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SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE I )CTOBER 1984 $2.1 LOME, WORK, & PLAY ll\ITHE21ST CEI\T FEATURING: RONALD RARDCIM STANLEY onnrui OCTOBER 1984 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: GURNEY WILLIAMS III GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DE.v:\0 MANAGING EDITOR: PAUL HILTS CONTENTS PAGE COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 14 FORUM Dialogue 16 EARTH Environment Douglas Starr 20 LIFE Biomedicine Thomas Christopher 22 BOOKS The Arts Brian McKernan 27 PAINTING The Arts Gregory Paul 30 TELEVISION The Arts Douglas Stein 32 EXPLORATIONS Travel Louise Cooper 36 THE BODY Health Susan Ellis 40 ARTir.CIA_ INTELLIGENCE Computers Alvin Tot tier 42 SPACE Comment Douglas Starr 44 BREAKTHROUGHS Technology Bill Lawren 48 CONTINUUM Data Bank 51 LOVE, WORK, AND PLAY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FIRST WORD Opinion Kathy Keeton 6 MIND Behavior Slanley Milgram 34 REAGAN: THE WORLD OF 2000 Forecast Ronald Reagan 60 THE HIGH LIFE IN SPACE Article Gerard K. O'Neill 72 HEX PLAY Article Scot Morris 88 JOHN NAIS8ITT Interview Anthony Liversidge 108 FUTURE METROPOLIS Article David W. Dunlap 116 AN OFFICE THAT RESPONDS Pictorial Langdon Clay 124 TO THE TOUCH THE DELPHIC POLL Reader Survey 132 Bradbury 64 I SUPPOSE YOU ARE Fiction Ray WONDERING WHY WE ARE HERE PLASMAS UNDER GLASS Pictorial Pete Turner 78 THE VISIONARY Fiction Ursula K. LeGuin 100 ANTIMATTER UFOs, etc. 135 STARS Astronomy George Lake 168 FLAG CHIPS Phenomena Phillip Harrington 184 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 188 LAST WORD Humor John McCarthy 190 The future unfolds before us like of the ' the spectrum Is/.- B-:dL.3 12*2 Eercjentelc N.J. 0762'. Volume "el l?1?i OMNI IE rainbow grid, spanning both I I'JiS I6S8FV8S -19BGI00. a i. in ir . =.A. by IVe-edt-.-Eurda Co-p end disr-.SLied the U.S.A., Canad. dark and light- A sphere J.K.) By Curtis Circulsiio'i Comply. 21 Hsnde's; floats above, challenging us Distributed in Ihe U.K. by COMAG. Tavis ;k Reaa '.Vssi 3-aylor Lonoo.i. U87 7QE, England. to solve the riddle of the may be reproduced -r whole sr in pa' '' !' '-* .no or =ead is CO rc-irienls twenty-first century. Artist I"" year-. Canada and elsewhere—$34 one ; ;inc:t.:cn,TsE2d0i-i .;S.. AFC and Canada Tr Michel Tcherevko/t designed 3spofs nil :v :o -e:ur ursolic led matte-. an:: all -iqhr this picture with Hal Seigel. e'nations Ld Letters rFc-rl it- Sim or its editors b: 4 OMNI . i By the lime a toddler of today reaches When Gmn.- was bem six vears ago we l have graduated dedicated i:. io a simple toea that no one from (his century into the twenty -first. else seemed to understand: that the quest Although the change of oate : is a mere for knowledge is the most wondrous o symbol, it is made important the in i by funda- u i, em mental cha Bui :'i seems toat too many Arriericans :r, ;he decades that follow. Grnrir's slxth- still do nol understand. Science and anniversary issue la dedicated to exploring technology are no; exoonsiva nskv detrac- iu ' i: i' i- i. '.'!. tions from social progress; they create making tnerrr possible, and the children soma! progress, and toey deserve muck i »Vi Will 'I ' .::.:v It'! : 'I,-.. " 're : '. a: i; to in Li ay ; ve With' the mission of engineer Charles D. i his smih-annlversary issue may help. Walker, tirsi the private citizen to enter 'V' -Li.. i! ', acvo-: . d ii .i space, a new era hastoegun. Walker is an viewpoint. We nave simply sought to explore employee of McDonnell Douglas, and our theme —toe fuiure of tove. work, and his presence aboard the Discovery, the play T nations toird'soace shuttle, he'atds the at where we and om children are going and growing coil a id or at; on between NASA and how a renewed emphasis on science and American industry. Once the core of 'he •eonnolog.y will make tne next century a NASA program, government-sponsored : much bettor t me. Somehow the p'esoects 'lights wiii increasingly yieto to private do noi seem as threatening as recer-i ventures as the next centum draws near. head'iiies have made In. n. i The Discovery mission sets other prece- f she denis : as well. Two history- making oxpem pages thai follow since our new frontier .mento on toe shuttle suggest Ihe.d^edion of above will change the dynamics of 'amdy the NASA program. Descendants of a I'ie in thie next century. Princeton physicist 105-foot solar pane:. Gerard K. O'NeiN cas's his I noughts several LfUDRD lest, may power our first permanent space decades ahead ana uxam.mes many of stations. This is a small s-cp toward 'reedom these space sherries in Petal in "The High . ByKaihy Keeton from the planet on which humanity was Lire in Soace:" Other change born, rout it Is amo concete evidence [hat and some may-prove as important. In &The twenty-first 1 the 'permanent manned presence m "Future space" Metropolis,' some -to the world s •o vvhich President century . Reagan has may yield a nation referred most influential architects describe their actually has a place in administration 1 i plans. ( : of science ion of it- s to ni" Ana ... Discovery's other experiment Is a device .'.' column hypothesizes mat nature: m_ ts and illiterates, unless weed designed to perry medically srpmiiicant vegetables in our diet may contribute to bio One such ehomica : is a vow to improve . cancer ana aging, whereas certain v ramms normone that, once refined,' could be an may help extend lives. our children's our education* important drug within new two or toreo Capping the issue are two n-re-vlews years. Bat unless it can be orocesseo in ma: weave these varied toerm-m m:e a soace it cannot oe made purely or cheaply coherent look a! tne world m wmr.n we will enough- tor practical use,- soon live. In ore. John Na.soto, author Unfortunately, suet; promising techno- of the best seller Megatrends, forecasts : Will not Continue changes ranging from toe rise o^ meri'ca: for long. America's position of world leader- self-nelo tdtoe oe'toss of iabc- omens. s.mp is threatened by the shameless In the other, we turn to Ronald Reagan, the neglect or science and . main education in man who more than any slngie scientist, its nation's schools. Don't let toe current ri.py buzz about the microcomputer revolution slve feature. \he "resident gives his mew mls.ead you, 1 the twenty -first century . '' may of the twenty-first century. Reagams futuristic y.ie-d a nation of science i illiterates in-less vision :s one in which traditional, wmele- we act with great dispatch. sor.ne values will be consonant with the •selves. The tochriesociety ,'.-' tne next cem.cm I bring. National Science Foundation mtoorts !ha in spite ot cur president s opinions, only percent : 6 oi a : hlgn-schou' students the future world has problems. 3ut it cue complete four years of hematics-, ma! and also hiring growing freedom and prosperity. only- 16 percent ever take '. ohys'cs. ...! .' ! ' !. On ! . ,: . ., ! : i the college level, -only 6 percent. O' all means to ma it so. To use them w seiy we students ever emoil in engineering must understand wira; they offer and what programs, in contrast, students in Japan is at stake. And above all, wo must prov.de and the Soviet Union emphasize technical our chitoren and their offspring with the expertise by [aking - three limes as much means fc do the same. ; mat! . as tried to more hours overall studying in school If we do its part. Our worsi risk is not some Great are to stay ahead of other countries, we catasi-ophe that awaits us out our -allure must revive American technical education to use the.knr from ' its moribund state and greatly expand open, to us.OO both our moral and financial commitment ; to education. — NTRIBUTORS annruii once asked Sigrnund we won't to Someone have work harder, but we will safely on the ocean floor, or provide gravity- Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, have to work smarter. And beginning on free graciousness in space. But the what he thought humans ought page in 60, he lets us on some personal consensus of architects was that none of to be able to do well. Freud's answer was plans for recreation in the twenty-first these grand plans would come to anything simple: "to love and work." century, win or lose next month. without proper concern for the humans With all his vision, the good Viennese No matter what else humans ferry into who would live in such cities. In "Future doctor could never have foreseen what space, they will also carry the needs and Metropolis" (page 116), New York Times would become of the world as it approached aspirations Freud studied a century ago. correspondent David W. Dunlap reveals how the twenty-first century. Some forecasters So we asked K. Gerard O'Neill, the Princeton modern architects are returning to the today predict that by the year 2000, working physicist who has drawn plans for future joys of the village—for example, the crooked will involve staying on the job a mere 20 extraterrestrial settlements, to describe life streets and crowded marketplaces— to hours aweek providing challenging new aboard — a space colony, dateline June 4, make tomorrow's huge structures habitable. opportunities for play. Freud might have 2017. Trained in the engineering and This issue also offers a very small struc- been somewhat less amazed, considering of mechanics far-flung habitats, O'Neill ture you can build yourself and then unfold his research into human passion, at the produced a surprising set of predictions.