The principal summons of knowledge sparked the creation of the universe, which is a desire to solve mysteries," Albert Ein- has been expanding ever since. stein once said. Fortunately for both the Changing the theory's name to the more amateur and the professional Sherlock alliterative "Big Bang," astronomer Fred Holmes, there is a bounty of unsolved Hoyle dismissed Lemattre's idea as pre- mysteries—old and new, large and small— posterous and challenged it with his own. to keep us occupied until the year 2000 According to Hoyle's steady-state theory, and beyond. The following cases are just the universe has always existed and has a few that may be resolved one day, by always been expanding Today, however. anomalists if not by scientists— perhaps astrophysicists, who study the universe and even by you. Most of them—some hun- its origins, have strengthened the argu- dreds of years old, others having cropped ment in favor of the Big Bang theory. up, in one form or another, just this year Some mysteries, of course, are eventu- raise intriguing and unsettling questions ally explained, proved to be hoaxes, or But what do they all add up to? otherwise declared invalid. Take, for ex- As you read our case histories — nine ample, the human footprints discovered from the Omni files and a new one to be alongside dinosaur tracks in a Glen Rose, submitted by you for our Backyard Baffler Texas, riverbed. Here was proof, creation- contest—ask yourself, Should scientists ists argued, that dinosaurs and man had devote attention to these mysteries? Why? lived at the same time —an idea long dis- How will knowledge about any one of them puted by scientists. Examining the site in benefit us today— or tomorrow? And what minute detail, however, computer pro- speculations, moreover, do you have about grammer and amateur dinosaur detective their origins, causes, or purpose? PAINTING BY ROBIN MULLER arch Noah, guided by the Great Archi- We'd like to know your opinions. Send car's tire tracks. "Whatever it was, it had tect's this ark was built to them to Mystery Forum, c/o Omni, 1965 already walked back across where we blueprints, severe floods more than 4,000 Broadway, New York, NY 10023-5965. (Be had been," Hodge says. weather ago. its other abilities, the sure to mail your comments separately SUSPECTS: Davis's account matches years Among able to battle 200- from your Backyard Baffler entries.) most other Bigfoot descriptions, except ark would have been for the green skin. According to Beck- foot waves without taking on any water. jord, the creatures are usually very tall, When the waters receded, the craft was red-eyed, hairy beasts with five digits on allegedly beached in the mountains of near DESCRIPTION: Scape Ore Swamp, each hand and foot. Ararat, a vast area in eastern Turkey the borders of Iran and Soviet Armenia. outside Bishopviile, in Lee County, South "Lizard Man is only the second sighted, Former astronaut Colonel Carolina, is said to be haunted by a Bigfootto have three fingers, and he's the EVIDENCE: nearly an- seven-foot-tall Lizard Man with green, first to have only three fingers on each James Irwin, who has made search of Noah's ark scaly skin and red eyes. According to hand and three toes on each foot," he nual expeditions in certain that the ark is ac- startled eyewitnesses, the creature has says. "That makes him the rarest, the most since 1982, isn't Ararat. "The Bible says only three toes on each foot, as well as unusual Bigfoot ever encountered." tually on Mount ark to rest in the long, apelike arms that end in three fin- SUMMARY: Lizard Man has become a only that the came In fact, he gers tipped with four-inch claws. Bishopviile tourist attraction. Vendors mountains of Ararat," he says. lava flow there is an WITNESSES: Around two a.m. on June have hawked souvenirs, and guides have points out, "in the vessel with almost the ex- 29, 1988, seventeen-year-old Chris Davis offered tours of the swamp. There's even impression of a stopped near the swamp's brackish a "Lizard Man information center" at an act dimensions of Noah's ark." The "impression" is actually a large mound waters to change a flat tire. While replac- Interstate 20 truck stop where Davis has covered with ice and snow. Los Alamos, ing the jack in the car's trunk, Davis says, autographed Lizard Man T-shirts. sta- New Mexico, geophysicist John Baum- "I looked back and saw something run- Columbia, South Carolina, radio offered a gardner's opinion on this is still unknown: ning across the field toward me. It was tion WCOS, moreover, has $1 has gone to the mountain to investi- about twenty-five yards away, and its red He therefore has been un- eyes were glowing." gate the site and Davis jumped back into his 1976 Toy- available for comment. Arkologist Robert Cornuke, an asso- ota Celica, only to engage in a tug-of-war flew over the same area with Lizard Man as he tried to pull the ciate of Irwin's, ^Davis stopped this past summer and reported sighting door closed. "I could see him from the with neck down—the three big fingers; long, near the brackish waters to a large dark gray section. It contrasts surrounding high valley area known black nails; and green, rough skin," Davis the flat tire. change a "The coloring, nearby claims. 'And he was strong." as Ahora Gorge. the jack in the running water, and other details match Davis is the only true eyewitness, al- While replacing eyewitness descriptions over the years," though everybody seems to have a Liz- trunk, he looked say's Cornuke, who is vice-president of ard Man tale to tell. Teenagers Rodney back and saw something nonprofit Christian or- Molfe and Shane Stokes, for example, say High Flight, Irwin's ganization in Colorado. Lizard Man darted across the road in front running toward him. Convinced the Ahora Gorge mound is of their car and "into the swamp where glowing.^ Its red eyes were Wyatt explains that Interstate 20 meets Highway 15." And the ark, arkologist Ron construction worker George Holloman the vessel's measurements are de- but in cubits, a unit claims he encountered the creature while scribed not in feet varied from tribe to tribe. drawing water from an arlesian well. whose lengths arithmetic, which Noah "Lizard Man also appears to have a "Using Egyptian he says, "the ark's ravenous appetite for McDonald's fish million reward for the capture of a live Liz- would have known," previously three-hundred-cubit length would be sandwiches," says cryptozoologist Erik ard Man— if it turns out to be a five fifteen feet." Beckjord, founder of the National Cryp- unknown animal. equivalent to hundred 30-cu bit-high tozoological Society, which investigates RECOMMENDATION: Bigfoot sight- Wyatt conjectures that the at point. sightings of seemingly mythical crea- ings tend to continue for a while and then sides of the ark collapsed some flattened sides and 50-cubit width tures. Making its home in the swamp, the suddenly cease— until someone claims Its measure- creature may have been hungry and at- to have sighted a Bigfoot in another area. would measure 1 10 cubits. The suggested that ments of the dark gray section in Ahora tracted to Davis's car because it was Beckjord has urgently one hundred loaded with the sandwiches, as well as Omn/ sponsor his expedition in search of Gorge: "three hundred by Wyatt says, with hamburgers and French fries. "With Lizard Man. "The sooner, the better," he ten Egyptian cubits," Ararat sits in a politically the drought affecting their food supply, says. "If you wait too long, he will have SUMMARY: Avalanches bears have gone after picnic baskets in headed for Alabama or somewhere else." sensitive corner of Turkey. deterrents Yosemite National Park," Beckjord says. Caution advised. One man who and earthquakes also act as investigators. The climbing "Lizard Man and other Bigfoot creatures claimed to haveshot at Lizard Man pro- to potential short the moun- may also be victims of the drought." duced a bloodstained napkin and season, moreover, is — ice for EVIDENCE: Following the Nolfe-Stokes "scales." Although he later admitted it was tains are covered by snow and sighting, state trooper Mike Hodge and a hoax, somebody could be seriously in- most of the year, Follow up on the Lee County deputy sheriff Wayne Atkin- jured before the publici ty dies down. RECOMMENDATION: son investigated the area. They found results of Baumgardner's research. FILE #5000-H2O If, however, anyone else wants to go to three crumpled 40-gallon cardboard CASE THE TWO-BY-TWO recommends that drums. The tops of saplings were ripped the mountain, Wyatt vessel you stay at the Hotel Sim-er in Dogubay- off— eight feet above the ground. There DESCRIPTION: A seafaring "do-buy-sit"), four hours were also, according to Hodge, "humon- made of gopher wood, probably rectan- azit (pronounced Erzurum. But go to gous footprints," fourteen- by seven-inch gular in shape and measuring roughly 515 by bus or taxi from Hotel, adds, and ask for a impressions in hard red sand. by 85 by 50 feet, depending on the the Oral he ' Delavar Avci. Tell him, Following the tracks for 400 yards, the equivalent cubit measurements. Cargo: cabdhver named take you to see law enforcement officers backtracked "every living thing of all flesh, two of every "Gemitash," and he will and found new prints impressed in their kind." Through the efforts of family patri- the "boat stone." 108 OMNI A strip of submarine stair-stepped on observers. Strange visions have been FILE #9000-BC stones, similar to the Bimini and Ampere seen within their clear crystal craniums. CASE OF LAMP DOWN UNDER THE formations, has also been discovered Auras have allegedly surrounded the ob- DESCRIPTION: Atlantis— a.k.a. Attli, near Lan'zarote, one of the Canary Is- jects on several occasions. And unusual within their Attala, Aztlan, and other similar names, lands. "There are more than two hundred odors have been detected depending on the cultural origins of the seventy-five Iheories on the location of immediate vicinity. many as stories—was a large landmass, possibly Atlantis, nearly half of them indicaling the EVIDENCE: There may be as places 13 authentic crystal skulls, including the a whole continent. It allegedly sank 11.000 Atlantic, others suggesting such years ago during a phenomenal catas- as Spain, Africa, North America, the life-size skull on display in the British Mu- trophe. Atlantis was last seen some- Netherlands, and even Mecklenburg, seum and two fist-size skulls in its cata- replicas occasionally where in the Atlantic, possibly between [East] Germany," says author Charles log. Modern have Europe and North America, maybe even Berlitz, a student of ancient history who surfaced, Chorvinskyadds. allegedly connecting them. Then again, maybe not. still seeks the mythical continent. The finest specimen was ("City The details aren't very specific. "Atlantis was a prehistoric empire, and discovered in 1927 at Lubaantun WITNESSES: The modern case for At- there may have been many outposts, of Fallen Stones"), a Mayan ruin in Belize. Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted lantis has its roots in the testimony of Thira being one of them," Berlitz says. The Anna adventurer look- Greek philosopher Plato and is taken from Azores and the Canary Islands, he adds, daughterof avagabond the two of his printed dialogues with Critias were once mountainous regions of the ing for Atlantis, claimed she found and Timaeus. The text refers lo Athenian Atlantis mainland. smoothly polished top half of the skull lawmaker Solon's opinions on the sub- SUMMARY: The one thing that can be among the rubble near an ancient altar. supposedly un- ject. The veracity of Plato's, or even So- said with any certainty is that the lost The lower jawbone was later— nearly lon's, accounts, for that matter, is unde- continent will probably not be found in covered three months 25 five- termined at this time. anyone's backyard — unless it's a sizable feet from the altar. The whole by SUSPECTS: Plato refers to a catastro- chunk of seashore property. And even seven- by five-inch skull weighs eleven phe that took place roughly 9,000 years pounds and seven ounces. two pieces were indeed carved before. If either he or his translators added The an extra zero, however, the event would from the same piece of crystal, but it's have occurred approximately 900 years impossible to estimate the age of the skull. make the Mediterra- Unlike organic material, rock crystal is before. This would QWyatt nean island of Thira, also known as San- impossible to date. "Microscopic amounts water in the skulls could dated," torin, a likely candidate as the site of At- recommends that you stay at of be have found Chorvinsky says. "But to do that you lantis. Indeed, excavators the Hotel Sim-er, the skull. ruins of the Minoan civilization destroyed would have to break At some during a volcanic eruption that triggered four hours by bus or taxi from time in the future there might be a tech- will let us analyze the water gigantic tidal waves in 1470 b.c. Erzurum. Ask for a nique that skull." Investigators who take their Greek lit- without physically entering the cabbie named Delavar Avci. of optical erally argue that Atlantis must be where Performing a" series and chemical tests, British Museum re- Plato said it was: beyond the Pillars of Tell him, "Gemitash," Hercules, or modern-day Gibraltar. Con- searchers detected a microscopic im- and he'll take you to the boat3 sequently, the Azores, a lonely beacon of perfection in their life-size skull. 'A master islands west of the Iberian Peninsula, have jeweler who studied it expressed the been the object of much Atlantean spec- opinion that the flaw could only be the ulation. In 1979 Andrei Aksyonov, deputy result of having used a wheel in the orig- director of the Soviet Union's Shirshov In- inal cutting process," Shelton says. the crystal stitute of Oceanography, believed his re- Donald Trump would have a hard time Researchers speculate that search team had found ruins of ancient raising Atlantis from the murky depths. probably originaled in northeastern Bra- stonework on the submerged volcanic RECOMMENDATION: Follow up on zil. "This crystal was used in the nine- mountain of Ampere, one of several peaks Stickel's explorations. Periodically check teenth century to make crystal balls, for from in the sea-bottom range arching from Earthwatch magazine for researchers example, that were then exported Portugal's coast to northern Africa. Study seeking assistance on a planned expe- Brazil," Shelton says. "My guess, then, is of the photographs seemed to dispel the dition to Atlantis. that the skulls were created in the nine- theory, however: The "vestiges of walls teenth century." If so, he adds, that would and staircases," Aksyonov said, were still not diminish their value or interest. merely geologic formations formed by SUMMARY: The crystal skulls could be volcanic action. DESCRIPTION: A number of carved oracle devices in the manner of Delphi. In the late Sixties amateur explorers crystal skulls have surfaced within the last They have been variously attributed to discovered what they thought were cy- century, one most recently popping up in the Aztecs and the Maya, as well as to cle pea n pavement stones beneath the Texas. "No one knows for certain where the legendary Atlanteans. This is not likely, waters off the Bimini coast. Like those at any of them came from, exactly how they however, based on the British Museum's Ampere, these could eventually prove to were made, or why," says Strange Mag- calculations. Chorvinsky points out, how- be the result of natural activity. The site azine editor Mark Chorvinsky, the world's ever, that "it's an amazing artifact. If noth- myth remains one of several possible candi- foremost authority on crystal skulls. ing else, it is certainly a gold mine of dates, however, according to archaeol- "The problem is that none of them were and speculation." Additional ogist Gary Stickel, who is mounting an found during controlled archaeological RECOMMENDATION: study expedition to the area. "Our goal is not to searches," adds Anthony Shelton, cura- required. Follow up when more ad- prove that the site is a portion of Atlantis tor of the Museum of Mankind at the Brit- vanced technology is available to date but rather to determine whether the for- ish Museum in London. Such controls the microencapsulated water. mation detected beneath the waters is, might have enabled researchers to de- The Mitchell-Hedges skull is occasion- in fact, an archaeological site," says termine a skull's age, for example, from ally displayed at mineral and gem shows Stickel, who was involved in developing ' other nearby artifacts or debris. as well as at New Age conventions. the character of the fictional archaeolo- There are many tales told by both be- Check newspapers and other notices on gist Indiana Jones. lievers and skeptics of the skulls' effects such events. 110 OMNI investigation led by aerospace e FILE#1570-BE John Schuessler. LIGHTS, THE RIDDLE OF BRIGHT STATUS: "We have used the term UFO OLD CITIES DESCRIPTION: One Of the most horri- only for want of a better word," Schues- could se- DESCRIPTION: Preutilfty company use fying UFO encounters on record oc- sler explains. "It have been a for all know." of electricity may have been more wide- curred in Dayton, Texas, near Houston, cret military experiment, we the basis for a spread than authorities have suspected. on the night of December 29, 1980. Betty The helicopters were Both Babylonian and Egyptian high Cash, then fifty-one years old, Vickie lawsuit, according to Bill Shead, one of lawyers. government priests and perhaps even common arti- Landrum, fifty-seven, and Vickie's seven- the plaintiffs' "The sans may have been adept at producing year-old grandson Colby Landrum wefe had to own them, and it is, therefore, re- nonmetered electrical energy. returning from a bingo game. Driving sponsible for damages," the Air Force, how- Electricity may have been used to along pine-tree-lined rural Highway Both the Army and event. electroplate gold on copper vessels and FM1485, they allegedly sighted a hover- ever, deny any knowledge of the they whatever hap- perhaps to illuminate underground crypts ing "diamond of fire" belching flames and "Whatever saw and and tombs. emitting air-brakelike sounds. Cash pened is not the issue," says Assistant U.S. EVIDENCE: As early as 1936 German brought her Oldsmobile Cutlass Su- Attorney Frank Conforti. "The question is. archaeologist Wilhelm Konig recovered preme to a halt, and all three passengers Why are they suing the government? It's hits your car and you de- small batteries from Khujut Rabu'a, a hill got out to take a closer look. As they like somebody though I'm not re- of rubble near Baghdad. Encased in a gazed in awe and terror, more than 20 cide to sue me, even terra-cotta container, each battery was helicopters suddenly appeared and cir- sponsible for the accident." '1985 a federal district about the size of a hand grenade. At one cled the fiery object, trailing it when it fi- In September end the batteries were plugged with a nally flew away. court dismissed the $20 million civil suit injuries inflicted during the alleged blob of asphalt (the same bitumen Noah Betty Cash remained outside the car for it, far as the court may have used to caulk his ark). An iron longest, until the heat became unbear- encounter. "That's as says. only rod ran through the center of the asphalt system goes," Shead The pos- congres- stopper, and a four- by one-inch copper sible relief for the victims is a sleeve surrounded the rod's entry point. sional resolution awarding damages. "It's The copper was soldered with the same rare, but it has.happened before." remains unmollified. alloy— 60 percent tin and 40 percent Cash, however, imStrange visions if government didn't know what lead—that's used in today's flashlight "Even the it now," she batteries. Vinegar or wine was probably have been seen in their clear the object was then, does says. "Those helicopters were there, and used as an electrolyte. crystal craniums. American engineer Willard Gray repli- for the judge to throw the case out, not is decision," She cated the Baghdad battery, filling his ver- Auras have reportedly even hearing us, a sad she'll "do whatever it takes" to sion with copper sulfate and attaching surrounded them adds that bring attention to the dismissed case. "I'll wires. It produced a one-half-volt current. on some occasions. And odd in grave," At Dendera, 40 miles north of Luxor, a fight until they lay me my she "I people to know how our relief of Thoth, the "giver of arts and sci- odors have been says. want depicts the federal judicial system works." ences" in Egyptian mythology, within their vicinity^ detected three vic- god with objects that resemble giant light RECOMMENDATION: The bulbs with undulating filaments, as well tims saw something. Suggest you follow as cables, insulators, and generators. up on lawyers' or victims' future tactics. SUSPECTS: Parthians, who ruled the Anyone in the vicinity of Houston should Baghdad area around 250 b.c. are pre- be particularly observant if driving along sumed responsible for the battery. able. When she attempted to reenter the Highway FM1485. the door handle was so hot that she The Egyptian engineer could be Thoth, car, FILE #1203-CT portrayed as part ibis, part human or as had to grasp it with her coat. THE CASE OF THINGS THAT GO BOOM stork. Obviously a EVIDENCE: The fiery diamond left be- haff baboon and half IN THE NIGHT master of disguises, a.k.a. Taaut and hind a legacy of illness and suffering thai Hermes Trismegistus. continues to afflict the three victims. Within DESCRIPTION: Strange sounds con- SUMMARY: Since no one has yet been hours they were medically treated for tinue to boom from both banks of the oth- River, par- able to interpret the Egyptian relief's "sunburn," as well as recurring bouts of erwise peaceful Connecticut symbolism; "we can only speculate about vomiting and diarrhea—apparently the ticularly in the area around Moodus, a Connecticut. their possible electrical power," says Hel- results of radiation sickness. Cast', s skin village in East Haddam, pre-Pilgrim mut Satzinger of Vienna's Kunsthisto- blistered so badly she was hospitalized. Hearsay dates events to days, the area as hches Museum, "The so-called light bulb A week later, moreover, her hair began when natives referred to could be the Barge of the Sun, a boat the falling out in clumps. Morehemoodus. or "place of noises," sun god Ra navigates across the sky Their health problems have continued Residents have reported shock waves rumbling during the day and through the under- to mount: Cash has undergone a mas- thai begin with tremors and a resembling gunshots or the dis- world at night." tectomy and suffered a heart attack. noise of distant cannon. The tremors RECOMMENDATION: If the ancient Landrum's vision has deteriorated, and charge a Parthians and Egyptians discovered slow-healing sores have broken out on are felt primarily in Moodus and other sometimes at great electricity before English physicist Wil- her hands and feet. Young Colby's eye- neighboring towns but distances well. liam Gilbert did in 1570, no original blue- sight has. also rapidly deteriorated, and as prints have been found. abnormal patches of hair have sprouted EVIDENCE: In September and Octo- there-were more than 175 mini- The next time you're in the area, check on his chest and back. ber 1987 were the out the battery at the museum in Bagh- WITNESSES: There are at least six quakes near Moodus. They dad. For information about the Dendera other eyewitnesses who saw the helicop- fourth swarm of earthquakes in the past seismologist John reliefs and hieroglyphics, before or after ters. There seemed to be no reason, at decade, according to College's Weston Ob- visiting the temple, contact the Egyptian the time, to report the choppers to the Ebel at Boston monitored the Authority for Antiquities, facing the police police. The witnesses surfaced later, servatory, which has 1979, academy in Abbassiya, Egypt. however, during a Mutual' UFO Network quakes since "There might be something unique them. Chittenden's queries, however, destroyed by banana plantation workers about ihe local rocks that makes them drew a blank from the local Boruca Indi- spurred by false rumors that they con- conduct sound waves very efficiently," ans: No one knew how long the balls had tained gold. Today many granite spheres says C. Thomas Station, a seismologist been there, who might have made them, probably remain lost in the dense tropical with New Jersey's Woodward-Clyde or more importantly, why. jungle, but some have been hauled off Consultants, which has also studied the EVIDENCE: Some found atop stone for display: One is installed on the area. Statton notes that in some parts of pedestals, the spheres range from one grounds of the National Museum of Costa the world the ground conducts sound so inch to seven feet in diameter and weigh Rica in San Jose, which also has a few well "you can almost fee/ a thunderclap." as much as thirteen and a half tons each. others. Another is outside the Costa Ri- A swarm of anomalous quakes similar In many cases the nearest quarry was 30, can embassy in Washington. DC. to those in Moodus occurred in Cape miles away Museum authorities believe that the Fear, North Carolina, during 1978 and One cluster, at Jalaca, consists of 45 spheres may be the work of the Chiriqui 1979. Residents reported booming balls, while two others comprise 15 and Indians, who, at the time of the Spaniards' noises, falling plaster, and rattling doors. 17. They follow no known patterns: Some arrival in the sixteenth century, had in- "There are probably similar cases in many lie along straight lines, and others form habited the area for more than 1,500 remote sites, but to notice Ihem you need slight arcs. The formations, however, may years. At least one sphere was found, a town in the area," Ebel says. be accidental, according to magazine seemingly undisturbed, near pottery See also case histories for "Barisal editor and anomalist Michael Shoe- pieces and other Chiriqui artifacts. guns," Ganges Delta, India, reported maker, who has studied and written about There's no way to date the granite, how- by Sir George Darwin; and mistpoulfers the spheres. In one instance, the stones ever, and the sphere and the artifacts ("fog dissipators"), French coast—also apparently rolled down a hill from their could have been placed there at differ- known as "landguns," "sky quakes," original location; after they had all come ent times, Shoemaker suggests. More- brontidi, and retumbos. to a full stop, he says, the stones just hap- over, Spanish explorers, he adds, made SUSPECTS: Pranksters— as well as pened to form a straight line. no references to the spheres, even though sonic booms and exploding gas pock- they passed through the same area, near ets—have been virtually ruled out. the mouth of the Diquis River on the Pa- The source of the sounds has been cific coast, in 1522. traced to an area just a few hundred yards "Costa Rica's best-known but least wide, two miles north of Moodus and understood artifact, the granite spheres, about a mile below the earth's surface. ^Chittenden and his have been sadly neglected," Shoemaker Quakes along California's San Andreas successors located 200 of the says. Unless more undisturbed speci- Fault typically occur at six- to nine-mile mens are found and definite patterns strange stones. More depths, while those in other areas occur emerge, the spheres seem destined to even deeper, Statton points out. Al- were found and destroyed by remain inscrutable. though the Moodus noises are associ- banana plantation RECOMMENDATION: More investiga- ated with earth tremors, there's no clear tion 'required. Check Earthwatch maga- workers spurred rumors that connection to the nearby Honey Hill Fault. by zine for any archaeological expedition SUMMARY: No consensus emerged at they contained gold. plans that might relate to the granite a May 1988 American Geophysical Union spheres or other Costa Rican antiquities. Many remain lost in thejungle.^1 symposium on the subject. Inspect the sphere at the Costa Rican "Because ot the swarms' shallow, con- embassy. In Costa Rica, visit the National centrated nature, it's difficult to argue that Museum in the capital. Don't call themu- a large earthquake is possible," Ebel says. seum from outside Costa Rica, however: A potentially devastating earthquake, he For some mysterious reason, no interna- adds, could occur less than five miles Nothing is known about their purpose tional phone calls are accepted. away, "ln-1791 there was a large quake or function, either. "Some have been in Moodus, strong enough to crack chim- found at the east and west boundaries of neys and to be felt as far away as Boston cemeteries," says Shoemaker, who sug- and New York City." gests that the spheres could be sun sym- DESCRIPTION: Dunnellen Hall, a.k.a. None of this, of course, reassures local bols or tribal totems. Among other theo- Topping House, a 28-room Jacobean residents, since Moodus lies between the ries, one possibility is that the spheres mansion, sits on 26 acres in Greenwich, Millstone and Connecticut Yankee nu- had a purpose similar to that of the South Connecticut. Hedges and a stone wall, clear power plants. Pacific islanders' stone currency. But then, topped by a wire-mesh fence, shield it RECOMMENDATION: Follow up on Shoemaker adds, the Costa Rican crea- from roadside gawkers. studies at Weston Observatory, Wood- tors would seem to have placed tremen- Banker Daniel Grey Reid, who made a ward-Clyde, and others. Anyone going dous importance on money. fortune in the steel and tin industries, to Connecticut can contact the Middle- Yet another possibility is that the commissioned ihe mansion as a wed- sex County Chamber of Commerce or the spheres were the "bowling balls of giants," ding preseni in 1918 for his daughter Rhea Moodus town hall for information on the muses John Keel, president of the New and her husband, Henry Topping. The East Haddam village. York Fortean Society, which studies un- cost: $1 million. At least two subsequent usual and strange artifacts. "One thing is owners have experienced financial set- FILE#011506-CR certain," he adds seriously. "It would have backs; some have even been indicted. THE JUNGLE BALL ROCK CASE taken an enormous amount of effort to VICTIMS: In 1950 steel company pres- DESCRIPTION: In the late Thirties carve and grind down even one of these ident Loring Washburn was the first per- United Fruit Company land locater balls to a perfect sphere. To do the job, it son to buy Dunnellen Hall—and Ihe first George P Chittenden was exploring the would have to be constantly rotated, and to lose it, in 1963, after he was beset by tangled jungle of Costa Rica for potential rotating a thirteen-ton block of stone financial troubles. banana plantation sites. In the process would be no easy task." Financier Jack R. Dick bought Dun- he discovered -a series of almost per- SUMMARY: Chittenden and his suc- nellen in 1968. He was indicted in 1971, fectly shaped granite spheres. cessors located nearly 200 of the strange at the age of forty-six, on grand larceny Clearly the highly polished stones were stones. Unfortunately, during and after and forgery charges. In 1974, before the extremely important to whoever carved World War II many more were found and case went to trial, he suffered a fatal heart 114 OMNI m 8; Jill H fflri B£J Ifis WmMMh^t . inate every physical aberration? Is it to demands on it. In our own enlightened full effect of a freak's existence. This improve the quality of life for all people? age, we sympathize with freaks (to use code requires abnormal people to Or is it merely to lessen the guilt and a harsh, word no longer sanctioned by maintain the pretense of normality and discomfort of the so-called normal? respectable usage), but their company thus to remain as unobtrusive as pos- Earlier ages might have fhought of a clearly makes us uncomfortable. Their sible. We expect them to conduct them- condition like Lisa's as an obscure sign existence reproaches our ingratitude, selves as if our conditional acceptance of divine favor (or disfavor) or as a mon- our inability to accept with good grace of them were unconditional and com- strous miscarriage of biological justice. what falls to our lot—which is so incom- plete. Those who give a convincing per- Some societies turned misfortune into parably easier to bear than theirs but formance of this pretense at normality a public spectacle, parading the af- which we complain of incessantly, nurs- are then deemed well adjusted. The so- flicted before curious onlookers. In ing our longtime grudge against life. The ciologist Erving Goffman points out the eighteenth-century France, for in- slights and setbacks we resent so bit- implications of a good adjustment: "It stance, those deemed insane were dis- terly look small on a scale of suffering requires that the stigmatized individual played in cages. This organized exhi- that encompasses grotesque disfigu- cheerfully and unself-consciously ac- bition of the insane, for which spectators rations, crippling loss of bodily capac- cept himself as essentially the same as paid a fee, deeply offended humanitar- ity, mental breakdown, and the stigma normals. ... At the same time he vol- ian critics at the time. of a fatal disease. Because we find it untarily withholds himself from those Humanitarianism can mingle with hard to give up the habit of self-pity, we situations in which normals would find other motives, however. Michel Fou- shun the society of those whose suffer- it difficult to give more than lip service cault, the philosopher and historian, ar- ing relativizes our own. to their similar acceptance of him." gued that public executions disap- We take the position that the mentally This arrangement, Goffman adds, peared from France in the eighteenth and physically deformed have nothing means that normal people will never century in part because the authorities to teach us. We allow doctors to treat have to acknowledge the "unfairness came to understand that the crowd often them with drugs and hope that medical and pain of having to carry a stigma" developed more admiration for those research" will eventually discover a cure. or to admit to themselves "how limited who died with dignity and defiance than Increasingly we regard misfortune as their tactfulness and tolerance" really for those who upheld the majesty of the an accident, not an essential teature of are. What effect do these conventions law. Humanitarianism represents a our humanity. As such, it has no place have on the handicapped? Their pa- complex reaction to suffering. It ex- in normal life, and we try to isolate it as thos, as Randolph Bourne once pointed tends a measure of sympathetic under- completely as possible. out, is that they set too high a value on standing on the condition that its ben- We have evolved an unwritten social the "standards of the crowd." A hunch- eficiaries refrain from making extensive code that serves to insulate us from the back who became one of the finest so- continued ON PAGE 175 .:.:...... ;,..: ; : iY;»|.»- !-,.: . . ...' ,i ..l-j.-i-- . :. ' ^^ - . .--. . -. 1,1 '- I il lir*«. !.* ii in,*. .-, . .. V |r I • ,.-.- ,: ,i !;]?/ '.. .".. Whfl '.oil . 'iii* i-irtin- It.-' Kv, ; t.ji ...I I, Mil. | .v. >,.; . .. ,-, f .. . irr, .. ,,k . . ..;./; V hi m . . .. ; i *- '*-• .. : . . . ?»-.-.* . 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"""& ; .' ; } " |^^?i! -'-:X-:- :P'^tJ:;^U 111" do From Vietnam War army psychiatrist, to best-selling author of inspirational books, to Christian leader, to exorcist of evil, to planner of world peace: Just what is it that makes Scott Peck tick? IRJTER\yiEUU scared for my own In the 11 years since he ' I'mskin, I'm even more wrote the nonstop best seller scared for the skin of my The Road Less Traveled, children. And I'm scared the focus of the psychia- trist's attention for your skin. I want to save has moved self-awareness my skin. I need you, and from to you need me, ior salvation." world peace and salvation. In the book The Different "Life is something that Drum M. Scott Peck, M.D., happens to you when you talks about the victims plan something else," Peck of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, says in The Road Less describing them walking Traveled. The book begins the streets after the blast, with the phrase "Life is dragging their own skins difficult" and asks its read- behind them. "The human ers, all 3 million ot them, race stands at the brink to accept this premise and ot self-annihilation," he says. to develop systems of PHOTOGRAPH BY KIM STEELE — . discipline that confront these difficulties. Peck put it, "He is the psychiatrist who erates by a real spirit of unreality. It is de- Life began for Peck 52 years ago in confesses his own neuroses, the scending into evil." Manhattan. His father, a self-made man, preacher who analyzes his own sins." Peck wrote The Different Drum, pub- had arrived from Indiana to become a Choosing to leave Buddhism for Chris- lished in 1987, to encourage community highly successful lawyer and later a tianity, he was baptized in 1980. understanding and spiritual growth. In it judge. Rugged individualism was the Even as he was embracing Christian- he delineates his "four stages" of a spir- family philosophy. Scott was sent to Ex- ity, Peck found he had to address the itual life. At the first stage there is primi- eter Academy but left to attend the subject of evil, and it became the focus tive, undisciplined behavior— nothing Friends Seminary in New York City, where of his second book, People of the Lie. In governs these people beyond their own he was introduced to Zen Buddhism and this book, which he calls "difficult and will. Evil persons exist at stage one. Peo- the value of community. After graduating dangerous," he describes the evil per- ple at this stage are incapable of loving from Harvard in 1958 with a degree in sonality and vividly pictures the Devil, and are basically self-serving. The sec- social relations, he bowed to his father's which he saw during two exorcisms. ond stage is characterized by rigid, for- will and went into medicine. In premed "When the demon finally spoke clearly," malistic behavior, such as a blind com- physics class he met Lily, who was born Peck recalls, "an expression appeared mitment to religious fundamentalism. The and raised in Singapore, and they were on the patient's face that could only be third is the stage of the nonbelievers. married against the wishes of both sets described as satanic. It was an incred- These people, often involved in social of parents. His father objected to an in- ibly contemptuous grin of utter hostile causes or science, are skeptics and truth terracial marriage, and her father, a con- malevolence." The eyes, he continues, seekers. Although they may find what they servative Chinese Baptist minister, ob- "were hooded with lazy reptilian torpor seek, to Peck, it is "never enough to com- jected to Peck's involvement in Buddhism. except when the reptile darted out in at- plete the whole puzzle," because they're Peck spent nine and a half years as an tack, at which moment the eyes would always questioning and missing the big- Army psychiatrist in Washington, DC, as open wide with blazing attack." Peck says ger picture. For Peck, that's the "mystical the Vietnam War broke over the nation. he could not imitate Satan's diabolical unity beyond truth." But in 1972 he moved to New Preston, grimace in a mirror, It is stage four, of course, where bar- Connecticut, to become a country psy- People of the Lie describes evil char- riers to true communication break down, chiatrist. It was in his eighteenth-century acters that Peck has experienced in his expectations dissolve, and people learn farmhouse on Bliss Road that he began psychiatric practice and whose pres- to rejoice in the resolution of individual The Road Less Traveled. And if you ask ence he fears in politics and on TV. The differences. At stage four, people em- him why he wrote it, Peck will say, "I just evil are attracted to power and can often brace paradox and are able to submit to don't know. That gets into the mystery of be spotted by expression and gesture. something higher. For Peck, that some- vocation. It was a gift." But throughout all Defining Satan as a "real spirit of unreal- thing higher is Christianity. His religious his writings, he openly discusses his ity," Peck fears "that our government to a beliefs permeate his writings, and it is dif- spiritual evolution. As one article about considerable extent is pervaded and op- ficult to distinguish his personal spiritual £VOLU T i o N ideas from his sociological or even med- Peck snapped when Connors sug- when I decided to do something respon- ical ones. Although he has been thor- gested that he was a workaholic. Actually sible and go to medical school. Looking oughly criticized for this,- he steadfastly he likes to do nothing, he said, but sees back on my life, I see I was designed to mainfains that "we must ultimately be- himself as a "responsibility-aholic." write the books I did. I was one of those long to either God or the Devil." Peck's novel House of Charron, about . introspective kids, and my parents— said The Peck home on Bliss Road, just a a murder in a nursing home, is due to be to me—oh, hundreds of times "Scotty, stone's throw from Lake Waramaug, was published this month by Bantam, with you think too much." It's actually a terrible under renovation when therapist and which he recently signed a two-book, thing lo say to a child. What are human writer Diane Connors interviewed Peck. seven-figure contract. beings supposed to do? Two older daughters were home from Omni: When did you decide to go to graduate school, as was a son born when Omni: The Road Less Traveled has been medical school? the Pecks were stationed in Okinawa. at the top of the best-seller list for years. Peck: In my senior year at Harvard. I Connors met with Peck in the son's pot- Did you always want to write? hadn't taken any premed courses, but I'd tery studio, surrounded by works in prog- Peck: As a kid I wanted to be a writer. gotten interested in psychology, and ress. Nearby bookshelves held copies of One of the blessings of my life was meet- medicine seemed a good way to make a The Road Less Traveled in translation (in ing Carolyn Bryant, the mother of a class- living. The year between college and med Portuguese the title reads Formacio de mate. She was then the head of Bryant schooll took most of my premed courses Personalidad, or "Formation of the Per- and Bryant, a leading publishing agency at night, working at Bellevue Psychiatric sonality"; in Italian, Vogo de Bene, or "The of the day. She and I kind of fell in love. I Hospital in New York during the day. Be- Good Path"). was thirteen, and she was forty-five. cause of that year at Bellevue, I thought Peck looked relaxed. Casually dressed About six feet tall, she wore her hair piled psychiatry was terribly depressing. Psy- in a plaid shirt, he described his day of up high and had long, Edith Sitwell fin- chiatrists, I thought, never really fixed prayer, meditation, and work. Yet his gers with great topazes on them. She be- people. I was going to fix people. So I hands trembled as he leaned back in his came my Auntie Mame, plying me with went through medical school laboring chair and smoked his cigarette. He caviar, cigarettes, and champagne. And under the illusion that I would be a GP doesn't play golf or have much of a social I'm sure if I had asked (or them, women. [general practitioner]. When we talked life anymore but looks forward to a month Omni: What did you dream of writing? about some fracture, I would imagine on a remote island where there will be no Peck: I'd always been a reader, but myself in some little Mississippi town at typewriter. Ahead of him was a full somehow reading The Grapes of Wrath two a.m. setting that particular kind of schedule of lecturing, community-build- escalated things. Then, in English class fracture. In my fantasy I was going to be ing workshops, and soliciting funds for at Exeter, my teacher read my composi- a missionary. But then, just weeks before his Foundation for Community Encour- tion to the class and compared it to Stein- med school ended, I realized I didn't want I agement, Inc., the Knoxville, Tennessee- beck! I was badly in need of self-esteem. to be a GP or an internist. What liked to based organization designed to build I decided to be a great American writer. do most was to talk to people. community spirit through workshops. That .lasted until I was about twenty-one, Omni: Where did you meet Lily? Peck: During my year of premed at Co- lumbia University. The first course I took was given by the best teacher I ever had. He began the first class by saying. "My name is Professor Payton; it rhymes with '. ' '! !:. 1. I teach. One is that all students cheat. Consequently, after today you'll sit three seats apart from anybody to remove you from temptation. It will also," he said, "help to circulate the air and gases among you." Then he moved into the subjec; ui gases and took off. Lily was assigned three seats in front of me. Every morning at eight I used to : look down the back of her neck. I was dating someone else at the time, but we continued to see each other in the fall of 1958 and were married in December 1959. We were married on the twenty- seventh, went to immigration on the twenty-eighth, and on the twenty-ninth Lily went out shopping for knives and forks. She dropped out of school to sup- port me. Lily is Chinese. Her lather is the only person I've ever heard of who came to this country as a missionary; they needed a conservative Baptist minister in Chinatown. Those were our best years. My parents objected to my marriage, and I was tem- porarily-disinherited; so we had no furni- ture, no car, and no groceries. Later I was reinherited: my lather paid for my tuition and gave us one hundred dollars a month. Lily worked i,n;il our first child was born a year and two thirds later. " tell Omni: How did you first become involved have to do to get it through to you?" he'd you to him he should have sex with with Buddhism? say. "How many times do I have to say me." "That's not necessarily the subject it?" of the talk," I said, "but if at the question- Peck: I was raised in a very secular home, He was a man who was often angry, on and-answer period, you come up, I'd be it, I freakishly scared, sad, or prejudiced but as I look back on was a even oc- terribly to talk about it. I'm glad you're religious kid. I had a thirst for religion. casion. And terribly, young. happy Christianity meant nothing to me, though; It suddenly occurred to me that if the going and hope you enjoy it." Well, I hung writers in thought: How would Jesus have I thought it was so much gobbledygook. Gospel had engaged myth- up and At Friends there was a course in world making, they'd have created the Jesus handled that phone calP It was very clear. said, where the hell religions, and I ran across Hinduism, who three fourths of the Christian world He would have "Lady, fell calls "the off? Thai was the most nar- Buddhism, and mystical writings. I just are trying to create: what Lily do you come of, in love. It made sense. At eighteen I'd have wimpy Jesus," someone who goes around cissistic thing I've ever heard trying to his tell what to talk about! Maybe if you said I was a Zen Buddhist; that was be- with a sweet smile on face and does me little a little less self-centered, your fore it was fashionable. But I don't re- more than pat children on the head become member wanting to turn anyone else on with this kind of unshakable equanimity, husband might like you more." to it. Mysticism is practically impossible this "mellow-yellow, peace and love" con- Omni: You didn't say that? I have. that to talk about. This is why Zen has always sciousness. The Jesus I found was a per- Peck: No, but should And been associated with martial arts, flower son nobody would be able to make up. speech was a total bomb. As soon as arranging, and painting that has to be Omni: That became a concrete form? people started coming into the church, I I'm fasci- done quickly. Christian theory is much Peck: I was boondoggled with reality and knew something was wrong. easier to talk about. a tangible example. In Christian doctrine, nated by group spirits. I'd given this talk Omni: How did you make the transition to Jesus is referred to as "the Word." If you before, and there were about twelve Christianity? want to know the right way to go, come places where you could laugh. During this talk there was not one nervous tit- Peck: Gradually I began to sense that down and hear how Jesus would have whole Christianity offered more than other reli- behaved in a situation. For example, one ter. This spirit was so oppressive. I thought gions in dealing with issues of sin and of my habitual sins is wanting to be liked. it had partly to do with that nasty, narcis- guilt, remorse and contrition. Guilt can be I'm a compulsive Mr. Nice Guy About sistic woman being there. If I'd told her very good. Somebody who murdered seven years ago, before I became fa- off, maybe she wouldn't have come, and still spirit better. Single in- babies in Vietnam, for example, has bad mous, I was answering my phone. the would've been "I night the rang, I it, dividuals can do extraordinary amounts dreams. I would say, will try to help you, One phone answered but first let us celebrate the fact that you and an elderly woman asked, "Are you to breakdown a group. How, I don't know. had bad dreams." the Dr. Peck who's going to be talking Omni: The Road was written a decade In my psychiatric work my primary in- about sexuality and spirituality at St. Mi- ago. How do you feel about it today? terest in long-term therapy involved sub- chael's Church Friday night?" "Yes, I am." Peck: It bores me to tears. I'm not one to write again. stantial personality change. I began to "Good. I'm taking my husband because the same book over and over longest see that something would invariably hap- he says he's too old to have sex. I want Because it's been out the and pen—this therapeutic depression, as I called it, occurs one to two years into therapy. The patient becomes more de- pressed than ever. The old way is clearly pathological, maladaptive, and sick; so they can't go back. But the new way is so difficult and risky that they can't go for- ward. They say, "What's it all about? Why grow or work? I'm just going to kill my- self." These spiritual questions find no answers in the psychiatric textbooks. Partly out of that struggle, I became less happy with mystical thought, which gen- erally isn't helpful on a day-to-day basis. I found myself yearning for something less abstract, more carnal. Omni: And in the late Seventies you en- countered the Gospels? Peck: Yes, it happened after I had written the first draft of The Road Less Traveled. I'm no scholar. I do the writing first and the research afterward. Having quoted Jesus a couple of times, I decided to check out the references in the Gospel. Had you asked me a dozen years before whether Jesus was real, I'd have said, "Historically Jesus was a wise chap who got executed for some standard of the day. This is no worse than executing peo- ^c-ffrvtofw ple not so wise. But somehow they built a religion around him." But when I finally read the Gospel, with a dozen years of experience as a psy- chiatrist under my belt, I found out what "We're giving you an artificial heart, and we thought it's like to be a teacher. I was thunder- you'd tike to meet the donor. struck by the reality of this man who was almost continually frustrated. "What do I v W l^ NOTHING ATTRACTS LIKE THE IMFlRTED TASTE OF BOMBAY GIN. ; ' CORIANDER SEEDS FROM MOROCCO ANGELICA ROOT FROM SAXONY 'JUNIPER BERRIES FROM ITALY .-* CASSIA BARK FROM iNDOCHiN-^lmONDS %*' *; * FR0M | LEMON PEEL FROM SPAIN x W I HINA (IRIS ITALY 'Ji NDQC j Q % ORRIS ROOT) FROM LICORICEL | FROM INDOCHINA • • / r t »1S6BCanllonlmponersLin.Taaos=^'.N.J.! i Flool • 100% grain neutral spinls n I _ y been so successful, people are still ter- be embarrassed that The Road Less After People of the Lie was published, about the sexual peccadilloes of these call "the people of the lie" are powerful, I mail ribly interested in it. Traveled has gotten such a reputation, received about three times as much people for whom they have no responsi- strong-willed people for whom the ends lot Omni: What inspired you to write it? Omni: Some find your handling of issues as I did for The Road Less Traveled. A fourth stage and moves from the individ- bility, yet tear apart. At the same time they justify the means. They want power, and love, of the Lie mail comes from people who've Peck: When I came here to Connecticut in relationships— commitment, and ual to the community. Why? have no concern for such things as por- politics is an arena toward which they tend in 1972, after I'd gotten out of the Army, it so on—to be very helpful. had some actual, usually devastating ex- Peck: An amazing number of people into nography, the unbalanced budget, or the to gravitate. There's no question about really was with no greater ambition than to be Peck: That's generally what the more perience with evil. The letters that their personal growth have virtually no in- insanity of the arms race. People have a McCarthy being one of them; but about a country psychiatrist and play golt on secular community, or stage-three peo- hurt me say, "Thank you, Dr. Peck. Now terest in group health. This reflects the terrible tendency to want human gods LBJ, for instance, I'm not completely sure. I Lie I that Wednesday afternoons and weekends. ple, find most helpful. And they wish that I've read People of the know individualism of our society; people often and then get furious at them. It's self-de- Our politics are so compromised to- the lasl part grace. is evil, my husband is evil, and The first year I worked pretty hard at get- hadn't included about my mother have a sense of their own sin but no sense structive of group function, and it's one day lhat people who get in and survive lirst is evil." so, the ting my practice started. Then I joined the The book was submitted to Random my boss Even most com- of corporate guilt, corporate sin. of the deterrents of our political system. are those willing to compromise— in a country club and played golf. Three years House, and the editor called me and said mon one is. "Thank you, Dr. Peck. Now Omni: What's the difference between Omni: You have moved toward social and bad sense. Something about our political lhat I mother is evil, I can forgive later, I was sitting in my living room, and she was going around telling everyone know my personal and corporate sin? political consciousness. Why? process either kills integrity or drives out her." Most of the people were caughl I about this marvelous manuscript. But up this said, "Write said, "Scolty, new I I book me!" Peck: When Reagan talks, feel ashamed Peck: first became interested in disar- people with integrity. I won't make a carte before." But it still got to the third part, she said, in confusion, guilt, and anger and not able you've had funny ideas when she for my country. I feel sickened, bothered, mament when Senator Joseph McCarthy blanche statement, because there are a it until then. "Write -me." I the next six "You blew it, it's too Christ-y." It's the reli- to objectify said, So spent or guilty. But a lot of people don't seem was potent. When I was fourteen I was tremendous number of exceptions, es- feel your third revising I could gious community, however, that re- Omni: How do you about weeks my schedule so to have that. They may feel bad about homesick, so I hooked into a radio speech pecially in state government. book, Ditlerent the mixed write stop playing golf. I wrote the sponds to that section. Writing is a bit like The Drum, and and something they've done but have no by McCarthy. I knew nothing about him Omni: Have you campaigned for anyone first monlhs. But psychotherapy: often can't under- reaction it received from the press, es- draft in less than twenty You sense of group. Last summer I was out in or Communism. Butthat man's voice was you felt needed support? over years. stand your therapy all about until pecially The New York Times? the basic ideas had grown up what was Chicago, doing this workshop with about so ugly that after about forty-live sec- Peck: I haven't, but I would if I got to know or four years of it. Peck: It was much the same as the re- Omni: The book's almost as popular as you are three out five hundred people. So I divided the day onds! had to get up and turn it off. I can someone well enough to feel they were Bible. jour- Omni: What were you trying to accom- view of People of the Lie. New York is the the Why haven't professional in half; in the morning I addressed the remember saying to myself, "That's the the right person to be in office. With the it plish in People of the Lie? center of the publishing industry. Not that nals given consideration? issues of sin, guilt, remorse, and contri- voice of evil." That was a powerful expe- possible exception ot Jesse Jackson, I this is it is stage-three Peck: First of all, I'm a thinker, not a Peck: The stage-two people, the funda- anti-Semitic, but tion at an individual level; and in the after- rience not only because it was evil but don't know any presidential candidate I'd professional journals there's mentalist, or believe in the reality Jewish. I'd guess that a stage-three Jew- scholar. In the know noon, at a corporate, group level. because I became aware for the first time campaign for, because the political sys- different of writing of evil. they the concept in very ish person reviewed both books. It's not a very kind than mine. But use The morning bombed. At first I thought that our country was not perfect. I began tem is screwed up. Our system of gov- Second, there's been a strong nonreli- simple and destructive ways, such as, likely they would be able to give a favor- they were just lazy. Then after lunch a lady to question the whole an tjcommunist thing ernment is based on our rugged individ- in 'Anyone who believe the way I do able review to something written by a gious tradition psychology and psy- doesn't raised her hand and said, "Dr. Peck, I just and world politics. That's what led to my ualist kind of thing and is an adversarial stage-four Christian. I'm not knocking chiatry. I've violated that tradition, and I is possessed by the Devil." Stage-three want to voice a serious concern about protesting against ROTC in 1956. system. Most people have no familiarity think that tradition is going down the people are sophisticated and know that stage-three Jewish people; stage-three the way you have been blessing the sex- Omni: How do you account for someone with any other way of working. One rea- tubes. Third, there's a tendency among what is considered good in one culture people are ahead of stage-two people, ual behavior of Jimmy Bakker and Gary like McCarthy gaining so much power? son the presidency has become so pow- all this fundamentalists. 1 spoke of, academics to think that if something is can be bad in another, They think The editor Hart." About a third of Ihe audience Could it happen again? erful is because of the inefficiency of it 'evil stuff is relative. But they're wrong. I who turned down The Road Less Trav- popular, can't be academic. Many clapped. Well, I said, "That was not my Peck: Oh, yeah, it could. But the subject Congress, and that's because Congress differentiate to take the concept of evil and say eled, was a nice Jewish lady who has things my work from pop hoped intent." What I'd said was that I'm puzzled of evil is so filled with mystery, I don't yet works on an adversarial system. that it is absolutely real. been kicking herself in the ass for some psychology, but a lot of Ph.D. types would as to why people get so bent out of shape know what creates a McCarthy. Those I Omni: After you graduated from medical 130 OMNI 131 school you opted for ihe Army. Why? big machine dependent entirely on me. I to able to off commit an Peck: I was married with two children, and want be go and interns weren't paid anything, The only indiscretion! For this and other reasons, I voy of forty-two brown Volkswagen con- place you could get decent training at a put the 'Foundation [for Community En- vertibles going down the highway toward livable wage was in the federal service. couragement] as far from me as we could. the city. When they came to the bridge, in its place. tun- If you asked me then where Vietnam was, Omni: Is it involved just with community they found a tunnel That it's in the workshops? nel was marked emptiness. One by one I would have said someplace other hemisphere, and all the world Peck: When we started the foundation we the forty-two brown Volkswagen convert- ourselves mail ibles turned around and went back to the looked peaceful. I looked through a glass found overwhelmed by darkly then. It was almost two years after from people asking for help. The proto- country. Interestingly, though we thought dentist writ- that a failure, these thera- I letter workshop was I went into the Army before got upset typical would be from a responsibility for it. about what was going on in Vietnam. I ing from Austin, Texas: "Dear Dr. Peck, pists accepted They became an objector, but with a five-year I've been depressed since my divorce didn't blame the leader. It was their own obligation ahead of me and young chil- three years ago. Could you recommend kind of defensiveness and therapeutic dren, going to jail didn't seem like a nice to me a spiritually oriented therapist in the detachment that led to this failure to make it community. And people from that thing to do. I researched what happened Austin area?" And the nearest one we'd to to people who went to jail back then in know would be in Dallas. The problem of group came to other groups. '65 and '66, and they were just lost. Maybe the correspondence, we soon realized, Omni: Do you study the effects of the problem. There's workshops on community interactions? it was a cop-out, but I decided to be one was also a community Peck: I give you anecdotal evidence who worked from within. Actually I be- something ridiculous about somebody can came interested in the relationship be- from Austin writing to somebody in Con- that doesn't account for beans. I'm de- lighted we're raising money and that in tween psychiatry and government. So I necticut to refer them to somebody back stayed nine and a half years. in Austin. So we employ someone full-time the process of hiring a director of re- Even though my job was sort of dinky to coordinate this mail. search to do scientific follow-ups on one particular everything else, we on the surface, I knew the Army was in a group and lot of trouble with drugs, race relations, can research about community building. and antiwar dissent. These problems re- We're beginning a program with leaders quired the understanding of a social sci- of communities to learn more about entist and a psychiatrist. Dysfunctions of problems of community maintenance, as bThe letters the individual and dysfunctions in politi- opposed to development. In a few years major sci- cal life are enormously analogous. that really hurt me say, "Thank we'll have enough data to do a Freud, in pondering what caused neu- entific study of the community. you, Dr. Peck. rosis, came up with something he called Research is very important. Science is repetition compulsion, a fancy way of Now that I've finished reading a series of conventions and procedures developed over the centuries to combat saying that people tend to do the same People of the Lie, stupid things over and over. Sometimes the human tendency to deceive our- / realize that mother is people ask me, "We've all got neuroses; my selves. It was developed in the interest ol something higher than our immediate how do I know when to get into therapy?" evil, my husband emotional and intellectual comfort, I say, "When you are stuck like a needle is evil, and my boss is evil'3 on a broken record." namely the truth. So science is principled Well, the arms race is obviously an ex- behavior to get to the truth. And the truth ample. We keep doing the same stupid is one of the synonyms of God. So I see stuff over and over, so obviously there is science as a very holy activity. But a something dysfunctional. Groups are or- problem with science is that there are ganisms created by individuals, so they Omni: Is the foundation Christian? certain things that either cannot be obey many of the same laws as individ- Peck: Because community is not exclu- measured or can be only partially meas- uals. And again, people have this terrible sive, we deliberately designed the foun- ured. There are other ways of knowing tendency to want others to be heroes, and dation to not be specifically Christian. than through the scientific method. Sci- then they get furious at them. It's destruc- We're into promoting community wher- ence tends to idolize itself and say, "Well, through the scien- tive in group functioning. I tell them I'm ever. Our board often has one Jew, prob- what can't be known not interested in being a goddamn hero. ably two agnostics, and we're eagerly tific method isn't knowable or isn't worth Omni: How do your community work- looking for a wealthy Hindu. Our board is looking into." That's tunnel vision. shops work? a working board. Omni: The family forms the primary group. Peck: The most popular topics are those Omni: What kind of people generally at- What advice would you give to parents? on individual spiritual growth. Corporate tend the workshops? Peck: If I could give one thing to parents, stuff is less popular because most peo- Peck: Most people who come to my lec- it would be the capacity to remember ple aren't ready for mature social action. tures have been in therapy, as have most what it was like to be a child. It is not stress This may sound snobbish, but people first who come to community-building work- but being out of touch with stress that kills. need to go into therapy before they're shops. But actually it's easier to build Anyone who believes they had a won- ready for mature social action. A lot of community among unsophisticated than derfully happy childhood is just out of congressmen and senators spend eigh- sophisticated people, who are better able touch. In the early days before black con- teen hours a day working on social action to fake it. In the thirty workshops that the sciousness developed, I saw some black but for the wrong reasons. They don't foundation has done without me, only one soldiers who were suffering from anxiety know anything about themselves. did not make it to community—the fourth attacks. I'd say, "Have you ever experi- Building community through work- stage, where people accept individual enced prejudice?" They'd say no, and I'd shops is the cutting edge of my life. And differences and paradoxes. They were a say, "Bullshit. Among other things, you've what I've become, willy-nilly, is an evan- group of psychiatrists. been a child and experienced the prej- children." of gelist of sorts and quite a successful one. In my book I wrote about the impor- udice against And course Successful evangelists generally build big tance of the dreams we use in groups. they were out of touch with the prejudice machines around themselves, and then Each of my groups has a group dreamer. they experienced as adults. when they die or commit an indiscretion, This workshop of psychiatrists was held Omni: Do you envision some kind of sec- river; there ular the whole thing collapses. I don't want a outside a city, across a and education? 132 OMNI "*- —— . . sz. —*, 4W GREAT MOMENTS CARTOONS BY FRANK COTHAM »WV "fell me, how many millions in research money "Kindly show this gentleman the fly In your soup." have you spent on this problem?" "Do you remember, sir, when I told you I had developed a one hundred percent effective truth serum? Welt . . . I lied." "There's no need to tell him he's tired. Just remove his batteries." "Good! t see our crash research program is showing results!" " "The power must be oil. "I shall expect a chemical cure for psychopathic behavior by ten o'clock tomorrow morning or I'll have your guts for spaghetti!" 136 OMNI " "Take as long as necessary to familiarize yourself with the equipment. " holy people. This is something that has inJTER\/IEUU been confirmed out of my own experi- SPACE CONTINUED FROM FV ence in the last few years. We get many requests for help from people who are Peck: There is no way to teach values possessed. The mental-health commu- speeds of about 1 percent that of light. without teaching God or a higher power. nity doesn't believe that they exist. The "That's still almost a thousand times faster Once you get into a higher power, by def- Church believes them but sends them than existing rockets," he says. inition, it's no longer secular. When I had back to the mental-health community to In fact, Chapline thinks-that this com- the opportunity to talk on the subject with get help. These people have no place to bination of relatively low cost and rela- educators, I reminded them that the get judicious help. We've had several tively high velocity would make a fission young Einstein had hoped to develop the conferences to deal with this problem. fragment rocket interesting for missions unified field theory, which was going to You're going to find that possession is within our own solar system; it might even explain everything. Toward the end of his a growing diagnosis, along with multiple be considered for NASA's proposed life he said, "Subtle is the Lord." And so it personality disorder. Although that's the manned mission to Mars. "None of the behooves us to teach God subtly. I op- diagnosis closest to possession, the current propulsion systems," he says, pose heavy-handed fundamentalism and treatment is opposite. People with multi- "can get a man to Mars in less than two attempts to censor. But it's not either that ple personality disorder need integration years." Other experts have estimated that or no higher power in education. of the different personalities; people who in that time the radiation load on the as- Omni: What are your feelings about tele- are possessed need the possession tronauts would prove so great that they vision's influence on children? kicked out of them. would have as much as a 20 percent risk Peck: Like so many fhings, I have mixed When I was in college and working in of getting cancer. The far greater velocity emotions. Incidentally, do you want to the state hospital, we had catatonics up of the fission fragment rocket could, know the definition of mixed emotions? the kazoo. Now we never see catatonics, Chapline thinks, reduce the time neces- That's when your daughter comes home but anorexia and multiple personality sary to get to Mars from a dangerous two at four a.m. with the Gideon Bible under disorder seem to be escalating. You could years to a far safer six months. her arm. Anyway, TV does a lot of good say, well, it was there all along, but we're At the same time, engineers building a stuff, but there's a lot of stuff that lowers just beginning to recognize it. But I think fission fragment rocket for a Mars mis- the consciousness, too. Looking at MTV, there are also some shifts that we don't sion might come to understand the tech- that was an eye-opener! I'd heard stuff understand. And just as multiple person- nology well enough to try to build a truly about rock being satanic, and you can ality disorder seems to be a growing di- interstellar craft. "There are no funda- tell it's so by the colors, sounds, and fa- agnosis, twenty years from now posses- mental physical barriers," Chapline says, cial expressions you see on the screen. sion will be viewed as a valid diagnosis. "it's just practical engineering probh Omni: What do we do about it? The diagnosis has to be made carefully. and cost—perhaps as much as one hun- Peck: What do I do about it, or what do Omni: Are you called upon to participate dred billion dollars for the fuel." For ex- we do about it? One of the things that I in many exorcisms? ample, although it is now possible to pro- really get pissed at is everybody expects Peck: Not really, because I say no. Now, duce small quantities of americium 242, the great Dr. Peck to do it all. I don't have there is a difference between a deliver- there is still no facility tor producing the the energy to do everything. Again and ance and an exorcism. I might be called fuel in large enough quantities to reach again people say, "Dr. Peck, your princi- in on a deliverance as a consultant. Alpha Centauri. ples are so wonderful, why don't you write Omni: What's the difference? To some, however, such problems a children's book?" And I say, "Wonderful Peck: The kind of difference between seem overwhelming. "I looked into fis- idea. Why don't you do it?" lancing a boil or abscess and brain sur- sion fragment rockets twenty years ago, There is a lot of stuff that Scott Peck gery. Dealing with an abscess takes says Robert Forward, who now has an interstel- doesn't know: when, for example, I sug- twenty minutes. A deliverance is a kind Air Force contract to investigate gested in People of the Lie that evil, in a of miniexorcism. It takes four to six hours; lar propulsion schemes, "and I couldn't certain way, is incomprehensible. Why an exorcism takes four days. I'm not sure come up with a good way to actually get would somebody come into a commu- deliverance works. There's a lot of ambi- the fragments out of the rocket. Chap- nity-building workshop with an agenda guity and different degrees of posses- line's a bright guy," he concludes, "but I to destroy if? But they seem to. One rea- sion. Sometimes it's called "serious wish he'd give us a little more to go on." son for the Satanism that's running around oppression," and others, "demonic at- Still, Chapline has support. "We're in- today has been a tremendous hypocrisy tack." Possession needs research. terested," says John Callas, a member of and the failure of the Christian Church. Christian theology poses that we are the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion The only real evidence I have for the rise all, perhaps, under demonic attack. Sa- Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "This of Satanism are cases of possession, be- tan is lurking around, looking for some is a simple device that potentially could cause we have a pretty good profile of a kind of inroad. In demonic attack the in- generate'a high specific impulse. It person who has become possessed. In road hasn't been made yet; in oppres- doesn't require the major technological other parts of the profile of the pos- sion, the attack has been somewhat suc- breakthroughs matter-antimatter annihi- sessed person's character, we find cessful but really hasn't penetrated; in lation propulsion requires or the large- somebody who's been screwed by the possession, the attack is complete. scale space structures and optics a Christian Church, and they have good Omni: When you speak, do you see your- beamed-energy propulsion system reason to hate the Church. If, for exam- self as a psychiatrist? needs to achieve an interstellar flyby" ple, they had been sexually molested or Peck: I don't believe in dividing myself The powers that be at NASA, of course, raped by somebody. into categories. A scientist, religious per- listen very carefully to opinions and rec- Omni: What are other, personal encoun- son, psychiatrist— I'm all of those things. ommendations from the JPL, and the ters with evil? I never see myself as just one of them. agency is currently sponsoring part of Peck: Character defects. The myth about With my work I don't have time to play Chapline's research through the Idaho making a pact with the Devil has an ele- golf anymore or for a social life. My ex- National Engineering Laboratory ment of truth in it. Reality suggests that troversion score was two; my introversion The big question, then, had been the primary motive is loneliness, but to score, seventeen. My wife and I are very whether NASA should consider Chap- make that pact there has to be a char- content. Though I'm out in the country, I line's idea for an interstellar flyby. Callas's acter defect. Yet people who are pos- have a great deal to do with other people. response was unhesitating. "Our conclu- sessed are not evil; they are potentially And I have many friends. DO sion," he says, "was yes. "DO 138 OMNI " " by the pettiness of my objections, and pebbles in it, to be much loss. The noise, is something inflamed about the look of now at a further one by admitting them. on the other hand, is unbearable. Even in Kip's jaw. Something needing only the "I can't help it." my office on the eighth floor the jackham- right environment to erupt into possibly "Of course you can," mers are audible, like a steady whine from contagious boils. The 6:17 seems an un- I don't like thai "I'll tell you what," I say, trying to sal- huge but distant insects. likely environment, but vage dignity through jocularity—always Helen, my secretary, comes in with a smacking newspaper. I a risky move. "So long as you don't end sheaf of papers. She looks distracted. "Colder tonight," I say. am trying to the clauses with a period." "This is the agenda for Ken Robinson's make up for my morning rudeness. Emily smiles at me, the slant-eyed smile meeting at ten, because he wants to be Kip doesn't answer. that she often wears in bed. "Fair enough. sure everyone sticks to both the topic and "Thought I'd cover the roses, even No periods." the time frame. This is the script for the though it's early in the year for that. No film, the pattern to the lately. You should The next time I come across her shop- new training because produc- weather ;" ping list, it says "tampons, for my tion studio is booked for next Tuesday and cover yours, too." Kip's roses are the most She has left it on the kitchen table, they need copy approval. Your report for neglected in Hickory Village: spindly This gives where I am sure to see it. the senior staff isn't done yet because the stems and sparse blossoms. Xerox copier is down again." me an obscure sense of cheerfulness. "Look at this, John," Kip Lowry says "Christ." Kip says, "Sandra is leaving me." think the copier is Smack, smack. . after we settle ourselves on the 7:42. He "I down because has opened his newspaper, and it is flap- either the Corotron needs rewiring or the After a pause I say, "I'm sorry." I know ping over into my half of the seat. Kip baffle spring is pulled off the shaft." this is inadequate, but what else would her. trouble getting better? don't look at each other. works for some scientific/political think I stare at Helen has be We tank downtown and reads the morning the top oft a jar of coffee. "How do you 'After seventeen years," he says. A tear newspaper with an intensity that would know that?" appears from beneath the lowered hat I myself for make me wonder exactly what he ex- "I looked inside. I also leafed through brim, and am disgusted with Kip is, I sup- pects to see there, except that [ suspect feeling a profound distaste. it of being a pose to look more knowl- pose, the closest thing I have to a friend. edgeable than he is. Butonthe6:17? 'Two earthquakes last night. Mexico "You'd think," he says, "that after sev- City and Miskolc. And both registered enteen years she'd be willing to ride this thing?" I say, I I'm "I didn't think the Reds released that seemed to me that there is "What because see to despite strong reluc- I supposed and a information." poke at the edge of the something inflamed newspaper, nudging it back toward Kip. tance to ask. He frowns and glances at me evasively. about the look of Kip's jaw. "LaraKashinsky." Watching Soviet information may or may Something needing "Lara Kashinsky?" not be something his institute does. He stiffens. "Lara just happens to be only the right environment "Who knows? Look at this—another one of the best random-information spe- burglary in Hickory Village." to erupt into cialists in the world." Hickory Village is the subdivision in "I remember your saying that she's bril- possibly contagious boils.^ I hastily. I also her which we both live. I crane my neck to- liant," say remember picture in the at the time of ward the paper I have just pushed away. newspapers, "The cops don't have any leads," Kip her defection. She must be well over fifty. reports. "When do they ever? Hey, look "IneverthoughtSandywouldfindout," at this —some guy in Albany just won the Kip says gloomily. "And now she won't I I with New York State Lottery for the second the manual because I thought maybe evtin listen. didn't plan the thing time! Do- you know what the odds are could fix it." Lara. It just happened." " against that 7 "But you can't. Nobody can fix those "Ummm." "High," I say, apparently too sourly. Kip things, not even the tech rep, or they "These things happen." Kip says. He gives me that evasive glance once more. would stay fixed longer than ten minutes stops smacking the newspaper and He does this at parties as well—starts a after he leaves." stares out the train window, at trees flash- subject that touches on his specialty, "The machines don't stay fixed be- ing past too fast to be counted. something called information theory, and cause we run too—much volume on them. then suddenly shies away as if his lis- That's because 'Janice called." Emily says over a late- her hair teners were moving toward something "Helen," I say, with some irritation, "you night brandy. She tucks behind politically sensitive. I dislike the habit in- aren't by any chance related to my wife, her ears; this is a characteristic gesture tensely. He also wears wide-brimmed, are you?" of agitation. "There was another burglary, overly dramatic hats. She looks contused. "I don't think so." two doors down from her. The police 'A Russian last name tor that lottery "Good." questioned her and Jim and the kids. No in all the soft in winner," Kip says slowly. I close my eyes clues. They looked — mud and pretend to sleep. Whatever Kip thinks On the 6:17, Kip Lowry smacks his knee the yard for tracks, because he is looking for, or wants me to think he with his folded newspaper—the evening "I can guess why they looked for tracks is looking for, he can look alone. edition this time. He has pulled his hat without your telling me," I cut in. There is brim down lower than usual, and this a silence while Emily stares into her The lobby of Jefferson Tower rings with strikes me as an ominous sign. Visible is brandy. We are sitting up in bed, and the bristling with worth lamp casts pearly glow on jackhammers. I step over chunks ot floor his lower jaw, a day's oedside a and rolls of sodden carpet to scream at of dark stubble, which gives him a dan- Emily's shoulders, bisected by the lacy the receptionist, "What happened?" gerous look. The hints Kip drops about sraps of her nightgown. At thirty-eight she She screams back, "Water leaking from his project in information theory seem to is beautiful still, and my irritation vanishes someplace. They can't find where. mostly involve such tame and academic and is replaced by atfection. Emily is very Damnedest thing— ruined the carpet!" 'things as mathematical formulas and precious to me, although it is hard for me it has high computers, but it has none- to say so. I have always found hard. I can't consider the carpet, which -speed always looked like cold oatmeal with theless always seemed to me that there Emily knows this; she is one of the few 142 OMNI " — pil- women who will forgive it. I reach for her. about childhood corrective surgery be- shouting. Emily turns her head on the She frowns. "Why now?" fore it was too late." low to look at me. Perhaps it is a trick of 'dust because." "I don't think you have to go back three the lighting, some passing effect, but her "Because why?" generations and produce such an elab- eyes look like those of a woman I don't Irritation returns, swamping affection. orate explanation. Anyway, you probably know. They are both thoughtful and out- "Do I need a reason? I want to make love couldn't pin down any definitive reasons. raged; violation sparkles in them like to you. If you don't want to, say so." These things happen." stained glass. "Sandy Lowry is leaving Kip." Emily shifts against the headboard and There is a long silence; which slowly So that is what the agitation is about, reaches out to set her glass on the night- turns unbearable. To break the silence it, I not the burglary. I see that the Hickory stand. One shoulder strap slides down. without having to break reach again Village phones have been buzzing all day. Her eyes narrow. "What do you mean for Emily. She doesn't resist, but she lies I see, too, the trickiness of the conversa- 'these things happen'?" passive in my arms while I stroke her. tion ahead. When one husband strays, all "They just do. Kip and Lara work to- Then she half-turns and clutches me al- husbands are somehow implicated, in gether on that information project, what- most desperately, and we make very def- some weird web I have never under- ever ft is." inite and unsubtle love. stood but learned to recognize "So?" in "Ummm," 1 say, noncommittal ly. "So it just. . .happens." Even to me The carpet the corridor outside my "It's because he's having an affair with these words have started to sound curi- office is sopping. Inside the office, water that Russian scientist." ously lame, and I resent it. meanders down the walls, drips from the- Emily is watching me closely; another Emily punches up her pillow and lies ceiling onto my desk, pools on chairs and I "ummm" will probably not do. I decide back. "That's irresponsible. It lets every- file cabinets. As stand in the doorway instead on honesty. body off the hook— it lets Kip off the hook. staring at this, Helen hurries around the "I know. Kip told me today on the train." Things don't just happen. They're con- corner, looking harried. She stops fiddling with her hair, and her nected, they happen for good and suffi- "Oh, Mr. Catton— it's the sprinkler sys- shoulders relax; apparently she knew I cient reasons!"— tem, they think. That's what was wrong in knew. "It's that ridiculous house. It's "Emily the lobby yesterday, too. They think that strapped him with debt, and he was look- "There are always reasons," while they were jackhammering the floor ing for some sort of cheap release. Sandy I suddenly think of my secretary, He- someone hit something vital and jammed didn't even want such a huge place. Kip len. "Women always want things so defi- the whole thing." ?" only wanted it because he grew up so nite. Black and white. The world simply "How long — poor, because his father died when he isn't that way. Things fall into shades of "They won't say!" Helen cries. I have was three and his mother's eyesight was gray, into unpredictable subtleties. Why never seen her so overwrought; she is I" too poor for her to work, and her father can't you just accepithat usually the calmest and most efficient was an immigrant who never understood 'I hear, to my own surprise, that I am secretary on the floor, making consistent sips? "Stay low. 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I still care everything sense out of my chaotic meeting and "Well," I say, more helplessly than be- "Of course it Sandy." memo flow. "They think it happened be- fore, "I don't suppose matters. So long for that cause of a workman who is very inexpe- as we can get on with the day. So it goes." "Did you say anything to Lara might ?" rienced, he had oniy been on the job two And at my last words Helen calms lead her to think— weeks and three days. His supervisor was down instantly, moving rapidly past calm "Oh, hell, how should I know? You know out sick because he caught the flu from to a set and rigid face, from which she how it is. You're in bed, you say things try to hold you to them his little boy, who got it at day-care be- stares at me in silence like stone. and then women cause the supervisor's wile died in a car in a goddamned court of law. Sandy had crash two years ago and he's raising the "Look at that!" Kip says, his face a fit. She called me after Lara called her, line in the little boy alone." pressed to the train window. I obediently and then Lara called on the hysterical to den, and it seemed I was on the phone I stare at her. "Helen—how do you look; Kip has had a edge other of them all night. know all that?" him for a week, ever since Sandra moved with one or the She makes a vague gesture, flinging out with their girls. Christ, the hysteria all around." it?" I picture it meanly glad her palms upward as if begging for mercy. 'John — did you see can and am that Kip lives at the other, richer end of "The control thing tor the sprinkler sys- "Did I see what?" tem was manufactured in Japan, be- "On that other track. A train went by Hickory Village. station, he trudges toward the il. . Like ghost At the cause it cost sixteen dollars and forty- and .shimmered. a image restaurant built in an two cents less per unit to do it there. The on TV." Depot, a bar- cum- office for com- engineer said it appeared to be function- "There are three sets of track there." antiquated baggage quick orange juice in ing perfectly, because he took it out and "No— it wasn't on the third set! You muters grabbing a morning, or quick drink instead of tested it, but he won't say how long it will didn't see it?" the a heading for be before you can use your office!" "I wasn't looking." going home. He has been Helen Kip grimaces abstractedly beneath his the Depot every night; I don't know what "Well," I say helplessly— could it. I I turn my steps in the be having— some sort of secretarial burn- hat brim. When the brim dips forward, time he leaves twirling his other direction, toward my street. I am out? "we can work around the mess, I brace myself. Kip has been suppose. Where did you put my phone self-aggrandizing veils of information halfway down it when two police cars and the Hentschel files?" theory all week: message channels. Noise dash up to the Lindstrom house. lawn, "In George Schwartz's office. The water level. Algorithms. Context-sensitive re- They swerve- to the edge of the black-and-white fly open, and two isn't loo bad in there, and George is out dundancy. If he does it yet again, I will doors run the of the house, and because he took a vacation day to go up change my seat. This time, I will. But he cops to back to his daughter's college, because she's says something else. two more to the front. The Lindstroms, I are on vacation. I failing two subjects, due to excessive "Lara called Sandy and told her that I remember vaguely, prepare to tell this to the cop approach- partying with Kappa Delta Omicron. But said I wanted to marry her. Marry Lara." this. when Kitty Sue Cunningham in his I somehow not surprised by ing me I don't know why there's less water am house across office than in yours!" "Do you want to marry her?" comes running out of her the street and begins babbling in the Georgia accent that somehow becomes thicker each year in New Jersey. "Ah saw him go in, just sneak around the side of the house, and Ah called the police right away. Ah just know he's the one who's been doin' all these horrible ." robberies. . . She goes on and on, an anxious, sy- rupy flow, her eyes never leaving the Lindstrom house, hands twisting the ma- terial of a pink dress too young for her lacquered blond beehive. The cop lis- tens stoically. ". . .lookin' so long at the window be- cause Ah was cieanin' the glass, be- cause of those horrible fly spots every time the weather goes and warms up again and. the eggs hatch, and that's all just because a single housefly can lay one hundred fifty eggs —at a time, all hatching in just twelve hours "What?" I say. There is lead in my lungs. " —because the rate they get eaten up by birds and toads—and ail those bitty creatures is so high "Kitty Sue—" "Nothing," a cop says to me, in a lone I recognize as intentional reassurance. "The lady must have been mistaken. There aren't any tracks anywhere, and in that soft mud, there— would have to be." "But Ah saw "No tracks, ma'am, " the cop says in the same reassuring tone, but Kitty Sue is not listening. She is not even there. A faint bluish shimmer, and Kitty Sue Cun- 146 OMNI " "— " . ningham— pink dress, Georgia drawl, probably didn't know us, or anything emental abyss here, some deep lack in dyed blond hair, reasons for the mating about us. You shouldn't take it personally. her that I have always despised. Almost habils of flies —has vanished. It happens." I could strike her. Another faint shimmer a second later, Emily' looks up, shimmers, and is gone. Emily glares at me with hatred. and she is back. " — might have been the In a moment she is back, yanking her The moment spins out, frozen, unbear- Wozniak boy, he's breakin' his poor moth- slip over her head and flinging it into an able. Then Emily breaks, putting her er's heart with—his shenanigans, but that's open drawer. I stand completely still, un- hands over her face and starting to sob. all because able to speak. Perhaps I hallucinated "I want things to make sense. I just want ." The cop's eyes slide toward mine. I see about Kitty Sue Cunningham; perhaps I things to make sense. . the shock on his face; but the next mo- am hallucinating now. . . . Terrible And the naivete of this, the sheer lost ment it, too, is gone, locked behind a thoughts chase themselves through my longing, fills me with a rush of pity. I take stony blank cop look Make something head; Cerebral arteriosclerosis. Alz- her in my arms. Pity, exasperation —and, of it, buddy—that gives him a jawline like heimer's disease. Brain tumors. unaccountably, desire. Her breasts an erection. Emily, in bra and panties, begins a through the lacy bra are soft against my ."—stealin' money from his daddy's frenzied straightening of the jars and chest, her breath silky against my face. wallet, and doin' it—more than once, Ah tubes on her dresser. "The burglars took The whole moment has taken one of those was told, because my mother's silver candlesticks, be- unpredictable turns into sweetness, into fifty- is in . 'Just because," I say— loudly, angrily, cause they are worth four hundred grace. There a profound mystery the pointlessly, and with fear. Neither of them eight dollars with silver at current market circle of yellow lamplight on- the floor, in- answers, and I walk away, trembling a lit- prices. He didn't know my mother be- the random movements of the air, in the fragile tle. I don't look back but go straight home, cause she died in 1978 and never visited improbable longings of the and I where I find Emily in tears: While she was us in Hickory Village because we hadn't sweet-limbed body in my arms. Emily out at the shopping mall, our house had moved here yet. He does need the money press her closer. been burglarized. because he's the only child of a single- "Wo," Emily says. Carefully she de- parent female-headed household with an taches herself, turns her back, and yanks "They said it was random," I say to Em- average taxable income of only six thou- a flannel nightdress over herself, bra and ily as we prepare for bed Both of us are sand four hundred thirty-lwo dollars, and all. She crawls into bed and lies on the exhausted from talking to the police, he dropped out—of high school ten months far edge, facing away from me. I do not soothing the kids, notifying the insurance ago because understand. She does not explain. people, listing the stolen possessions. "Stop it!" I shout, and seize her by the Who knows exactly what the stolen pos- shoulders. She twists savagely away from The next day it all happens. sessions are? Months from now we will me, and we face each other at arm's Kip is not on the train. I enter Jefferson discover things missing that we had for- length, Emily panting hard and I shaking Tower, get on the elevator, press the but- gotten we owned. with a primordial fury I no longer care to ton for the eighth floor. When the door "Random, Emily. Not personal. They control. I recognize that there is some el- opens, I am on the sixteenth. Jefferson Tower has fourteen floors, I have never seen this place before. The elevator faces a bank of copiers and te- lecommunications equipment, as in my building, but the signs above them are sheer gibberish: hy-cafk oig tyh mb k. Only the "16" on the lighted elevator panel makes sense. Music fills tho a'-r, a woman singing softly in gibberish. Out of sight, around a corner, someone laughs, and a sudden nauseating smell, strong enough to make my stomach lurch, wafts from that direction. The light is a soft purple. I stand frozen, until the elevator doors close and the elevator descends. It opens on the eighth floor. Helen, hec back to me, is fid- dling with the Xerox copier. I let the doors close again, ride to street level, and leave the building. Some part of my mind notes that I am not trembling. not even when I insert coins into the newspaper vendor and buy a morning edition I cannot quite make myself read on the deserted train. At the Hickory Hill station, however, among the familiar wooden platlorm and redpainteci mslai railing and late-blooming fall wildf owers in straggling clumps, I open the paper. STRANGE RADIO BROADCASTS MYSTIFY CITY MASS DELUSIONS SUSPECTED IN JPL.CO GTS BHO + P SAYS "NEVER AGAIN ' A woman, expensively dressed in linen and mink, walks by me. She is ta king to herself with intense, preoccupied con- " centration. — can't go along with it be- cause of previous commitments, and that — "' came about because ! " — I "This glass entropy, or, to put squeeze my eyes shut. She sounds has low DNA. Sandy's angry little mind." ecules' of information act on each other," no tire iron was ever bent in that peculiar Helen, like Kilty Sue, like it another way. the information system has [ike Lara Kash- "I don't see it." "But that can't be possible. To change way. But then, was Kip's abstruse theory ." ot insky. Like Emily. When I open my eyes, "What La ra p re d icte d a high degree order. You know which "Increase the amount of disorder, you the rules?' any more bent than what had happened Kip Lowry is standing on the station plat- "What Lara predicted?" is the ice and which is the scotch, and increase the number of the possible ar- "Rules are just more information, dif- in the Jefferson Tower elevator? form in front of me, looking as it he has "She warned them," he says, and lam where the molecules of each are located, rangements of the parts. Thirty minutes ferently coded. That code, too, can be- Some objection, some half-remem- " in his least roughly." stirs the with not slept for days. Wordlessly he puts a to hear under the strain at He scotch from now, those scotch molecules could come entropic. That's what cancer is: a bered piece of learning, surfaces in my on shoulder, a gesture I nor- another, unmistakable note: dra- a red plastic swizzle stick. "See there's hand my — be anywhere in the system, Lara says it DNA code that has managed to gain in mind. "Wait." I say. and hear the triumph dislike Emily, matic satisfaction. "Them. Us. At the in- only a few places the ice can go. Or in mally from anyone but and — was a sort of skunkswork project, blue- entropy, and so in the number of possible in my own voice, as earlier it had sounded drags into the Depot. stitute. Of course nobody believed her, terms of information theory— there are me skying it, way apart from their official sci- states it can produce." in Kip's: the perverse triumph of proving either only few possible High or- " I have lost all power to resist. except me. Then nobody believed a messages. entific establishment. They might not have "But—" a connection wrong. "Wait, no—things sit the long bar, which at of us: a female defected Russki and a der, low entropy, limited possible states." Inside, we at even tried it if the last grain harvest hadn't "Stop saying 'but.' There's a complex- don't always tend toward entropy. There's this thirty-two a.m. is second-rate researcher." do I sit and listen? "Kip—" hour—ten — empty Why been such a bust, Buf it's working, isn't ity barrier—Von Neumann proved the biological life and evolution; Living beings "Selieve what?" I say, if "But now, as speak, it of all but a dour bartender polishing and wonder even even we it?" Kip makes a vague gesture toward equations for that," tend to become more orderly, not more glasses. Kip orders a double scotch, am humoring him or believing him my- changes!" Kip shouts. The bartender the door. "They're revving up the flow of "But—" random!" of his wrist, self. Suddenly, I know that gives startled glance. Kip drops his downs it with a single snap without reason, us a chaotic information, artificially increasing Kip picks up my glass—untouched "The complexity barrier," Kip says. His another. Perversely, the cheap Kip has been fired from his institute. To- voice, shoves his face close to mine, and then orders it exponentially, and so increasing both and pours it into his. Liquid overflows and mercurial theatrics have faded by now, theatricality of this deepens my dazed day, yesterday, or the day before. There says in a stage whisper, "Watch— don't the entropy and the number of possible begins to meander in rivulets along the and he sits in quiet gloom. "Vertebrates sit for several in has been scene, one of Kip's messy miss it keep your eyes peeled every numbness. We minutes a — states for fhe whole planetary system." polished surface of the bar. passed it. But you're right—when they did, complete silence. dramas, and he is making me part of the second! Entropy—increases!" "How would you increase the ilow of "Too much individual information. The another force entered the information Eventually Kip looks around him and third act. 1 want no part of that, after all "You damned it. is chaotic infer—" I say, and think suddenly old system can't contain Complexity system—a drive to create order, connec- it, I indeed. are all. in says hollowly, "Low information content." the rest of and am rising to leave when "Yes, As we Entropy of all the high-speed computers in the a decisive property. Above some critical tions, meaning. And that's why I'm scared "What?" Kip says, "See this glass?" this glass is increasing. The ice is melt- world —the communications satellites, level, too much information —even high- shitless." bar. Dark paneling, stools I don't answer. ing. Soon you won't be able to tell which "This and data links, phone lines, banking net- possibility random information —be- I am confused all over again. "Why?" booths, mirror over the bar— all predict- "This glass is an information system. is scotch and which is ice, All the mole- works, electromagnetic broadcasts. Kip comes explosive. You get an exponential "I don't know." He starts drawing won't to able. The greater the predictability, the The molecules in the ice cube are in one cules will be mixed. You be able is watching me. leap in the number of possible states. Lara meaningless pictures in the spilled less the intormation. This bar is state, the molecules in the scotch in a very predict where any single one is. There new a "Exactly," he says softly— too softly. I says the Other Side probably wants a dif- scotch: a tlower, a house, a long-tailed will order, infinite boring information system." different state. Entropy in this glass is low be low high entropy, an see once again that some theatrical part ferent state. This one is slow economic squiggle that might have been a sperm. it of possible That's what I say carefully, "I hadn't thought of as Sit down, John." number states. of him is enjoying this. suicide for them." "Who knows? That drive for meaning isn't in doing," an information system," "I don't want to hear about entropy Lara says the Russians are "That's all insane, Kip. Just theory. What The longer Kip talks, the more of what random, isn't entropic, isn't high possibil- I at Kip's and "It is. Everything is." drinks off the that glass!" Despite myself. look glass ity. It probable. If I write letter He goes on in the real world. . .there are he says makes a weird, distorted sense, seeks the a second double scotch, motions for a third, "Yes, you do," he says, with utter con- think of vodka. "What's what the Rus- physical laws. Rules." just out of grasp, like an object at the bot- that starts 'Dear Sadny'— spelled S-a-d- are doing?" and then gives a bark of laughter. "Every- viction. "That glass is what happened to sians Kip smiles slyly. 'Ah, but Lara says they tom of a shallow but murky pond. One n-y—the brain will read it S-a-n-d-y. At "Intormation world is thing, All of it out there." you out there." theory. The whole are not mutating just the information. second you think you know it's a tire iron, least, some brains would. Not every- I I lower myself onto the barstool. an information system; a glass of booze, "Kip," I say, but only because cannot They're mutating the rules by which 'mol- a perfectly familiar object— except that one's. Some types of mind just like order. CONTINUED ON PAGE 1 78 Some decorative objects can mate onlyone sound Ours mates over1Q000. TheYamaha*PF2000 Electronic Piano offers a vast choice of sounds-with the same cartridges used in professional Yamaha keyboards the world over. It's available only at select wii M ft (J A Yamaha dealers, so call 800-333-4442 fora location nearyonThen feast your ears. iMmHnH. lamaha Music Cornoraunn, USA, Digilal Musical Instruinenl Division. RO. Bo* 6600, Buana Par*. CA 90522. In Canada: iamaha Canada Music Lai. 125 Miner Avenue. Scarborough. Ontario. M1SSR1 " 6j4 saucer group launched last year in the Big Apple promises to put the excitement back into extraterrestrials.^ Have you been to too Daily Planet. He many stuffy UFO con- started a section on ferences lately? Do UFOs and eventually they seem a deaden- came to believe that ing blur of reported they carried visitors sightings, photos of from other worlds. silver discs, and Then one day, serv- scholarly tomes? Do ing as PR man for a the UFO organiza- UFO conference in tions MUFON (Mutual Manhattan, he ob- UFO Network, Inc.) served something and CUFOS {Center peculiar. Both he and tor UFO Studies) strike the keynote speaker, you as cold and intel- physicist and well- lectual, with Simply too respected UFO little pizzazz to ac- researcher Stanton complish anything Friedman, spent time important? with TV reporters. But Take heart. A sau- In the end Friedman cer group of a whole got little coverage differenl stripe has while Luckman ap- whirled onto the hori- peared on every sta- zon. The New York tion. That experience Center For UFO Re- showed him how des- search (NYCUFOR), perately the move- which was launched UFD UPDATE ment needed a pub- in the Big Apple last licity expert. The idea year at a splashy conference attended by 800 people, of starting his own UFO group gradually evolved. promises to put the excitement back into extraterrestrials. Convinced that the media are the message Luckman "The movement gets pretty dry," says Michael Luckman, plans to start putting ads on independent TV stations in the NYCUFOR's founder. "I want to get people stirred up wee hours of the morning, between one and six a.m. Some The way Luckman sees it, even though MUFON and ot the airtime has been donated, and Luckman's organiza- CUFOS have done invaluable service, they fall short In mo- tion is raising funds to pay for production. He's also planning tivational skills. "They've done a great 10b of research," he nationwide lecture tours of college campuses. The money says. "Whenever i need to know the latest UFO news, 1 plug NYCUFOR gleans from these endeavors will then be used into MUFON's computer myself. But they're conservative to finance barnstorming rallies across the country. After almost twenty years, MUFON has only seventeen hun- The sooner it all happens, the better, stresses Luckman. dred members. I'd like to have five thousand to ten thousand With the earth's degenerating condition, we have perhaps in two years. I want to reach the average citizen." 25 years or fewer left to live. "There's an increase in earth- Luckman believes he's just the mover and shaker for the quake activity,'' he says. "There's a tear In the ozone layer. job. A freelance PR man, he says he has worked with such The weather is screwed up everywhere. Contacting extra- heavyweights as Jane Fonda and the Chicago 7's David terrestrials may be our only hope. Their intelligence com- Dellinger on the National Mobilization Committee to End the pared to ours might be like ours is to a worm's. If we place War in Vietnam. His interest in UFOs began in the Seventies, ourselves in their trust, they may be able to replenish the when he was publishing a newspaper called the New York planet or, if necessary, evacuate it."—MARK TEICH bly moving toward the cage. In order to check his results, Peoch conducted further trials in which unimprinted chicks were placed in the cage near the device Under this control condition, the tychoscope continued to "walk" in a random fashion and did not move more fre- quently than would be ex- pected toward the cage. Despite these results, however, other researchers are less convinced that the experiment proves PK. Psychologist Susan Black- more of the University of Bristol's Brain and Perception Laboratory remains intrigued by but critical of Peoch's work. She found his pub- lished report vague, she says, and it was unclear how the tychoscope was monitored by the experimenter, because its movements weren't regis- tered mechanically. "Before it would be convincing, I would like to see the method- ology more fully explained," she says. "I don't think the paper in this form proves convincing evidence for PK." — D. Scott Rogo imprinting, is so overriding the chicks immediately that no matter what the began following it. For years parapsycholo- object, the chicks naturally For the psychokinesis (PK) gists have been experiment- mistake it for the hen, phase of the experiment, ing to see if animals possess Peoch used this phenome- the chicks were placed In a ESP and psychokinetic non as the basts for his cage overlooking the tycho- powers. Now new evidence experiment. He began by scope. The research ques- from France suggests that placing severaf newborn tion: Would the chicks use PK chicks possess the latter. chicks in a large box with a to bring the device closer Rene Peoch of the Institut tychoscope, a robotlike to the cage, making it easier de Psychophysique Francais device that looks like a large to follow? Such a phenome- in Nantes conducted the insect. The motions of the non could be calculated by research with newly hatched tychoscope are controlled by keeping a record of the chicks. It is well-known that a random-number generator directions in which the tycho- the young birds will follow the that causes it to make fre- scope tended to turn. After first moving object they see. quent random turns. When dozens of trials it was clear This phenomenon, called Peoch activated the device, that the device kept inexplica- 154 OMNI — pictures gave no clue as to whether the vibuti appeared paranormally or was placed Ten years ago, while medi- there by other means. In tating, psychotherapist some cases the ash would Roger Woolger suddenly be seen both inside and "saw" a grisly scene from the outside the picture frame." Middle Ages. "I had flashes of Despite his reservations, a medieval city in chaos: Haraldsson concludes that people running everywhere, "some of the phenomena blood, severed limbs, and may at least be genuine." Not bonfires of human bodies," he everybody, however, is recalls. Visualization tech- convinced, Raymond Bay- niques later enabled Woolger less, a parapsychologist 1 to uncover "memories' of in Los Angeles, saw several his life as an llalian mercenary films of Sai Baba performing burned at the stake centuries his miracles in 1979, "I saw ago by Catholics during the no evidence for paranormal Albigensian Crusade. therapy can hetp patients Baba as a god. and the powers, and everything I Recalling that former life, but not because reincarna- sixty-two-year-old guru saw could be explained Woolger says, helped explain tion is real. "You can use doesn't deny the claim. normally," he says. his innate suspicion of Ca- guided-relaxation techniques Sai Baba is best known for What of the vibuti that tholicism and his fear of to put people into height- the way he makes objects materializes In the homes of fire. Reasoning that others ened states of suggestibility materialize out of thin air. Sai Baba's followers? "I might benefit by discovering so they may believe they Some witnesses say he has investigated a case reported what happened to them are reincarnated, but it is been seen in two places by a family of devotees," before this lifetime, Woolger clearly fantasy, " he insists at the same time. Others Bayless reports. "I don't think began using guided-imagery "Even if you make a patient contend that he can produce we have to look outside the exercises to uncover his believe he was a rock in out-of-season fruit from thin family for an explanation." patients' past lives. a sandstorm in Arabia In the air and cause holy ash —D Scott Rogo Woolger, who details his twelfth century, it can help (called vibuti) to form on experiences In Other Lives. establish a therapeutic photos placed in shrines "There's a rhythm to the Other Selves (Doubteday), rapport between therapist across the land. universe, and chanting is says he's not interested and client."—Sherry Baker Now comes Modern Mira- plugging into that rhythm." in using historical facts to cles, a book by Erlendur —Tina Turner check out whether tales ol "The now, the here, through Haraldsson, A psychologist purported former lives are le- which ail future plunges at the University of Iceland, gitimate. "What's important to the past" Haraldsson made eight is to use past-life therapy —James Joyce trips to India to meet Sai Baba to get to the bottom of anxi- and collect evidence for the eties and traumas carried holy man's claims. Haraldsson into this life so they can be himself watched closely brought to a conclusion," The great gurus of India while the guru made small Woolger denies any conflict supposedly control incredible objects materialize m his between past-life psycho- powers, called siddhis. to palm to Illustrate points The therapy and his training as a perform miracles. Levitation. psychologist also collected Jungian: 'After all," he says. astral projection. ESR and eyewitness accounts. 'Uungians believe that we are healing are powers they "In Bangalore, Bombay, much more than we con- traditionally possess. Sai and practically every town in sciously know," Baba. the last of these great India I lound shrine rooms Psychologist Terence miracle workers, today lives witfi photos covered with Hlnes of Pace University in in the town of Puttaparti. vibuti," Haraldsson says, "A New York agrees that past-life Millions of Indians revere Sal mere examination of the the find for the center. "This particular ball weighs nearly The tarot deck has been one hundred pounds and used for fortune-telling since was found at a depth of five the fourteenth century. But feet, which indicates that now, says Denver psychic it is approximately one thou- and numerologist Daphna sand years old." Moore, students of the occult The butter ball, stored In can use the cards to ener- what Candon believes was gize their pineal glands, the stomach of a cow, was developing psychic powers preserved by the moist in the process. conditions in the peat bog. Moore's ideas, explained According to Gien Doran, the In her new book The Rabbi's anthropologist at Florida Tarot (Hughes Henshaw State University who recently Publications), are based on discovered the world's oldest the Major Arcana, 22 tarot preserved human brain cards with Hebrew letters. matter in a watery burial The cards, she says, received ground in Florida, the find is publicity thanks to a mysteri- another example of the ous rabbi who lectured on "incredible preservation po- the tarot throughout Europe in tential of saturated soils." the late nineteenth and Candon, now in search of early twentieth centuries, funding to continue his of the Moore also says it is appro- analysis substance priate that a rabbi unlocked and its container, has de- the multileveled meaning clined to taste the butter of the tarot because 'Jewish himself but says that one Irish masters of the occult put journalist who snitched a their ageless wisdom Into tarot sex act and raise it to ener- bite said it tasted like athlete's Still symbols to preserve it gize the brain's pineal gland foot. "I'm trying to figure through the centuries," That opens higher levels of It's rancid but edible. That's out how she knows what According to Moore, the consciousness, enhancing what they're saying about a athlete's foot tastes like," he knowledge in the Hebrew psychic skills." huge ball of butter recently says.—Rick Boling tarot can be accessed Paul Kurtz, head of the unearthed in a peat bog through the subconscious Committee for the Scientific in Ireland. What is most un- "/ believe in the inheritance skills crafts—the mind. "If you are drawn to one Investigation of Claims of usual about the butter ball, of and of the cards," she says, "it the Paranormal, is doubtful however, is that it's more than inheritance of memory. They is because the archetypes that tarot cards contain 1,000 years old find now that if a snail eats are speaking to your higher any mind-altering secret According to Tony Candon, another snail it gets that self " By meditating on the knowledge. "Moore is a self- director of the Roscrea second snail's memory." color and musical note proclaimed psychic making Heritage Center In County —Robert Graves associated with your card an uncorroborated, subjec- Tipperary, Ireland, the size and by studying the rabbi's tive claim," he says. "Without and age of the butter ball "Among the five senses, commentary, the meaning hard data to support it, the make it one of the most un- smell is, unquestionably, the of the card will become clear whole idea is pure, specula- usual finds of Its kind. "We one that best gives the As that happens, a slow tive poppycock." know from documentary idea of immortality." transformation begins. Poppycock or not, however, sources that dairy produce —Salvador Dall For example, she says, the Meore insists that The Rab- was buried in bogs for pres- magician card represents bi's Tarot contains the meta- ervation from the early Mid- "But there can hardly be a the sex force. "By studying physical secrets from which dle Ages until the nineteenth doubt that we are descended the magician, we learn to all occult magic comes. century," says Candon, from barbarians." take the energy we use in the —Sherry Baker who has been investigating —Charles Darwin 156 OMNI ready-to-fertilize eggs—eggs that had been produced during a time in the re- productive cycle known as ovulation. To understand how to harvest eggs at the optimum period, he began studying the reproductive cycle in mice. Specifically, he gave his animals a hormone needed for ovulation, and waited to see how long it took an egg to grow. In this way Edwards learned that mice had a specific program of ovulation, one so regular you could set your clock by it. Later experiments showed the same held true for 12 other species, including man. The human egg virtually always ripened 37 hours after the hormone injection oc- curred. Using this knowledge, Edwards had managed to ripen human eggs in culture by 1965. But collecting the eggs proved to be a problem. The only ones Edwards could get were from ovaries that had been re- moved during hysterectomies. He tried to fertilize some of these, but only a few of them worked. If his research were to progress, he decided, he must have "fresh" eggs taken directly from a woman at the time of ovulation. "I looked everywhere for a gynecolo- gist who could get eggs out easily," he says. 'All my colleagues said it was im- possible." He still remembers the day in 1968 when he sat in the library at Cam- bridge University reading a paper by Patrick Steptoe on a new technique for reaching the ovaries using a laparo- scope, a narrow tube with a built-in opti- technique came to fruition on July 25, cal fiber light for viewing. 1978, with the birth of Louise Joy Brown, "it was a lovely little paper," he says in "I him DOUBLE the first baby to start life in a laboratory his dramatic, breathy voice. called CONTINUED FROM Pi dish. Patrick Steptoe, the obstetrician who up, and he said that yes, you could use very This work, moreover, has moved for- attended Louise at both her conception laparoscopy for getting in and out quickly." ward al lightning speed. The original and birth, died last February. But Robert easily and team, Ed- cloned sheep came from embryos just Edwards, the scientific half of the famous The two soon formed a and laparoscopy eight cells large. Now cloning of 16-cell team, continues his work. wards was now able to use that Ed- and 32-cell embryos is routine, and Wil- "This is the only in vitro fertilization cen- to extract human eggs. Now ladsen has already gotten calves from the ter in a stately hall," says the gray-haired wards had fresh eggs to work with, he blastocyst stage containing about 120 Edwards, who at sixty-two is the perfect could begin fertilizing them with donated years he drove the cells. He then went on to clone the first lord of the manor. Walking through Bourn sperm. For ten hectic cows, and Jim Robl has cloned rabbits. Hall Clinic, on the outskirts of Cambridge, 200 miles from Cambridge to Sieptoe's When researchers can clone adult cells one would be hard put to find a greater Manchester office, knowing all the while he from these species and others, the ben- contrast between a building and its use. that if he did not get there on time, had blasto- efit to the animal industry will be im- Housed in a redbrick mansion built dur- might lose the eggs. "We they grew, mense. The fleeciest sheep, the beefiest ing the reign of King James I in the early cysts, we knew how we knew to orchestrate it. It was an unbeliev- cattle, ihe-fat-test pigs, the swiftest horses, 1600's, it was taken over by Edwards and how the most overflowing' cows— all could be Steptoe in 1980. Now in these Jacobean able time," he says. produced exactly as ordered, on de- rooms, with their dark wood paneling and By 1972, though, the duo faced an even mand. Moreover, cloned farm animals crystal chandeliers, women lounge on bigger hurdle — placing the embryos uterus. "Nineteen could be used to produce valuable drugs. overstuffed Victorian sofas while their ba- back in a woman's Wielding the tools of gene-splicing, sci- bies are created upstairs. things can be right," says Edwards, "but it was a fail- entists are now trying to develop "trans- In his office, Edwards carefully rests a if only one thing was wrong, hormones to genic" cows that will secrete large quan- tea service and a plate of biscuits on his ure." After giving the woman extra eggs), fer- tities of pharmaceutical products in their 150-year-old Victorian desk. An ideal host, superovulate (produce in the lab dish, and re- milk, the way transgenic mice already he easily negotiates the complexities of tilizing the eggs make a human heart drug. Using cloning' pouring milk, tea, and sugar. As he re- placing the embryos in the uterus, all the techniques, biotech companies could lates his story, however, it's clear that life embryos died. Finally in 1976 they found turn out these transgenic animals —walk- was not always so sedate. that the very hormone they were giving destroying the ing drug factories— by the thousands. Long before he met Steptoe, Edwards to stimulate ovulation was With so much .progress on the animal (who adamantly opposes the principle of pregnancies. When Steptoe was sixty-five retire, switched back front, cloned humans may be the next human cloning) had hoped to develop a and about to they bingo! it worked," goal. A major catalyst; breakthrough work technique for in vitro fertilization. To ac- to the natural cycle, "and Eventually, other re- in the field of in vitro fertilization. The complish his goal, he needed to harvest says Edwards. 1SB OMNI searchers even developed techniques for bryo could fill in and patch up body parts advocates a total head-to-toe approach preserving embryos by freezing them in wherever they are needed. By day 25 of using a body clone. This would mean liquid nitrogen before they were ulti- embryonjc development, Edwards points taking a cell from an individual, transfer- mately placed in the uterus. out, the tissues that make up the heart, ring it into an enucleated egg, growing The ethical and legal reverberations of brain, bone marrow, skin, and other or- the embryo in culture for a few days, and this work, of course, continue today. The gans have already started to differen- then putting it into a surrogate uterus. rights of unborn, frozen embryos, the fate tiate. These could be removed from the About six weeks in to embryonic devel- of spare embryos, and the rent-a-uterus embryo and grown in cell culture, in this opment, the collection of primitive cells custody fights are issues that society has way heart cells could be used to repair called the telencephalon, the forerunner not yet resolved. the heart; brain cells, to repair the brain; of the higher brain, would be removed But the most earthshaking effect is still and so on. and frozen. In this way, Segall says, the to come: By combining the techniques of Gurdon takes this concept further still, body clone "would never develop a brain nuclear transfer with those of in vitro fer- He proposes growing pulsating human capable of anything more than secreting tilization, the technology for cloning hu- hearts, lungs, livers, arms, and legs in hormones and commanding the most man embryos is now online. The nucleus laboratory dishes. "The principle ot a basic vegetal bodily functions. It would of a single human embryo could be specialized cell being able to give rise to never perceive pain or love. Without any transferred into a human egg cell, then almost all the other specialized cells in portion of the higher brain, the body clone grown to term in the womb of a surrogate the right organization really has been would be less human than the fish that mother. Using the technique of serial proved," he says. In his most recent work graces our dinner table." transfer developed byGurdon, scientists he has gone from injecting nuclei into Once the body clone was grown to the could duplicate the same embryo over eggs to injecting isoiated genes—from appropriate size by intravenous feeding it could and over again. As Willadsen puts it, "If turning on the whole genome to make a and hormone injections, serve as brain-dead organ do- we can do it in cows, it is just a matter of new individual to controlling a tiny piece the equivalent of a there no time before it can be done in people." of it. For example, he and his co-workers nor, only in this case would be But chances are that in the future, we'll rejection of the transplant. Since the clone be able to clone not just embryos but hu- would have exactly the same genetic man adults. Scientists from around the makeup as the person from whom it was world have already begun to learn how derived, all its parts—from the facial fea- to trick adult body cells, normally differ- tures to vital organs— could be replaced bThe report stated entiated to perform specific tasks, into as though they were the person's own, going backward in time to an early em- that the egg was fertilized, cell which they would be. bryonic stage when all the genes were Even the aging brain could be treated, division began, fully turned on and all things were pos- says Segall, by replacing the damaged sible. Some of the greatest progress in and in three days the embryo or diseased cells with new ones from the telencephalon that was set aside during this area has been made by Di Berar- ' was ready for dino. In cloning experiments on frogs, she early embryonic development. implantation. If true, then the used adult red blood cells to create tad- Of course, growing the body clone poles that ate, survived for as long as a first glimmering of would require a uterus. Here there are several possibilities. One, suggests Se- month, and formed hind limb buds, indi- a person had been cloned.^ cating that a wide spectrum of the dor- gall, is growing the clone in the womb of mant genes had been reactivated. The our closest primate cousin, the chimpan- trick she used was placing the red blood zee. While this may sound farfetched, cell nucleus in an egg cell before it had animals of one species have already been fully matured. "Before the egg is mature, carried to term in the uteri of related spe- Another is ectogenesis, bringing it must go through certain metabolic have located the small piece of DNA that cies. changes that occur over the course of controls a gene for muscles. Work like this, babies to term outside the uterus, per- about twenty-four hours," says Di Berar- he says, will pave the way for identifying haps in a womb of glass. Scientists have in glass dishes to the dino. 'And it turns out that this is a con- the factors that get inactive genes started grown rat embryos ditioning process for the adult ceil nu- up again. In this way, human beings may point where their hearts were beating. cleus." In contrast, when she used fully learn the tricks that allow primitive ani- Recent ground-breaking research indi- mature eggs, the embryos that resulted mals like salamanders to grow new tails cates another means that may be a lot lived no longer than a day. or certain types of frogs to regrow limbs. closer to fruition— a machine -assisted Determined to see this through to the Scientists are already using growth fac- uterus. According to their report, the first end, she is now exposing the adult cell tors to grow skin cells in large sheets in of its kind, a group of Italian researchers nucleus to even earlier stages in the de- the laboratory. But Gurdon believes this took a human embryo that had been fer- velopment of the egg cell. "We are work- is only the beginning. Although he is not tilized in vitro and actually got it to implant ing on the basis that we are going to be ordinarily given to speculation, the pos- itself in a uterus that had been removed able to improve our techniques and sibilities delight him. "You could regen- during a hysterectomy. hopefully activate the entire genome [all erate your teeth. Think of how useful that Although the scientists kept the uterus tbegenesinacell],"shesays. "We hope would be," he says. "And you could grow functioning for only 52 hours, they be- we can do this in a few years." arms in culture and give them to people lieve that advances in organ preserva- Once researchers have the power to who've iost them. That would be marvel- tion techniques will eventually allow them the uterus its implanted em- turn back the clock, making an adult cell ous. I- do think the ability to regenerate to keep and young, the age of cloning will be here. will probably come." bryo going for a much longer time. In fact, Segall, they say, "future ectogenesis But even if clones never walk among us, But not soon enough for Paul complete the medical applications of cloning will visiting scientist at the University of Cali- should not be ruled out." clone it be vast. First of all, cloned embryos could fornia, Berkeley: "To grow organs in this How to. sustain the body once be used for what has been referred to as way one would have to learn how to arti- is full-grown? Segall, who made head- spare-parts surgery. In the same way that ficially induce every kind of tissue. I'm not lines two years ago when he chilled a ' fetal brain eel! implants have been used saying it can't be done, but it might take beagle named Miles and then brought it to treat people with Parkinson's disease, fifty or a hundred years." back to life, suggests freezing. "Cloning cells and tissues from a very early em- Rather than partial solutions, Segall will reach its zenith," he says, "when we 160 OMNI Tfeft Avtsst © ART CUWINGS C) I'm trying to (Tl-ij y'r^OO create a "tree that is N uniquely mine yfSJ' .^-""vr 6' ^ ivfJib i^drh 7W,A I have a poem A Kilmer by Joyce I want you "~IT"- Where are bo read ./ /°u going ? / can bring back people from cryonic sus- pension. Frozen body clones stored in liquid niirogen will give us a smorgas- bord of (issues with which to replace cells and organs that have been damaged by disease, injury, aging, and death. In that way, everything will be as it was before we died, only far better, because we will be young again." What about leaving the clone's brain intact and letting it live life much like us? Cloning a new copy of oneself as soon as the old one wore out would provide individuals with a sort of serial immortal- ity: As the original grew old, identical copies could be spawned. That seems especially important when you consider that the abilities of an Einstein, a Mozart, an Anna Pavlova could live on after them. Elof Axel Carlson of UCLA even sug- gests that there might be enough DNA left to clone a new King Tutankhamen from his mummified body. But not everyone thinks thai cloning is a great idea. Edwards, tor instance, has ethical objections to the body clone, which he calls an unwanted intrusion into fetal rights. As for the idea of cloning em- bryos to provide spare body parts, he would put an upper limit on the age at which the embryo can be used—day 25. "We do put a limit on things, such as not allowing abortions in Britain after twenty- eight weeks," he says. Although he says there's no period when life suddenly starts, he believes that "rights mature as embryos grow. As the fetus gets more human, it is more valuable." As for living, breathing doubles, "we call it clowning," Edwards says, his upper- class accent wrapping cockneylike around the word. "It is a waste of lime. Is there anyone who has ever been worth cloning? I say no. Because for every ge- nius who dies, another is born," Di Berardino objects to cloning on evo- lutionary grounds. "Cloning itself is a form of asexual reproduction," she says. 'And most of what we know in science is that sexual reproduction provides heteroge- neity and rigor. You can still pass on del- eterious genes when two people mate, but the chances are less. I guess you would have to make the assumption that the person you want to clone does not have one bad gene, and that seems un- likely. Ethically I think we don't have the right to play around with human material." Other doners have a more personal reaction. "I couldn't imagine wanting to clone humans," says Audrey Muggleton- Harris, an experimental embryology ex- peri at the Medical Research Council in Surrey, England, "because it would be getting rid of all the very characteristics that I enjoy about them." Willadsen broods that we already display a herdlike tend- ency without genetic tampering. "How is it that one hundred million Americans watch the Super Bowl, or millions of peo- ple buy little plastic disks with the Beatles or Elvis? That sort of mental cloning is a lot more worrisome than the idea that skeptical. Shettles never presented evi- somebody might be carried away and do dence that the egg was enucleated, she LESSER GOD something in the laboratory." says, nor did he use genetic markers that Indeed, as with any powerful new would have proved that the sole parent technology the potential for abuse is of the embryo was indeed the trans- Around the turn of the century Leduc enormous. We could, for instance, breed planted spermatogonium. had been studying osmosis, the phenom- legless people, mental defectives, or Again Shettles got into trouble with his enon by which molecules move through a cross-species monsters with prehensile superiors. The hospital's board of trust- membrane from a highly concentrated so- tails to do society's dirty work. One could ees asked him to refrain from further ex- lution to one that is less concentrated. When envision armies of replicated Rambos, or periments. In 1981, taking an offer to set living cells osmose, or draw, material a dictator churning out clonants at one up an infertility clinic in Las Vegas, he left through their membranes, they are able to with his world-conquering vision, or a once more. At age seventy-nine, without receive nourishment and pass out waste. Utopia "perfect" in every respect down a laboratory in which to test his ideas, he While studying the phenomenon, Leduc to the uniformity of its inhabitants. optimistically carries on. Work recently found that certain types of inorganic ma- But persuasive though these objec- carried out in Australia, he declares, terial, when placed in solution, actually grew tions may be, they will never override the shows how cloning can be done. into structures surrounded by osmotic eternal human quest for immortality. As In that study, a group of scientists led membranes. They bore an amazing re- Robl says, "If cloning can be done, by in vitro fertilization expert Alan Troun- semblance to the structures of life. Once somebody will probably try and do it." If son was able to fertilize a human egg by the membranes were formed, in fact, the. so, one day soon, some self-appointed injecting a single sperm cell under the inanimate substances began passing Prometheus is bound to steal the fire of zona pellucida, the outer covering of the molecules back and forth much as if they creation and bring it to the human egg. egg. For Trounson, the success of this were alive. These growths, Leduc re- According to one renegade scientist, work means that men with poor-quality ported in 1911, "put forth bud and stem that day is here. Landrum Shettles is the sperm or a low sperm count would be and root and branch and leaf and fruit." enfant terrible of human reproduction. able to father a child. For Shettles the take- Indeed, he declared, his structures looked After making a name for himself with his home message is a little different. Years like plants right down to the microscopic early ground-breaking work on human ago, he says, he found that there were level. They reproduced, went through a reproduction and embryonic develop- some human sperm, about 1 to 2 percent period of youth (in which they moved like ment, he became embroiled in a series of a normal semen sample, that had un- animals), and then grew old and died. "We of controversies. In 1973, five years be- usually big heads. Looking further, he are at a loss," Leduc said, "to define any fore Louise Joy Brown became the found that they contained a diploid num- line of separation between these mineral world's first test-tube baby, he claimed to ber, or two sets, of chromosomes, in- forms and those of organic life." In the end have fertilized a human egg in a labora- stead of the usual haploid, or single, set. the scientists of Leduc's day— including tory dish. But the possibility of preg- Shettles reasons that if he could isolate Louis Pasteur—lumped the behavior of nancy ended when the cells were confis- and immobilize one of these big-headed osmotic growths with the disproved notion cated by his boss, Raymond Vande Wiele, sperm, he could inject it into an enu- of spontaneous generation. They dis- and Shettles was forced to resign from cleated egg using Trounson's technique. missed the phenomenon as unimportant, New York City's Columbia-Presbyterian Thus could Adam father himself. To clone and it might have stayed buried forever if College of Physicians and Surgeons, Adam's wife, Shettles would choose a not for Zeleny and his crew. where he had practiced obstetrics and rapidly dividing cell from the uterus; the Convinced that Leduc's findings re- gynecology for 26 years. He created genetic material from that area, he says, vealed something valuable about the es- more headlines and controversy when he has the best chance to start a new life. sence of life— its organization—Zeleny set backed Rorvik's book on cloning as being "I'm a farmer's son from the South," says out to reproduce some of these experi- credible and propounded a method of Shettles, who has never lost the folksy ments himself. Following the models de- sex selection that many other scientists drawl of his native Mississippi, "I know scribed by Leduc so many decades be- dismissed as dubious. that if you take a plant, put it in good soil, fore, he took broken fragments of solid Then in 1979, while working at Gifford and give it some water, it will usually take. calcium chloride and manganese chloride Memorial Hospital in Randolph, Vermont, And if you put that nice big-headed sperm and dissolved them in solutions of inor- he launched another bombshell: a brief in a nice egg with all its reserves, well, ganic salt. As he sat watching his "primor- article, complete with pictures, in the that is like putting it in fertile soil. If I had dial soup" over a period of days, he saw a American Journal of Obstetrics and a big laboratory and could sit right down, variety of A-life forms sprout. Some of these Gynecology entitled "Diploid Nuclear I know that I could do it." entities resembled plants, while others had Replacement in Mature Human Ova with But even if Shettles succeeds, Adam the traits of fish or worms. Cleavage." According to the report, he will need one more thing to complete his According to Zeleny, in fact, depending had removed the genetic material from a dream—a way to clone the contents of upon the exact substances used, his os- human egg cell and replaced it with the his brain. Memory transfer is not a total motic growths included stems, leaves, nucleus of a human spermatogonium, the fantasy, says Segall. "The idea is that flowers, buds, fins, amoebas, and worms. precursor of the sperm cell. Because the memory is stored in the brain in some Many of his creations even had what looked spermatogonium contains a double set physicochemical way that is knowable," like cilia, the tiny hair cells used to help a of chromosomes, it is a complete blue- he says. "And we know how memory is whole range of animal species transport print for the individual. The egg was fer- stored in the computer. When we reach nutrients and wastes from one place to the tilized, cell division began, and three days the point that we can read the information next. What's more, Zeleny's smooth, lifelike later the embryo was at the morula stage, in the brain and write it onto a computer, structures seemed to live and breathe. Like its cluster of cells ready for implantation. then we will be able to program the clone living cells, he says, his crystalline crea- If the paper was true, then it meant that brain to develop. with the information in tures transport matter across their mem- the first glimmering ol a human being had the computer." The mind boggles. Cloned branes, absorbing the components they already been cloned. brains and memory transfer. The individ- need for nutrition and expelling the rest as "I remember getting a phone call from ual raised to the nth power. Not just serial waste. They also repair themselves by Bob McKinnellfone of the pioneers in the immortality but parallel infinity Where will growing new membranous cells to replace field] saying, 'Guess what Shettles it all end? those that rupture and "die." And they ex- says?' " recalls Di Berardino. But like most In the beginning, Adam made Adam. hibit the uncannily lifelike ability to repro- of her colleagues, Di Berardino "was The Bible, the new one, said it best.DO duce by spawning buds. Finally, if a crystal 164 OMNI grows out of the water into air, ils entire ergy much as we are. "The beauty of velop simple single- eel I ALFs; the second, bundling structure changes; that is, it evolves. chemical energy," Dyson explains, "is that to proceed with the process of will But perhaps most intriguing to Zeleny it's so enormously flexible, and it can serve them together into vast patterns that and his collaborators, George Klir of the so many different purposes at once. It's a someday make more elaborate ALFs ca- State University of New York at Bingham- good way of storing energy, a good way pable of behaviors as complex as those of ton, and Kevin Hufford of Broome Com- of releasing it in a controlled fashion, and man. A vast synthesis of all the patterns munity College in Binghamton, is these a good way of transferring it from one point would lead to a geosystem as multifarious creations' capacity for "autopoiesis." Like to another. That's why life makes use of it." as that of the earth. To uncover these pat- living cells and organisms, they are literally And, he adds, that's why.it might be used terns, A-lifers are imposing the laws of Dar- able to orchestrate a continual turnover of to drive other, novel life forms as well. win on computerized artificial worlds. One their parts. 'A living cell," Zeleny explains, In fact, Dyson even envisions an ALF such system has been created by Craig "exists by virtue of a complex set of proc- created to survive the phenomenon of heat Reynolds of Symbolics Inc., a firm that esses that synthesize proteins, enzymes, death, a future time when the entire uni- makes a specialized computer for artificial lipids, and more. These processes renew verse, colder and far less energetic than it intelligence and graphics design. the- individual elements of the cell thou- is now, would be winding down. Dyson's Reynolds got to wondering if there would sands of times during its lifetime. Yet suggestion, inspired by the thoughts of be a way of creating dynamic herds of an- throughout this turnover, the cell maintains Cambridge Universily astronomer Fred imals—schools of fish, flocks of birds, and tra- its distinctiveness and autonomy." This Hoyle: an evolving, intelligent, even emo- so on—without tediously drawing the lasting unity and wholeness in the midst of tional black cloud. "What I envisage as the jectory of each individual member every continual turnover defines Zeleny 's cre- structural unit of such a creature," he says, step of the way. He knew from his own ob- ations as well. "is simply dust grains, probably made of servations and research that the synchro- Are Ihese structures alive'? "There is no iron or some convenient stuff, charged and nized flying of real birds is not produced sharp division, no precise limit where in- working on one another with electric and by any master controller or head bird. flies animate nature ends and life, or animate magnetic forces. One can imagine enor- Rather, each member of the flock solely nature, begins," Zeleny says. 'What we can in reference to its individual perceptions, of the at say is that there seem to be major organi- both of the other birds and world zational themes: The shells, leaves, stems, large. Why not create computer birds? he and protuberant flowers of nature are ap- thought. He'd let them loose and see if parently not just properties of organic liv- they'd flock together by themselves. chips. All that counts is that let it itself in biological form, is it innately differ- When he his boids out of the cage, no ent from organic life? Will organic and in- it has the right seemed almost magical: There was way organic creatures ever merge, making a to predict the flight path of any individual organization, the right iogic.V being that combines attributes of both? boid, nor was there a constant position that took with respect to the others. And if we view life as a system of orga- any one up nization as opposed to a collection of "stuff," Nonetheless, they flew in unison, as if they then might we begin to unearth the living were just one big happy family that had in places we never dreamed of? Finally, flown together a million times in the past. how much of what we now see in the fossil mously complex structures built out of these Their spontaneous flocking behavior record were actually osmotic growths and things. What would correspond to a mus- emerged even though it hadn't been ex- plicitly other forms of nonbiological life? cle or a nerve synapse? I haven't the faint- programmed. To unravel some of these mysteries, Ze- est idea. It's an open-ended system, just In addition, two unexpected things oc- leny and colleagues are currently model- as the organic fluids we're made of are. curred. At one point a solitary boid left the ing the patterns of osmotic growth on the The electromagnetic forces would give you flock and flew some distance away, but it lost computer screen. Over the short term they a means of tying it together, coordinating then—as if it realized that had the in hope to dissect, for instance, the process it. It could be just as complex, even more flock— it curved around a loop and raced that makes the growths shoot up in a ver- complex than what we see around us now." back to join the others. Nothing in the pro- tical direction; the means by which the Whether future ALFs are gas clouds or gram called for this, but there it was never- growths slow, thicken, and eventually stop; clays, they will eventually interact. As biol- theless: a stray boid mimicking, com- and the mechanism that controls a growth's ogists point out, complex living beings are pletely on its own, the flight paths of its avian in real ultimate decay. If, as they hope, their work in fact colonies of-.a number of simpler or- cousins the world. its leads to a full understanding of the life cycle ganisms. Humans, for example, are ac- At another point a boid, contrary to of the osmotic growth, they may eventually tually loosely knit communities of many dif- program, flew right into an obstacle. It be able to alter these forms at will. ferent creatures, such as bacteria, viruses, bounced back, fluttered for a moment as But though clay and crystal can simu- and one-celled organisms, living together if stunned, then zoomed ahead to catch hadn'l pro- late life, perhaps even to the point where symbiotically. Our "I" is, in truth, a "we." up with its brothers. Reynolds we consider them alive, will they ever be What's" more, even larger organisms must grammed that into his boids, either. endowed with the gift of consciousness? learn to deal with a more complex whole Reynolds has since speculated that Will the A-lifers' entities ever be organized as they cooperate to find a niche in which more advanced computer animals might enough to actually feel and think? to live, avoid predators, and pursue prey. one day be able to perform with even According to physicist Freeman Dyson A-lifers. must therefore focus not just on greater independence. He suggests, for of the Institute for Advanced Study in the creation of single living individuals but example, programming a whole set of car- Princeton, NewJersey, once we learn a bit .on group behavior as well. Ultimately the toon characters to talk and interact with one within more about consciousness, there is no most likely approach to creating complex another, then turning them loose— reason why not. After all, these structures ALFs will be to mimic nature's methods of the confines of the computer—to live it up. are driven by the power of chemical en- organization. The first step will be to de- "It might be interesting to build charac- 166 OMNI — ters thai would be complex enough to gen- real world fast rabbits are better at avoid- ecology that dealt with this case. Its author erate their own story line," Reynolds says. ing attack. And it works that way in the pro- showed that any random or unpredictable "It might be tough to make this work, but it gram, too. The fast-running gene gives influences played havoc with the classic wouldn't be impossible." In Reynolds's rabbits a' better chance of escaping from oscillating-population model. As it turned wildest fantasies the day might come when foxes. But this speed exacts a penalty: A out, Jefferson's animals, based in part on ALFs could mimic the antics of Roger Rab- speedy rabbit has a higher metabolism and a code from a random number generator, bit and the other toons, making up their so must eat more grass. If grass becomes had random behavior built into them. Pro- own scenes, living their own lives, writing scarce—because there are lots of other grammed to imitate the vagaries of real- their own dialogue, and perhaps doing fast rabbits escaping the foxes and eating, world chance, they threw their computer- away with the need for screenwriters. too—the rabbit may starve to death. ized Eden into a frenzy, perpetually going Today, however, the most sophisticated The normal behavior for an artificial rab- extinct. Says Jefferson, "I was finding computer world can be found not in Toon- bit includes rules such as through my program something that seri- town but at UCLA, where researchers have 1) If there is a fox in your square, look ous biologists had known all along." developed a colony of artificial animals and around for a safer square and run there. As a further refinement to the program, plants. These l_A ALFs do it all: birthing, 2) If there is grass in the square, eat therefore, Jefferson gave his rabbits and eating, gaining weight, reproducing, ag- some grass. foxes the capacity to mutate, a means of ing, dying, becoming extinct. They even 3) If you weigh enough, reproduce. responding to the harsh whims of fate: A evolve adaptive changes through the force And for foxes, such laws of the jungle as fast parent could give birth to a slow off- of natural selection. 1) Find rabbits in your neighborhood. spring and vice versa. The stage was thus This ALF paradise is the brainchild of 2) Eat them. set for natural selection —the route to spe- David Jefferson at UCLAs department of 3) Reproduce. cies survival, at least on Earth. computer science. In the early Eighties, So much for some of the ground rules. Now when Jefferson runs his code, the when he was a junior professor at the Uni- Jefferson divided the environment into random number generator controls muta- versity of Southern California, Jefferson numbered squares of grass, created 50 tions. Initially, all rabbits have the slow gene, read and was inspired by Richard Daw- but eventually a mutant rabbit that runs fast kins's book The Selfish Gene. In this ground- is born. Slowly, according to data flashing breaking work, Dawkins set out three con- on the screen, a shift takes place. The fast ditions that must be met in order for evo- rabbits are escaping and reproducing; the selection exist. One, slow ones are childless and eventually din- lution and natural to ^Computer there must be reproduction; two, there must ner. The brutal geometry of Darwinism has be reproduction with variation (in other programs acting as rabbits unfolded: In the beginning, 90 percent of rabbits were slow; now 90 percent are fast. words, offspring must not be mere clones and foxes could of their parents); and three, there must be "It's the population of foxes that's driving competition for scarce resources. -mutate in response to the this," explains Jefferson. "It's a case of nat- an advantageous Jefferson and colleague Charles Taylor whims of fate, ural selection in action— became convinced that computer pro- gene being selected for in response to en- setting the stage for natural grams could embody these qualities: 'A vironmental stress." living creature is born, grows, moves, and selection—the route While Jefferson's creatures possess interacts with its environment—including many of the attributes of life, they are not, to species survival on EarthJ other animals—and possibly learns about he confesses, alive. To generate the ghost its environment. It competes ecologically in the machine, he notes, his programs with other animals, it produces variant off- must be more complex. "When trying to spring of itself, and it dies," Jefferson says. simulate the real biological world," he says, "It hit me that all this is true of programs, "one of the barriers I hit is the temptation to too. Programs can be born—they can be rabbits and three foxes, and let them loose. have boundaries between what is alive and created; they can be placed in an environ- He thought he'd learned enough about what is not. In my simulation, for instance, ment and interact with it and with other predator-prey relationships, to know how the animals move while the environment programs; and they can reproduce variant the contest would proceed: The two pop- stays still. In reality, however, the world is offspring of themselves." ulations would go through regular ups and totally fuzzy, and this distinction is indefen- To prove his point Jefferson wrote rabbit downs, the predator slightly out of phase sible. My long-term goal is to create a pro- programs, fox programs, and a grass- with the prey. He figured the rabbit popu- gram of complex activity, where the crea- growing program. The grass was the bot- lation would increase first. Then the foxes, tures and the environment truly mix." tom of the food chain and provided the with more to eat, would grow more numer- Jefferson hopes to create "an organism as stage on which the drama of the ALFs ous. Then the foxes would decline be- complex as a bacterium" one day. the foxes and rabbits—would be played. cause there were fewer animals to eat, and Some experts say this has already been Unlike the boids, which had no individ- the rabbits would increase again. On and done with plants. The prize for the most ual identifying features, the foxes and rab- on. If all went according to plan, this cycle lifelike ALF at the recent Los Alamos con- bits varied from one to the next in age, would repeat itself indef nitely. vention went to Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz weight, and initial genetic endowment. A But it didn't work that way "Sure enough, of the University of Regina in Canada and fall," University of rabbit's speed gene, for instance, deter- I got this rise and says Jefferson. "But Aristed Lindenmayer of the mined whether it was fast or slow. Its birth then I got a crash. The rabbits went extinct, Utrecht in the Netherlands. Their program gene determined the size of any litter it and the foxes starved to death shortly af- re-created the growth of a number of flower might produce. {To keep the program sim- terward. Or sometimes the foxes would go species by imitating the chemical signals ple, Jefferson made reproduction a solo extinct, and the rabbits, having no ene- that control branching and budding in na- affair requiring only one parent to produce mies, would soar in population until their ture. By combining information on the an offspring.) All these features were inter- numbers had reached the carrying ca- growth cycle with the species' complex ge- connected and mutually dependent, just pacity of the system." Within one or two ometries, their program generated a star- as in real life. Out in the world a rabbit's cycles, it seemed, Jefferson always wound tling horticultural display. Thegraphics were weight is an approximate measure of its up with massive extinction. He couldn't do so realistic that they left even the meeting's readiness to give birth. The heavier the anything about it, and he didn't know what ultrasawy computer audience wowed. rabbit, the more likely it is to produce off- was going on. Peter Oppenheimer, a research scientist spring. And so it is in the program. Inthe Then he happened to read a treatise on at the New York Institute of Technology's 168 OMNI WES KING ARTHUR The International Arthurian Society c /o The Franklin Mint Franklin Center, Pennsylvania 19091 Fie.tse enter mv order for the authorized of King Arthur's Excalibur sworn. Crafted of hand- polished tempered steel and embellished with ster- ling silver and 24 karat gold electroplate. The n-designed display is included at no addi- 1 need send no money . I will be billed equal monthly s of S135." each, begin- ning prior to shipment. " —" Computer Graphics Laboratory, has been A-lifers say, would challenge the very seem complex, Laing says it is not. "Be- universal constructor, it can designing sophisticated ALF plants "in sil- meaning of life as we know it today. cause it's a exactly like itself," ica" as well. To make his organisms as life- This supreme A-iife form, in fact, already build another machine to build first like as possible, Oppenheimer has literally has a name. The universal constructor, or he says. "You'd have only the given them genes. UC, would be able to make anything: tools, one by hand. Once you did, the UC and Oppenheimer's genes are simply codes machines, spares to heal its own busted its progeny would produce unlimited anything you might want at entered into the computer. Each code, in parts. It would be able to reproduce itself. quantities of It would be the last ma- turn, has a graphic expression on the com- And when it became obsolete, it could cre- essentially no cost. puter screen. Indeed, just as the human ate its evolutionary descendants as well. chine we need ever build, and whoever it it wouldn't matter did blue-eyed gene will provide its owner with "The universal constructor won't be just built first, well, who it It would like coming in last vivid blue eyes, Oppenheimer's color, size, important, it will be explosively revolution- second. be first might be and shape genes provide his computer ary," says its advocate, Richard Laing, now One of the UCs creations plants with visible identity as well. a consultant who trained in linguistics, universal therapists (UTs) to help all the bil- To design computer trees, for instance, mathematics, computer science, and bi- lions of people in last place deal with this Oppenheimer has invented a series of 15 ology and was formerly the head of the and the boredom of so much free time. chai- computer genes, each coding for its own logic-of-computers group at the University Of course, people would wind up with UTs, would be, after all, arti- trait. The traits, which taken together define of Michigan. "In the next fifty years— even ting who an entire tree, include such things as the twenty years—there's going to be tremen- ficial life forms. Pretty much like talking over angle between the main stem of a tree and dous pressure to create a thing like this your problems with the microwave. In- will life forms its primary branches; the amount of helical Exactly what such a device would be deed, ALFs, UCs, and UTs be twist in the branches; and the color of the constructed of is, naturally, still far from alien from us. And if we do a good enough them, says Laing, "we will bark. 'The result," Oppenheimer explains, clear. It could be wholly ALF or a hybrid of job of designing coinhabifing the universe "is a computer- gene rated color video im- biological and nonbiological components find ourselves an alien race. ultimate outcome age of a tree or other organism." It could contain the seminal work of today's with The But Oppenheimer was not content sim- would be unknown: We could dominate us, could ply to spin the roulette wheel of genetics, them, they could dominate we creating one random organism after the coexist as separate species, or we could symbiotic relationship." next. To truly simulate life, he decided, he form a would need to confer on his organisms a The precise future of the ALF, in fact, is 67/ie universal specific level of fitness to determine the unknown. "This is a classic problem in sci- Brigham likelihood of survival, just as evolution does constructor would be able to ence," says John C. Higgins of Young University. "Do you understand all in nature at large. make anything: Oppenheimer decided, however, not to the implications beforehand? Quite often provide his forms with objective parame- tools, machines, even spares you don't understand the physics of some- small trees thing until you've done the experiments, but ters of fitness—for instance, to heal its busted succumbing while large ones prevailed. by then it may be foo late. There was this parts. And when it became Instead, he established "subjective crite- ghoulish wager at Los Alamos as to or bomb would ignite ria" based on his own aesthetics. "I let the obsolete, it could whether not the atom visual appearance determine which or- the whole atmosphere. We lucked out in create its own descendants.^ ganisms would survive and which would that case, but what if someone creates an over the whole not." explains Oppenheimer, who is an art- artificial organism that takes ist as well as a scientist. "I chose the or- evolve." To dedicated ALFies, however, the re- ganisms I personally wanted to see Oppenheimer readily admits that his wards are worth the risk. The challenge, evolution little technique is suggestive of man playing jineers and Al researchers they declare, is to give a God. "That's a significant part of the proc- taken to the nth degree. But regardless of nudge, assuming at least implicitly that inquisitive, problem-solving, relent- ess," he notes. "If we're making artificial life the details of its design, it would clearly man's part of forms, we do become God in a way. We change forever man's relationship with the lessly creative mind is as much a grosser of become involved in the process of evolu- world, his fellow men, and life itself. the grand plan as the aspects tion, and there's no doubt that as we create Obviously such a device—or more likely human anatomy are. till extent are you tied to your bi- artificial life forms, we will create them with a vast hierarchy of devices—could the "To what the attributes that we ourselves want to see." soil, handle all manufacturing, mine for ology? Is your loyalty to your biology or to of Car- As far as Oppenheimer is concerned, minerals, and in general make a warp-drive your mind?" asks Hans Moravec A-lifers will ultimately combine subjectivity leap to a different phase of the industrial negie- Mel Ion's Robotics Institute. its with creativity to generate forms that are revolution. It could, in short, produce Echoes ' Farmer, "Nature is taking brain these eerily familiar yet flagrantly unique. "If, while everything the human species needs to course by giving us a to do beautiful in the creating artificial life forms, you borrow survive. Says Laing, "Everyone could have things. Making A-life is same certain principles from nature but ignore or a Rolls-Royce every day of the week." way that having kids is beautiful. It's amaz- even violate others," Oppenheimer says, UCs would do all the work and leave us ing, but when you think about it, having is life. You it, "the result will be a series of hybrids, lying leisure time to occupy with all those things kids creating new make and somewhere between the natural and the we'd rather be doing now— like watching you watch it emerge, and you see the joy TV. Not to worry; we could build en- and the richness and the beauty of it, and artificial. In fact, I don't even believe there's more a distinction between the two realms. In tertainment UCs to tell us jokes, do party you have the feeling of something that the future, we may wind up with a contin- tricks, and serve canapes. When the party transcends your own consciousness, beyond 'me.' It's my uum of hybrids. These life forms, though was over, we could have our universal something that goes disturbing, would add new meaning and chauffeurs drive us home on highways analog to believing in God. I believe that laws in the universe spirit to the very notion of life." made and maintained by universal transit there are scientific and Whether in or out of the computer, sci- workers: The world would, in fact, become that living organisms have emerged to ultimate entists will eventually create ALFs in a wide a vast, fully automated network of UCs, perceive them. That to me is the variety of forms. As their technology each specialized and adapted to its own beauty and reality and truth. And so if we evolves, they will create creatures as com- evolutionary niche. use those laws to create new life, I can't plex as themselves. The ultimate ALF, most Though creating this network might see that as a bad thing."DO 170 OMNI , president Marjorie Rowe, who has han- OBJECTIVE: To nominate a backyard irUTE=l_l_IEE=nJCE= takes over: "Wander" is turned off, and distant planet, exploring every nook and LIZARD MAN dled two sales of Dunnellen Hall, "It hasn't baffler, send us a complete description the robot heads for the empty space. cranny of its terrain, been a particularly happy house." She of the phenomenon. Include when, where, When the empty space has been en- Once millions of tiny robot bugs are set CONTINUED FROM Pi adds, though, lhat she doesn't believe the how, and by whom it was discovered: "brains," is confused by something in the tered, "explore" gets bored, turns "wan- to work exploring space and cleaning ihe attack while on his way home in his house is cursed. names of previous (or current) investi- world, the total function of the machine is der" back on, and starts to scan the area home. Brooks says, we may be faced with chauffeur-driven limousine. RECOMMENDATION: If nothing else, gators, their affiliations, and their conclu- impeded only slightly: The other brains for new empty spaces. a full-blown robot ecology composed of Dick's widow sold the estate to an In- there may be a moral here: If you plan to sions: why it's a mystery; why you think it remain intact, All sorts of variations on these behav- semiautonomous robot organisms that dia-born owner of oil supertankers by the buy a multimillion-dollar home, expect fi- should be resolved; and why an investi- Brooks endows his "insects" with the iors are possible. For instance, to inves- would be independent of man and inter- name of Ravi Tikkoo for S3 million. He nancial difficulties. At the moment most gation of your baffler should have priority simplest skills first. Like species on the tigate a wide-open space, "explore" might dependent on one another. Such crea- eventually sold the estate after a severe investigators and interested parties be- over others. evolutionary ladder, the robots gradually set the bug moving in a spiral motion. tures might someday occupy niches that slump occurred in the tanker market dur- lieve the owners' money woes are mere Send your report to Backyard Baffler, become more sophisticated, taking on These behaviors are the robot equiv- are inhospitable to biological creatures. ing the oil embargo and petroleum short- coincidence. Suggest watching what c/o Omni, 1965 Broadway, New York, NY one skill at a time, One of the first skills alents of basic social skills. Imagine lhat Spiderbots inhabiting the walls of sky- ages in the Seventies, happens with the Heimsley couple Fol- 10023-5965. All entries must be post- his robots acquire is "runaway," based a second robot starts running around in- scrapers, for instance, could stake out The current owners are real estate and low up with reports on next owner. marked by November 15, 1988, and be- on a system that detects objects, calcu- side our insect's domain. Whichever sees territories, form dominance hierarchies, hotel tycoon Harry Heimsley and his wife, If you're in Connecticut and want to in- come the property of Omni magazine lates collision and evasion trajectories, the other first will change its path accord- conduct courtship rituals, and forage for Leona, who paid $1 1 million for the estate itiate an investigation, call the Greenwich Open only to residents of the United and sends the appropriate signals to the ingly, demonstrating that as simple as wastepaper as well as serve human in 1983. The federal government indicted Chamber of Commerce for directions to Stales and Puerto Rico. wheels and motor. An insect with no skills Brooks's insects may be, they at least un- beings by keeping the outside walls of the couple this year for income tax eva- Round Hill Road. If Dunnellen Hall goes A panel of anomaly investigators will but "runaway" would move if a threat ap- derstand common courtesy. the buildings clean, sion—to the tune of $14 million. They're on the block yet again, consider buying, review all suspects, and each will deter- peared but otherwise would spend its life As more and more skills are devel- Brooks's bugs can thrive outside his alleged to have fraudulently deducted the if you dare. mine the finalists in his specific area of dozing quietly. To motivate the bug, oped and added to the bugs' circuitry, lab. In fact, if you're interested in owning cost of a marble dance floor, a swimming research. The finalists will then be trans- Brooks might add "wander," the program these robots might eventually become as a robot bug of your own, turn to page poo! enclosure, and other Dunnellen ex- ferred to Eastern Michigan University so- that instructs the robot to move randomly competent at dealing with the real world 201. There you'll find instructions for penditures as business expenses. ciologist Marcello Truzzi, director of the around the room. If a robot programmed as reptiles or even small mammals are. building Omni's Photovore, an artificial SUMMARY: "This house is like the Hope DESCRIPTION]: The backyard baffler Center for Scientific Anomalies Re- for "runaway" detects an object while it's And as their skills increase, their social insect fhat illustrates the principles of Diamond," Linda Dick said when she put is any unexplained physical (natural or search. His choice for Mystery Case #10 following a path set by "wander," "runa- interactions, too, will become increas- Rodney Brooks and the MIT lab. De- the house up for sale after her husband's man-made) phenomenon in your area will be based on what he considers to be way" will execute an alternate path that ingly complex. In fact, according to signed especially for Omni readers by death. "It has brought bad luck to every- that has two or more witnesses. No UFO the best presenied, most intriguing, most steers clear of the object. Once the ro- Brooks, colonies of robot bugs will even- Jonathan Connell of MIT's Artificial Intel- in will al- tually one who has ever owned it." Al that time or Bigfoot sightings permitted. unusual baffler—and the one that has the bot's back the clear, "runaway" prove more useful to humans than ligence Laboratory, (he Photovore is so Linda Dick's real estate agent, Duff As- All previous and current investigators most scientific importance. low it to return to its original course. single, large ones. For instance, he has sensitive to its environment that it literally sociates president Louis Duff, scoffed at must admit they are stumped. Knowl- REWARD; We will sponsor an investi- A third skill might be "explore," which proposed that NASA explore the moon qualifies as a robot pet. While if is simpler the bereaved wife's assessment of the edge of the baffler should be locally con- gation of the winning baffler, the results enables ihe robot to scan ihe distant and other planets with tens of thousands than ihe robots designed by Brooks, it mansion. "I wouldn't argue the point with fined and not widely related on television, appearing in a future issue of Omni. The neighborhood (five or ten yards away) for of "artificial fleas." Weighing a few ounces should allow you to befriend an artificial her today," he now says, however. by newspapers, magazines, or any other lucky reporter will win a "mystery week- empty spaces. When "explore" detects at most, he says, these minirobot bugs insect and observe its life and times According to Preferred Properties national media. end." Where? That's the mystery.DO an empty space, the spirit of adventure could hop across the entire surface of a firsthand.OQ There it is. spread before you in alt its impos- sibly complicated, completely unmanageable glory. Your life. Just one short week ol which might consist of 22 meetings. 134 messages, 297 calculations. 5 lunch dates. 1 business Irip, your Aunt Sallys 80th (81sr?) birthday, your child's first grade recital.. 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Life Simplified, sort or another, from mental ailments that to reveal itself as the kindness that kills. impair proper functioning, from antiso- According to Justice James Ander- FREAK SHOW cial or sociopathic tendencies, or sim- sen of Washington State's Supreme ply from the debilitating effects of old Court, the "new stream of emerging CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12Z age? Do we really confer a favor on such opinion" among doctors, judges, and cial critics of the early twentieth cen- people by keeping them alive or allow- bioethicists, "typically couched in the tury, Bourne wrote with unusual dis- ing them to be born in the first place? language of caution and compassion," cernment about the inner struggle of Once we accept the definition of the flows in the direction of an insistence those who carry a stigma. "I was good good life as a life free of trouble and that "for an increasing number of pa- at my lessons. ... I was devoted, too, pain, it is 'hard to resist tfje implacable tients, the benefits of continued life are to music, and learned to play the piano logic that would relieve trouble and pain perceived as insufficient to justify the pretty well. But I despised my reputa- by relieving those who suffer of the bur- burden and cost of care." Opponents tion for excellence in these things, and den of life itself. of the "emerging stream" of medical instead of adapting myself philosophi- As long as the development of tech- opinion have pointed out that the con- cally to the situalion, I strove (and have nology lagged behind humanitarian as- cept of a right to die can easily become been striving ever since) to do the things pirations, we had to acknowledge prac- a duty to die. I cannot do." In the same way, Lisa's tical limits on our ability to improve the Daniel Callahan, founder of the Has- goal, through tings Cenfer and gery, is to be widely regarded "plain enough to as the nation's be left alone." foremost authority As humanitari- on medical ethics, ans, we applaud has recently be- her choice. Behind gun to argue that the emergence of a rapidly aging modern humani- population will tarianism, how- strain health-care ever, we are able facilities to the to detect a more breaking point disturbing set of and that life-ex- attitudes: a be- tending medical lief that suffering care should be plays no neces- denied to those sary part in nor- who have passed mal life; a tend- a certain age. This ency to define reasoning can normal life pre- easily be applied cisely as the ab- not only to the el- sence of suffer- derly but to any- ing; even a will- one who is broadly ingness to insist described as in- that suffering has competent, as no right to exist. well as to fetuses The other side with genetic ab- of humanitarian- normalities. ism is a certain What will the coolness, even a eLASSKTFORM world look like certain tolerance when we have fi- toward those who nally succeeded lack the essential For the most competitive sport of all. in ridding it of requirement of a freaks? That it will good life. be a world lacking The identifica- in variety almost tion of a good life goes without say- ' with a normal life has widened the dis- quality of life. But medical advances, ing. But a loss of diversity, some say, tance between the normal and the together with a general improvement in will be a small price to pay for the elim- abnormal and made the position of ab- the. standard of living, have encour- ination of unnecessary suffering, No normal individuals increasingly anoma- aged a belief that adversity can be doubt there is a case for diversity, for lous. As the material requirements of a brought under human control. Hard- the obligation to respect the incredible good life have steadily expanded, so ships formerly accepted as inevitable proliferation of plant and animal life on has the category of disabilities that al- have yielded to modern scientific and Earth, in all its unexpected forms, and legedly bar so many people from en- technological progress. This techno- to give nature a free hand in its endless joying ft If a good life means a good logical conquest of nature has revolu- creativity even when it does not appear job, a good education, a good place to tionized our expectations and encour- to serve humanitarian or even recog- live, a good understanding of our own aged a redefinition of the good life. nizably human ends. But there is also a advantage, a clean bill of health, and a With the advent of genetic engineer- case for technological progress, which highly developed capacity to "relate" to ing, amniocentesis, in vitro fertilization, extends human control over nature and others, what happens to people who fail organ transplants, and other techno- makes it possible for us to lead fuller, to meet these requirements? What hap- logical advances, the abolition of limits freer lives than our ancestors, pens to people who suffer from birth becomes a practical, not just a hypo- So we are told. The trouble is that we defects, from chronic disease, from thetical, project. At this point the inner have freed ourselves from dependence crippling or disfiguring conditions of one logic of humanitarian sentiment begins on nature only to become more and — more dependeni on our own technol- been proposed that the substances could ogy. The point is not that this technol- be more carcinogenic than currently be- that to ogy is unreliable, though it olten is. or BDDV lieved. Neugut suggests exposure CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3B that ii produces undesirable side ef- chemicals commonly used in molecular fects that are difficult to foresee. The brain tumors between 1970 and 1982. (A biology labs could have a cumulative ef- point is that it threatens to weaken the subsequent inquiry had established a fect on the immune system, suppressing very bodily and mental capacities that definite connection between the Orsay its action and creating a vulnerability to are the essential conditions of being researchers' cancers and their work with different kinds of cancers. A study done human—seeing, hearing, memory, our mutagens.) in the late Sixties on members of the ability to walk long distances or to en- On June 18 Jacob, the institute's pres-_ American Chemical Society showed that dure extremes of heat and cold. Living ident, told journalists that the most prob- chemists, who work with many of the in an increasingly enclosed, artificial able hypothesis was that the cancers same solvents used by the Pasteur biol- environment of plastic and glass, in were unconnected, representing nothing ogists, have an increased risk for lym- overheated or air-conditioned build- more than a statistical fluke. He cited evi- phomas— the type of cancer found in ings, we have re-created for ourselves dence that approximately one case of three of the sick researchers. a k'ind of womblike dependence. We cancer occurs each year in every group The problem with this scenario is that speak of the "ability to function" as the of 400 individuals. Because about 200 thousands of scientists around the world definition of normality, but, in fact, none people had worked in the two affected are working with similarly toxic or genet- of us can any longer function without labs in the ten years since they opened, ically altered substances. If the problem the technological life-support systems he said, the Pasteur cancers could well was in the lab, says one skeptic, why we have come to take for granted. be a coincidence. haven't cancer researchers everywhere The promise of genetic engineering In July Bernard's commission held a been stricken with similar diseases? Until is that it will create a race of perfect press conference to announce a second we get the results of Bernard's investi- human beings. But the search for per- investigation. This one, to be conducted gation, we won't be able to estimate the fection cannot stop with genetic engi- under the auspices of the International risks lab workers face. neering. It demands the technological Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), "Researchers in virology and bacteri- redesign of human life as a whole. It would be an epidemiological study eval- ology are using techniques that haven't demands the creation of an artificial en- uating the risk for cancer among re- been studied." says Annie Sasco, an IARC vironment designed to protect us from searchers in molecular biology labs in epidemiologist. "If they present a risk, only every form of discomfort, from drudg- Europe and America. Furthermore, Ber- now will we start seeing it." ery, from disease, from the effects of old nard confirmed that the five cancers rep- Another potential hazard of the re- age— in short, from all the natural in- resented four different tumor types. searchers' work was the manipulation of conveniences and hardships that make This proved to be Bernard's last state- oncogenes through recombinant DNA. life less than perfect. If our aim is to ment on the matter to the press. A sec- Kelly ran a study in which mouse em- make ourselves less dependent on na- ond press conference scheduled for late bryos were injected with oncogenes to ture and ultimately to provide ourselves January 1987 was pushed back to March observe the progress of cancer. An es- with total security, we have no choice and then to May before being postponed caped oncogene, however, is an ex- except to make ourselves totally de- indefinitely. His commission has contin- tremely unlikely culprit. Geoffrey Cooper, pendent on machines. ued its investigation behind a veil of se- a Harvard Medical School professor ac- The irony of this logic —this attempt crecy While scientists and spectators knowledged as one of the pioneering re- to engineer the good life through tech- await firm answers, the apprehensions searchers in the study of oncogenes, says nological control of our environment raised by the Pasteur cancers have fueled that research strains are specifically de- is that it will eliminate freaks only by plenty of speculation. Malpiece's family signed so that they couldn't multiply if one turning us all into freaks. If freaks are successfully sued the French social se- did manage to infiltrate a scientist's body. people in whom bodily and mental ca- curity agency to get his cancer desig- There may never be a simple expla- pacities are in some way impaired nated an occupational disease. For his nation for the Pasteur cluster. According people incapable of normal "function- part, Bernard cites two factors he be- to Robert McKinney, director of the safety ing"—then we will all become freaks in lieves preclude the cluster from being a division at the National Institutes of Health, the end, even in our eagerness to rid mere coincidence. "The first," he says, "is only 18 percent of occupationally ac- the world of "abnormal" human beings. that the researchers are young, and can- quired infections have ever been attrib- In Lewis Mumford's book The Pen- cer is much moref requent after age sixty. uted to a known event or accident. "We tagon of Power there is a photograph of The second is that they were not very all have oncogenes at birth," he says. He an astronaut in his space capsule, which common cancers," believes that exposure to certain chemi- Mumford—a distinguished historian and Alfred Neugut, an oncologist and epi- cals could trigger a latent tendency to- critic of technology— entitles "Encap- demiologist at Columbia University's ward cancer into a full-blown disease. sulated Man " The photograph shows a Comprehensive Cancer Center, says he's Bernard has steadfastly refused to pathetic little humanoid — the final not impressed by the cluster itself. "It's comment on assorted theories put forth product of evolution?—encased in a hard to believe that something specific by the press and by concerned scien- plastic placenta and wired to his con- could cause so many different types of tists to explain the cancers. Although his trols by what can only be described as cancer." Neugut admits, however, that commission is due to publish the results an umbilical cord, since it seems to be three lymphomas and two sarcomas of its investigation next year, many sci- attached to his navel. Here is the most among 230 people in a six -year period is entists remain cynical as to the value of advanced product of a technology ca- quite high. Given that the rale of non- its painstaking detective work. Bernard pable of carrying man to the moon but Hodgkin's lymphoma among forty-year- Dutrillaut, a cancer researcher at the also of reducing man himself, as Mum- olds in the United States is about 3 in Curie Institute, another French research ford says, to a "scaly creature, more like 100,000 people per year, he estimates organization, questions the validity of es- an oversized ant than a primate." Ant or that the incidence at Pasteur was about tablishing a connection between the re- embryo— the photograph suggests 66 times higher than would be expected. searchers' work and their cancers. "How both images at once—the figure in the Over the six-year period in which the can you prove that a substance handled cockpit is clearly" a freak. And so, of cancers were diagnosed, the research- ten years ago is the cause of a cancer course, are we all, wired to our ma- ers tested more than 100 industrial prod- found today?" he asks. If Bernard has an chines: the last freak show.DO ucts for toxicity and mutagenicity. It has answer, we'll know in 1989.00 176 OMNI " — — — and then freezing. I reach the street end EXPLORMTIOnJS of my driveway, which has begun to melt. CONTINUED FFOMP/ CON i iNLED FROM PAGE IE One moment I am running, and the next Some search compulsively for connec- I feel my legs and arms and heart pump excavating fish fossils on federal land in tions. Some don't" as hard as ever, but I do not move. I am Wyoming's Green River formation, the It's first I think of Kip's messy life, his hysterical suspended. Time itself does no! move, bottom of a prehistoric sea. the nights. He has sketched a woman in the hangs suspended. time such a case has gone before a grand scotch; she has long hair. Lara, I remem- The complexity barrier. This is the de- jury. And the harvesters were caught only ber, has long hair, which she wears in a cisive passage, the crossing point. after they had dug a trench a mile and a neat twist. I am too late. half long and ten feet deep. "We're find- "Fuck it," he says suddenly, violently. I amxjjsbeg. ing that illegal harvesting is more com- previously believed," I say, "I don't believe any of this." v yp *c#1/4mm;p mon than we had "You don't want to believe it. Too much Then the moment passes, and I am says BLM agent Bill Vernon, who col- of a comic book. Look at you—you're red standing, dazed, in the middle of the new lected evidence for prosecutors in the in, the face. You!" information state. Green River case. I say stiffly, "Do you think you can get The trees stand straight. The sky is Because the problem is so wide- home all right?" blue. Parked cars are parked; the Mc- spread, Wyoming's state geologist Gary Kip throws back his head and laughs, Millans' BMW has a ticket stuck under the Glass opposes commercial quarries on a sound of such reckless amusement that wiper. A quiet breeze blows. At my feet, federal land. "There's just no way of from," I am shocked. the green grass thrusts upward through knowing where fossils come he "Christ, John, you're pricelessf Prissy cracks in the asphalt in its eternal bid to says. 'As long as private quarries are op- to the end. Don't you see it, even now? extend roots, reproduce ifself, control my erating, dealers will claim their fossils This is the end—of this information system. driveway. At the end of the driveway stand come from private quarries." Any hour now two houses. Larson, however, believes outlawing all The bartender has been walking to- One is the familiar center-door Colo- fossil harvesting will have only negative ward us, rag in hand and eyes disap- nial I left this morning in hurried disorder: effects. "It certainly would put the good provingly on the mess Kip has made all socks on the bathroom floor; an unan- people out of the business, but the bad over the bar. As we watch, the rag bursts swered letter from my sister on the coffee people would .remain," he says, For in- into flames. The bartender yells and hurls table; no silver candlesticks because they stance, he points out, efforts by ama- it into the sink; the stainless steel begins have been burglarized; newspapers filled teurs and commercial harvesters have to stain, then abruptly stops. with airline disasters and stock market long benefited museums. In the early "Different information systems operat- gains, multiple lottery winners and simul- twentieth century Charles Sternberg and ing there, " Kip says conversationally, and taneous earthquakes, random mug- his sons collected numerous fossils, on laughs again. I hit him on the arm, hard. gings and paragraphs of garbled gib- commission, for museums. And eccen- "Stop it!" berish. The letter from my sister was one tric millionaire Childs Frick assembled one I of He grins at me. "Why, John, you man I wasn't going to answer. never partic- of the world's greatest collections of few words, I never knew you cared." ularly liked my sister. mammalian fossils, which he eventually His grin widens. 'About anything." Then The other house is a bluish shimmer, donated to the American Museum of he says, in a different voice, "In living Colonial lines still in the process of fading Natural History. things, the very complex system divides. in and out. Right now it is hard to see Larson and other fossil dealers and Like with sexual reproduction," clearly, like a house under deep water. hobbyists have banded together to lobby And for some reason this statement But I know perfecfly well what will be in- the BLM, as well as congressmen, to le- no less abstract than the rest of his crazed side: All the shopping lists will be written galize harvesting on federal lands. A Na- theory—makes sense. The pond drains with explanatory clauses. tional Academy of Sciences (NAS) com- away, and I see the tire iron nearly clear, Desperately I glance down the length mittee studied the government's only it's- not a tire iron but a dangerous of street. Number 54 stands alone; old regulations concerning fossil collecting. club, covered now only by a passing Mr. Ashrider is a widower: Number 56 is The committee has recommended le- wave, a watery shimmering a double shimmer; Elizabeth Hauser stays galization of commercial digging in na- A shimmering— home with her and Ed's small children. tional forests and on BLM land. "Barring "Oh, my God." Number 58, double; Jane and Carl Ro- any public outcry," says Carl Barna, head "What now?" Kip says, still smiling. mano recently reconciled. Number 60, of the BLM's paleontology program, new A different state of information. Some nof; the Griswolds are off vacationing in BLM regulations allowing commercial types of mind search compulsively for Jamaica. Number 62, double; Chuck Du- digging will probably be the result. order. Black and white, with no gray. gan has remarried. Some vertebrate paleontologists are irate "You damn fooll" I shout. 'All of you Anger seeps through me, but there is over the NAS recommendation and damn fools!" Kip rises from the bar stool, notime for anger. Already the blue shim- decry the composition of the committee. combative or concerned, I don't care mer of my second house is fading. I can't "Some people on the committee had no there," verte- which. I am running out of the Depot, hit- remember— did' Kip say that information business being says one ting the doorjamb with my shoulder as I states, like galaxies, all move farther away brate paleontologist. "It was like the fox hurl through. from each other? watching the chickens." Indeed, commit- The doorjamb responds by turning Shopping lists in dependent clauses. fee members included four fossil dealers from brown to yellow. Burglars and infidelities with life histories. and nine paleontologists; only four of them All the four blocks home it is like that, Answered letters. Sex talk that means ex- were vertebrate paleontologists, ihe ones Things happen as in dreams. Trees turn actly what it says, no more and no less. who study bones. purple, shade through indigo to blue, re- A low- possibility state wifh few shades of For museums, fossil harvesters are a turn to green as information about Ihe gray. Everything personal, connected, mixed blessing. "They often get in and wavelength of light alters its coding. The And Emily. smash things up," Hotton says. "They're sky is red. A parked car serenely floats I stand rooted to the asphalt, uncer- collecting specimens to make tie tacks two feet straight up, then drops. The air tain. But there is no longer room for un- out of them, tor God's sake. But others fills with staficky noise, weird chaotic certainty. Still, even as my feet carry me give fossils to museums and keep pop- to droning that turns briefly into the theme forward, I do not know which of the two ular interest high. And you've got cater from Handel's Suite Number Five. It is hot houses I will enter.OQ to people's enthusiasm for fossils." DO 178 OMNI " " " " " " go! It's all the and we'll never be able to get—out of it the incendiaries, go, go, alive. They'll never understand fire, Countess." Frank sighed, a deep, confused sigh, "That's not what I meant," she said. SIX FLIGHTS and Constanza faded, drew further into They were coming up on the Ninety-sixth CONTINUED FROM PAGE 104 herself on the seat. He was right, of Street exit, only a couple of miles to go now. No traffic at all in the density and Washington Bridge, it was possible to course; she was the one who was acting the it if on this midnight the believe that the city did not exist, that it in a silly and misdirected fashion. The one damp; was as laid out for them. was just the two of them, the suspension who was falling apart. Frank was doing roadway had been it had. Frank's hands were steady, bridge itself only a suggestion against the fine, in control, the car gliding neatly into Maybe on tunnel of night that held them. the merge lane and then at a steady and his eyes were fixed some perception, his white sleeves billowed in "It's going to make a pretty blaze," controlled burst was taking the center on the heater. The Frank said. the sparse midnight roadway, moving up the heavy gusts from heard the He pitched the directional signal up- to sixty. Local streets would be easier, less Dodge hit a bump, and she equipment ward indolently, cut to the right lane of the exposure there. At the end. assuming they thin clang from the trunk, the them. upper roadway to take the parkway exit. got to the water, ignition and upheaval rolling loose, reminding "So many "Chicago was nothing to the way this will would be routine. Frank was right; she people," she said. "Seven million." at her "Ten million," Frank said with satisfac- be. This still is the big town." His smile, should shut up. The cold clawed "Give tion. "Ten million sinners. Ten million she knew, would split the night if she suddenly. "I'm cold'" she said. us the darkness; ten looked, but she was lacing away, staring some heat!" heathens, celebrants of through the passenger window, looking Frank reached out, moved a switch. million who have known corruption and afraid," he said. "There's noth- are unacquainted with grief. But we'll at the poles as the car skirted them. " 'We "Don't be — that. We'll change that shall utterly consume all things off the face ing to be afraid of." change "It's much. What are we doing?" of the earth,' " Frank said happily, "and "I'm not afraid." too forget little towns, too," Frank that's the prophet Zephaniah. Always "San Francisco went okay, didn't it? We "Don't the said, "or that trial at Schroon Lake, liked Zephaniah. They thought he was a run crank, you know. Now he's a minor Book." Oh, boy, we've come a long way." Constanza shuddered, drew the shawl "No," Constanza said. The word from around her. The heater was on, the car a seemed to have been dragged furnace gathering fumes from the engine some reservoir of unconsciousness, heater was on, 67/ie I core and expelling them through the flaps spoken out of herself. "No, can't go have to stop. This near her legs, but she was cold in a way the car a furnace gathering through with this. We heat could not reach, cold in a way that isn't San Francisco or Chicago." fumes from the Countess. was not to be touched. As cold as any "It's the biggest town of all, city in the ashes of their long fire. Frank engine core and expelling That's why." "Frank," she said, "let's give it up. Get was giggling now, singing a little against them through the the bland noises that came from the ra- off at Ninety-sixth Street and turn it flaps near her legs, but she Tell it's all my dio, mumbling about fires and lyres and around. We'll go'back. them else. I'll sires tuning the dire night, breaths and was cold In a fault. I'll tell them. Get someone take all the blame. I must—" deaths and quests from the city, and it way heat could not reachV going to all right. occurred to Constanza, possibly for the "Calm down. You're be fine until now. It's no big first time, that this was the principal dif- You've been — wrist. ference between Frank and herself: He deal " She put her hand on his unyielding, steel under the loved his work. She was the more com- Warm but petent, possibly even the one who had sleeve, the white on white. "There's a better reasons, but Frank wallowed in the thought we were goners on the Golden parking area at Ninety-sixth Street," she implication, in the fire, in every lush and Gate when the cops picked us up, but it said, "remember?" splendid exercise of conflagration. He was just a routine check and we were free. "I remember everything." "Pull it in there. Pull it in there, and stop would sing all through it; even if the dev- Chicago was beautiful; nobody thought I'll give you everything. I'll give astation were to claim him he would go it would go that easy. We're doing fine, the engine. it'll just well you what you want, Frank, if you'll just smiling as long as he were the focus, if Countess, work as here."— he could take the credit. But for Con- "It's too big. It's New York, it's bring it to a stop." His hand twitched. "You're a sinner, too. stanza it would be different; pieces of her "It's just another place," Frank said. offering would be extinguished, and she could not "They're all the same, it's just a matter of You're asking me to sin. You're flesh." His voice keep from feeling a trace of pity. "Do you numbers. Abilene, Corpus Christi, me your flesh for their "I can't. I ever think about it?" she said. Schroon Lake, the training camps, those cracked on the second flesh, He looked up from the wheel, the car were just a body count. Chicago and San won't." wavering on the descent. Francisco were the same, only bigger. All "Don't you want to? Don't you want to "Think about what?" of them are the same: sinners in heat, touch me, really touch me? You know you "Watch your driving. Concentrate on snakes in darkness, the Devil's legions. do, the lies they tell, the things they gave from the road." There are just more of them here." us to do, that's just to keep you really want, what you He shut off the radio. "What are you "It all happens so fast. " She was talking knowing what you talking about?" wildly. She knew it. They had warned her really need— "Don't have an accident. Not with what of this, too, the possibility of panicky up- He was jumping and quivering under we're carrying." heaval, her tendency toward hysteria. her touch, the car swaying, but the car His eyes were wide and bewildered. "1 That was why they had teamed her with was slowing, too, as they came up on the don't understand," he said. "You talked to Frank: Frank was a steady guy, his eye Ninety-sixth Street sign, and she could watching the on the sparrow, he was a solid citi- tell; yes, she could tell. She had him now. me, I didn't say a word. I'm — was road, you're the one who's talking zen, steady with his hands and with the She had him. "Forget the fuses," she said, "forget the forget the bodies just "Oh, all right"," -she said, "you're right, fuses. "Chicago went in ten seconds. It bombs, think of me, of what you're you're right, just watch the road, don't get was there. Boom! It wasn't there. It took this once, just — us into trouble, don't put us into a girder, so little—" going to do soon we'll blow up everything north of Harlem, 'And the same here. Set the fuses, wire "What will we tell them?" 180 OMNI . . — S VIDEO COLLE Buy eleuen and get a alien invaders, mad scientist FREE! ." "There is nothing wrong with yonr television set. . . Get one video FREE! This unforgettable introduction to each Outer Limits episode To order your collection of 11—with your FREE copy of provides only a hint of the fantastic adventures that follow! The Outer Limits: The Official Companion book ii '." i' ; and Keeper of the Purple Twilight —simply mail these spine- tinqhnq 1 \ us the completed coupon below. For fast, con- ' ! !,-:!,] i'.ij : fd-r venient, service wiili your credit card, call 11 lection of a . . . and get Keeper of the Purple Twilight FREE Today's Stars- Yesterday's Monsters Discover Cliff Robertson communicating with a creature from another world in The Galaxy Being . . . 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"Double cassettes for $19.95. Waldenbooks Only $12.95 each. '^—-7-'^ Check the Yellow Pages for the Waldenbooks store nearest you.- I STAR TREK is egistered trademark of Paramount Pidurts Corp. their out "We don't have to tell them anything," not discern their right hand from their left, attorneys could eat stomachs she said with a shocking sense of dis- the sinners," showing him what she could over the building's sinking. It didn't mat- covery. "We can stay. We can just live do with her right hand and her left. "Nor ter to him. here, like the rest of ihe sinners. Find our can their cattle." "It'll be pretty soon now." Mackelson way. Trade weapons for food. We'll be free, "Book of Jonah," Frank said, heaving brooded over the black marks. "We'll have no one will find us, they won't want to find on her. "Final verse." to be ready." us, the committee, they'll just get re- "Also much cattle," she corrected The street traffic murmured. In this placements. But that will take time, the herself. building the windows opened; in the training takes a long time, and in the They were well beyond words, well be- newer high rises, with everything sealed, meanwhile— yond thought when, furious but para- the tenants broke out the corners of their Trembling., trembling everywhere, Frank lyzed by shock, the archangels so came windows so they could do their string-and- guided the Dodge into the rest area, the upon them. stapler thing. It drove the building engi- brakes quivering, the frame shaking, the neers nuts, but there wasn't any point in incendiaries bouncing. "Meanwhile, we'll THE NEW FLOOR replacing the windows; they would just be sinners.- We'll join —them in the naked- By K. W. Jeter do it again. ness of their captivity "Ready. . "Mackelson gazed upward. at- She reached out with her free left hand, Jim watched as the attorney lowered the Jim held back a yawn. Weren't the stroked his inner thigh. "Yes, the naked- stapler out the window. All over the city, torneys ready, all of them, all the time? ness of their captivity." The car pitched, at any time of day, staplers or scissors or With their strings and measuring and cal- Frank braked, foliage grabbed them, they ashtrays—all sorts of small weights- culating and scheming— ready and wait- were against the trees. The car bumped, were being lowered out of office win- ing. Yet they were always the last to know. sagged. The engine rumbled. Con- dows. They slid down the gray walls of Jim and the other clerks all had lunch stanza reached out, cut the ignition, the buildings, past the mirror glass shin- outside, on the benches beside the stat- reached to clasp his cheeks and draw ing like oil, until they tapped at the side- ues covered with pigeon shit. him upon her. walks below. And were hauled back up. They could watch the cranes on top of His tongue was moist, desperate. "Bui Mackelson reeled in the stapler. the buildings, hoisting up girders and why?" he whispered, as the engine "There—you see?" stuff. Then the wall panels— they'd know ticced! to silence, as she came over him He held the string out, like a fisherman the new floor was just about finished. I to fully as the sounds and the force of her bragging of his catch. There were black "That's. why want you do something own desperation overtook. pen marks along its length. "That's special for me." Mackelson dropped the stapler inside his desk drawer. "For me "Why are you doing this for the sin- nearly. . .must be twice as fast. Com- ners? What do you care?" ' pared to last week." and for Willson. And it's gotta be done "Because," she said, placing his left He listened to Mackelson and looked ASAR All right?" hand on her breast, "because they can- at the string but didn't give a fuck. The Jim nodded and listened. 182 OMNI 3 zltHJb*" 'All the way down there? Whai for?" Pe- ter looked at the slip of paper. "The ele- vators don't go down that far anymore." Jim took back the slip with the file num- bers. "Some case that's being re- opened— don't ask me. They just want the files brought up. Okay?" ," "Yeah, but. . .the elevators. . Peter bitched all the way down. When the elevator ground to a halt, Jim had to pry the doors open. Peter watched him like a lump. That pissed him off, so when they got out into the dark hallway, he rolled the dolly toward the stairs without looking back. Peter scurried to keep up, afraid of being left behind. "You fellas looking for someone?" Jim had lost count of what floor they'd gotten down to, bumping the dolly along behind him, and had gone out to the el- evator lobby to check. His flashlight had caught an old man shuffling around. The man smelled like dust. "I thought maybe. . .you were the inter- office delivery." The old man fumbled with his tie, working the knot of loose gray strings. His suit had a stain from the crotch up to his vest. "I hadn't seen the fella with the cart for. . .for a while now." Jim wondered how long the old man had been down here. Maybe the man hadn't been old when he'd realized that the firm wouldn't be moving him to an of- fice on the floor above his old one, every time a new floor was finished at the top of the building. He'd probably had time to get used to the idea, maybe years of the stapler taking less and less string to reach the sidewalk, until he'd been right IS there at ground level, looking out at the THIS JACK DANIEL'S DISTILLERY, home fast-striding pedestrians, all of them turn- of America's first Tennessee Sippin' Whiskey. ing their faces away, filled with embar- rassment and dread. Or maybe the old guy had gotten a sudden shock, a drop Nothing changes much here—we make certain from the light slanting through the steel canyon, into the dark: There were stories of that—for the method of smoothing Jack about one building hitting an air pocket below the deepest subbasement and Daniel's was perfected more than a century ago. dropping ten, twelve feet at once. The It's the old clerks told the story to each other, going Tennessee way our founder ^^ haw-haw at the imagined panic among the attorneys and executives up through employed when he got started in the all the floors. It could've happened, Jim office above. And haven't changed figured. The financial district was built on we landfill, real estate created out of nothing, it from those days to these. Have where the ocean or the river or the lake- front had been. He wasn'l sure which; you requested Jack Daniel's lately? riding home after work, he'd gaze at the dark slurry beyond the window and could Once you do, we believe, you'll gain almost see, past the reflection of the other riders' faces, the fish making slow prog- appreciation for our time-tested ress through the water and gravel. The story's capper—there had sup- Tennessee ways. posedly been a bum nestled up against the side of the building, sheltered in the angle of wall and sidewalk, when it had SMOOTH SIPPIN' popped downward. And the bum's dirty overcoat had been dragged along by the TENNESSEE WHISKEY sinking building, pulling the bum down with it, unlil jusl his legs and arms could be seen sticking up out of the crack at the edge of the wall. The janitors had cleaned up ths mess, The plucking away the limbs the way you'd prune a tree. Which meant that if it were Power true, somewhere on the side of one of the of the buildings, maybe even against one of the dark windows, the bum was still there, Printed scraped flat. With his grizzled face Word against the glass, his stumps spread-ea- gled, the HOMELESS AMD HUNGRY Sign around his neck a lie now. "We're just picking up some files." The old man shuffled away. He opened a door, and Jim saw a roiling flash of blue light. A copy machine, still working —he hadn't known that they still kept any elec- tricity running this far down. The old man hunkered in the circle of figures around the machine, a nest of memos and tat- tered manila folders. A hand reached up to the print button, and another pulse of light washed against them. When they got to the basement store- room, Peter griped about all the file boxes. 'Uust take whatever you can handle. " Jim a prospective employer, professor eased the weight back on the dolly. "Then t gets of you. you can come back down for the rest." .. -.rother, we know this; that's why As he wheeled the dolly around, he could r easy to use Word Processors, Word hear Peter muttering and humping the iiDcessing Typewriters, and Standard rest of the load.' Typewriters are designed to always re- - -- They were stacking the files in Will- flect you in the most positive light pos son's office—the boxes smelled of damp ble. Our concern with print quality i and rot, the cardboard spotted with sures that the end result is always letter mold—when Willson and one of the se- nior partners came in. "What's all this?" The senior partner pointed to the boxes. Mackelson was behind him, in the doorway. "That's that FPC thing that we have to dink around with again. It got booted up from appellate. So I had 'em haul everything back up." Jim straightened up. He'd seen Will- son's face go gray, after his eyes had widened in surprise. The senior partner turned toward the door. "Well, there's no point in moving all this stuff twice. Let me know when you get an idea of what your schedule on this is going to be." Willson's eyes had gone red, the wet trembling at his lashes. Outside Willson's office, Jim saw Mackelson talking to one of the younger attorneys, a kid with an office a couple of floors down. Jim had seen him lurking around on Ihis floor all day. The young attorney turned his head and smiled at Jim. Mackelson was standing at his new window when Jim came in. Without knocking. He dug a couple of twenties re side. from his wallet and held them out to Jim. i We at your The desk top was cluttered with the junk from his old office, the pictures for the walls, the Cross pen set. He'd have to sort all that out, settle in. "Hey, thanks for ge:ii."ig right on to that little job." He twitched the bills in his hand. DTOChef "I appreciate it." BROTHER INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, P1SCATAWAY, NJ 08854 Jim didn't take the money. "You really 188 OMNI . blue or gray suits, hats, and dark ties with small checks on them. Each had a bulge under one of his armpits. It was dusk. On the horizon two giant aerials stood two hundred feet high, with a long wire connecting them. They were in silhouette, and here and there they blotted out one of the early stars. Back to the east lay the airglow of Greater Man- hattan. Men in the cars switched on their Apple work lights. Outside the first car Car- mody uncrossed his arms, opened his pocket watch, noted the time on his clip- board. "Six fifty-two. Start your logs," he said. Word passed down the line. He reached in through the window, Peeler. picked up the extra set of headphones next to Dalmas, and listened in: "This is station MAPA coming to you from Greater New Jersey with fifty thou- Peel $300 off the price of an Apple® lit sand mighty watts ot power. Now, to con- by buying a LASER 128® instead. The tinue with The Darkies' Hour for all our LASER 128 lists for $300 less. Has more fea- listeners over in Harlem is Oran 'Hot Lips' Appleworks® and thousands of tures. Runs Page with his rendition of 'Blooey!' fea- other popular Apple programs. And has been turing Floyd 'Horsecollar Williams on the declared "a clear winner" by A-h ." alto saxophone. . . Why pay more for the same fruit? For 'Jesus," said Dalmas, looking at his your nearest dealer, call 312/540-8! dials, "the station's all over the band, (West Coast 503/690-8086). blocking out everything from seven fifty to twelve forty-five. Nothin' else is getting through nowhere this side of Virginia!" II//LASER128 Carmody made a note on his clip- "The engineer—that's Ma— said sorry we were off the air this afternoon for a few minutes, but we blew out one of our hep- stuck it to old Willsort. Didn't you?" What was the fuss about? All over the todes, and you know how danged partic- Mackelson shrugged. "Will's not as world, in Tokyo and New York and Los ular they can be. She says we'll get the sharp as he used to be. You don't want Angeles, buildings were sinking, like kinks out of our new transmitter real soon. to stay hooked up with somebody like needles into an orange. They would meet "Don'tforget— at 7:05 tonight Madame that. You want somebody that if you do at the center, in the dark warmth of the Sosostris will be in to give the horo- him a favor, you're gonna get something earth's core. Willson and the rest of them scopes and read the cards for all you good back. Like that Bennetti kid. He's a would melt and fuse together, each with listeners who've written her, enclosing real up-and-comer." the other. They'd never, any of them, be your twenty-five-cent handling fee, in the ..." "I thought you and Willson were friends." alone again. past week. "Well." He looked over his shoulder at But up on the roofs of the buildings, in recorders," said the window. "What can I say?" among the cranes and the raw girders, "Start up the wire When it was dark, he was still standing the unending construction—the most se- Carmody. at the window, watching the lights. That nior attorneys, the grand execs, the . . radio prick file clerk was going to be a prob- chairmen of all the boards . they'd be "Remember to turn off your sets lem. The problem was that Jim didn't want up in there in splendor and isolation, their for five minutes just before seven RM. anything; there was no way of getting at faces creased to leather by the wind, the That's four minutes from now. First, we're him. He'd have to work on the others, line cold rain dripping from their chins. Gaz- going up to what, Ma?—two hundred up somebody else. There were always ing as eagles do, toward the sun, always ninety thousand watts— in our continuin' jobs that had to be done. staying just out of their reach. effort to contact the planet Mars, then we'll He heard somebody moving around, The attorney slept and dreamed, the be down to about three quarters of a watt up above; through the acoustic tiles and streets' tide curle'd around the building. with our antenna as a receiver in our the light panels, the sound of footsteps, brand-new effort to make friends with the pacing back and forth . . HOOVER'S MEN souls of the departed. The bastard was nervous, whoever it By Howard Waldrop "Here to end our Negro music broad- was. Mackelson tilted his head back, lis- cast for this evening are Louis 'Satchmo' tening. The guy was scared. He smiled. On March 30, 1929, three weeks after Al Armstrong and Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower That meant the guy could be had. Smith's presidential inauguration, four with their instrumental 'Do You Know What He felt tired; he sat down and laid his gunmetal-gray Fords were parked on a It Means to Miss New Orleans?' Hang on; head on the desk. He closed his eyes. New Jersey road. On the tonneau top of this one will really heat up your ballast ." but the business with Jim still bugged him. each was a large silver loop antenna. tubes. . . Jim must've gotten bent out of shape be- There were fifteen men in all—some Some of the sweetest horn and clarinet cause of seeing.the people down there inside the cars in their shirtsleeves, ear- music Dalmas had ever heard came out on the lightless floors. Imagining old Will- -phones on their heads, the others sitting of the earphones. He swayed in time to son with them, shuffling around. on the running boards or standing in styl- the music. Carmody looked at him. 'Jeez. Those people had it easy, anyway. ish poses. All those outside wore dark You don't have to enjoy this stuff so much. 190 OMNI " " " " We have a job to do." He checked his shawl wrapped around her shoulders and Act of 1929," said Carmody, continuing pocket watch again. a crystal ball in front of her. An old man to read from the warrant. "First charge, He turned to Mallory. "I want precise stood nearby holding a sheaf of papers operating an unlicensed station broad- : re- readings on everything. I want record in his hand. casting on the AM band, a public ". . source. Second, interfering with the ings from all four machines. Mr. Hoover .and a listener— writes, Dear Ma- — doesn't want a judge throwing anything dame Sosostris broadcasts of licensed operations out on a technicality like with the KXR2Y Carmody went to the intercom and "See, Mr. and Mrs. Radio Listener, what thing. Understood?" pushed down the button. He held up his putting one man in charge of broadcast- "Yeah, boss." said Mallory from the third badge. "United States Government, ing does! Ma! Crank it back up all the car. Federal Radio Agency, Radio Police!" way!" Ma twisted some knobs. "Let's go, then," said Carmody. They both looked up. The sky outside the radio station turned "Cheese it, Pa! The Feds!" said the blue and green again. Carmody's hair Just then the sky lit up blue and green woman, throwing off her shawl. She ran stood up, pushing his hat off his head. in a crackling halo that dickered back and to the racks of glowing and humming His arms tingled. forth between the aerials on the horizon. pentodes on the far wall, throwing her "SOS!" yelled Pa. "SOS! Help! This is "Yikes!" yelled Dalmas, throwing the arms wide as if to hide them from sight. station MAPA. Get your guns! Meet us at of arrest G-man!" the station! Show these fascists we won't earphones otf. The sound coming out "Go some bootleggers, — them could be heard fifty feet away: yelled Pa. put up with "EARTH CALLING MARS! EARTH CALLING MARS! "Not my jurisdiction. And Prohibition "We'll add sending a false distress call THIS IS STATION MAPA, MA AND PA, CALLING ends May first. You'd know that if you were over the airwaves, incitement to riot, and MARS. HOWDY TO ALL OUR MARTIAN LIS- fulfilling your responsibilities to keep the breach of the peace," said Carmody, TENERS. COME AND SEE USI EARTH CALLING public informed," said Carmody. penciling in his notes. "Having astrolo- ," . ladies gentlemen in radio gers, clairvoyants, and mediums in con- MARS. . "See, and ." land," yelled Pa into the microphone, "this travention of the Radio Act of 1929. . They burst through the locked station is what happens to private enterprise in The first of the axes went through the door. Small reception room, desk piled a totalitarian state! The airwaves belong studio door. 1 ". . for lottery." high with torn envelopes and stacks of to anybody . My great-uncle invented ra- .use of the airwaves a quarters, a glass wall for viewing into the dio — he did! — Marconi stole it from him Carmody looked up. "Give yourselves studio, locked power room to one side. A in a swindle. Government interference! up," he said. He watched while Ma and clock on the wall that said 7:07. There was Orville Wright doesn't have a pilot's li- Pa ran around inside the control room, a small speaker box and intercom on the cense! He invented flying. My family in- piling the meager furniture against the ," door. "Very well. Resisting ar- viewer window. vented radio. , , battered ", An old woman was sitting at a table at , .you are further charged with vio- rest by duly authorized federal agents.— a big star-webbed carbon mike with a lation of nineteen sections of the Radio Unlawful variation in broadcast power THE FUTURE NECESSITIES ' NOW THAT THE 21 ST CENTURY IS UPON US, OUR LIVES ARE CONSTANTLY BEING MADE MORE AND MORE COMPLICATED. TO HELP SIMPLIFY AND ENJOY OUR LIVES, WE AT THE FUTURE NECESSITIES WOULD LIKE TO OFFER YOU NEW AND EXCITING PRODUCTS. YOU WILL FIND OUR ASSORTMENT TO BE UNIQUE AND AFFORDABLE ANYWHERE. HERE ARE JUSTAFEW: Ess E s SI SHE? THE 9903 SANTA MONICA BL FUTURE SUITE 479 DIVISION 1 NECESSITIES BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90213 Order # QTY Price S/H Total 3.00 3.00 Include check or money order for Total order: $ Name We offer you thase and other exciting innovations with a 30 day Address MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Prices do not include shipping Cltv ST ZIP and handling. Please allow 2 to 4 weeks tor delivery. idency to Mr, Alfred Smith, I assumed that after eight years as your secretary ol commerce under the last two administra- » jr Exerciseexercise . , » tions I would be asked to leave govern- 1 ment service. "Imagine my delight and surprise when Less in More^ Mr. Smith asked me to stay on, but the MMORE EFFECTIVE By dup- & LESS TIME Because Nordic- new position of head of the Federal Ra- e licating the of rmml™' Track is so efficient, you If motion e«« dio Agency. I may quote the President, skiing, the world's hi'st burn more calories and 'Who knows more about raddio than you thi get a better aerobic NordicTrack provides do, Herbert? It's all in a tumble mess, ideal workout. workout in less time. aerobic and I'd like you to straighten it out, once MORF COMPLETE MNO IMPACT Run- and for all,' l.T.hkc- bikes and othei ning and some aerobic "Well, tonight, I'm taking your Presi- sitdown exercisers, workouts can cause dent's words to heart. As chief enforce- painful and poten- NordicTrack . ment officer under the new and valuable major 05 tially harmful jarring. all the body's Kt Radio Act of 1929, I'm announcing the muscles for a total k NordicTrack workout following: Today my agents closed down body workout. is completely jarkss. fourteen radio stations. Nine were violat- DIETING No MMORE CALORIES NO ing the total letter of the law; five were, In other exercise machine BURNED after repeated warnings, still violating its major university, NordicTrack burns more calories than spirit. Tomorrow, six more will be closed burned more calories than Ni'iidi '.Track . . .so you can lose down. This will end the most flagrant of exirciie bike and a rowing weight faster without dieting, our current airwave problems. machine* MNO SKIING EXPERIENCE "As to the future"— Hoover pushed CONVENIENTW,th REQUIRED Easy and fun to use. MMORE back a gray wisp of hair that had fallen Noi dicTrack, yi — over his forehead "tomorrow I will begin comfort of your home. r FREE BROCHURE AND VIDEO with representatives of the Re- , Call Toll Free Or Write: meetings NordicTrack easily folds, requiring ! 1-800-328-5888 public of Mexico and see what can be storage space of only 17'' x 23' done about establishing frequencies tor '*d„N.,Ch^ka,V!N"nTI^ their use. They were summarily ignored deutape ITVHS nBETA when Canada and the United States di- vided the airwaves in 1924." fSjordtcfrack The station manager leaned forward intently. "If this means another division and re- alignment of the -frequencies of existing "Squeak! Squeak! Help!" said Pa. Dal- them on the bank of knobs and lights was stations, so be it," said Hoover. mas had bludgeoned his way into the a two- by three-inch flickering screen The station manager slapped his hand shrieking power room and threw all the filled with lines in which Mallory could against his forehead and shook his head breaker switches. barely make out Mr. Hoover. Carmody from side to side. Ma and Pa turned into frantic blurs as and the other chiefs had turned in their "Furthermore," said Hoover, "under all the needles dropped to zero. The sky reports to Hoover an hour before. powers given to me, I am ready to issue outside went New Jersey dark, and Car- "I never thought he'd take this job," said commercial radiovision/radio movie/tele- mody's hair lay back down, an engineer. vision licenses to any applicant who will "Good-," he said, still reading into the 'Aw, Hoover's a public servant," said conform to the seventy-line, thirty-frame ." intercom. 'Advertising prohibited articles the director. format for monochrome. . . and products over the public airwaves. The stand by sign went off. Hoover ar- "He's gone meshuga!" said the engi- Broadcast of obscene and suggestive ranged his papers. neer, "Nobody uses that format!" ." said "Mr. Hoover's material, Use of . . ON the air blazed in big red letters over "Quiet," Carmody. The door gave up. the control booth. The announcer at his talking." ". "Book 'em, Dalmas," he said, mikes at the side table said, "Good eve- . . or the one-hundred-forty-line, ning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Sta- sixty-frame format for color transmission "Two minutes, Mr. Hoover," said the tion WRNY and it's eleven pm. in New York and reception, with the visual portion on floor manager. He waved his arms. In a City. Tonight, live via coast-to-coast the shortwaves and the audio portion on soundproof room an engineer put his foot hookup on all radio networks, the Cana- the newly opened frequency-modulated on a generator motor and yanked on the dian Broadcasting System, and through bandwidths." starter cord. Then he adjusted some the television facilities of WIXA2 New York "AaiiiiM" yelled the station manager, knobs and gave an okay signal with a and W2JA4 Washington, DC, we present running out of the booth toward the desk circled thumb and finger. a broadcast from the head of the new phone in the next office. Hoover sat down at the bank of micro- Federal Radio Agency concerning the "He's crazy\ Everybody's got a differ- phones in front of him. A four- by eight- future of the airwaves. Ladies and ent system!" said the director. foot panel of photosensitive cells low- gentlemen of the United States and Can- "No doubt Mr. Hoover's in for some ered into place in front of hirrv. In a cutout ada, Mr. Hoover." heat," said Mallory, portion in its center was a disc punched The graying, curly-haired gentleman "To those who say radio-television is too with holes, As the panel came down, the looked into the whirling Nipkow disc with primitive and experimental to allow reg- disc began to spin faster and faster. The the' new Sanabria interlaced pattern and ular commercial broadcasting, I say, studio lights came up to blinding inten- pushed one- of the microphones a little you're the ones holding up progress. The sity. Hoover blinked, shielded his eyes. farther from him. time for review is alter new and better Carmody and Mallory stood in the ' "I come to you tonight as the new head methods are developed, not before. This control room behind the engineers, the of the Federal Radio Agency. After the or that rival concern have been tor years director, and the station manager. Before recent elections, in which I lost the pres- trying to persuade the government to 194 OMNI INNERSCAPE E S HENM adopt their particular formats and meth- ods." He looked into the whirling lights. put down his papers. "I will say to the people of those concerns: Here is your' format, like it or lump it." Then he smiled. "For awholesome and progressive future in America, dedi- cated to better broadcasting for the pub- lic good, this is the head of your nation's Federal Radio Agency, Herbert Hoover, saying goodnight. Goodnight." The stand by sign came back on, The blinding light went down, and Ihe disc slowed and stopped, then the whole as- sembly was pulled back into the ceiling. In the outer office the station manager was crying. Mr. Hoover was still shaking hands when Carmody and Mallory left. Early tomorrow they had to take off for upstate New York. There was a radio sta- tion there with an experimental-only li- cense that was doing regular commer- cial broadcasts. It would be a quiet shutdown, not at all like this evening's. As they walked to the radio car, two Toshiba's SV-970 Super VHS VCR offers an obvious 40% improvement in picture quality over conventional It cabs and a limo swerved up to the curb- VCRs. may even offer an improvement over all VCRs. ing, missing them and each other by According to Video Review, the SV-970 "..stands out from the rest." With inches. Doors swung open, David Sar- " . .every digital special effect worth considering, including zoom, shuttle- noff jumped out of the NBC Studebaker controlled variable slow-motion and on-screen multiple channel scan." limo. He was in evening clothes. The head And "..just about every feature and technology that engineers have been of CBS was white as a sheet as he piled able to shoehorn into one model." In Touch with Tomorrow out of the cab, throwing money behind In other words the SV-970 hardly has him. One of the vice presidents of the room for improvement. TOSHIBA Mutual System got to the door before they did. There was almost a fistfight. There was a sound in the air like that ot a bunch of boxes marked anaconda hat Atop the steps the prime minister and a small fan on a nice spring day. Over- company, asking Gable for directions to the fuhrer. followed by generals, aides, head the airship Ticonderoga was get- some street. and diplomats of both countries, stepped " ting a late start on its three-day journey Then the screen went blank. "Shi: 1 said up to a massed bank of microphones, to Los Angeles. Carmody, draining his beer. "Tonight," said the prime minister of Mallory pulled away from the curb, "Ladies and gentlemen," said an an- Great Britain, "I have been reassured, heading back to the hotel where Dalmas nouncer, "we interrupt our regularly again and again, by the chancellor that and the other agents were already asleep. scheduled program to bring you a news the document we have signed"—he held He reached forward to the dashboard, bulletin via transatlantic cable. Please up a white piece of paper for the cam- twisted a knob. A glowing yellow light stand by." eras, and more flashbulbs went off, caus- came on. A card with the message news bulle- ing him to blink—"will be the last territo- 'Liee2, I'm beat," said Carmody. "See if tin, one moment please, came up on- rial demand ot the German nation. This you can't get something decent on that screen. Then there was a hum, and a paper assures us of peace in our time." thing, okay?" voice said"Okayt" Applause broke out from the massed A face came on-screen, a reporter in NSDAP crowds with their banners, stan- . Nine years later, after his second heart a trench coat stepped back from the dards, and pikes. The camera slowly fo- attack and retirement, Carmody was in camera holding a big mike in one hand. cused into a closeup view—while the his apartment. He was watching his fa- "This morning, three a.m. Berlin time, Ihe 'crowd chanted Seig heili Seig hell!— of vorite program, The Clark Gable-Carole prime minister of Great Britain and the Herr Hitler's beaming face. LombardShow on his brand-new Philco chancellor of Germany seemed to have "Bastid!" yelled Carmody and sent the console color television set with the big reached an accord on the present crisis empty beer can ricocheting off the con- nine- by twelve-inch screen. involving Germany's demands in Aus- sole cabinet. He punched open the top of a Rhein- tria." Past his shoulder there was move- A few minutes later, after the network gold with a church key, foam running over ment, flashbulbs went off like lightning. assured viewers it would cover live any onto his favorite chair. "Here they come," said the newsman, further late-breaking news from Berlin, "Damn!" he said, holding the beer up turning. The camera followed him, pick- they went back to the show. and sucking away the froth. He leaned ing up other television crews with their big There were lots of wrecked hats on the back. He now weighed two hundred sev- new RCA/UFA all-electronic cameras the street set, and Gable was jumping up and enty pounds. size of doghouses trundling in for the down on one. Gable was unshaven; he'd apologized same shot. Lombard broke up about something, at the show's opening; he'd come over On-screen SA and SS men in their shiny turned away from him. laughing. Then she from ihe set where they were filming Mar- coats and uniforms pushed the reporters turned back, eyes bright, back in char- garet Mitchell's Mules in Horse's Har- back and took up positions, machine acter. ." nesses to do the live show. They'd just guns at the ready, around the chancel- 'Lteez, that Gable . . said Carmody. started a sketch with Lombard carrying lery steps. "What a lucky bastid!"DQ . ARTICLE It's interactive enough to seem almost alive. The 'vore can wander around the room and run away trom objects in its path THE OMNI PHOTOVORE HOW TO BUILD A ROBOT THAT THINKS LIKE A ROACH When asked by Omni to design a robot bugs are driven by instinct. That is, a cer- insect appropriate for its readers to build, tain type of situation will always elicit a certain type of response. No reasoning 1 couldn't help reflecting on the history of artificial intelligence (Al) itself. For years is involved, These responses, or re- my colleagues in Al have tried to under- flexes, are hardwired into the creature's stand how human beings think. Early ef- brain from birih. forts were aimed at highly cerebral tasks At the Al tab, those of us building mo- such as playing chess and solving alge- bile robots have tried to instill the basic bra problems. These projects met with features of the insect brain in our own unqualified success and showed that - creations as well. Our robots have what computers could easily perform tasks that we call insect intelligence—a set of sep- were difficult for people. arate, "instinctual" behaviors that cause Unfortunately scientists soon found that them to react to specific situations and the converse was also true: Computers specific environments in specific ways. just could not do the things we all find By turning on successively higher levels incredibly simple, things like tying our of behavior, we improve the performance shoes or walking around without bump- of a robot at its given task. ing into things. To correct this deficiency, Whenever we build a robot, we create researchers turned their attention to the the most basic parts first. To interact with fields of vision and robotics. As a result, the world, first of all, our robot needs a we now have dexterous robots that fab- body—a scaffold, or skeleton, from which ricate many of the high-tech products we its organs (i.e., a computer brain and en- take for granted, from airplane engines gine) and sensors can hang. We find that to automobile parts. We also have auto- BY JONATHAN CONNELL the easiest way to construct a robot body matic inspection systems to ensure the is lo use the chassis of a remote-con- high quality of these goods. lutionary ladder. Toward this end, we have trolled toy car. Such cars, of course, are Yet there are still major bastions of ma- chosen insect-level intelligence as a wor- normally controlled through radio signals chine incompetence. Everyone has seen fhy initial goal. The insect nervous sys- sent by the user. But since the robots must R2-D2 and C-3PO, the slapstick team of tem is simple enough so that it's roughly be autonomous, we rip out the original Laurel and Hardy-like robots from Slar on a par with modern computers. Fur- ' radio units and replace them with elec- Wars; the cute Number Five in Short Cir- thermore, insects engage in a limited tronics of our own. The electronic drive cuit; and the immensely powerful galac- number of well-defined activities. While enables the robot to move forward and tic superheroes on Saturday-morning no one would call an ant smart, it does backward or turn to the left or righi. television. But in the real world of today, an admirable job of surviving in a highly This by itself is not very interesting. The C-3PO would fall on his face even before unstructured, dynamic environment. To robot still needs a way to perceive the taking his first step, and R2-D2 would those of us in the Al lab at MIT, imbuing world. Our first true insect robot accom- bumble aimlessly through Princess Leia's a robot with similar capabilities is a sig- plished this with four infrared proximity starship. Indeed the sad truth is that those nificant first step toward frue intelligence. sensors. These devices emit a modu- of us on the forefront of Al research lack So what features characterize the in- lated beam of infrared light—the same even a vague idea of how io make such sect brain? Bugs are not known for being kind of light used by TV remote controls sophisticated devices. While we would great conversationalists, nor do they en- and.Lazer Tag guns. To find obstacles love to create the sort of robots portrayed gage in abstract activities such as plan- (which ihe robot can ihen avoid), the sen- on TV and film, the technical challenges ning for thefuture. In philosophical terms, sors seek out any reflection brighter than seem insurmountable at present. a cockroach has no conception of self. a certain threshold. The sensors note the In the MIT mobile robotics group our Its mind is a schizophrenic collection of presence of the object and communicate approach has been to start with simpler impulses that compete for control of the the information to the robot brain. The creatures and work our way up the evo- body. Another way of saying all this is that brain, which we generally build with sev- — — eral layers o! complexity, [hen uses this avoidance formula because it pays more operating in the "explore" mode, it information in a number of ways. attention to nearby obstacles than to dis- wouldn't just back away, but instead it For instance, since an insect's first tant ones. It is even smarter than many would swerve around the roadblock and priority is to stay alive, the first brain layer insects because it can cope with multiple keep moving on in the forward direction. is dedicated to survival. Our robot is rel- threats at the same time. Now our adventurous robot can behave atively fragile and may break if it collides This technique, moreover, is particu- like a barn swallow, gracefully swooping too energetically with walls or furniture larly valuable in robotics because it al- through clouds of nutritious gnats without or, for that matter, if someone steps on it lows us to add as many extra sensors as hitting houses or telephone poles. (the fate of many bugs). One good way we might want. For example, we might Even so, this is not quite sufficient. to avoid these situations is to run away add extra sensors to the top of the robot Given the speed of the exploring robot from anything that invades your "per- so it would know when it was about to be and the range of its sensors, it has diffi- sonal space." Our robot's conception of stepped on. We can wire extra sensors culty stopping on time. To provide a hu- space is defined by its sensors. If any into the existing system and then repro- man-size example, it is like driving at su- one of the four sensors, located in front, gram the robot so that the additional in- perhighway speeds through thick fog. If in back, and on either side, detects an formation is factored into the equation that a deer jumps in front of your car, taking object, the robot is potentially in danger. tells the robot where to move. your. foot off the accelerator is not enough. To extricate itself, the robot needs to The creature described up to this point You must also slam on the brakes. move. But where? is largely sessile. Like a hibernating bear, When our robot was controlled only by In nature, many creatures do not take it will move when prodded. But if lett "runaway," it never moved fast enough the time to really decide. Instead, they alone, it will remain still. for crashing to be a problem. The bug simply move in whatever direction they In the real world, of course, animals simply stopped accelerating when it are facing. When startled, for instance, must roam about in search of suste- sensed an obstacle, and a bona fide ac- dragonflies always take off forward and nance. Our robot is internally powered cident was rare. then go up at a 45° angle. Although this and therefore does not really need food. Under the influence of "explore," on the seems to be a naive response, it usually But we can provide this capacity none- works quite well. theless through a second evolutionary Our artificial insects take a more so- layer, one that gives our robot the ability phisticated escape route, one we have to wander around and "explore." engineered- thanks in part to elementary The simplest way to accomplish this, physics. If you think back to high-school we knew, was to have the robot move for- or college physics, you'll remember that ward. But there was a problem: How like charges (for instance, two positively could we integrate the two systems charged spheres) repel one another and "runaway" and "explore"—so they would that the force between them decreases work together? If "explore" suppressed as the distance increases. (As the text- the commands of "runaway," for in- books say, the force is inversely propor- stance, the creature would happily crash tional to the square of the distance.) into walls. On the other hand, if we let Now imagine that our robot is a posi- "runaway" take priority, the robot would tively charged proton and that the obsta- oscillate, balking at any obstruction in its cles it senses are also protons. In this sit- path. It would move forward until it saw uation, our robot would feel a repulsive the obstacle, then backward until it lost force causing it to move directly away sight of the obstruction, then forward from the other protons. Our robot com- again, and soon. putes the relative distance of each obsta- A clever way to integrate the two be- cle, then combines the individual contri- haviors, we found, was simply to alter butions to figure out in which particular '"runaway" under certain conditions. We direction to move. This behavior, which augmented "the equations that controlled we call "runaway," is a good collision our robot so that if it hit an obstacle while 202 OMNI other hand, the vehicle continuously to have "follow the leader" switched on rest of this article describes how you can moves around, and its crash-and-bash all the time. When a robot is in the "ex- build an artificial insect of your own. proclivity becomes a threat to its very plore" mode, before it has found a suit- survival. Our solution: yet another behav- able territory, it needs io be able to ma- A ROBOT OF YOUR OWN is bit ior, one that allows the robot to explore its neuver around fixed features of the The robot described above a too environment without destroying itself. Our environment until it finds an empty space complex for the hobbyist to build easily little robot car still has no brakes, but now, it can call its own. If "follow" were turned at home. Instead, in response to Omni's thanks to our modifications, it does the on right from the beginning, the robot request, I designed a modified version illustrates the next best thing— it slams itself briefly into would lind the nearest obstacle and park that nonetheless concept reverse and comes to a screeching halt. in front of it. It would worship the first table of the robot insect brain. The creature you We refined the "explore" part of our ro- leg it came to as if the object were a to- will build has been named the photovore bot's brain further still by putting a clock tem pole, and it would never budge. because its basic behavior is eating light. onboard. We programmed the robot to Our solution was pretty clear-cut: We It has three photocells for eyes, two in- veer to the right with each tick of the clock, programmed the robot so that if the front dependent rear wheel motors, and three and as a result, when moving through sensor detected objects on a continuous logic chips for a brain. At an astoundingly wide-open spaces the robot presses for- basis, "fallow the leader" was automati- low total cost of about $75, the photovore ward in slowly gyrating circles, creating cally turned off, and the robot maneu- is perhaps the most sophisticated robot a sort of spiral. vered around obstacles to explore new available to the hobbyist today. The circle, in fact, becomes the crea- terrain. If the front sensor detected no ob- ture's territory, and using the simple be- stacles for a long period of time, however, HOW TO BUILD THE PHOTOVORE haviors we have already created, each we assumed that the robot had found vir- Before you start work, you must ac- robot defends its circle appropriately. For gin territory, and "follow the leader" quire the parts on page 212. You can get instance, if a second robot enters the cir- switched on. the toy car from Radio Shack. The cus- cle created by a first, two things can hap- This last behavior allows our robots to tom-made circuit boards, along with a truly relate to one TO GIVE OUR another. Before, ROBOTS when lw0 robots met the sim ' y P'y A LITTLEI ITTI t BITKIT AC A OF sh ied away from PIZZAZZ, WE each other But ADDED A THIRD now if one has es- BEHAVIOR. tablished its terri- ENGEIIDERING tory and s ap ~ fSSSS, poached by a FORCEFUL, second, they ac- AGGRESSIVE tually interact. If a MODES OF circling robot sees iiifrDJirTiAU the backside of a wande " 9 rob0 ' ™o^I KUDU still in the "explore" INSECTS USING mode for in "FOLLOW" stance, it will latch n and tr i0 f°"°w CAN MATE, GO ° / 1YIUMD ji_ thewanderer.il the TU WAK, UK tw0 meet head-to- STARE ONE head, on the other ANOTHER OFF. hand, the local ro- bot attacks the vis- pen: If the interloper "sees" the claimant itor by driving straight toward him. If the detailed set of instructions, are available first, it will follow common courtesy and visitor is still in the "explore" mode, it will from Johuco, Ltd. , a Connecticut mail-or- change its path. Conversely, if the origi- run away and leave the local robot's ter- der supplier. All other parts are available nal robot detects the intruder, it will adjust ritory. If. however, the visitor has already either from your local electronics store, out territory that overlaps that of regular mail-order supplier, or Radio . its own circle to respect the settler's rights. staked a Finally, to really give our robot society the first robot, the two robots will have a Shack. For your convenience we have in- ' a little pizzazz, we added a third layer of face-off. The robots park nose to nose and cluded the Radio Shack part numbers control—a third behavior, one that en- glare until one of them yields its terri- along with the other information on page genders an aggressive, gregarious mode tory by switching out of the "follow" mode. 21 2, at the end of this article. of interaction. We called this behavior Such is the life of the robot at MIT. It is "follow the leader." We created "follow the born and immediately starts exploring the LEARNING HOW TO SOLDER leader" quite simply: Instead of program- world in search of a territory. When a suit- Before you begin to build the photo- ming our robot to move directly away from able area is found, it patiently patrols the vore, you must master the art of solder- obstacles, we reprogrsmmed it to ac- perimeter watching for other robots. ing. You can get solder and a soldering tively move toward objects it senses. To Eventually it encounters another member iron rated at 20 to 40 watts from most make sure our vehicle doesn't mow down of its species and either drives it away or hardware or hobby stores. To solder, sim- the objects it is drawn to, we modified the decidesthatit isa potential mate and fol- ply touch the tip of the iron simulta- program so that the robot would come to lows it. Those of us in the mobile robot neously to the two parts you are solder- a halt once it was sufficiently close to the lab, in fact, are continually amazed at the. ing together, and slowly feed solder into target object. -sophisticated behavior that has emerged the junction. If you are working with the .The last problem we faced was decid- from our simple systems. computer chips, touch the tip of the sol- the pin or ing just when it would be appropriate for While I have summarized the major as- dering iron simultaneously to our robots to use "follow the leader" be- pects of our creatures' lives, there is no lead of the component being installed and havior. It would not make sense, after all, substitute for firsthand observation. So the to the printed circuit board pad. Then from 203 the olher side, slowly feed solder into the junction. Try to make the connection quickly because transistors and diodes can be damaged by excessive heat, and the copper traces can delaminate if they get too hot. Soldering should take about threeseconds for the joint to heat up and two more seconds for the soldering pro- cedure. To desolder (take components apart with the soldering iron), touch the soldering iron to the junction between the two parts. When the junction is suffi- ciently hot, separate the two parts slowly and allow them to cool. Refer to How to solder (below) to make sure you are doing it right. It is useful to "tin" the ends of a wire before soldering. To do this, strip one- quarter inch of insulation from the wire. Touch the soldering iron to the middle of the exposed portion, then feed solder di- rectly onto the iron's tip. The solder should quickly be soaked up by the wire strands, making the end of the wire appear solid. HOW TO SOLDER A. #x % MODIFYING THE CHASSIS Start by disassembling the toy car. Loosen the roll cage by removing the six screws indicated. Next, take oft the top cover by r-emoving..three additional screws. One is at the very back of the car; another is under the black paper de- cal near the car's center; and the last screw, between the two wheels, is ac- cessible from the bottom. Now lift off the top cover and the roll cage. Remove two more screws to free the spoiler (discard this). Take the top cover and cut off the front half at the dark line indicated in the picture. A small fine-tooth (16 per inch) coping saw works well. You can trim the rough edges with an X-acto knife. Shorten the rear post on the lower chassis until it is ihe same height as the larger front post (cuf along the dark line in the illustration labeled modifying. the chassis). You must also modify the motor wiring. Start by removing the four screws hold- ing the assembly in place. Then cut off — the cable to Ihe control box roughly eight inches trom the motors, and desolder all three wires in the cable and Ihe while jumper running between the motors. Now solder a 0.1 \>.i capacitor across the terminals of each motor, and run a I- - »®M 22-gauge jumper from the rear terminal l.REB MOTOR WIRE of the top moter {labeled B) to the top 2. WHITE MOTOR WIRE terminal of the rear motor (C). When doing RWIRE this, remember to follow the tinning in- 4. SPOT structions given above. 5. DPDT The last step is to solder the three-wire 6. 1000 jif CAPACITOR 7. 470 OHM RESISTOR sable back on. Connect the white wire to 8. IM914 the jumper just installed at point 8. The 9.KOTCH black wire goes to the bottom terminal of 10. LM324 the rear motor (D), while the red wire goes 11. RED LED to the front terminal of the top motor (A).- 12. PHOTOCELL 13. Vi-INCH TUBING Knot the completed cable around the 14. 74HCOO plastic post beneath the front motor to 15. I5K RESISTOR provide strain relief. When all is done, 16. 10 j...f CAPACITOR reinstall the four screws that hold the mo- I7.4.7R " assembly the lower chassis. 18. 2N3906 tor to When you have finished, you should have a chassis for your robot, plus some parts you will either WE CALtfD THE discard or save for CREATURE later. Make sure you save all A PHOTOVORE screws, the roll BECAUSE cage, the short- ITS PRIMARY ened black cover, BEHAVIOR IS lead plates, and the lower chassis. EATING LIGHT. You may discard ITS EYES the control box and ARE FASHIONED cable, the spoiler,' FROM THREE and the front half of the top cover. PHOTOCELLS. IT HAS LOGIC BUILDING THE CHIPS FOR ITS BRAIN BOARD BRAIN AND The brain board © INDEPENDENT is one of the two "® circuit boards ® IVIUIUKJ tn j S one happens TO CONTROL ITS to contain the brain REAR WHEELS, that controls the robot. To set it info action, you must install the components info the circuit board as shown in the il- lustration labeled brain board. It is a good idea to apply silicone glue to the bottom of the large components such as the re- lays and IC sockets to keep them in place 'while soldering. For the rest of the de- vices, simply insert their leads in the holes and bend them slightly to hold the de- vices in place. Double-check that the parts are oriented correctly: Look for the flat side on the light-emitting diodes I. BATTERY HOLDER (LEDs), the black band on the diodes, 2, 4 AA BATTERIES the flat surface on the transistors, and the 3. IQXTRIttPQTS "+" large 4. SK TRIM POT tiny signs on the capacitors (the 5. POWER SWITCH ®® © capacitor has a black streak, which is the 6. LEVEL SWITCH "-" terminal). After you have soldered the 7. WIRE TWIST OR TIE WRAP parts in place, snip off the rest of their 8. PHOTOCELL FLANGE protruding leads. Finally, epoxy the 0.3- 9. BUNKING GREEN LEO 10. PHOTOCELLS by 0.6-inch photocell ridge onto the board . II. LIGHT SHIELD as shown. When the epoxy is dry, apply 12, MOUNTING HOLE a large glob of silicone glue in front of the ridge, and then solder the photocell to the board. Cut a half-inch piece of half- cell, and slip the tubes on to form a light HUM ASSEMBLY shield. Finally, you are ready to install the green LED, which flashes when the power is on. Bend the LED leads 90°, and insert them in the holes provided on the under- side of the back board. Solder in place. FINAL ASSEMBLY Cut eight pieces of 22-gauge stranded wire, and tin their ends. The pieces should be about six inches long. Solder one end of each wire io the back board in the holes lettered A through G on the correspond- ing diagram. Thread the wire through the small rectangular opening at Ihe back of the roll cage, and solder the other end to the corresponding location on the brain board. Now solder the three motor wires to the brain board in the slots indicated on the diagram. White is in the middle, red is on the right (as viewed from the back of the car), and black is on the left. Take the five lead plates from the back of the car, and use electrical iape to make one bundle of three TO INTERACT plates and one WEIL WITH THE bjl plates Tape the WORLD, two-plate bundle to OUR ROBOTS Ihe front of the roll REQUIRE cage as shown. A SCAFFOLD-A Tape the three- SKELETON plate bundle to the plastic post under FROM WHICH the top motor. Now ORGANS screw the brain AHD SENSORS board to the lower HANG. AT chassis post that you cut down ear- MIT WE OFTEH lier. Replace the COHSTRUCT motor cover, and BODIES USIHG secure it with a sin- CHASSIS gle screw from the bottom. Next reat- 1, THREAD WIRES THROUGH HERE FROM REMOTE- 2. TWO-PIATI BUNDLE tach the roll cage %, tm&-nm bukme CONTROLLED using the six origi- TOY VEHICLES. nal screws. Insert one large screw at inch-diameter shrink tubing, and slip this the. rear of the back board, and use two over the photocell. As the last step, press FUN AND GAME! loops of wire or two nylon tie wraps to the three integrated circuits, marked secure the front of the board as shown in :, "74HC00" (two chips) and LM324" (1 the final assembly diagram. Remember to install four double-A batteries in the chip) into their sockets, FLASHLIGHT GAME ~-**" battery holder. BUILDING THE BACK BOARD is1^Jfe INSECT TRAINING CAMP The back board (see illustration on the bottom of page 205) is the second ot the Now that you have finished building the photovore's two circuit boards. To con- \!^5 photovore, shown in its entirety at ihe struct, instail the battery holder using sil- bottom of page 204, you'll want to learn ro- icone glue, then solder it in place as some basic games. Indeed, as far as shown. Next install the two switches and bots go, the photovore is exceptional be- the trim pots as shown. Note that the two WANDER GAMI ~k^~ cause it is interactive enough to seem al- 1DK pots go on the edges of the board, most alive. The 'vore can wander around while the 5K pot is installed in the center. the room, run away from objects in its Once again use silicone glue to hold the path, and, in many ways, react to its en- parts in place. Use epoxy to glue the two vironment as intelligently as a real bug. photocell flanges onto the underside of iW§ The 'vore behaves with so much so- - . TSjj the board as shown. When the glue is ®. () phistication because, like the artificial dry, insert the photocells as shown, and bugs at MIT, it has been designed in lay- secure them with silicone glue. Once 1. TUNE FOR "JUST OH" US ers. The first layer has only one behavior: I, TIME FOR "WST OFF' LED again cut a half-inch section of half-inch- "Seek light." To execute this behavior, the diameter shrink tubing for each photo- robot uses its side photocells to move to- 206 OMNI ward the light. If it sees total darkness on all sides, it simply stops. Using just the behavior in level one, there are two ways to play with the 'vore. rrrrrf The first and most obvious is to darken 100% FREE OF CHEMICAL ADDITIVES TOBACCO the room and tune the sensors so they NATURAL react to bright light. Next take a flashlight AND CIGARETTES and shine it at the robot. The crealure will I scurry toward the light and try to home in on you wherever you move. The second way to play with the 'vore or, if you have wanted to stop I involves leaving the lights on. Now the smoking taut could not . . . creature will keep moving forward yet if out of choice or you smoke swerve around obstacles or dark areas rather than habit. , . in its path. If it is wandering down a long 1 here is an alternative hallway with dark baseboards, it will avoid at least try. you should the walls and even turn around at the end. A7J American Spirit Tobacco and cigarette ^ While this behavior pattern works pretty Virginia well, 'vore winds up in inacces- 1 products contain 100% chemical-additive-tree the often Tobacco and nothing else. sible niches under the furniture, with no light in view. If il is programmed merely 1 am sending Si for a sample of the American Spirit prociun checked: to go toward light, it simply will not move _: koi filier-iip cigarettes n pnekoi n on- filter cigarettes 1 pa< under this circumstance. Zi pouch of tobciccoior a pipe or making myown cigarettes. To start it on its way, you can flip a O I'd like 10 try all 3 of the above and have enclosed S2.op. switch to invoke the robot's second per- in.:nlierini"oinicHio!i/order forms will he :sent with.samples > sonality, called "back." "Back" instructs the robot to back away from the darkness instead of moving toward light. The robot CITY/STATE can be propelled by "back" until it I Santa re Natural 'lobacoo reaches a clearing. Once out in the light, P.O. Box 1840 "back" switches off and "seek" takes Santa Fe, NM 87504 control once more. For instance, if the (305! 082-4257 'vore wanders into a dark area such as under a table, it will stop in its tracks, turn A****** around, and move back toward the light. The 'vore even has an idiosyncrasy that - you may use to astound your friends: ' Sometimes the bug will get itself into a dimly lit corner; though it may still be CIRCUIT DIAGRAM bright overhead, neither one of the side sensors sees the light. In this case, the 'vore will stop. If, however, you lean over it to pick it up (making sure the switch is in the mode) the photovore will ! "back" wake up and scuttle backward. This oc- curs because as you lean you are cast- ing a shadow on its back sensor. This simple creature exhibits a wide range of skills. If you are particularly cre- ative, you can make your robot smarter still by adding such features as a bump detector or a cliff finder. The wonderful thing about building brains in layers is that you can start with something simple and add capabilities as you go along. FUN AND GAMES For quick instructions on operating the photovore, follow the tutorial below, and consult the fun and games diagram on page 206. In the first game, called Flash- light, the photovore drives toward sources of light in a dark room, To activate the robot for Flashlight, set switches as shown in the top half of the diagram. Set the side dials clockwise as far as they can go. In the second game, called Wander, the photovore explores a room by seek- ing light sources as before and by back- ing away from areas that are dark. To ac- tivate Wander, set the switches as shown . in the bottom half of the diagram. Then adjust the side dials so that the LEDs just turn on (the arrow should be pointing vir- YOUR FIGURE IT OUT tually straight up), and adjust the center FOR YOURSELF dial until the center LED just turns off. is VERY best to tune the sensors to OWN The way If you can figure out this place the photovore on the floor near the be able to puzzle, you may edge of a room and point it toward the PERSONAL qualify to join MENSA, the center of the room. Then lift the back society for people whose wheels slightly off the ground and adjust COMPUTER switches and knobs as described intelligence is at or above the the IN A CRYSTAL PENDANT Good luck, and enjoylDQ 98th percentile on a standard above. FOR ONLY $35.95 IQ test. If 6puzzlers can solve 12 puzzles in 12 minutes, how long will it take 1 puzzler to solve 60puzzles at the same rate? gBj. Send to; MENSA. Dept.OMAS r^J 2626 East 14th Street ***% Brooklyn, NT 11235 g Send brochure, telling how I may I have already qualified. * For thousands of years Quartz Crystals have I'll take the at-home test. Enclosed D | been worn and used as personal amulets. No (check or order | is &900 money other stone in the mineral kingdom expresses in U.S. funds only, please). | such perfection, nor generates the potential for * perfection of human consciousness. Name. . . Quartz Crystals are capable of receiving, send- ing and holding energy. The mind is focused firv/Siato'Zip ^ and mental energy is directed into and through the crystal. Many people report increased LTD. AMERICAN HENSA, memory of dreams, a sharpening of inner vision mgin, Randy Mayor, and enhanced self awareness. Quartz Crystal Parkas; page 2D left, © istrulyoneof nature's miracles. It possesses a OPTICAL onm I IK mk;. page SO right, =. s=u ,.... market, m quality known as peizoelectricity. When squeezed '::- .-. /-::: , : a great deal ot modern technology i.e. telephone, radio, spacecraft guidance, satellite communi- ottont" j-i- , "_ cations and computer systems. 1 top. '.'T-iii 38f EXCLUSIVE OMNI 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF- snip :" ~:0:i >-i FER; GENUINE CLEAR QUARTZ CRYSTAL PENDANT WITH AN ELEGANT STERLING SILVER CAP ONLY S35.95. TO RECEIVE ' . !i : , YOUR QUARTZ CRYSTAL PENDANT FILL IN THE COUPON BELOW. AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD HOLDERS CALL TOLL-FREE Couoc-n SMar< Oreerin- If?" 1-800-621-5559 ' Please send me (Indicate how many Quartz Crystal Pendants you require) for only ' I. . ,. Researol ers page 75 top, Jams?: :;..!,... , .. .: ,\ psge 75 top right, Chit! .: : ::;'.- page 75 bottom right, Gar> F rrfflt paga 75 center left, Barrie page 7o top h o ge7fi right I- ... bottom ea ch 5; pags ' Eiio:>. ..:,' -. .:::-..; c.-:gs ra bottom, BaybrCo- ga '.led ;.;: He;;: ilija!,-a:.or pages 92-93, Pete, ---- r- pnxi-l-eiii-er page 94 top right. P ( ";,(.=ri-i? ,:-i age 94 top left and bottom, " : Please note we only accept American Express 5,; ;-: : pat;? \ dying within (he next 15 years than low scorers. Suspicious people, Barefoot speculates, "may generate stress for themselves by creating antagonistic in- teractions or perceiving threat when it may not be there." Having worse relations with others, Ihey may have less help in coping with stress. "This could mean a greater likelihood of stress-related death," he says. Ray Rosenman, director of cardiovas- cular research at SRI International in Menlo Park, California, questions the interpretation of Williams's and Barefoot's work. "You can't just make up terms like suspiciousness or cynicism," he says. But most researchers in psychosomatic medicine respect the test; its validity has been proved over the years. "Well, sure, Type A will be a little more suspicious, a little less trusting," counters Rosenman. "But you have to look at why these peo- ple are this way." Today the boundaries between "Personality," responds Williams, "is science and religion are rapidly only (S221orargn, £42 i One year (I tissues) for $18 determined by the interplay between s for only $32 (MO vanishing. Could ft be, as many scien- neurobiologies! makeup, which is in part llorsign. $75ovsfsnas Air Mail) tists are now conciuding, that there experi- 1 yaar 2 yaars genetically determined, and the exists an underlying unity? Are the an- Payment enclosed Please bill me ences the individual is exposed to during swers to be found through an expansion critical phases of development." He is now trying to determine the biological of consciousness wherein truth is dearly mechanism that accounts for high mor- perceived? tality in people who are suspicious, cyn- Paramahansa Vogananda, founder of mistrusting. In his latest experi- ical, and Self-Realizatton Fellowship, said, "Truth ment he divided subjects into two groups is no theory, no speculative system of according to testing profiles: one hostile, philosophy, no intellectual insight. Truth is RELAX the other not. He injected both groups exact correspondence with reality. For with isoproterenol, a potent form of the man, truth is unshakable knowledge of stress hormone epinephrine, and with his self as soul." MINUTES ^k^-V norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that his real nature, can constrict blood vessels and direct For more than half a century, Self-Reali- blood flow to the heart and muscles. zation Fellowship has been teaching Williams compared the responses of scientific techniques of meditation and light T-wave NEUROPEP™ Uses and sound the two groups by measuring the life-energy control that you can test in the pulses to create... amplitude (TWA) of their ECGs (electro- laboratory of your own life. Through the Alpha-Theta states in which the brain cardiograms). A smaller amplitude indi- experience of meditation you can trans- is relaxed yet alert. cates that the heart, bombarded by the form abstract truths into a living reality. As • state in which the brain goes into A stress hormones, is working harder. When synchrony and harmony, producing you begin to know and express your real the TWA returns to normal—as it did more endorphines. nature, you discoverthe infinite source of quickly in the nonhostile group— it means • A true sensation of inner peace. ait life within you. Then you wont need to the heart is recovering from the stress. • Visual imagery and kaleidoscopic your "This quick TWA recovery suggests speculate about the meaning of there's a 'brake' in this group that is acti- existence; you will know. • Superior to $8000 systems... overstimulation," ONi.VS299.00 vated to stop the heart's SEND FOR FREE BOOKLET he says. Subjects with poor TWA recov- ENDOMAX™ Retrains your brain to... ery—those in the hostile group—also had • Operate more efficiently higher resting levels of the stress hor- Self-Realization 1 Permanently increase levels of mone Cortisol in their blood. And they re- neurotransmitters linked with creative Fellowship leased more of it under stress. thinking... ONLYS199.00 "The higher levels affect the heart, the Many other brain machines are available! blood vessels, the outpouring ot fat into Mega Dynamics ^^ the bloodstream," concludes Williams. "It 866 Huntley Dr. H ^» could play a role in coronary disease and "Undreamed-of Possibilit Los Angeles, CA 90069 health in general because these hor- Phone:(213)854-5959 mones have negative effects on the im- mune system." Williams counsels hostile patients at the Duke Medical Clinic to think All Mega Dynamics products carry a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee. Calit. that their negative emotions are as bad residents include 6Vs% tax. 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In future issues, look for their com- ments and tips plus other cutting-edge information on video games.DO — , HE HAS INNER VISION OMNI CONTINUED FROMW TIME CAPSULES polished and cut A test mirror, cut three years ago, warped about half a micron 50 atoms across. Nelson, who designed the mirror, believes they have now re- fined the process. The first mirror warped about 120 nanometers, or 0.12 micron one hundredth the width of a human hair. "That is a significant amount," says Keck project manager Jerry Smith, "but it can be corrected either with a small harness to warp it back into shape or with com- Now the magazine of the future can be puter polishing." kept for the future. Store your issues of Even so, the uncertainty remains. Just OMNI In a new Custom Bound Library Cose because mirror segment number one has ,.:i " .: r.lO.'3!:: j : it's a warp of 0. 12 micron doesn't mean that last, end It will keep 12 issues In mint condition Indefinitely, The splr mirror number two won't warp twice as the gold OMNI logo, ond In eo badly. The ultimate test will come when there is a gold transfer for the engineers perform the final optical recording the date. figuring. They will have to form all 36 seg- The d your noney order Ancients called it ments, each with its own peculiarities, into ($8.95 ei 3 (or $24.95; 6 for $45.95) one gigantic hyperbola, held in focus by postpaid Ui nly. USA orders add COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS $1.00 01 xders add $2.50 continuous computer alignment. A big scope's troubles don't end with There are no physical limita- To: OMNI MAGAZINE a single alignment, however. Fluctua- tions to inner vision . , . the psy- Jesse Jones Industries, 499 E, Erie Ave. tions in heat or cold also cause mirrors to chic faculties within know no Phila., PA 19134 change shape, which hampers their abil- barriers of space or time. A world CREDIT CARD HOLDERS (orders Over S15) ity to focus light. A typical single heavy CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-972-5858 of marvelous phenomena awaits mirror also requires a very large tube to Or mall your order, clearly showing your your command. Within the natu- support it. The Keek's designers hope to ccount number and signature. Pa. residents ral—but unused—functions of add 6% sales tax, avoid these problems, too. The thin mir- your mind are dormant powers SATISFACTION GUARANTEED ror segments adjust quickly to changes which can bring about a trans- in temperature, and they are lighter than formation of your life. a single mirror. This means the telescope can be both cheaper and smaller than a Know the mysterious world RID one-piece mirror telescope of the same within you and learn the secrets JMF diameter. The $87 million, 400-inch Keck, of a full and peaceful life! for example, has a short focal length. It The Rosicrucian Order is an can fit into a dome about the same size age-old fraternity of learning. For as that of the 200-inch Hale—which cost centuries, they have shown men $6 million in 1928, or about $120 million and women how to utilize the full- in 1980 dollars. ness of their being. This is age The workers have finished building the an ERogT* of daring adventure . . . but the Keek's final resting place, a dome high greatest of all is the exploration of atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The site, al- Self. ready a popular spot for astronomy, is the highest point of land in the Pacific and FREE BOOKLET affords the advantages of dark, clear For more detailed information night skies and an undisturbed overhead about our practical, systematic airstream. By next spring workers plan to teachings, write today for your install the telescope itself. Then they will free copy of the "Mastery of Life" mount the mirrors. If all goes well the Keck booklet. Address: Scribe BNY will experience "first light"— its inaugural viewing run — in 1990. Sometime in 1991 astronomers hope to take the Keek's The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC controls and use it to peer for the first time San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A CALL TOLL FREE at a celestial object. SEND 1 -800-426-6027 Should this ambitious project work out THIS COUPON — as planned, the mighty Keck telescope In New York 1-718-417-3737 Scribe BNY will let the earthbound gather the faintest, The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC most distant light ever observed from the San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A. cosmos. This includes distant quasars the Please send me a free copy of the Big Bang blew so far away that the light Mastery of Life. now reaching us began its journey when the universe was but one fifth its current Name age. Says Nelson, "We'll be able to look back a long way, to a time when the uni- verse was probably very different than it is now."OQ . trolled environment would ensure that offspring are cloned daughters. Re- PARENTS there were no males on midnight jaunts. search is being done on the closely re- In 1978 Charles Cole, working with the lated green and grass frogs. These spe- American Museum of Natural History, cies are breeding in the wild, also called starfish — they're not fish). Known successfully bred an all-female species producing female offspring suspected of for their powers of regeneration, sea stars of whiptail lizard that clones itself. This being capable of asexual reproduction. will regrow a lost arm. More surprisingly, new hybrid species has done away with (Things are not looking good for males.) the detached arm will sprout a whole new males and their services. Social insects, it seems, are not as so- organism—a clone of the original sea star. Salamanders, like some of their lizard cial as we're led to believe. Most people For true reproduction, you need a he and cousins, have also been mating with close know who rules the beehive—a large fe- a she star. relatives. The Jefferson and blue-spot- male. The queen is cared for by the col- Reptiles regenerate lost limbs and tails, ted salamanders interbred, creating sil- ony majority—the workers, who are small sometimes replacing the missing one with very and Tremblay all-female hybrids. females. The odd few left in the nest are two—not a pretty sight. Seemingly unparticular about their part- drones, males born From the queen's un- Herpetologists, who study reptiles and ners in the beginning, now the Jeffersons fertilized eggs. Their sole purpose is to amphibians, long suspected that some will mate only with the silverys, and the grow up, chase the queen, and mate with lizard populations are all female, capable blues with the Tremblays. The contribu- her. Had the drones any intelligence, they of cloning themselves. To prove this, sci- tion of sperm serves as a stimulant for would probably escape before autumn, entists would have to raise generation egg development—no genetic material when this little scenario occurs. What in- after generation in a laboratory. The con- is interchanged. The all-female hybrids' itially appears lucky—the task of getting to the queen—is actually rather nasty. The queen keeps the male's genitalia (a tro- Don't let your body phy?), ripping it out, along with most of go downhill without his intestines (a statement?). By the end of the mating season, the remainder of ((( looking good the drones are starved or stung to death tf.teus ii»r,t by the female workers (jealousy?). Somewhere in here lies a rewrite of the Get in 10 runs birds-and-the-bees story. and 1400 turns Certain members of the walkingstick every day before family are also known to reproduce with- you hit the slopes ») out mating. (Seemingly misnamed, it this season. of rather There is no other doesn't do a lot walking but exercise machine spends most of its time hiding from prey.) that duplicates the Perhaps this loner got wind of the mating motion of downhill ritual of its cousin the praying mantis and better skiing like ffce decided that a dull walkingstick is SKIER'S EDGE. than a devoured one. The cleaner wrasse fish prey on the parasites found on larger fish. In ex- change for services rendered, the wrasse is spared being eaten by its carnivorous host. Sexually, the cleaner wrasse is a confused, indecisive species. They go Ski your first run this season in shape and in style. The SKIERS EDGE back and forth between being male and exercises the exact muscles that skiing does. A twenty-minute workout will female, which can make dating precar- make you feel like you've skied ten of your favorite runs. ious but mating advantageous. Dramatically improve your skiing through perfect physical patterning. You'll For bacteria, binary fission is the usual master correct technique, balance, stance, edging, timing and rhythm off the mode of reproduction —the parent cell pinches in the middle and divides into two slopes for more control and confidence on the slopes. You 'II feel a remarkable improvement in your skiing. daughter cells. But some bacteria can Stay in peak condition year-round with a challenging, non-impact aerobic reproduce sexually, like the bacteria re- won\out. Preliminary studies at a major university show a caloric bum of 204 sponsible for dysentery. The male and calories per 15-minute workout. That's equivalent to 816 calories per hour! female of the shigella strain, a rod-shaped The SKIER'S EDGE is adjustable for everyone, from child to adult, from bacterium, combine genetic material by bumps to cruising, it comes with a dynamic demonstration video, special ski making transient physical contact—cas- poles, user's manual, and conditioning program. ual collisions (sound familiar?). Hardly a flamboyant mating ritual, it is neverthe- Try Our 30-Day No-Risk Trial. less effective. Mycoplasmas, the sim- plest living cells known, also reproduce through binary fission. All-female species that clone are as- sured of thriving—the strongest survive and duplicate themselves. But what if the environment changes? Sexual reproduc- tion adds flexibility to the species by in- troducing rare, favorable changes. Pop- ulations may grow faster within asexual female species, but these rigid families also become extinct more quickly. We're not ready to dispense with males . . yet.— Nina Guccione and Joe FodorDQ 318 OMNI there's still an unbroken field. Let's go in." And we entered the park just north of the zoo. For five generations the first thing New York kids have been taught—ahead of tying shoelaces and flushing after you go— is that you don't set foot in Central Park at night. Now here we were, defying the most primordial of no-no's. But what was to fear? What they taught us to worry about in the park was muggers. Not creatures from the Ninth Glorch Galaxy. The park was eerily quiet. Maybe a snore or two from the direction of the zoo, otherwise not a sound. We walked west and north into the silence, into the dark- ness. After a while a strange smell reached my nostrils. It was dank and musky and harsh and sour, but those are only approximations: It wasn't like any- thing I had ever smelled before. One whiff of it and I was seeing purple skies and a greaf green sun blazing high in the heavens. A second whiff and all the stars were in the wrong places. A third whiff and I was staring into a gnarled, twisted landscape where the trees were like giant spears and the mountains were like crooked teeth. Tim nudged me. "Yeah," I said. "I smell it, too." "Look to your left," he said. I looked to my left and saw three huge yellow eyes looking back at me from twenty feet overhead, like searchlights mounted in a tree. They weren't mounted in a tree, though. They were mounted in Bureau ot External Affairs. something shaggy and massive, some- your basic two-family HANNIBAL'S Then off we went up Fifth, Tim and I, what larger than and he gave me a guided tour. "You see, Queens residential dwelling, that was CONTINUED i=ROM -±Gf -*:: Dr. Pritchett, the first line of the isolation standing maybe fifty feet away, com- park's propose to violate your trust and go zone is the barricade that runs down the pletely blocking both lanes of the sneaking into the midst of the invading middle of the avenue." Virile, forceful East Drive from shoulder to shoulder. I that force, as a mere prank?" voice, loud enough to be heard for half a It was then that realized three block. "That keeps the gawkers away. bottles of wine hadn't been nearly "I guess. I do," he said. "This is an extremely cockeyed idea, Behind that, Doctor, we maintain a fur- enough. level of security series of "What's the matter?" Tim said. "This is isn't it?" I said. ther through a "Absolutely. Are you with me?" augmented-beam sealfield emplace- what we came for, isn't it, old pal?" General 1100 "What we do now? Climb on its back I Dynamics do "Sure," I said. "You know am." ments, the new series model, and let me show you right and go lor a ride?" no human being in all I how we've integrated that with ad- "You know that I told Elaine that Tim and were going here to meet for a late dinner to discuss a busi- vanced personnel-interface intercept of history has ever been as close to that of triple line of Hewlett- thing we are now?" ness deal, and I didn't expect to be home scan by means a as ." I "I that, Tim." until two or three in the morning. No prob- Packard optical doppler-couplers. . . "Yes," said. do know lem there. Tim was waiting at our old ta- And so on, a steady stream of boom- It began making a sound. It was the ble at Perugino's with a bottle of Ama- ing, confident-sounding gibberish as we kind of sound that a piece of chalk twelve rone already working. The wine was so headed north. He pulled out a flashlight feet thick would make if it was dragged good that we ordered another midway and led me hither and thither to show me across a blackboard the wrong way. I if I through the veal pizzaiola, and then a amplifiers and sensors and whatnot, and When I heard that sound felt as was it Dr. Pritchett this Dr. Pritchett being dragged across whole galaxies by third. I won't say we drank ourselves blind, was and weird vertigo attacked me. but we certainly got seriously myopic. that, and I realized fhat we were now my hair. A And about midnight we walked over to somehow on the inner side of the barri- Then the creature folded up all its legs the park. cade. His glibness, his poise, were awe- and came down to ground level; and then Notice this, Dr. Pritchett, Let it unfolded the two front pairs of legs, and Everything was quiet. I saw sleepy- some. and looking guardsmen patrolling here and me call your attention to this, Dr. Pritchett, then the other two; and then it started to there along Fifth Avenue. We went right and suddenly there was a tiny digital key- amble slowly and ominously toward us. looking even big- up to the command post at Fifty-ninth, board in his hand, like a little calculator, I saw another one, ger, just it. perhaps a third and Tim saluted very crisply, which I don't and he was tapping out numbers. "Okay," beyond And think was quite kosher, he being not then he said, "the field's down between here one a little farther back. They were head- in uniform. He introduced me to some- and the Sixty-fifth Street entrance to the ing our way, too. very one as Dr. Pritchett, Bureau of External park, but I've put a kill on the beam-inter- "Shit," I said. "This was a dumb Affairs. That sounded really cool and glib, ruption stgnai. So far as anyone can tell, idea, wasn't it?" 220 OMNI , " "Come on. We're never going to forgei this night." "I'd like to live to remember it." "Let's get up real close. They don't move very fast." "No," I said. "Let's just get out of the " park right now, okay ? "We just got here." "Fine," I said. "We did it. Now let's go." "Hey, look," Tim said, "Over there to the west." I followed his pointing arm and saw two gleaming wraiths hovering just above the ground, maybe three hundred yards away. The other aliens, the little floating ones. Drifting toward us, graceful as bal- loons, i imagined myself being wrapped in a shining pillow and being floated off into (heirship. "Oh, shit," I said. "Come on, Tim." Staggering, stumbling, I ran for the park gate, not even thinking about how I was going to get through the sealfield without Tim's gizmo. But then there was Tim, right behind me. We reached the sealfield to- gether, and he tapped out the numbers on the little keyboard, and the field opened for us, and out we went, and the field closed behind us. And we col- lapsed just outside the park, panting, gasping, laughing like lunatics, and slap- ping the sidewalk hysterically. "Dr. Pritch- ett," he chortled. "Bureau of External Af- fairs. God damn, what a smell that critter had! God damni" I laughed all the way home. I was slill laughing when I got into bed. Elaine glaring in utter amazement and dismay "Inexcusable. An incredible lapse. The squinted at me. She wasn't amused. "That at the gigantic aliens. How humiliating it aliens feel threatened now that humans Tim," 1 said. "That wild man Tim." She must have been for them to feel tiny. have trespassed on their territory, and the could tell I'd been drinking some, and she Then there was the bison event. There whole situation has changed in there. We nodded somberly—boys will be boys, was this little herd, a dozen or so mangy- upset them, and now they're getting out etcetera—and went back to sleep. looking guys with ragged, threadbare fur. of control. I'm thinking of reporting myself In the morning I learned what had hap- They started moving single file toward for court-martial." pened in the park after the two of us had Columbus Circle, probably figuring that "Don't be silly, Tim. We trespassed for cleared out. if they just kept their heads down and three minutes. The aliens didn't give a It seemed a few of the big aliens had didn't attract attention they could keep crap about it. They might have blun-— gone looking for us. They had followed going all the way back to Wyoming. For dered into the zoo even if we hadn't our spoor all the way to the park gate, some reason a behemoth decided to see "Go away," he muttered. "1 can't talk to and when they lost it they somehow what bison taste like. It came hulking over you while I'm on duty." if turned to the right and went blundering and sat down on the last one in the line, Jesus! As I was the one who had lured into the 200. The Central Park Zoo is a which vanished underneath it like a him into doing it. Well, he was back in his small, cramped place, and as they ram- mouse beneath a hippopotamus. Chomp, movie part again, the distinguished mili- bled around in it they managed to knock gulp, gone. In the next few minutes five lary figure who now had unaccountably down most of the fences. In no time what- more behemoths came over and disap- committed an unpardonable lapse and ever there were tigers, elephants, chimps, peared five more of the bison. The sur- was going to have to live in the cold glare rhinos, and hyenas all over the park. vivors made it safely to the edge of the of his own disapproval for the rest of his The animals, of course, were befud- park and huddled up against the seal- life. The poor bastard. 1 tried to tell him dled and bemused at finding themselves field, mooing forlornly. One of the little tra- not to take things so much to heart, but free. They took off in a hundred differenl gedies of interstellar war. he turned away from me, so I shrugged directions, looking for places to hide. I found Tim on duty at the Fifty-ninth and went back to my office. The lions and coyotes simply curled up Street command posl. He looked al me That afternoon some tenderhearted under bushes and went to sleep. The as though I were an emissary of Satan. citizens demanded that the seallields be monkeys and some of the apes went into "Sorry, I can't talk to you while I'm on switched off until the zoo animals could the trees. The aquatic things headed for duty." he said. escape from the park. The sealfields, of the lake. One of the rhinos ambled out "You heard about the zoo?" I asked. course, kept them trapped in there with into the Mall and pushed over a fragile- "Of course I heard." He was speaking the aliens. looking alien machine with his nose. The through clenched teeth. His eyes had the Another tough one for the mayor. He machine shattered, and the rhino went scarlet look of zero sleep. "What a filthy, would lose points tremendously if the up in a flash of yellow light and a puff of irresponsible thing we did!" evening news kept showing our beloved green smoke. As for the elephants, they "Look, Tim, we had no way of knowing polar bears and raccoons and kanga- stood poignantly in a huddled circle, that the—" roos and whatnot getting gobbled like so " many gumdrops by the aliens. But Maranta than just lunchtimes. Elaine no- around us. As we were walking up Park switching off the sealfields would send a ticed. But I didn't notice her noticing. Avenue South toward Forty-second, horde of leopards and gorillas and wol- Elaine said suddenly, "Do you hear any- verines scampering out into the streets One Sunday at dawn a behemoth thing strange''" of Manhattan, to say nothing of the aliens turned up by the Metropolitan, peering in "Strange?" who might follow them. The mayor ap- the window of the Egyptian courtyard. The "Like a riot." pointed a study group, naturally. authorities thought at first that there must "It's nine o'clock Sunday morning. No- The small aliens stayed close to their be a gap in the Seventy-ninth Street seal- body goes out rioting at'nine o'clock spaceship and remained uncommuni- field, as there had been at Seventy-sec- Sunday morning." cative. They went on tinkering with their ond Then came a report ot another alien 'Uust listen," she said. machines, which emitted odd plinking out near Riverside Drive and a third one There is no mistaking the characteris- noises and curious colored lights. But the at Lincoln Center, and it became clear tic sounds of a large, excited crowd of huge ones roamed freely about the park, that the sealfields just didn't hold them human beings, for those of us who spent and now they were doing considerable back at all. They had simply never both- ourformative years living in the late twen- damage in their amiable, mindless way. ered to go beyond them before. tieth century. Our ears were tuned at an They smashed up the backstops of the Making contact with a sealfield is said early age to the music of riots, mobs, baseball fields, tossed the Bethesda to be extremely unpleasant for any or- demonstrations, and their kin. We know Fountain into the lake, rearranged Tavern ganism with a nervous system more what it means when individual exclama- on the Green's seating plan, and trashed complex than a squid's. Every neuron in tions of anger, indignation, or anxiety the place in various other ways; but no- your body screams out in anguish. You blend to create a symphonic hubbub in body seemed to object except the usual jump back, involuntarily, a reflex impos- which all extremes of pitch and timbre Friends of the Park civic types. I think we sible to overcome. On the morning we are submerged into a single surging roar, were all so bemused by the presence of came to call Crazy Sunday, the behe- as deep as the booming of the surf. That genuine galactic beings that we didn't moths began walking through the fields was what I was hearing now. And there mind. We were flattered that they had as if they weren't there. The main thing was no mistaking it. chosen New York as the site of first con- about aliens is that they are alien. They "It isn't a riot," I said. "It's a mob. There's tact. (But where else?) feel no responsibility for fulfilling any of a subtle difference." No one couid explain how the behe- your expectations. "What?" moths had penetrated the Seventy-sec- That weekend it was Bobby Christie's "Come on," I said, breaking into a jog. ond Street sealfield line, but a new barrier turn to have the full apartment. On those "I'll bet you that the aliens have come out was set up at Seventy-ninth, and that Sundays when Elaine and 1 had the one- of the park." seemed to keep them contained. Poor room configuration, we liked to get up A mob, yes. In a moment we saw thou- Tim spent twelve hours a day patrolling very early and spend the day out, since sands upon thousands of people filling the perimeter of the occupied zone. Inev- it was a little depressing to stay home with Forty-second Street from curb to curb. looking pointing, I began spending more time with three rooms of furniture jammed all What they were at— gaping, screaming—was a shaggy blue creature as big as a small mountain that was moving about uncertainly on the au- tomobile viaduct that runs around the side of Grand Central Terminal. It looked un- happy. It was trying to get down from the viaduct, which was sagging noticeably under its weight. People were jammed right up against it, and a dozen or so were clinging to its sides and back like rock climbers. There were people underneath it, too, milling between its colossal legs. "Oh, look," Elaine said, shuddering, dig- ging her fingers into my biceps. "Isn't it eating some of them? Like they did the bison?" Once she had pointed it out, I saw, yes, the behemoth now and then was dipping quickly and rising again, a famil- iar one-two, the old squat and gobble. "What an awful thing!" Elaine murmured. "Why don't they get out of its way?" "I don't think they can," I said. "I think they're being pushed forward by the people behind them." "Right into the jaws of that monster." "I don't think it means to hurt anyone," I said. How did I know that? "I think it's just eating them because they're dither- ing around down there in its mouth area. A kind of automatic response. It looks awfully dumb, Elaine." 'Are you defending—it?" "Hey, look, Elaine "It's eating people. You sound almost sorry for it!" "Why not? It's far from home and sur- rounded by ten thousand screaming mo- 222 OMNI — rons. You think it wants to be there?" very nervous; they did a ioi of gulping. to his regiment. It was his atonement, I "It's a disgusting, obnoxious animal." Among the casualties was Tim, the guess. He was back there in the Gary She was getting furious. Her eyes were second day of the violence. He went down Cooper movie again, gladly paying the bright and wild; her jaw was thrust for- valiantly in the defense of the Guggen- price for dereliction of duty. ward. "I hope the Army gets here fast. I heim Museum, which came under attack Tuesday afternoon the rampage came hope they blow it to smithereens!" by five ot the biggies. Its spiral shape held to an unexpected end. The behemoths .Her ferocity frightened me. I saw an some ineffable appeal for them. We started keeling over, and within a few Elaine I scarcely knew at all. When I tried couldn'tteil whether they wanted to wor- hours they were all dead. Some said it one more time to make excuses for that ship it or mate with it or just knock it to was the heat— it was up in the nineties miserable hounded beast on the viaduct, pieces, but they kept on charging and and some said it was the excitement. A she glared at me with unmistakable charging, rushing up to it and slamming Rockefeller University biologist thought it loathing. Then she turned away and went against it. Tim was trying to hold them off was both those factors plus severe in- rushing forward, shaking her fist, shout- with nothing more than tear gas and digestion: They had eaten an average ing curses and threats at the alien. bloogiehoms when he was swallowed. of ten humans apiece, which might Suddenly I realized how it would have The President had ordered the guards- have overloaded their systems. But as we been if Hannibal actually had been able men not to use lethal weapons. Maranta later saw, indigestion couldn't have been to keep his elephants alive long enough was bitter about that. "If only they had let the problem. to enter Rome with them. The respecta- them use grenades," she said. I tried to There was no chance for autopsies. ble Roman matrons, screaming and rag- imagine what it was like, gulped down and Some enzyme in the huge bodies set to ing from the housetops with the fury of digested, nifty tan uniform and all. A credit work immediately on death, dissolving banshees. And the baffled elephants sooner or later rounded up and thrust into the Colosseum to be tormented by little men with spears, while the crowd howled its delight. Well, I can howl, too. "Come on, behemoth!" I yelled into the roar of the mob. "You can do it, Goliath!" A traitor to the human race is what I was, I guess. Eventually a detachment of guards- men came with mortars and rifles, and for all I know they had tactical nukes, too. But of course there was no way they could attack the animal in the midst of such a mob. Instead they used electronic blooglehorns to disperse the crowd by' the power of sheer ugly noise and whipped up a bunch of buzz-blinkers and a little sealfield to cut Forty-second Street in half. The last I saw of the monster, it was slouching off in the direction of the old United Nations buildings with the guardsmen warily creeping along be- hind it. The crowd scattered, and 1 was left standing in front of Grand Central with a trembling, sobbing Elaine. That was how it was all over the city on Crazy Sunday, and on Monday and Tues- day, too. The behemoths were roaming from Harlem to Wall Street. Wherever they went they drew tremendous, crazy crowds that swarmed all over them with- out any regard for the danger. Some fa- "mous news photos came out of those days: three grinning black boys at Sev- enth and One Hundred Twenty-fifth hang- ing from the three purple rodlike things, the acrobats forming a human pyramid atop the Times Square beast, a little old Italian man in front of his house in Green- wich Village trying to hold a space mon- ster at bay with just his garden hose. There was never any accurate ca- sualty count. Maybe five thousand peo- ple died, mainly trampled underfoot by the aliens or crushed in the crowd. Somewhere between three hundred fifty and four hundred human beings were gobbled by the aliens. Apparently that stdop-and-swallow thing is something they do when they're nervous, If there's anything edible within reach, they'll gulp it in. This soothes them. We made them halt flesh and bone and skin and all into a "No. I was with Tim. We sneaked into zombies? Along with the bison herd, sticky yellow mess. By nightfall nothing the park and looked at the aliens." a dozen sguirrels, and three dogs. They was left of them but some stains on the "Sure," -Elaine said. She filed for di- hadn't been eaten and digested at all, just pavement, uptown and down. A sad vorce, and a year later i married Maranta. collected inside the behemoths and in- likely stantaneously transmitted somehow to business, I thought. Not even a skeleton Very that would have happened for the museum, memento of this mo- sooner or later even if Earth hadn't been the home world for study. Now they were returned. "That's Tim, isn't it?" Mar- mentous time. The poor monsters. Was I invaded by beings from space and Tim being ! the only one who felt sorry for them? Quite hadn't been devoured. But no question anta said, pointing to the screen. nod- invasion things bit. ded. Unmistakably Tim. With the stunned possibly I was. I make no apologies. the speeded up a All this time the look of a man who other aliens, the little has seen marvels shimmery spooky beyond compre- ones, had stayed hension. holed up in Central It's a month now, Park, preoccupied and the government with their incompre- is still holding all the hensible research. returnees for de- They didn't even briefing. No one is seem to notice that allowed to see them. (heir behemoths had The word is that a strayed. But now special law will be they became agita- passed dealing with ted. For two or three the problem of days they bustled spouses of return- about like worried ees who have en- penguins, disman- tered into new mar- tling their instru- riages. Maranta says ments and packing she'll stay with me no them aboard their matter whaf; and I'm ship; then they took pretty sure that Tim apart the other ship, will do the stiff-up- the one that had per-lip thing, no hard carried the behe- feelings, if they ever moths, and loaded get word to him in thai aboard. Maybe the debriefing camp they felt demoral- about Maranta and ized. As the Cartha- me. As forthe aliens, ginians who had in- they're sitting tighi in vaded Rome did Central Park, occu- after their elephants pying the whole had died. place from Ninety- On a sizzling June sixth to One Hun- afternoon the alien dred Tenth and not ship took off. Not for telling us a thing. its home world, at Now and then fhe least not right away. behemofhs wander lo It swooped into the down the reser- sky and came down voir for a lively bit of on Fire Island — at wallowing, but they Cherry Grove. The haven't gone be- aliens took posses- yond the park this sion of the beach, time. I think a lot set up instruments OMEGA about Hannibal, and around their ship, about Carthage ver- and even ventured OMEGA OFHCIAI TIMEKEEPER OP THE OLYMPIC GAMES, CALGAM AND SEOUL I9S8. sus Rome, and how onto the water, skim- the Second Punic ming and bobbing War might have come if Hannibal just above the sur- BAILEY BANKS &BIDDLE out face like demented had had a chance surfers. After five or to go home and get six days they moved a new batch of ele- to one of the Hamp- phants. Most likely tons and did the same thing, then to Mar- And now, of course, the invaders are Rome would have won the war anyway. tha's Vineyard. Maybe they just wanted a back. Four years to the day from the first Bui we aren't Romans, they aren't Car- vacation. Then they left altogether. anciipg and there they were, pop whoosh thaginians, and those aren't elephants in "You've been having an affair wilh Mar- ping thunk, Central Park again. Three the Central Park' reservoir. "This is such anta, haven't you?" Elaine asked me the ships this time: one of spooks, one of be- an interesting time to be alive," Maranta day the aliens left. hemoths, and the third one carrying the likes to say. ".I'm certain they don't mean "I won't deny it."" prisoners of war. Who could ever forget us any harm, aren't you?" "That night you came in so late, with that scene, when the hatch opened and "I love you for your optimism," I tell her wine on your breath. You were with her, some three hundred fifty to four hundred then. And then we turn on the tube and weren't you?" human beings came out, marching like watch the evening news. DO 224 OMNI STAR TECH ACCESSING THE FUTURE HICKS CLICK PIX raphy, begun when George Eastman devel- ariy days, photographic long way, as evidenced by some of the latest ZOOM WITH A VIEW This clover autofocus camera, the Olympus Infinity Supenoom 300, It bridges the gap between simple boxes and sophisticated single lens reflex cameras. List price: S600. PHOTO- GRAPHICS prints? Kodak's Create- a-Print lets yau compose the perfect shot from negative. The fi product paps out in five minutes. List price in a disposable box. 226 OMNI THROUGH A LENS, AUTOMATICALLY Is the latest version SOUL OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER H leek* Ilk* a video purely still design -and It lakes half -frame pictures. That number af shots en each The guiding flight: These wings were made for walking By Scot Morris Condor airplane 30-foot work space at About ten years ago, Tyler nothing new, even then. Gossamer December 1978) AeroVironment, the Simi MacCready and his Seagulls and hang glider {Omni, Shaffer Airport in Bakers- Valley, California, aeronau- brother, Parker, were flying pilots use the so-called at Caliiornia. his tics company founded paper gliders. "We were slope-soaring technique to field, in spare time, the fifteen-year- by his dad. testing their performance by fly along the edge of a he walks through the lift old boy would experiment As seeing how high they hit cliff, getting their from dis- with his toy gliders in the large area, his body the wall on the other side of the air forced upward by the airplane hangar or in the turbs the air around him, the living room," Tyler slope. MacCready simply windless desert. sending currents up and MacCready says. discovered a way to move nearby Demonstrating a wing over his head and shoul- While attempting to outfly the slope, using his own one tenth of ders. He can even direct the each other, the brothers body to keep the wing weighing an ounce and made of the wing in a figure-eight pat- realized that if they under control. polystyrene foam tern; and as he moves whooshed their hands Beiore long, he became same cartons, around the room, the eddies under the planes, the craft so adept at keeping the used in egg MacCready points out that of air created in his wake would rise a few inches plane aloft, he could actually cause the wing to "jump" as at all: it flies weil only in the early and hit the living room wall fly it with no hands dawn hours. During such he retraces his steps. at a greater height. "So," By simply walking beneath times, the wind is virtually The Walkalong Wing's MacCready adds, "we tried the plane as it moved, is only about tour still- and doesn't interfere lop speed making wings that would he could make it glide on hour. Unlike currents with the gliding. Actually, he miles per fly very slowly, slow enough the air above skinny paper airplanes says, if you can feel the long, that we could walk along his head. His Pasadena, slightest breeze on your that fly like darts, moreover, with them and whoosh California, neighbors grew see leaves rustling, MacCready launches his them the whole way." accustomed to seeing cheek or holding it with one it's windy to fly the plane by They began tinkering the lanky teenager walking too wing outdoors. hand above his head and with the toy, trying versions along, his hands behind best place to fly walking forward. He then made of balsa, tissue his back and a balsa glider The Walkalong simply lets go and immedi- paper, and plaster foam. "head-soaring" afew inches MacCready's his Wing, in fact, is indoors, in ately moves hands The shape that finally above him. area as possi- into position to start creating evolved resembled a 747's Oh weekends, he'd help as large an aerodynamics updrafts. Keeping his swept-back wing without his father, Paul MacCready, ble. Now an engineer, MacCready often hands in a vertical position, the fuselage. The flight who at the time was build- wing in a 15- he moves them toward principle, of course, was ing the pedal-powered flies the by 228 OMNI — handling to Wing Kit, Tyler instead. What would hap- MacCready Enterprises, pen, he wondered, if he Box 3578, Simi Valley, shifted each letter forward? CA 93063-3578. First he moved them Please note, however, one space to the next letter. that this Walkalong Wing To his surprise, the letters won't have the high-priced 7, E, and N corresponded tc look of a hobby-shop the letters U, F and O. No product. The polystyrene, other shift, moreover, pro- which MacCready must cut duced anything particularly himself using a hot-wire significant. Is the connec- process, is purely functional tion between 10 and UFO, and not as smoothly fin- we wondered, a mere ished as the plastic in coincidence? Or a portent an egg carton or a dispos- of things to come in the able coffee cup. next year? Stay tuned in. Don't expect to put the In mathematics, 10 is a Walkalong Wing together triangular number, modeled and immediately have by the arrangement of fun. It will take a great deal tenpin bowling. It's also of practice before you tetrahedral— as in a stack the center of the wing to Word of the wing spread gain a sense of control over of cannonballs with six I pitch the nose up and slow rapidly, and for days people the glider, And you'll need on the bottom layer, three' in the airspeed. The more inquired about it. Everyone, a large indoor area the middle, and one on he separates his hands, the it seems, wanted to acquire like a gym, tennis court, top. And of course, it's trie more they concentrate or construct his own building lobby, or under- basis of our counting sys- the air, making the wing dive Walkalong Wing. ground parking lot. If you try tem— probably because, - and speed up. Although the Walkalong to fly it in the average th roug h evo I utio n ary d sve I To make the wing turn to Wing has not been com- living room, you'll be disap- opments, we became a the left, for example, he mercially available, Mac- pointed. Long hallways ten-fingered, ten-toed moves his hands a little bit Cready has agreed to offer are good for learning to species. {Our ancestors to the right. And for a Omni readers a mail-order control a straight flight, surely must have run into sharp turn, he tilts his hands kit. Because it would be which you'll want to do first some difficulties when slightly to bank the plane too difficult to mail the anyway. Banking the wing they ran out of fingers and downward on the side glider as a single unit, the through turns, however, toes to count.) it's turning toward. kit comes with two precut, requires a wider area. Somewhere along the MacC ready's longest precreased wings made When you break the 20- line, the number 10 seemed flight so far has lasted of polystyrene foam one- minute flight record or significant to more than a about eight minutes. Aero- eighth-inch thick; all you succeed in making a loop few people: There were the nautics colleague and have to do is tape them to- and regaining control ten plagues of Egypt in Walkalong Wing enthusiast gether and insert the in- afterward, let us know. the Bible, the Ten Com- Mike Waters, however, has cluded T-pin for weight. mandments, the ten articles THE POWER OF TEN claimed an unofficial flight MacCready will also send in the Bill of Rights, the record of 20 minutes by an illustrated booklet with In homage to our tenth children's song "Ten Little using a piece of cardboard complete instructions anniversary, we wanted to Indians," and, of course, the to help create updrafts. for constructing and flying report on the number 10. ten-gallon hat. the wing, plus a sheet of We asked numbers expert There's also an interesting HEAD-SOARING GEAR cardboard to .use as a Martin Gardner if there bit of trivia concerning 10 During a recent demon- whoosher, and an additional was anything unusual in his Downing Street, the British stration of the Walkalong T-pin and sheet of uncut files. "Ten seems to be a prime minister's London Wing in a school gymna- polystyrene to make a dull number," he finally told residence: The front door sium, the enthusiasm of second wing. Send $5.95 us, and decided to experi- can be opened only from onlookers was contagious. plus $2 for ment with the word ten the inside.OO 229 . . " . . materials that super- ! Scientists found It all started n ' '• 23" Keivm, but jejkf srlingi Dnhes cunducted.. conducted at up to : : i .!.:!..:; i . helium view'theit cold, For example, it you were to chill just materials in liquid to . 23° ol to . behavior ai. extremely low temperatures. a single ounce aluminum Some results were predictable; Ice Kelvin and then drop it down a man's ,.,: ..,.... Shorts, he'd hoo around and curse even with wet - tor 47 full days. We've talking cold. a : in supercon- scoop, and one of the lab assistants The vital breakthrough of Feins Basilars would always lick the scoop and nave to ductors came on the set teen-comedy- be rusnedto iTis hospital. Onnes also Day Off, an unremarkable soiely the physics /h, covered that when certain metais are distinguished by Broderick... cooled to within 3 lew degrees of wlzard'y of its star. Matthew trailer, claying around absolute zero, they lose aii resistance to "I was in my barium, oxygen, and the flow oi electrical current, lie called with various ratios of ' superconductivity. copper,'.' says -Broderick, "when in ;; s With superconductors you could comes Mia Sara wearing a new charm' if. yttrium. I nabbed create incredibly powerful magnetic . bracelet It was pure ' ' .: : !' ,: w.! . ; : fields upon,which objects could "magically" Moat. Onnes envisioned a: ' / created a. bitched ceramic oxide nlnety- woria mwhich people could travel compound thai superconducts at : r.ii ! ::!'. ... ; .: ! ...... - . though B -superconductor is astounding, physicists ; per hour.;-; .agree there ate problems with its practi- LAST Onnes's vision had one serious . draw- only one color— back-, immersing the horses in liquid . cal use; ftGomesin . ; .n. . 'A:v;;i;.- . ....!,:,: ;...: *.'', helium was p:o-: f ^e and-. on Soars' appliances in :.. .. . the one used WORD Seventies. And at high current :..: the early ' : the -460? levels it emits a shrill chirping and By Terry Runte .; coats of fur. to withstand like ambergris-- an exotic; -waxy .temperature at which all molecular motion, srnelis whale secretion usee by the perfume QTbe new ceramic stops but had lifte success. He 'even.. A: frankly toyed with [he' concept of motorized, industry. Unrefined ambergris Superconductor: is astounding frozen horses: smells a lot like shit. The -science ' . with horrendous but has B problem: In Ihe end, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes community Is faced a bitter eccentric, roaming, aesthetic dilemma; it comes in only one color— became a of . Whiie Broderick toiled on the set taverns with a bar of lead and a jug of . a repellent avocado, film Project X, Emilio Estevez. liquid. helium, playing cruel jokes; on,-;: the monkey uses ; similar to the color used drunken longshoremen. One- night in a Charlie Sheen's broihertEmilio because he 1 the last name Estevez appliances found 1 in "take pf Oh Edison' thinks Emilio Sheen sounds like a 1 challenging Thpmas Alva to kitchens } product), surged... In early-Ses^nties \ r-irrn- wrestle. Edison electrocuted him Hispanic hair-care with his long-standing research with a powerful hand buzzer 'vet 1 ahead continued as physicists looked for. 'Into ceramic oxide. ' the key," superconductors that.wculd work at" .'Trace elements are says Estevez. "1 added zinc and lowered Ihe higher temperatures. II was a long shot ; ratio. That get rid of al Pesi, bui they somehow knew that barium-yttrium : chirping 3 room -tempo re lure superconductor the rank smell and lowered the. it sort of sooth- .! " ' to ihe point where was nuclear power, and the remgerator- ing. Bui it's still a real poky green." :: The greatest minds in physics were. . 'n ii industry: Cruise, Cusaok, " .In the fcliow;ng oeeades research stumped— Torn John failed. Even .I ni! and Rod Lowe all tried and loss., ' Howell was'ai a But ...... C. Thomas was a deao end. Then, on a December Estevez found a solution 1 our trendy actress day in 1967. Life magazine received-, "We'^i just get ai avocado green In their a- phone call from a small campus girlfriends to wear laboratory m CaNiarnia. '! he connection .next few movies," ho announced to.a was weak, and there was obviously a conference room tilled with eager !.,'' party going on in the background. people see her in a No wonder— the young physics student ; agreed.' Once was Pescribing the superconductor 'supercondi it I! be scientists had long awaited the hottest hue on Earth." conference broke up. the '"It's superconducting, man," the As ihe - the nearest cloth ng young physicist confided. "We.can all reporters dashed to ! in search of avocado-green ties eol it aiying off this aura.- it's likea- stores again science had trillion degrees in here. Oh. wow, now 'and socks. Once . :- .I'.!' triumphed over fashion. DO Starting to melt' Damn it, everyone is ." inciting. Shu. man, I gotta go. . . Terry Runte or the Chicago writers' brat heavy pressure After an extensive Congressional uack emits .:t chirping under investigation, LSD was banned. 'and frrinkiy smeik a :oi like- ambergris.-/--.