iE COSMOS -THE UNBREAKABLE CODE LIFE ON A NEUTRON STAR SHAPING TOMORROWS DREAM CARS ROBERT SILVERBERG RETURNS ! INSIDE THE HALLUCINATING BRAIN annruiSEPTEMBER 1980
EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE EXECUTIVE EDITOR: BEN BOVA ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEV1NO MANAGING EDITOR: J. ANDERSON DOWN -IC'ION I-JITOR -:05E="S-z: __ z EUROPEAN EDITOR: DP EE~ - : .'." 1 ." DIRECTS ;":F ADVER" E -I T -".-.I CXECUI VI- VICn-PRESIDEf-r iRWINEB""""
CONTENTS PAGE
FIRST WORD Bernard Dixon 6
OMNIBUS Contributors 8
EARTH Environment John J. Berger 16
..--: LIFE E : "t Bernard Dixon 18
SPACE Commert E-=- I _LE" 22
MIND Ee-= : Pster Evans 24
BOOKS/THEATER The Arts 28
UFO UPDATE Report --:- -eoefcon 32
CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 -: ACCELERATIONS Ariic-ie :=.=- 44 OUR LADY OF THE SAUROPODS Fiction RdbErt 5*»erberg 50 CARTOGRAPHER OF CONSCIOUSNESS Article El e- :; :? 54
LIFE ON A NEUTRON STAR Article Roben L Forward 60
"£ :" C. NORTHCOTE PARKINSON Interview E- : I 68
" SPACE WITNESS Pictorial : :_i-: 72
IN THE HEREAFTER HILTON Fiction E:: E"= 80
UNBREAKABLE CODE Article '---. =e::t: 84
THE CURIO SHOP Fiction •BfarnKotzwnkle DO
CARL SAGAN'S COSMOS Article =. 04 ~-~- ONLY YOU, FANZY Fiction . --- ;- 08 >-== PEOPLE Names and Faces : : 18
;- EX PI ORATIONS Travel E-- e 21
STARS Astronomy :-=_:_ El : : 33
LIQUID CRYSTAL Phenomena : " Et 24
GAMES Diversions Scalta-s 28
- LAST WORD Opinion := : - .. li- 30
Vienna's master oi (aplastic realism Rudolf Hausner produced the cover art far this month's Omni. Laocoon in Orbii. done in tempera mixed with resin-and mounted on Novopan sheet, visualizes the singularity oi progress and space. Born in 1914, Hausner has been painting for 50 years.
4 OMNI 3 h . '
WORDFIRST By- Dr. Bernard Dixon than the. objects ot sources of evetr g with licra- e now thai T33a S royed - !:XiriX precious = _ ::" "ei used to . "? " " .-:-". _ . . . _ "i; little _ __ = L 7-7" . . . : . . . : mobi ze barrels of =: = -_-:---: icrobfal :- o make ammonia is 7 t. Tii - :-c -? p . = - 'L-asin apace— = ^ -z-- -^ 3f;sWer is pur .-^- - : - \':B iliCi -yield - ^- --rower oJprir epend naked A von' of break- Dgen-fixing mical needs tfie '; ' --:-- - exper a g - ecst Dfien tnjsti our - - - it a - ef&iar rt miracle drugs ". -. - =_: ": Society . . :-::.-_ essons are sthe c:ea' Hai 'z Sfpertmuch of the past nrjohh m that, centm) dewe cc Fig weapons to deploy "!".""_—" ag5 ":t 7 .-.e "usi think afresh. xeessiye V\te needle Ems iiae strategies for working 3 . - :,-: a armyof inyisi ie ne?;c e igineering allies. And the need is urgentOO aruiruii of Nuclear Power: The Unviable Option Focusing on a controversial topic Ing took a stab at it himself, creating the this month in "Cartographer of Magnum GT Coupe. His article (Dell, 1979), Berger recently published a . Consciousness" (page 54). Brian "Accelerations" (page 44) stresses the detailed analysis of the emergency re- Van der Horst profiles the work of functional aerodynamic designs that sponse to the Three Mile Island nuclear experimental psychologist Ronald K. American and foreign auto companies accident for a German news anthology. Siegel. Van der Horst traces the scientific must soon adopt. "The American com- Employed by the Lawrence Berkeley study of hallucinogens and their effects on panies are pressed almost to the wall right Laboratory, Berger has served as an en- human consciousness as recounted by now," says Ing. "They are beginning to ergy consultant to several organizations trained "psychonauts." With a mischie- recognize the significance of the fuel and has testified on energy issues before vous tinge in his voice, Van der Horst. crunch and the recession." According to federal and state agencies. Silverberg ("Our Lady of the author of more than 1 ,000 articles and Ing, American Motors will be the new Robert first appeared on several books, admits that he finds trendsetter as it shares ideas with Renault, Sauropods," page 50) Timothy Leary-like quests and other creator of the futuristic EVE sedan. the science-fiction horizon in the 1950s. drug-related research "passionately Besides designing survival equipment, During the last 20 years he has produced intriguing." "Drugs are part of the essential Ing has written two novels, as well as three a seemingly endless stream of books. fabric of our society," Van der Horst says. short stories for Omni. Winner of four Nebula awards and two "They're what make us human. There is "I'm a frustrated professor. That's why I Hugos, Silverberg also served as not a human being alive who has not write," says Dr: Robert L. Forward. The president ol the Science Fiction Writers of employed some consciousness-altering physicist, who has written several articles America. His more notable works include Nightwings Tower of Glass (1970), drug, be it alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, for Omni during the past year, has just (1969), or whatever." completed his first novel. Dragon's Egg Dying Inside (1972), and most recently Van der Horst cites intense scientific (Ballantine), published in May of this year. Lord Valentine's Castle (1980). investigation of drug potential as the first The novel is about tiny, dense, intelligent Joining Silverberg this monfh is British step toward societal "enlightenment." The creatures on the surface of a neutron star author Bob Shaw ("In the Hereafter Hilton," of author himself was once involved in drug who live and think a million times faster page 80). An enthusiastic reader research; he began his diversified career than Ihe humans who study them.The science fiction since childhood, Shaw at when he as a marine biologist, studying alkaloids. If story concerns the attempts of the two fried his hand writing was story asked to volunteer for psychonaut duty, cultures to communicate on converging twenty and sold his first short to the Van der Horst says he would gladly par- orbits despite immense differences in their New York Post. After an absence of several ticipate in the adventure. rates of thinking. "Life on a Neutron Star" years he returned to writing in 1966 with Writer Dean Ing worships efficiency, (page 60) is a synthesis of Dr. Forward's "Light of Other Days," one of the most While a young aerospace engineer, notes for the novel, which are also incor- anthologized short stories in science he was struck by the faulty engineering ot porated into the book's 5,000-word, fiction. In 1967 he produced his first novel, averaged standard cars. "I knew damned well cars 14-diagram appendix. Night Walk. Since then Shaw has could be designed a lot better than they This month's Earth column, "Greening a book a year, one of which, Orbitsville, for were," Ing says. "Any number of people the Seashore" (page 16). is by renowned won the British Science Fiction Award could do better than the auto industry." So environmentalist John J. Berger. Author Best Novel of 1975. DO a OMNI onnrui LETMS _^ CDfUinJlUnJICMTIDRJ5 Mass-Molded awareness test, but it may also be from In her article "Psychographics" [July another world. A U.S. spacecraft carrying 1980] Bibi Wein confesses that "the ad- one from a distant world returned to Earth vertising community's reaction was VGry last year with an alien on board looking negative" toward brain-wave analysis. Yet much like the toad. We may be destroying the author apparently ignored the moral the last of a species from another planet. It subtleties involved. may be the only species like it in a billion The larger issue of increasing control worlds, including our own. over public opinion is a complex one and Sieve Conklin must be caretully evaluated. Where do we Las Vegas, Nev. draw the line between advertising and brainwashing? To what extent do we want Re: "Save the Toad!" our attitudes scientifically mass-molded? Confucius say, "He who puts tongue in Propaganda campaigns can lead to cheek should beware of biting sarcasm." frightening conformity and a dangerous Suzanne J. Helder lack of individual thought, whether ihey Gulfport, Miss. are conducted in Russia, Nazi Germany or McCarthy Era America. Brain-wave Because of the overwhelming response analysis may constitute great progress Omni has received from television and in advertising, but we cannot allow radio stations, newspapers, and libraries, technology to destroy the freedom of nationwide, the Environmental Protection individual thought. Agency has asked us to report that it has Laura Collins failed in its efforts to arrest the precipitous Winthrop, Mass. decline of the flying vampire toad. Golfing welfare recipients seem unwilling to serve Bufo Buffoons as hosts fo the ornery bloodsuckers. — Ed. Say it's truel Tell us there really are giant flying vampire toads [Last Word, June Equal Time 1980]! It's about time we fought back Omni quoted Sir George Porter as saying, against the weak-kneed hypocrisy of "If sunbeams were weapons of war, we today's conservationists. Slobbering, would have had solar energy centuries slimy green things have rights, too. ago" [Continuum, June 1980], Where can we obtain more information In light of the nuclear-energy debate about our brothers and sisters the vam- now going on, I would add the following: ". pire toads? Here in Athens we have been . .and antisolar organizations." waiting for a worthy cause that we S. W. Peters could sink our teeth into. Save the toads! Potomac, Md. Athens Friends of the Toads Athens, Ga. Women in Space In general I have found Omni to be a I read Norman Spinrad's Last Word refreshing look at the future through the concerning the giant flying vampire toad eyes of the present. Although I have (possibly Bute acodsucKus?) with a great disagreed with some of the contributors' deal of enlightenment. viewpoints, they have been food for One solution to the problem of their thought, sometimes helping me to clarify extinction would be to relocate them my own opinions. to a similar habitat in one of the OPEC I was quite pleased also that here at last nations. After all, turnabout is fair play was a nonsexisl scioncs/scionce-fiction Ray Hermann publication. Slidell, La. I wait in vain for NASA to have "staffed" missions instead of "manned" ones, but Not only may the giant Hying vampire toad NASA is a government agency with its be important as the ultimate ecological roots in the military. J PAGE 120 FDRurm In which the readers, editors, and neignbo'hood. Wrier- . asked the assem- Polaris program, has spent five years correspondents discuss topics arising out bled faculty and students whether there developing suborbital vehicles to carry the of Ornni and theories and speculation o! was a single such experiment that world's first private astronaut. general interest are brought forth. The did not so succeed, Ihere was a long, As a direct result of Ms. Stein's article, a views published are not necessarily those unembarrassed silence. "If it's true, why group of about 40 Chicago businessmen of the editors. Letters for publication should there be any confrary evidence?" has joined Truax in the formation of Project should be mailed to Omni Forum, Omni The students I met could not yet levitate. Private Enterprise, Inc. His dream has Magazine, 909 Third Avenue, New York, but they expected to do so soon: others now become a distinct reality. NY 10022. could, they said, bul they would not do it PPE, America's newest aerospace cor- merely to impress a visitor. poration, has scheduled its first manned Not a Religion? TMers reward each other for being pos- launch for the fall of 1981. Once this is Roane Dantzler and Gregory Trulen insist itive and unconsciously learn to suppress accomplished, Truax will have esiablished that is TM not religious [Forum. June evidence contrary to their ideas. I tried the solid economic concepts of space 1980]. Maybe they are loo close to the to explain that good scientists are development thaf he has espoused (orest to see the trees. as suspicious of evidence thai is too good throughout his splendid career. These No one who reads TM "founder Maha- as- of that which is too bad. Science and concepts include simplicity of design, rishi Mahesh Yogi's book Transcendental religion are not so different in the end. tofal vehicle reusability, and use of proven Meditation (Signet, 1968) can fail to except that.in science the ultimate sin surplus components. We will truly prove recognize that TM is religious in both is believing too strongly. that space is available not only to private theory and practice. The initiation puja is a Marvin Minsky industry but to the individual in his Sanskrit prayer to Hindu deities. Most, if Massachusetts Institute of Technology backyard as well. not all, ottheTM mantras are the names of Cambridge, Mass. John J. Oelerich Hindu deities. As explained by the Project Private Enterprise maharishi, meditation a la TM is a religious Project Private Enterprise Burbank. Calif. act analogous to Christian prayer or In Omn/'s Competition column [June communion. 1980] it was disclosed that the idea most At the end of June, Truax ran a static firing Further, on February 2, 1979, the U.S. commonly suggested for a prize offering test in which the rocket was held down Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, up-» was that a completely privately sponsored while the engines were tired. During the holding a lower court ruling, thai TM is so astronaut be launched into earth orbit. test the engines developed some 4,000 religious that it cannot be taught or pro- Kathleen Stein contributed an excellent pounds of thrust, enough to propel the moted in public schools (Malnak v. Maha- piece in the October 1979 issue of Omni rocket at 2,500 mph. While this is not fast rishi Mahesh Yogi). The TMers did nof opt on Robert C. Truax, of Saratoga, enough to attain an orbit (escape velocity to appeal the case any higher. California. Mr. Truax. the father of the is 17,000 mphj, His fast enough tor the Edd Doerr 15-minute suborbital flight planned. We will Director, Educational Relations watch the program as it develops and will Americans United for Separation keep readers informed of progress. — Ed. of Church and State Silver Spring, Md. Challenging the Randi Challenge James Randi's offer of $10,000 for a valid I recently visited Maharishi International "psychic" feat thai cannot be accom- University, in Fairfield, Iowa, to lecture plished by "existing technical means" about theories of the mind. The TM [Interview, April 1980] seems generous, movement respects science, and [its but it is really a double-edged sword. Alas! practitioners] have that good evidence TM Would that I had S10.000 to offer Mr. Randi induces a brain state different from sleep for nothing more than an example of any or other common conditions. On this is feat that cquld not be accomplished by built an elaborate dogmatic belief that TM ex s:mg technical means! connects one with a fundamental con- Cynicism aside, you cannot approach a sciousness that pervades the entire phenomenon from the backside, Suppose universe. a psychic were to set a steel ball on a TMers collect evidence that would tabletop and, after four hours of intense that prove when a group meditates concentration, cause it to roll one quarter together, the crime rate declines in the Volksrocket. firs! step to manned flights. of an inch. The scientific implications of II OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 113 REEKING THE SEASHORE EARTH .By John J. Immense primordial forests. Elk and Why reclaim salt marshes 7 Biologically, root and slowly collect sediments. As more panthers. Fragrant tall-grass prairies. they are among the most productive areas silt was trapped, the plants elevated Vast flocks of wild geese. Sweet-tasting on Earth. More than five metric tons of themselves out of the water, adding new streams. Endless kilometers of productive useful organic matter is generated on land to the shore. wetlands. Shores full of oysters, clams, each hectare— about twice as much as a Buoyed by his initial success, Garbisch and crabs. North America, before the cornfield. Marshes form the base of an persuaded the Nature Conservancy to Europeans came. entire pyramid of food, supporting fund a larger project. From there it was a With each generation, the memory of bacteria, algae, and plankton on up to short step to Environmental Concern, Inc., mankind's environmental heritage dims. simple invertebrates, mollusks, shore a nonprofit organization formed by Gar- Some of us forget how the air should smell, birds, mammals, and— finally— humans. bisch to deal exclusively with reclamation. how the land should be. A few scientists Destroying a marsh destroys this food web Within the next few years he perfected his have not forgotten. One of them is Dr. at its source; the ripple effect is enormous. techniques and supervised 40 of 105 Edgar W Garbisch, Jr., a chemist turned Even remote ocean fisheries are affected marsh-restoration projects in the United restoration biologist who, by reconstruct- when a marsh is destroyed: More than half States. All butfive were successful. ing our ravaged coastlines and wetlands, of all commercially useful fish live in The new marshes are popular with a is charting a course for the future. coastal waters or use coastal marshes as wide range of users: government Dr. Garbisch helped pioneer the infant nurseries, hatcheries, spawning grounds, agencies, educational organizations, science of resource restoration. The idea or feeding grounds. environmental groups, public utilities, and is simple: Take one eroding marsh, truck in As a boy, Ed Garbisch spent his sum- private citizens. Some property owners landfill, plant thousands of seedlings, and mers on Chesapeake Bay and later use the marshes to protect their waterfront then watch them grow. bought a home on the bay. One year he land from erosion or to enhance its It may sound simple, but Garbisch's first decided to try to reconstruct the marsh- appearance and value. planting, for instance, was destroyed by land in front of his home. After hand- Public utilities are especially interested Hurricane Agnes. A passing flock of transplanting cordgrass seedlings (a type in restoration. "They are obliged to agree Canadian geese devoured another of marsh plant native to the Chesapeake), to it," Garbisch explains, "because planting. But when conditions are right, he sat back to wait. otherwise they can't get state and federal the technique works very well indeed. Within months the plants began to take permits to build in wetland areas. Rerout- ing a pipeline seventy-five kilometers around a wetland could cost a utility millions of dollars." Because his environmental tampering sometimes makes life easier for large corporations, Garbisch occasionally provokes controversy. Restored habitats may not be biologically identical to what was there before, despite surface similarities. It's better never to disturb a marsh, instead of devastating and later repairing it. Even Garbisch's critics agree, however, that once wetlands have been obliterated, marsh restoration is the only way to transform barren wastelands into useful resources again. The large-scale use of restoration technology like Ed Garbisch's must wait until the process is recognized as a major political and social priority. In the mean- time, while the debate rages on, the marshes built by Environmental Concern will flourish. And future generations — whose images of pristine America will be fainter than ourown — can relive the wilder- Fulure generations n if natural heritage through the ness as it once was, and soon will be. DO 16 OMNI EA SERPENT SURVP By Dr. Bernard Dixon etween 1 872 and 1 885 Nature |^^J cations does not invalidate it. Consider operating free of the constraints that I^^Kpublished 19 papers on sea ball lightning. Most descriptions of this rightly fetter most mainstream scientific l^^wserpents. A century later, despite phenomenon are anecdotal rather than research. On the Margins of Science, its editor's decision in 1975 to print Sir objective. They appear in diaries and edited by Roy Wallis {Keele University Peter Scott's paper that gave a taxonomic biographies, not in scholarly periodicals. Press, Staffordshire, England), contains name to the Loch Ness monster, the Yet scientists generally agree that ball several surveys, on subjects ranging from scientific journal no longer deals with such lightning exists. acupuncture to ufoiogy, thai indicate a creatures. In the 1980s sea serpents are The analogy of ball lightning comes more generous, though still critical, pretty much beyond the pale, It is doubtful forcibly to mind through the work of one approach to "rejected knowledge." that this year's crop of sightings will be whose life interest 'has been sea serpents. Westrum defines a sea serpent as "any paid serious consideration by any Professor Ron Westrum, of Eastern large, elongated marine creature of an reputable academic journal. Michigan University, is not in pursuit ot his apparently unknown species." The earliest Why? Is it because previous claims have prey per se. What fascinates him is the reports (other than folk tales) were made in been shown to be bogus? Has the number way extraordinary claims are advanced 1 755. But the first serious scientific inves- of reports dwindled, gone the way of such and assessed. Tales of sea serpents are a tigations were stimulated by sightings off other nineteenth-century fancies as tables particularly challenging example and thus the Massachusetts coast from 181 7 to and chajrs that jerk across the room on have become the focus of his research, 1819. They, and other observations from their own accord? Already Westrum has exposed some the British ship Daedalus, provoked a The answer is no. And yet the literature misconceptions concerning the origins of scientific controversy that continued until keeps on accumulating. If a sea serpent reports about such putative animals. the end of the nineteenth century. (or the carcass of one) were actually Although we may remain as skeptical as If we turn from the literature spawned discovered, volumes of source material before, we are forced to concede that the by this debate to the original reports on available would be to help investigators case for sea serpent sightings ought to be which it was based, one interesting fact pursue their inquiries. As the history of taken seriously emerges. Sea serpent sightings occur on other bizarre phenomena shows, the fact The publication of Professor Westrum's an average of three a year— a rate that has that much of this information is contained survey in a recent book suggests that a remained constant since 1800. In view of in popular rather than technical publi- community of investigators is already the massive growth of population over this period, this is a remarkable finding. Westrum examined the claim that newspapers, influenced by the summer "silly season," publish and thereby stimulate batches of sea serpent reports at that time of the year. Summer does turn out to be the period when most sightings are alleged, more than the other seasons combined, Yet the peak times for sea ser- pent siories are spring and fall. Many reports are retrospective; the tfms of publication is thus irrelevant. Sightings are summer phenomena, not simply a response to the whims of newspaper editors. Westrum's analysis also shows that information concerning these creatures continues to grow, in fits and starts, but It does grow. This pattern is not unlike a scientific discipline evolving toward maturity. And the fact that individual scientists seldom consult witness accounts when making up their own minds about curiosa does not mean they do not exist. All that awaits their legitimization is the discovery of a real Sea serpen!: legendary beast or real phenomenon? S/g specimen, dead or alive. OQ 18 OMNI meant them to say. My teachers So this discussion must finally wished me to write accurately, acknowledge that our stylistic always selecting the most effective options as writers are neither nu- words, and relating the words to merous nor glamorous, since our one another unambiguously, readers are bound to be such How to write with /rigidly, like parts of a machine. imperfect artists. Our audience style sympathetic The teachers did not want to requires us to be and turn me into an Englishman patient teachers, eve"r willing to ByKurtVonnegut after all. They hoped that I simplify and clarify -whereas we mainly for what they choose understandable would rather soar high above the to Simplicity of language is not would become show you or make you think about? only reputable, but perhaps even - and therefore understood. crowd, singing like nightingales. Did news. you ever admire an empty- sacred. The Bible opens with a And there went my dream of That is the bad The headed is Americans writer for his or her mastery sentence well within the writing doing with words what Pablo good news that we of the language? a unique No. skills of a lively fourteen- year-old: Picasso did with paint or what are governed under So your Constitution, which allows us to own winning style must "In the beginning God created the any number of jazz idols did begin please without with ideas in your head. heaven and the earth." with music. If I broke all the write whatever we your nibjeet in sdiui' n-.-\e and uwfid way, s "' rules of punctuation, had fear of punishment. So the most 1 . Find a subject you care about 4. Have the guts to cut of our styles, and employs a vocabulary as unor- words mean whatever I wanted meaningful aspect Find a subject you care write about It may be that you, too, are namental as a monkey wrench. them to mean, and strung them which is what we choose to and which you in your heart feel capable I would about, is utterly unlimited. of making necklaces for the more remote together higgledy-piggledy, others In some of should care about. It is this Cleopatra, so to simply not be understood. So you, speak. But your hollows of Appalachia, children 8. For really detailed advice genuine caring, and not your eloquence should be the servant of too, had better avoid Picasso-style still grow up hearing songs and lo- games with For a discussion of literary style language, which will the ideas in writing, if you have your head. Your rule cutions of Elizabethan times. Yes, or jazz-style be the most compelling in a narrower sense, in a more and seduc- might be this: If a sentence, something worth saying and International Pajic-r ud^d no Kuu \bnnegut, author and many Americans grow up technical sense, I commend to tive element in your style. ofsuchntweluu "Sidit 'h By Brian O'Leary has been lot There a of talk about than our timid space policy offers. small electromagnetic mass driver, a plant satellite solar-powerstations, So we are challenged lo think smaller. to mine and process silicon from the lunar space colonies, and removing Ihe Can we open the resources of space soil, and some self-replicating machines. limits to growth on Earth by using Ihe within NASA's austere plans? The answer The processing plant produces solar staggering abundance of resources and appears io be yes. collectors to power the installation, and the energy available in space. Receni Certain engineering studies reveal that other machines enlarge the processing engineering studies show that these an early return to the moon is a surpris- plant and mass driver. proposals could solve ihe finite-Earth ingly cheap and important step.Several Raw materials launched from the moon problem once and for all. The investment months ago scientists at:enomg a work- by the mass driver could be collected, wou Id a fraction of be mere the annual shop addressed the question, What is smelted, and fabricated in space, At first U.S. gross national product: ihe return the smallest feasible facility that could the products would support MASA and would be many times that amount. transport, process, and manufacture U.S. Air Force satellites planned for That is the vision. But in reality, with the useful products from lunar materials 9 geosynchronous orbit. Later they would exception of new defense projects, we They found that a rapidly growing, self- contribute to satellite solar-power stations Americans are in a short-sighted, think- r eplicating, and cost-effective system and space habitats. little, belt-tightening period. NASA has cut could be built, launched, and landed on The study found ihat the mass driver back advanced planning to one ienih its the moon with an investment of about S5 could launch about 1 ,800 tons of lunar ma- 1966 level, and the visionaries now find billion. This is approximately what NASA terial during its first year of operation. This ihemselves grappling for meager private spends in.one year, or 1 percent of the would double every 90 days. We could funds, designing cruise missiles, teach- annual federal budget. reach the astounding production rate of ing, or writing for scientific journals. Many There is no need to invest tens of billions 100.000 tons per year after only two years. are opening delicatessens or wandering of dollars, Apollo-fashion, to begin using The mass driver and processing plants the streets in bewilderment. Some of lunar resources. At first we need only land would produce about 100 limes (heir own us have all of these. done Despite this, about 60 ions of equipment on the moon mass in one year After three years we least at ten subscriber-funded space- and place 90 tons of factory apparatus could begin to build lull-scale solar-power advocacy organizations have been into'ahigh Earth orbit. sale 'lies to send energy to Earth. established. public The wants more action The equipment on the moon includes a The rewards of this project would far outstrip the costs, and — perhaps even more significant— ihe rationale for invest- ment is a short-term one; supporting the relatively modest programs NASA and the Air Force have already planned. During that period we'll be putting a new generation of communications and survey satellites into geosynchronous orbit. Hundreds, and later thousands, of tons of fuel (mostly oxygen), solar collectors (mostly silicon), and space structures (mostly aluminum) will be required. These materials must either be hoisted the last two thirds of the way out of Earth's gravity from low shuttle orbits or be produced in space from lunar materials. The extra $5 billion it would cost to put a mining facility on the moon would be a small price to pay. Food for thought. It appears that we don't need grandiose visions to justify space manufacturing with extraterrestrial materials. We can do it now. This is good news for those of us who have heen waiting so long for an aggressive space program, if we can ease communication The need lo build and fuel space projects planned ^% |hat do Lyndon Johnson, Maria figures were the exact birth times of 500 painters were born with Mars in critical sec- Callas, and Martin Bormann members of the august French Academy tors, where chance predicted 253. The i ill fc» «rfhaveincommon?Orl_ewis of Medicine. From these Gauquelin odds against this were 200 to 1. Carroll, Charlie Chaplin, and Richard calculated the precise position of the Perhaps, Gauquelin concluded, plane- Mixon? The common denominator, believe planets in the sky when the births took tary influences and human personality it or not, is their exact moment of birth. Not place. Famous doctors, he discovered to are intertwined in a way neglected by the month or week, but the precise hour. his surprise, showed a distinct preference astrology. His six volumes of data made French psychologist Michel Gauquelin for being born when either Mars or Saturn a weighty case to consider. suggests that more than coincidence is at had just risen or had jusi reached zenith. But there were anomalies in the findings. work in (he birth of famous people at The relationship seemed significant, but Albert Einstein, for one, should have been similar times during the daily planetary Gauquelin insisted upon meticulous sta- born when Saturn was predominant. He cycle. has compiled tistical He an enormous results. So he and his wife logged wasn't. His birth at 1 1 a.m. on March 14, mountain of statistics that indicate the the birth times of more ihan 20,000 1879, came just after Jupiter reached its planets "provoke" success based upon celebrities. They then matched the times zenith. This position is associated with their position in the sky at the moment with the positions of planets in 12 sectors performers and extreme extroverts. when these people are born. of the sky. Proponents explain the apparent- if a fairground fortune-teller offered this They found correlations, hard to ignore. inconsistency by claiming Einstein wasn't notion, no one would take it seriously. The periods just after planetary rising and an ivory tower thinker but the Danny Kaye Astrology, after all. is considered far from around the zenith appeared quite influ- of science, sticking his tongue out at scientific. But Gauquelin, highly respected ential. The number of scientists born in journalists and mocking riiual and pomp. in his field, has thrown a statistical monkey those critical sectors exceeded chance Despite the soft spots, Gauquelin's wrench into the gears of skeptical science. by odds of 300,000 to 1. speculations ra se fascinaring questions. in Back the 1950s Gauquelin destroyed Saturn seemed well placed at the birth If his statistics have uncovered some any scientific claims for astrology in a of writers and painters. Mars, fittingly, relationship between personality and classic, study. While massive doing his dominated when soldiers were born. planets, what is its nature? Is it truly an research, however, he found a separate Some planets appeared to have negative influence, shaping our ends, pulling us"" correlation he couldn't explain. Among his effects. For instance, only 203 of 1,473 into certain paths, attuning us to the cosmos? And does the unborn child, then, interact with space and initiate its own birth at the proper instant? Gauquelin feels there is an influence exerted, but he remains hazy about its form. He doesn't believe in rays of some arcane sort that zap the baby at birth, determining its personality. But he does feel that there is a link between the child's genetic inheritance and the moment it selects to initiate birth. He notes that only natural births establish a correlation. Cesarean — or induced-labor— births produce no significant results. The basic problem with Gauquelin's Iheory, though, is the lack of a suitable definition of temperament. His current definition consists of long lists of traits so elastic that they become ambiguous. Still, Gauquelin hopes to find the proper context for his findings. He eschews all horoscopes as irretrievably misguided. Instead he is struggling to produce a convincing case tor his findings as solid science. He just may succeed. If he Our personalities may be influenced at the moment of birth position olsi trying. by the doesn't, it won't be for lack of OO 24 OMNI B THE ARTS By Gerald Jonas There was aiime when science Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. nonfiction and journalism, this does fiction, the self- proclaimed liter- As with any project of this scope, one indeed allow Gunn to make a strong case ature of the future, had no past. can quarrel with individual choices. In for modern SF as a spiritual descendant of At least, that was my impression in the late fact, Gunn's purpose is narrower than the More and Sir Francis Bacon. But Gunn Forties when I first discovered Astounding jacket copy implies; he is offering no more does not become so enamored of his Science Fiction and its competitors in the than one man's view of the roots of modern definition that he dismisses all good SF candy-store racks. The writers and editors American science fiction. No more — but stories that fail to meet his criterion. It is of that golden age ol magazine science also no less. Seen in this context, his also true (as Gunn carefully documents) fiction certainly recognized a debt to Jules achievement is considerable. that American science fiction's exile into Verne and H. G. Wells. Yet for the most Gunn is aware that science fiction in this the pulp ghetto left it with a strong part they did nol identify with previous lit- country is a strange hybrid: It is both more component of raw, unthinking gut feeling, erary traditions, eiiher as a source o( "intellectual" and "cruder" than contem- best represented in this collection by A. E. inspiration or as a set of conventions to porary non-genre fiction. Gunn says that van Vogt's "Black Destroyer." rebel against. They imitated notthe clas- science fiction is "most typical when it During the first halt of the twentieth sics but one another; they defined their deals with ideas worked out in human century, it seems, certain unpleasant tacts achievements by pulp-magazine stan- terms. ... At the hard core of almost every about the human psyche that were all but dards: and if they thought of antecedents, true science-fiction story is an idea— 'the ignored in mainstream fiction could be if was in terms of back issues. quality that makes humanity human is safely acted out in socially unapproved How iimes have changed! During Ihe curiosity'; 'ff people only saw the stars forms of entertainment: animaied last two decades science fiction has every thousand years, they would not cartoons, slapstick comedy, murder been welcomed into academe, both as adore but go mad'— and the reader who mysteries, Westerns, and science fiction. teaching materia! and as a subject fit for misses the intellectual level of discourse is No wonder outside critics have so much scholarship. And book publishers have missing what more than anything else trouble understanding the appeal of obligingly brought out a number of an- distinguishes science fiction from other science fiction: abstraci ideas on the one notated anthologies, aimed more or less forms of fiction." hand, unexamined emotions on the other. at the college market, that try to relate At a time when serious fiction has Gunn captures this dichotomy best in the contemporary science fiction to the virtually abdicated a pedagogic role to second volume by juxtaposing Forster's mainslream of literary history. The biggest, brilliant "The Machine Stops," written in the most ambitious, and in many ways the 1909 as an answer to Wells's overopti- best of these anthologies is James Gunn's mistic view of scientific progress, and two The Road to Science Fiction , available in chapters from Edgar Rice Burroughs's three paperback volumes from New The Chessmen of Mars, a 1922 space American Library. romance with all the disturbing charm Gunn, an SF writer who teaches at the of an adolescent girl's daydreams. Universily of Kansas, has provided a But what about the future ot this critical/historical introduction for each literature of the future? In a society that volume and selection. The first volume lacks a single unifying cultural influence begins with an excerpt from Lucian's A — such as a universal church or a rrueS(ory.alaleof interplanetary war commonly held belief in progress — each written circa A. D. 170. The third volume, serious artist must put the world together closes with Joe Haldeman's Hugo on his or her own. Fairly or not. we expect Award-winning story "Tri centennial." In writers to ask the big questions and to between are bits and pieces from such point us, at least, toward the answers, classics as SirThomas More's Utopia, Where did we come from? Where are we Jonathan Swift's "A Voyage to Laputa," going? These are questions that in today's from Gulliver's Travels, Mary Shelley's world can be most usefully phrased in Frankenstein, and Edward Bellamy's scieniific terms. A contemporary writer Looking Backward, 2000-1887. In who is scientifically illiterate is as addition there are smatterings of Verne handicapped as a writer of Dante's day and Wells, along with short stories by would have been if he knew nothing of major figures in and out of the genre, Christian theology, t suspect this will including Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel become increasingly clear to both writers 1 ..'"..'! '. .'<.'! .' '.-.) '<, . ;<,. I.'. . Hawthorne, Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Gl. i ; a and readers. OQ 28 OMNI THEATER THE ART5 By Roberts. Ryan on the Beach, an Einstein "If you Iry to follow each line of the play ritual, foot-high, handmade wooden seats. "opera" in four acts, is director and mate a connection, a thread, you get The walls themselves also serve as work Robert Wilson's best-known lost," says Wilson. "It's not like Tennessee space. Sheets of paper line them, marked work. To people it their business Williams who make or Edward Albee. where if you with sections of dialogue, colored tape to to things, know such Robert Wiison is the miss the second scene, you're lost in the indicate "theme" lengths for radio drama, theater's future. third. They demand your primary atlenlion and some striking /mages; a deep-sea His creations not are plays as we now throughout. In my work, you frequently just diver and a nineteenth-century portrait. think of them. They exist as nonlinear float with the situation." Here, often working through the night. sequences of images that pass before our Most of the director's scripts revolve Wilson develops the sets of instruction, eyes like dreams. The massive, hypnotic around a hislorical figure. So far he has more like an architect's blueprints than a Einstein on the Beach, performed at New touched on Einstein, Freud. Stalin, Queen script, that describe every detail of his York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1976, Victoria, Thomas Edison, and Rudolf Hess. complex pieces (rehearsals for lighting lasted six hours. Sections of the operatic These figures and the "stories" their alone in Death, Destruction ana Detron score, with music composed by Philip names evoke provide a springboard to lasted five weeks). Glass, consisted of singers reciting a sights and sounds that may have little Wilson, thirty-nine, is extremely popular series of numbers over over. and Another surjace relationship to the protagonists. in Europe, particularly in France and recent work, Mountain Ka and Guardenia "Wilson's Edison," wrote Newsweek's Jack Germany, where government subsidies to Terrace: A Story About a Family and Some Kroll, "is like his Freud and Stalin, not so the arts aid in mounting his mammoth People Changing, lasted seven days and r-jch ;j hs-onca figure as a resonator, productions. The technical precision and seven nights and took place over the a magnetic catalyst creating a new complexity ot Wilson's theatricals make space of several mountains. gravitational field in human experience." them tremendously ccstiy f.instein on the-—' The "operas" are equal part spectacle, Wilson's Manhattan loft, in an industrial Beach, despite ilssold-out box office, architecture, dance, mathematics, music, district overlooking the Hudson River, is cost nearly 590,000 per performance. But sound, and image. They are not "about" spare in contrast to his elaborately the Europeans, unlike the Americans, anything. These theatrical events are. conceived productions. White walls apparently recognize the value of their perhaps, meditations that allow ample border a concrete floor on which are investment. The French contributed nearly room for an audience's own meditations. arranged, almost as if for some religious $500,000 to produce Edison (a modest piece by Wilson's standards, lasting only three hours and involving "simple" scenes, punctuated by nine "blackouts") The West Germans put up nearly $1 million to present Death, Destruction and Detroit , a controversial meditation on American fechnology. "We did it in Berlin, and it lasted over five hours," Wilson confides. "There was a restaurant and bar down- stairs, so people could get something to eat or drink and come back. It's okay if they missed a scene, because each element of the play is independent." Critics in his native United States are less understanding. New York magazine's John Simon described Wilson's first Broadway production, A Letter to Queen Victoria, as "merely tableaux vivants done to monotonous music and accompanied by meaningless gyrations." Of course, this msses thepoint. "The visual element in my plays is independent of the texl," the director explains. "We hear, we see, as on interior and exterior vision screens, and we can Director Robert Wi alternate between the two. I think it's 30 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 103 JUNG IDEAS UFD By Harry Lebelson Carl Jung, noted psychologist, once escorted from the craft. 'As the mandala than 13 million Americans said they had linked UFOs to human psychody- protects and defends the psyche of the actually seen such an object. Some of the namics. \n his book Flying Saucers girl in the dream, so, too, does it protect individual contactee stories are even more (1959), Jung suggested that UFOs were the contemporary abductee of UFO bizarre than those of cult groups. mandalas, the circular symbols of order. mythology," Jung states. Margaret Ludeman, a Calif ornian in her Recounting the drearn of a six-year-old Berthold Schwarz, a New Jersey eighties, is a medium for a spirit entity girl, Jung draws the connection between psychiatrist and advocate of Jungian named Hilarion. Commander of a UFO mandala and flying saucer: "She dreamt thought, asserts, "I prefer to work with fleet hovering beyond the moon, Hilarion she stood at the entrance of a large, 'hidden contactees,' those who stand warns that Earth will soon self-destruct unknown building. A fairy led her down outside the glare of the spotlight. These unless mankind ceases using atomic a long colonnade and conducted her people have in the past made excellent energy. Margaret has been communi- to a sort of central chamber. Similar colon- hypnotic subjects. They are not influenced cating with her alien friend for the past ten nades converged from all sides. The fairy by such cultural media as newspapers, TV, years and continues sending his "word" to stepped into the center and changed or movies. By probing their psychody- those who will listen. She has described herself into a tall flame." Jung's dream namics, we might well determine the true events and occurrences far beyond the mefaphor parallels many current UFO nature of UFOs." scope of her eighth-grade education. abduction cases, which fill the files of UFO From years of intensive research, Unlike some spirit mediums, she does not organizations throughout the country today. Schwarz concludes that UFO sightings commercially exploit her abilities. She The scenario is familiar: A UFO lands, satisfy certain deep-seated human lives as a retiree in a trailer camp and and an alien appears and escorts a wishes, 'At a time when we are faced with survives on social security. "contactee" into the craft. The vehicle's political, social, and ecological extinc- A stranger, but equally true, story — interior appears large to the contactee tion," the psychiatrist comments, "it makes concerns Lydia Stalnaker, spirit medium, once he is inside. The interior seems sense for some people to seize upon spiritual healer, and UFO contactee. Lydia actually to exceed the outer dimensions of UFOs as saviors from the sky." Recall the summoned her spirit UFO entity. Antron, the craft. After being examined by the famous Gallup poll in which 68 percent of on a recent David Susskind show. Antron aliens, the story goes, the contactee is those who were interviewed said they apparently speaks through Lydia and given a tour of the vehicle and is then believe UFOs exist. Furthermore, more reinforces her ability as a spiritual healer. Lydia attempted to cure a member of Susskind's staff, who claimed he had a spot on his lung. This claim was later confirmed by his physician. An examina- tion by an impartial doctor some weeks later revealed that the spot had dis- appeared. Lydia asserts that her abduc- tion by a UFO when she was eight years old was responsible for the healing power she now possesses. Could she have had a Jungian dream? One last excursion into the world of other realities concerns Marcia Moore. Co- author of the book Journeys into the Bright World, Marcia describes a world of higher consciousness under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug ketamine. Marcia and her husband, Howard Altounian, M.D, former deputy chief of the anesthesia department at the Seattle Public Health Hospital, collaborated on the book, published in 1978 by Para Research, Inc., of Rockport, Massachusetts, Journeys documents a series of record- ed drug experiments. An average of 50 Carl Jung, author of Flying Saucers, interpreted UFOs as prQ!nci:ve symbols within the psyche, milligrams of ketamine was administered p.? OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 111 4 / r Thefuture ofcomfort rests with Jantzen. conjTiruuunn "HE PLANETARY SOC committees, all of human history the planets were wandering the President or by the appropriate congressional planetary scientists hear another story We are told that Forlights in the night sky. They stirred our ancestors, however, provoked their curiosity, and encouraged mathemat- it is expensive, although a vigorous program of unmanned ics and more accurate record keeping. The work of planetary exploration would cost about 0.1 percent of the federal Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton in the understanding of budget; the Voyager spacecraft, when they are finished with their planetary motion led to the development of modern physics and explorations, will have cost about 1 cent a world for every inhabi- In a very real sense opened up the modern age of science and tant of the planet Earth, But mainly we are told that, although (he technology. In the last 18 years every one of those wandering arguments for planetary exploration are widely understood in lights has been visited by space vehicles from Earth. We humans government circles, they are not supported by the people. We have landed exquisite robot spacecraft on Mars and Venus and are told that spending money on planetary exploration—on the have orbited both planets. We have flown by Mercury, Jupiter, discovery of where we are, who we are, what our history and fate telling and Saturn, We have discovered the broiling surface of Venus, may be— is unpopular. I can remember a congressman the windswept valleys of Mars, the sulfur rivers of lo, the great me that the only letters he had received in support of the Galileo polychrome storm systems of Jupiter. We have discovered new exploration of Jupiter were sent by people too young to vote. moons, new ring systems, puzzling markings, enigmatic But there is evidence of enormous support and enthusiasm for pyramids, and have searched for life. Never again will the planets the exploration of the planets, We can see it in the popularity of be mere wandering points of light. Because of the effort of the motion pictures, television programs, and books on planetary last two decades they will forever after be worlds crying out for themes. While we puzzled over this apparent paradox, it became exploration and discovery. clear to me and a number of my colleagues that the solution Yet the pace of planetary exploration has slackened ominously would be a nonprofit, tax-exempt public-membership organiza- After the Voyager encounters with the Saturn system in Novem- tion devoted to the exploration of the planets and related stars ber 1980 and July 1981, there will be a period of more than four themes— particularly the search for planets around other years in which no new images will be returned from the planets by and the quest for extraterrestrial intelligence. If such an organiza- its mere existence would any American spacecraft, If we back off from the enterprise of tion had a substantial membership, unpopular. the planets, we will be losing on many different levels. By examin- counter the argument that planetary exploration is ing other worlds— their weafher, their geology, their organic And so Dr. Bruce Murray, the director of Caltech's Jet Propulsion friends, have chemistry, the possibility of life— we learn better how to under- Laboratory, and I, with a number of colleagues and stand and control the earth. Planetary exploration involves high established the Planetary Society Charter membership is £20 a technology that has many important applications to the national year, for which members receive a newsletter on the latest devel- and global economy— robotics and computer systems being opments, access to spectacular color photographs taken by two of many examples. Such exploration uses aerospace planetary spacecraft, notification of local events, talks, seminars, technology in an enterprise that harms no one and that is a credit and workshops, and other advantages, if we are successful, we to our nation, our species, and our epoch. And planetary explora- may be able not oniy to accomplish our initial goal of demonstrat- also tion is an adventure of historical proportions. A thousand years ing a base of popular support for planetary exploration but from now when the causes of temporary political disputes will be to provide funds for the stimulation of critical activities, for exam- as obscure as the cause of the War of the Austrian Succession is ple, in planetary mapping and in the radio search for extraterres- interested to us, our age will be remembered because this was the moment trial intelligence. We would be happy to hear from (Like when we first set sail for the planets and the stars. Omni readers at PO. Box 3599, Pasadena, CA91103. many These arguments are widely accepted. When a specific proposed interstellar radio messages, (he box number is the planetary mission is being considered by the Executive Office of product of two prime numbers, 59 and 61!) — CARLSAGAN " " CDnjTiruuurui COMPUTER ERRORS can even shut down a sys- COLD CURES ment for the cure of the FROM OUTER SPACE tem completely." Even home common cold." Reached by computers are not immune. Continuing our counter- phone at his Israeli lab, Warning; Cosmic rays May calculates that the typi- point to the pills touted by TV Yerushalmi would release from outer space may be cal hobbyist microcomputer ads. offer we now the sequel few details, but he said clini- hazardous to the health of "has a rate of one fail soft to chicken soup, which we cal tests are being con- your computer. Researchers every three weeks or so. No described last year as a ducted in several countries. at Intel and IBM have dis- problem. You're likely to promising treatment for "The results are encourag- covered that subatomic par- cause a failure more often colds. ing," he added. Published ticles can cause a trouble- than that by tripping over the Our latest candidates are reports say Yerushalmi ex- some form of amnesia in power cord." crying and blowing warm, pects to sell the devices high-density to computer However, "smart" cash moist air up the nose. The medical establishments in memory chips. The main registers and other remote latter is proposed by Aharon about two years for $200 culprits are alpha particles terminals "have been hit apiece. emitted by tiny amounts of rather severely," May says. A Crying is proposed by radium and thorium in the big European department Walter A. Stewart, Manhat- chip a package itself, but par- store recently scrapped its tan psychoanalyst and au- ticles produced when cos- computerized inventory-con- thor, who says people.'s sus- mic rays strike silicon chips trol system because soft ceptibility to colds seems, can have the same effect. If fails were glitching its sales to disappear when they the chip is sensitive enough, records. "The most severe learn to cry freely. Why? Dr. these particle-solid interac- implications are for weapons Stephen E. Bloomfield, an tions trigger a "soft fail. systems," says May, "Soft eye expert at New York Hos- "It's like a genetic muta- fails might explain some of pital-Cornell Medical Center, tion," says Tim May, an Intel the recent instances of data notes that crying relieves physicist who first called at- loss in military satellites." stress— and stress causes tention to the problem in Other victims of the lowly the body to produce ste- 1 978. The burst of electrical alpha may be bank custom- roids, which reduce resist- charge from a single alpha ers, most of whom depend ance to disease, "can mutate a binary zero on computer memories to A spokesman for the into a one, or vice versa. keep track of their bank ac- American Medical Associa- That can cause data loss or counts.— Dirk Hanson tion said there is no officially accepted single cure for the most common of human dis- Yerushalmi. of Israel's pres- eases. He added, however, tigious Weizmann Institute of that some things, including Science. vitamin C, seem to work for His plan: First pour dis- some people. tilled water into a device that —Stuart Diamond looks like a toaster with two nozzles. Then put the noz- "Afo quackery is ever zles into the patient's nos- rejected by the American trils. Then blow a stream of public until a more warm air (43' C) over the scientific-sounding but water and up the patient's inherently less plausible nose. According to pub- Quackery is ready lo take lished reports, half an hour's its place." treatment stopped all nasal —H. L Mencken secretion and headaches for 85 percent of the patients "In science we must be tested, interesied in things, not in se —your savings account has been wiped out by a cosmic The device, Rhinotherm persons. ray: A remote, but possible, new hazard for bank customers. AL-101. is called an "instru- — Marie Curie 36 OMNI VEGETABLE VOLTAGE ceiver at ihe campus, where VIDEO WALLPAPER used to relax patients and a computer punches out groups of businessmen, Remember when plants numbers. Now there are television health classes, and people stress- were being wired in order to This direct-monitoring sys- programs designed specifi- enrolled in manage- discern their emotions? tem is more accurate, Gens- cally to put you to sleep. A ment training sessions. These experiments— in ler says, than conventional company called Nebulae Video Wallpaper can be which sensitive houseplants methods, which focus on the Productions is offering 14 combined with another sys- (Video reportedly freaked out in the soil. It could skirt agricultural half-hour videotapes of na- tem called VIBES presence of a plant mur- guesswork by pinpointing ture scenes with natural Interface for Biofeedback derer, and so on — were optimal irrigation times. Crop sound, such as South Pacific Systems), which alters its never well replicated. Now, perfection might also be beaches lapped by gentle brightness and volume to however, a professor in the served by selecting plants surf, flowing waterfalls, and correspond to changes in a physical Southwest is again tuning whose voltages correspond forests with songbirds. viewer's mental and into vegetable "EEGs." to maximum growth (or min- Every plant has a charac- imal water needs). teristic electrical pattern, "But farmers won't be says William Gensler, a Uni- using this for a couple of versity of Arizona electrical years." Gensler notes. "Our engineer. And the signals problem now is data com- vary with the plant's daily pression: We need to com- rhythms, water needs, and bine all the numbers into a growth status. single number that a farmer In fields outside Tucson, can read on his computer Arizona, Gensler and his once a day or once a week." students have wired cotton So, though your geranium plants and pecan trees by may not be saying, "I love inserting one electrode in you," it could be screaming. the plants' tissue and the "Water me."— Judith Hooper other in the soil, forming a closed circuit. A central con- 'The future is a convenient trol box takes readings and place lor dreams," radios ihe data to a re- —Analote France The tapes can be played states, as determined by on a conventional televi- hand temperature. sion/video recorder; they Nebulae's Roy Kamen should be more effective in a said the SF movie Soylenl few years when new video Green partially inspired his technology provides large, company: "It made us aware flat-screen images. With this that patients cooped up in a potential in mind. Nebulae is hospital room would rather marketing its product under see nature scenes than four the trademarked name white walls"— an allusion to Video Wallpaper. an episode in which Edward The tapes have already G. Robinson dies while view- been field-tested in several ing such scenes. hospitals and biofeedback Kamen envisions a time centers. Dr. John Garrison, when Video Wallpaper will who tested the system at be "available in pharmacies Union Hospital, in Lynn, so doctors can prescribe a Massachusetts, found it ef- specific scene for a patient." fective and popular when — Allan D. Maurer 37 coruTiruuunn WOMEN IN LOVE totype, the device is a com- puterized speech-recog- Having tasted both sides nition system connected to a of lite, the ancient sage/sex- microphone. Someone the changeling Tiresias (fa- machine "knows," who has mous for his dire warnings to spoken to the machine be- Oedipus) pronounced that fore, talks into a. microphone. sex was more fun as a wom- The system breaks down the an. Three millennia later sounds it hears with an brain researchers may be acoustic processor into discovering why. sound patterns. For men , sex is reflexive, a Another program, called psychomotor activity, says the linguistic decoder, ana- neuropsychologist James W lyzes the sound patterns and Prescott, of the Institute of comes up with a sentence Humanistic Science, in West that it prints out on a com- Bethesda, Maryland. puter terminal screen. Studies show that when the Already gauged at 91 per- neurotransmitter dopamine, cent accuracy, the program necessary to psychomotor for the system was devel- activities, sinks to pathologi- oped by Dr. Frederick cally low levels fas in Parkin- Jelinek and the continuous son's disease), sex is cur- sire independently of estrus. TALK AND TYPE speech recognition research tailed in men, but not in Thus, for women, sex has a group he heads at IBM labo- women. Thus, researchers purpose beyond reproduc- IBM scientists have taken ratories in Yorktown Heights. speculate that female sexual tion. Men's sexual makeup, one small step in the direc- New York. Ideally, he sees behavior is regulated by dif- conversely, represents no tion of eliminating the secre- the device as becoming the ferent neural pathways. dramatic departure from that tary and the typing pool with ultimate dictation machine, Psychomotor activity of lower mammals. the development of a ma- There are a few problems tends to be focused and 'All this is just speculation chine that takes the spoken that must be ironed out be- goal oriented. Women's at this point," says a more word and turns it into type, i fore that happens, however. brains, less "focused" dur- cautious brain researcher, all without a middleman (or Although the device has a j ing sex, are better equipped Jaak Panksepp. of Bowling decent vocabulary— 1,000 to luxuriate in its emotional Green State University Ohio, Still an experimental pro- I words, taken from the text of and spiritual dimensions, "The only hard data are the according to Prescott. studies with dopamine." Female accounts of or- Panksepp's work with rats gasm often describe sensa- links dopamine with psy- tions characteristic of al- chomotor stimulations. Rats tered states of conscious- with high dopamine levels ness: floating, loss of body ran around more, "self-stimu- awareness, a sense of unity lated" (pressed levers for with the partner. Prescott be- rewards) more, ate more, re- lieves the vestibular-cerebel- sponded more to the envi- lar system, a part of the brain ronment, and generally were governing balance, touch, more "outward directed." In- and movement, may ac- terestingly, women generally count for these phenomena. register lower dopamine Female chauvinists, take levels than men do. — J. H. note: According to Prescott, the human female is distinct "There is more to life than " from her mammalian sisters increasing its speed. in experiencing sexual de- —Mohandas K, Gandhi 38 OMNI a patent on lasers— it can Surprisingly, at least half of understand only one person those already rocketed into at a time and only after a orbit, including Soviet cos- two-hour orientation session monauts, have experienced of listening to his or her indi- motion sickness to a degree: vidual speech patterns. The nausea, dizziness, disorien- complex process of translat- tation, or even vomiting. A ing sound into print also sticky situation at best. takes a long time. It takes But now a means to con- 100 minutes to analyze and quer cosmic queasiness has print a sentence that took 30 been suggested by psycho- seconds to speak. physiologist Dr. Patricia Finally, there is that 9 per- Cowings, of NASA's Ames cent rate of error. A man may Research Center: namely, say, "Although the invention biofeed-back. ." Dr. has been described . . but Inonetest program. Ihe machine might print, 'All Cowings and her research of the invention has been associate, William Toscano, described .,* taught about 50 earthbound Still, Dr. Jelinek believes subjects biofeedback tech- the basic program behind niques to ward off sickness Nuclear drinking water; David Woodbridge drinks a glass through his special irradiation ptocesi the device is versatile while sitting in a chair spin- r that has gone enough to be used in a work- ning ever faster. ing prototype of a dictation "The subjects learn volun- DON'T WASTE IT now-idle reprocessing machine he thinks will be tarily to prevent increased plants and be encapsulated in stainless steel containers. ready in a few years. heart rate, sweating, and, to An idea that would bring —Douglas Colligan some extent, changes in people and radioactive Woodbridge believes. These blood flow," Cowings said. waste closer together is gamma-ray generators NAUSEA IN SPACE Biofeedback offers advan- bound to furrow some eould then be used to de- tages over drug therapy, brows. Yet David Wood- contaminate wastewater: irradiation heat In the zero-gravity world which can cause drowsi- bridge, an environmental The and of spaceflight, there's no ness. "In order to really sur- physicist with the Hittman would inactivate viruses and of many organic chem- hanging over the rail if you vive in space, you have to be Corporation, Columbia, destroy develop "space sickness." on top of the situation all the Maryland, makes a compel- ical pollutants. time. You can't afford to have ling argument for meeting Gamma-ray emitters, un- a reduction in alertness," the water-pollution problem like neutron sources, leave Cowings said. with another pollutant: no residual radioactivity in Astronauts have taken as nuclear waste. water, and the output could much as a week to acquire Woodbridge's plan calls be used directly for energy- their space legs. With a bar- for using the most radio- producing biomass (animal rage of seven-day shuttle active elements in spent feed or alcohol) or, with con- jaunts planned, more than nuclear-fuel rods to clean up ventional secondary treat- half of an astronaut's pro- wastewater ment, would yield pure drink- ductivity might be lost. If With about 6,000 metric ing water. that such is the case, biofeed- tons of spent fuel now in Woodbridge agrees back may become more temporary storage, plans for reeducation would be necessity than experiment. nuclear-fuel reprocessing needed before nuclear — Leonard David and permanent storage are waste is used in industrial or at a standstill. But isotopes municipal sewage treatment; "Science is nothing but that are pure gamma-ray he points with pride to the trained and organized emitters, such as cesium- successful pilot plant that he common sense." 137 and strontium-90, could developed a few years ago. —Thomas H. Huxley be removed at one of the While associated with CDruTiruuurui Florida Institute of Technol- Drs. Herman Vanden- GARBAGE BRICKS John Bartholomew of the ogy, he used a cobalt-60 burgh and Seymour Kauf- U.S. Transportation Depart- irradiator in the pilot proj- man, of the National Institute Plastic and refuse, two of ment. ect—the same cobalt used of Mental Health, have de- modern life's by-products, Among the results of the in anticancer therapy. Now, veloped a method for me- are now being considered to department's polymer pro- with cesium-137 available in chanically stimulating living rebuild the society that gramare26plasticized j reactor fuel, Woodbridge cells and measuring what spawned them. thinks it's wasteful indeed to happens. In several states the same seal such a useful energy The scientists suggest material that forms Plexiglas source underground. that exercise and nerve and polyester is being sub- While the Department of activation stimulate the stituted for cement in the re- Energy remains hamstrung growth of muscle cells by pair of roads and bridges. over nuclear waste, Wood- aenvating a "sodium pump" Added to sand and stone, bridge's idea may be worth involved in regulating the this clear plastic fluid — investigating. Once gam- ratio of sodium and potas- called a polymer— binds the ma-ray emitters are put to sium within a cell. mixture in a way that is good use, Woodbridge says, "What is lea'rned about stronger and longer-lasting the remaining waste would muscle cells may in turn than conventional materials. reach safe radioactivity shed light on the mecha- So tough is the plastic that levels in 50 years, not nisms of action of nerve-cell scientists have made bricks thousands of years. growth and atrophy, perhaps and sewer pipes by injecting — DeanR. Lambe increasing our understand- the polymer into waste prod- ing of the human brain's re- ucts. Scientists at Brook- BRAIN EXERCISE sponse to environmental haven National Laboratory, stimulation or the lack of it," on Long Island, New York, It just might be that think- Dr. Vandenburgh suggests. have made bricks by using ' ing makes your brain bigger. —Alton"' Muscle cells grow larger crushed glass, and inciner- with exercise and get small- "I don't know about you, but ated refuse. These "out- er (atrophy) without it. And I'm tired of having to hold my house bricks," as lab scien- potholes on Interstate 35 In now two prominent neuro- nose every time I enter my tist Meyer Steinberg calls Minneapolis, a number of chemists say that nerve cells polling booth." them, rival their conventional bridge repairs in Dallas, and behave in the same way. —Barry Commoner counterparts. The problem, polyester patches on the he added, lies in convincing Major Deegan Expressway, engineers that the new in the Bronx, New York. After material is as useful and several years the patches economical in the long run still look like new. officials as conventional material. say.-S.D The polymer usually com- prises 10 percent of the "There is no question that finished product. It can help there is an unseen world. recycle wastes and save The problem is, Howfarisit valuable resources. It also from midtown and how late is drastically cuts the time it open?" needed for repairs. A — Woody Allen polymerized road surface sets in as little as an hour- "It was the failures who had compared to perhaps days always won, but by the time for concrete— cutting labor they won they had come to costs and traffic congestion. be called successes. This is Polymer pothole repairs also the final paradox, which men Nerve cells of human brain: Muscle cells grow larger because ot last years, while asphalt may call evolution." exercise; now scientists think the same may hold true for the brain. last less than a season, says —Loren Eiseley 40 OMNI PETNAPPING around 515, mongrel dogs LASER ROCKETS fire a triple-pulsed laser for around S100, and pure- burst of 1 5 megawatts for a Each year as many as 2 breds for around 5200. For eight years small microsecond into a specially nozzle. million dogs and cats get Typically two "bunchers," groups of researchers have designed rocket "There's petnapped. Many of them, as petnappers are called, been exploring the possibil- no system yetthat ity will that indefinitely," Wray according to the Humane work in a ring with a licensed of rockets powered by do animal dealer. The bunchers high-energy lasers. Now re- notes, but calculations cruise a territory in their van searchers at Physical Sci- show that large thrusts are and try all kinds of tricks to ences, Inc. (PSI), in Massa- feasible with this concept. nab animals, such as using chusetts, with backing from NASA has supported the tranquilizer guns, drugged NASA and the Defense CW work at PSI for the past meat, or even bitches in Advanced Research Proj- four years and has given heat. Once there's a big ects Agency, are moving the company $100,000 to enough haul, they head for past theory into experi- begin experimental work re- kennels across state lines, mentation. lated to the CW system. where the dealer holds the In a rocket of this sort a Wray says the high-pow- 3nima ! s before selling them. continuous-wave (CW) or ered lasers needed for a The Animal Welfare Act repeatedly pulsed laser full-scale laser-rocket sys- requires that the 6,800 U.S. would be beamed into the tem probably won't be de- dealers must keep records propulsion chamber, heating veloped specifically for that of purchase, previous own- the propellant and thus pro- use. But PSI intends to con- ership, and sale of all ani- viding thrust. tinue its "low-profile" devel- mals sold to labs. Labs must A laser-powered rocket opment of the concept, to also hold an animal for five would have a definite ad- bring it along so it will be days before using it, just in vantage over aeon ventional ready to use the big lasers case an animal is traced as chemically fueled rocket, if and when they're' avail- lost or stolen. But. says Mor- says KurtWray.ot PSI. "It able.— Joel Davis rison, the act is poorly en- would have a much higher impulse. rocket "For the people liable to forced . The Department of specific The Agriculture has only a limited could carry more payload," be killed by earthquakes, number of inspectors re- he says. quake prediction is certainty e and industry. sponsible for checking the Right now, Wray reports, significant." "Unscrupulous licensed small-animal traffic. PSI uses a trio of lasers to — Gordon Rattray Taylor animal dealers are doctoring Since the law isn't much their records and selling help, grass-roots organi- stolen pets to labs— and zations have sprung up getting away with it! "says throughout the country. One, Margaret Morrison, of the Action 81 of Virginia, started Humane Society. along Route 81 , where local Most stolen dogs and cats residents became aware of a are used in biomedical re- rash of stolen pets. Today search and for teaching the organization has af- medical students and sur- filiated groups in 40 states. geons in training. Others are One thing you can do is subjected to toxicity tests: tattoo your pet with your so- They are exposed to, or in- cial security number, accord- jected with, chemical prod- ing to an Action 81 spokes- ucts to determine how man. Thereby lab personnel poisonous they are. can distinguish a stolen pet -Dealing in stolen pets is a from legally acquired ani- profitable business. Cats on mals and seek ways to re- average sell to biological unite the animal with its right- supply houses or labs for ful owner. — Caroline Rob " coruTiruuurm ANIMAL VIBRATIONS geese refused io fly The movements in the earth's unchanged) for the next Chinese, heeding these crust. In the past few years four weeks. Which is better at predict- ' signs, saved the lives of instruments have success- Miraculously, within a ing earthquakes: animals or several hundred thousand fully predicted earthquakes week or two the volunteers' scientific instruments? Evi- people by evacuating them in Mexico and Asia. lipid levels— cholesterol and dence collected so far sug- two days before the quake But many scientists are triglycerides— dropped gests that your ordinary occurred. taking a cue from animals. dramatically. (Vegetable oil animal— a dog, ahorse, a The ability of animals to The USSR has animal warn- reduces cholesterol, but not pig— may give a more reli- sense such nalural phenom- ing centers, and many na- triglycerides.) Their platelet warning able of an impend- ena is not as puzzling as it tions are trying to learn what sensitivity also decreased. A i it is that animals are sens- high count of platelets, the ing : so that instruments can clotting factor in blood, con- be built to detect the same tributes to atherosclerosis signals. — S.D (coronary artery disease). Fish oil may well be the RSH OIL reason why Greenland Es- kimos and the Japanese Huile de poisson groen- have a low incidence of landaise'? However you say atherosclerosis, Dr. Harris it, it still spells fish oil, Unap- notes, The only problem? petizing, yes, but it could "Fish oil is so unpalatable, prevent that dread killer car- we'll have to find a way to iso- diovascular disease. late the active compounds This was the finding of a before it becomes accepted University of I Oregon study, as part of the American led by Dr. William S. Harris. diet."-J.H. Ten healthy volunteers ate a typical American diet full of "Acceptance on someone saturated fats for four weeks, else's terms is worse than then switched to salmon oil rejection. (the rest of the menu was — Mary Cassatt Dogs have ignored commands before an earthquake;- snakes have crawled out o! the ground; and pigs have climbed walls. '• i^2~&^JI~l^. I = -•>., - Ht 6H oii Q^ ;, e • ing earthquake than the ex- may seem at first. Birds, j pensive apparatus now used dogs, and bats can sense by scientists. the slightest vibrations «kw,/ In August 1979. 200 instru- in the earth— perhaps even - • ~* v M, & ments along California's better than sophisticated Wvu-T,,, * ' ...-,. Calaveras Fault failed instruments can— some < --Ul^^M to predict an earthquake so geologists say ''»: Jh**bi i*??" *£*«. * m. j^, r- powerful it shook buildings To be sure, humans are ':''• in San Francisco, 130 kilo- improving their own gadg- fci Jm'T- meters away. But in 1974, ets, which have found in- several months before a creased levels of radioactive massive earthquake struck radon in well water just be- China, hibernating snakes fore a quake. The water pre- t crawled out of the ground, sumably was squeezed to- y 11 pigs climbed walls and bit ward the surface by seismic oneanother'a-fail, hens forces tar below And space would not go to roost, trained scientists are proposing ". . . and that's just the short form!' s no! what physicist Victor German shepherds ignored satellites, lasers, and even Weisskopl was saying at a recent Fermilab symposium. But there commands, and barnyard distant quasars to measure were some light moments. See Pe p/e. page 118. 12 OMNI ACCELERATIONS Tomorrow's cars are sleek mirrors of aerodynamic harmony and consumer desire y^isions of safer, sturdier, more energy-efficient concluded,. "Even at iifty-fTiiies-per houf. There is a ciea' "cars reveal an ideological flip-flop in car making: gain" in the performance o! automobiles employing The engineer is beginning ;o read while the stylist efficient styling Enthusiasts need not fear lhal enforced follows- External body projections will disappear; no speed limits will mean the end of sleek machines. Siyl- more boxy lops, massive grilles, naked undersides, or ing will never go out of style ::*:- ,-_;*, --,, Byzantine body shells Slippery shapes improve accel- Some:! -,'i; i.ei, altirsi mgK sivsnye t.'U eration and economy. Future cars will reflect lessons our guess is that we'll soon think of them as voluptuous, we're learning from racetracks, wind tunnels, and even sexy. But don'l bother looking under the hoods d! OPEC. Walter Korff, the American aerodynamicist, next, year's models for a hint at 1995, unless you peek « Future cars will reflect lessons we're learning from racetracks, wind tunnels, andOPEC.l serve, even with standardized battery packs for quick removal/replacement. The owner of a new 1990 ampwagen won't trade his temporarily exhausted, but brand-new, §1.000 pack for one that may be only minutes away from terminal flatu- lence. Certification by service stations? Few station managers would climb out on such a fiscal limb 200 times a day. Detailed maintenance before certification? Exorbi- tant facility costs, a huge surcharge for every exchange, and still the knowledge that, nothing lasts forever. Clearly, electra- bouts need batteries of higher energy den- sity, more watt-hours per kilogram, and faster recharging. GM's zinc-nickel oxide battery, earlier announced by NASA, and Gulf and Wesi- ern's zinc-chlorine battery have twice the energy density of older batteries. A lithium- iron sulfide cell under development may quadruple that improvement, but cost and high operating temperatures will delay 'the inside the latest sport coupe powered by and similar renewable resources. By 1995, panacea battery. for a day-long, (ready for this?) Briggs & Stratton. cars powered exclusively by heat engines It's plausible to hope The most obvious reason for a new au- will be a wild extravagance. Thai's why, 800-kilometer electrabout range by 1995, have tomobile awareness is our global, oil after tinkering with diesels and stratified but we can't depend on this, nor do we engine, crunch. But innovalion has not lain dor- charges for a while, we'll probably furn 1o to. The combustion-electric hybrid mant. We are accumulating a staggering more economical power, minimizing [he used in a 1908 car but generally ignored recharge wealth ot new data that promise solutions to" use of fossil fuels. since, eliminates both range and other automotive problems. NASA and Elecirabouts have obvious advantages: problems. auto manufacturing firms have probed the no emissions beyond a trace of ozone; Late in 1979 Briggs & Stratton demon- six-wheeler limits of human tolerances so that we can moderate torque; almost eerily quiet; and strated an attractive, compact engines, set criteria for impact loads, insfrument their energy is cheap. A less obvious virtue hybrid coupe, employing two one other gas- layout, and genuine comfort. With com- is a wide variety of recharging sources. Yet powered by electricity, the by puter simulation we can test suspension electrabouts until now were limited by the oline. The third (rearmost) axle supports a systems and shell designs before we risk a twin vices of short range and long recharge massive battery pack that drives an eight- cent on hardware. Safety studies by auto times. horsepower (for you metric compulsives, makers are now scrupulously monitored by Engineers concede other drawbacks. that's 600 kilograms per meter per second) the U.S. Department of Transportation. too. Electric heaters drain batteries at a motor under the hood. Up on the front axle gasoline engine. Under their lissome skins, future cars will ferocious rate. Ordinary batteries are sits an 18-horsepower both reflect new imperatives from governments heavy and bulky and need a replacement The car can be driven by either or what it and industry: advances in power plants, every year or so. of its prime movers; that's makes materials, and safety. Electrabout buffs claim that every objec- a hybrid. During this decade we'll see most of the tion can be overcome. It's true that 90 per- This stylish coupe was designed by available research money go to power- cent of our driving is urban stop-and-go Brooks Stevens; it's tempting to speculate Pininfarina plant improvement. Synthetic fuels will be sorties. This is precisely where electra- what engineers at Porsche or six-wheel expensive, though more of the mix may bouts shine. If every family used one, our might have done with the basic come from timber slash, desert shrubs, auto fuel consumption could drop by fully layout. The Stevens exercise for Briggs & two thirds. One importer of Italian cars ex- Stratton is a functional success, overcom- hybrid might look Preceding pages . The Ford/Ghia Megastar II pects increasing competition soon from ing objections that a suggests slithery underside for easy handling electrabouts. "My guess is, the Japanese frumpy, (top); Plninfarina's aerodynamic Modulo will market short-haul electrics within three That was important to Bud Goodwin, the minimizes coe"c>e~; drag itattom). Low-alloy years," he mused. "Japan imports nearly maverick industrialist whose Fiberfab, Inc., for steels molded for style in Vector prototype (left); all its oil; so it's primed for the change." built the awesome police cruisers computerized interior of Ford's Probe I (above). But for long trips, today's batteries won't George Lucas's film THX-1138. Goodwin once answered critics with "The shape it clothed in aluminum a la Porsche's 928. the trendsetter for the Nineties. The CNR can! just tie right. It's "gotta look right, too. I Weight reduction is essential for econ- sedan, its computer-generated shape can't sell hidden charm." omy since less energy is required to accel- modified to reflect necessary shell discon- By in all likelihood we'll 1990, have low- erate a smaller mass. Better lubricants and tinuities, was tunnel-tested. Its final config- slung hybrids. They'll catch on slowly at bearings may improve economy by 10 per- uration gave rise to the nickname "Banana first, because the hybrid's mass alone rules cent, and improved tires will lower rolling Car," from the subtle bowing of its under- out the kind ot handling and acceleration resistance and boost traction. side, which minimizes aerodynamic drag. that made sporty cars such fun. They won't Pooling our preview of materials with the The French government-sponsored Re- either be cheap, absolute demand for long-range economy, nault EVE sedan and the Uni-Car, jointly The hybrid owner will have the best of it, we can approach a topic dear to our funded by West Germany and several though, until the panacea batteries arrive. hearts; appearance. For two reasons we technical universities, reflect affirmation of On short trips will the engine use no pump needn't fear that the car in our crystal ball similar new shapes. There is evidence that fuel. On a cross-country run the hybrid's will be ugly. Bill Lear and Bud Goodwin in 1982 AMC-Renault may test some ot driver will bite hard have to on the OPEC gave the first reason in typical plainspoken these engineered shapes in the market. bullet and pay dearly for fuel. this But op- fashion: Manufacturers can't afford to mar- It frontal-drag coefficiency were the only tion is the driver's, who can still certainly ket cars that have no external charm. Styl- important criterion, we might expect a dis- choose long if drives he can afford it. That ing studios, like Paris couturiers, try to mal sameness to infect our future car element of choice will sell a lot of hybrids in shape— or at least anticipate- our tastes choices. But this needn't be the case when . the next 20 or 30 years: The hybrid offers in cars, and they build models of all sizes we buy for different reasons. Some design the best solution to our current needs and for major auto firms. Ghia works with Ford; teams will focus more on pedestrian and desires in era an when the price of auto fuel Calty in California is sponsored by Toyota; occupant safety, olhers on energy effi- is soaring — which means that by 1990 Bertone is often linked with Alfa and Lan- ciency, some on interior room. The shapes Americans will have dumped several cia, Pininfarina with jusl about everybody. will reflect these options, but most will ap- hundred billion dollars into OPEC's coffers. Some big firms (GM, Ford, Daimler-Benz, proach that voluptuous, nearly unbroken There's little point in arguing whether that line from nose to tail. The bobtail feature is S200 billion could best be spent on social already popular, proceeding from the work security, mass transit, the exploration of of Dr. W.I.E. Kamm, who proved, in the space, or all three. The choice will not be 1930s, that a long, tapering tail creates ours, because the money won't be. But the higher induced (turbulence) drag. tTTie most startling emergence of hybrid cars will herald our Both size and shape affect vehicle independence from OPEC. The scenario changes will take place in safety. Thanks to new studies, we know how becomes hazier about 2010 with the argu- the interior. much space occupants need tor protec- able advent Door of broadcast or narrowcast tion. We know a car's front end should be locks, ignition, power, chassis doubling as batteries, and and steer- designed to catch, ralher than propel, a tree mass transit- ing will operate pedestrian. We also know that the car's Future cars will benefit greatly from aero- balance point, or center ol gravity, permits 'only for those who know space materials, though cost will downplay good handling uncer poor conditions. titanium, • metal honeycomb, and stainless. the code and Future cars will likely be designed to Plastics— for example, sandwich panels cruise near the "double nickel." our na- are sober enough to use it. 9 filled with semirigid - urethane foams- al- tional 55-mph speed limit (approximately ready show promise. While many plastics 90 kph), since aerodynamic drag begins to are pelroieum derived, some are recycla- be cosily in that range. Drag is a square ble. Major companies like Bayer AG (West function: Double your speed and drag Germany) General and Motors have in- jumps four times. It's a steepening energy vested heavily in plastic cars, and racing- Volkswagen, Renault, and others) maintain penalty that costs roughly half again as oriented firms like Chaparral their stylists (U.S.A.) and own even as they contract for much at 110 kph as it does at 90 kph. Lotus (U.K.) have produced truly gorgeous fresh ideas with independent studios. Motor racing may seem an unlikely road winners from plastic. The second reason why we can expect to economy, but the less energy a car uses. For a while yet our will rigid cars need breathtaking cars is that the most efficient the less weight it has to carry. We'll still profit chassis, and for mass production that gen- shapes at freeway speed tend to be aes- from racing in 2010 if we revive the Index of erally means steel. High-strength, low-alloy thetically pleasing (though many pleasing Performance as a criterion. The index is a (HSLA) steels are gaining popularity at shapes are woefully inefficient). A car's measure of fuel economy in a race and was Ford and since GM, HSLA can do the job of frontal drag coeificient (CD; in Europe, CX) once important in road racing. The sooner mild sleel with less metal, less is the hence measure of ils slipperiness through we bring it back, the sooner brilliant weight. Because there is so small a quan- the air. A big sleek car of low CD like the amateurs (and Porsche's professionals) tity of nonferrous eiemenls in they HSLA, Pininfarina-derived Citroen CX. sedan can will lest evety aspect of it. can be recycled cheaply. have lower total drag than a smaller car with Another innovation extracted from Aluminum will play a stronger fole as a high CD. Thus, a styling studio with real racing — external airfoils— was suggested plastics improve, replacing some steel in wind-tunnel-engineering expertise can to Ferrari years ago by American test driver engines, radiators, suspensions, cast develop prototype cars that are lithe, effi- Richie Ginther Shortly thereafter foils were structural parts, and body panels. Later on cient, and roomy. thoroughly investigated by Caltech-trained plastics will replace both aluminum and Daimler-Benz lested cars in a Stuttgart Texan Jim Hall, whose Chaparrals race- steel in caslings, bodies, gears, even tunnel many years ago. Then some US. proved a dozen engineering innovations Springs. However, the Italian firms Bertone companies began to use the Cornell Uni- and blew past opposition like Texas tum- and will Pininfarina continue to fit mouth- versity tunnel. Now Volkswagen has one, bleweeds. Quick: What won the 1980 Indy? watering metal shapes over existing chas- too, but Pininfarina's own wind tunnel in One measure of Hall's thoroughness is sis. Aluminum is easier to form than steel Turin gives lhat firm a tremendous advan- his attention to driver comfort. Air vents, and lighter, too, though Italian some pro- tage in melding art with engineering. pedal placement, and lumbar support all totypes now emerge first in handcrafted Under contract to Consiglio Nazionale received careful thought in trendsetting steel bodies, forinstance, Bertone's Sibilo. delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy's national re- cars like Chaparral and Porsche. Form fol- Limited production copies could cruise the search council, Pininfarina has evolved a lows function on the inside, too. highways as much as 100 kilograms lighter sedan design that is an gdds-on favorite as Interior layouts wnl bo 'esilienl and com- 4B OMNI fortable {vide Ford's Probe I), though not particularly roomy, because foam protec- tion and frontal drag militate against wide open spaces. Commuter cars can be more spacious inside. Hideaway armrests can double as restraints for toddlers- re- straints inexcusably omitted from today's "practical" family cars. The most startling changes in the interior will be electronic. Door locks, ignition, and steering will operate only for those who know the punch code and are sober enough to use it. The onboard computer will monitor systemwide sensors; no bear- ing will overheal. no brake pad will fail, no relay will stick without automalic diagnosis, including an oral or video report to the driver. Sensors can compare road-surface conditions and nearby objects wilh ac- ceptable standards, alerting the driver to impending trouble. The car's radar system need not depend on embedded rails to monitor a trip, be- cause tiny dipoles can be embedded in paint and dipole length can be an informa- tion code. Tomorrow's car may jus! follow the white line, turning off the highway when it reads the dipole code of a roadside sign Given priorities and destination, the car can query distant transmitters for weather and traffic data; follow a least-time or least-energy route; continuously update the estimated time of arrival; and seek the best offramp if refueling or repair is neces- sary. Robert A. Heinlein's sultry-voiced on- board computer {Omni, October 1979),. keyed to voiceprint and full of randy one- liners, might be an expensive option in some ten years. The driver will be able to turn the chores over to her computer, select the latest Atari video game, and play while the machines work. Any system smart enough to permit safe front-seat video can give us more than games. The driver, with a tiny headset, can attend a video class on one display while her passenger reads or writes a book on another, using foldaway consoles, light pencils — in fact, the entire panoply of equipment available for household com- puter use. We won't need to inspect the hardware of future cars very often, and so we might miss some subtle improvements. A 20- horse hybrid's diesel engine may be so small that it can be replaced by muscle power in a few moments. Computer-ad- justed suspension with instantly variable caster, camber, and toe-in can improve tire adhesion for off-road forays and might let us employ revolutionary, highly flexible chassis to rival a cheetah's. The military uses of such an agile vehicle make its de- velopment fairly likely by such corporations as AMF and Lockheed, which have already studied articulated off-road vehicles, Peering past 2010, we risk a few broad forecasts. When local line-of-sight power transmission becomes practical, we'll be able to reenergize hyperstrengih flywheels without pausing, so that power plants can be dirt cheap, ivlagnelohydrodynarnic and CONTINUED ON PAGE 99 Death was waiting among the dinosaurs- until she found a purpose for her life i^B OUR LADY OF BY ROBERT SILVERBERG 21 August. 0750 hours . Ten minuies since the module meltdown. I can't see the wreckage trom here, but I can smell It, bitter and sour against the moisl tropical air I've found a clett in the rocks, a kind of shallow cavern, where I'll be safe from the dinosaurs lor a while. It's shielded by thick clumps of cycads, and in any case it's too small for the big predators to enter But sooner or later I'm going 7 to need food, and then what 1 have no weapons How long can one woman last, stranded and more or less helpless, aboard Dino Island, a habitat unit not quite fifteen hundred meters in diameter that she's sharing with a bunch of active, hungry dinosaurs? I keep telling myself that none of this is really happening. Only I can't quite convince myself of this. My escape slill has me shaky I can't get out of my mind the funny iitlle bubbling sound the liny powerpak made as it began to overheat. In something like fourteen seconds my lovely mobile module became a charred heap of fused-togeiher junk, taking with it mM communicator unit, food supply, laser gun, and just about my my my everything else. Bui for the warning that funny mile sound gave me, I'd be so much charred junk, too Betler off that way, most likely. When I close my eyes, I imagine I can see Habitat Vronsky floaling serenely in orbit a mere one hundred twenty kilometers away. &&I Whal a beautiful sight! The walls gleaming like platinum, the great mirror collecting sunlight and flashing it into the windows, the agricultural satellites wheeling around il like a dozen tiny moons, I mi,t could almost reach out and touch it. Tap on ihe shielding and murmur, "Help me, come for me, rescue me," But I might just as well be out beyond Neptune as silting here in the adjoining Lagrange slot. There's no way I can call for help. The momenl I move outside this proleclive cleft in the rock I'm at the mercy of my saurians. and their mercy is not likely to be tender, Now it's beginning to rain -artificial, like prachcally everything PAINTING BY FRANK FRAZETTA a else on Dino Island. But it gets just the iniiglriny with you as head from dany Direclo' land and see if I can find a betler hideout. wet as the natural kind. And just as clammy Sarber. Pure research again! And then the This one simply isn't adequate for anything Pfaugh. meltdown, and here I am cowering in the more than short-term huddling. Besides, Jesus, what am I going to do? busbes, wondering which first, I'm comes not as spooked as I was right alter ihe starving or getting gobbled by some meltdown. I realize now that I'm not going to OS/5 hours. The rain is over for now. It'll cloned tyrannosaur find a lyrannosaur hiding behind every come agam in six hours. Astonishing how tree. And even if I do, tyrannosaurs aren't muggy, thick dank, the air is. Simply breath- 0930 hours, Funny thought just now going to be muck interested in scrawny ing is I hard work, and feel as though mil- Gould it have been sabotage? stuff like me. is dew forming on my lungs. I miss Vron- Consider. Sarber and I, feuding for Anyway, I'm a quick-witted higher pri- sky's clear, crisp, everlasting springtime air weeks over the issue of opening'Dino Is- mate. II my humble mammalian ancestors previous trips On to Dino Island I never land to tourists, Crucial staff vote coming seventy million years ago were able to cared about the climate. But of course I up next month. Sarber says we can raise elude dinosaurs well enough to survive and was snugly englobed in my mobile unit, a miltfons ayearfor expanded studies with a inherit the earth, I should be able to keep world within a world, self-contained, self- program of guided lours and perhaps from getting eaten for the next thirty days. sufficient, isolated from all contact with this some rental of the island to film companies. And, with or without my cozy little mobile place and its creatures. Merely roving I that's risky for a say the dinos and for the module, I want to get out into this place, eye, traveling I as pleased, invisible, invul- tourists, destructive of scientific values, a whatever the risks. Nobody's ever had a nerable. Can they sniff me in here? distraction, a sellout. Emotionally ihe staT's chance ;o inle r acl 'his closely wilh Ine 1 nirn their We con 1 sense of smell is very with me, but Sarber waves figures around, dinos before. acute. And the stink of the burned wreck- shows fancy pro scions, income and gen- Good thing I kept this pocket recorder age dominates the place at the erally shouts r moment. and bluste s Tempers mn when I jumped from the module. Whether I reek with fear But must signals. I feel calm ning high, Sarber in lethal fury at being I'm a ditto's dinner or not, I ought to be able row. outih.vaad'kereriiwhenlgotoutofthe opposed, barely able to hide his loathing to set down some useful observations. module. Scattered pheromones all over the place, I be!. 1830 hours. Twilight is descending now. I Commotion in the cycads. Something's am camped near the equator in a lean-to coming in here! Long neck, small birdlike flung together out of tree-fern fronds— feet, delicate grasping hands. Not to worry, flimsy shelter— but the huge fronds con- Struthiomimus, is all — dainty dino, fragile, Ql'ma quick-witted ceal me. and with luck I n make il Inro.ichic birdlike critter barely two meters high. Liq- higher primate. If my humble morning. Thai cycad cone doesn't seem to uid golden eyes staring -;oem-nv at me i| have poisoned me yet, I ate mammalian ancestors and another swivels its head from side tc side, os- one just now, along with some tender new tnchiKe. clicK-click. as if trying to make up were able to elude dinosaurs fiddleheads uncoiling from the heart of a its mind about coming closer to me. Scar.' fern. well enough to inherit tree Spartan fare, but it gives me the Go peck a stegosaur Let me alone. illusion of being fed. It withdraws, making little clucking the earth, I should be able In the evening mists I observe a sounds. * Closest I've ever been to a live lo keep from getting brachiosaur, half-grown but already colos- dinosaur. Glad it little was one of the ones. sal, munching in the treetops, A gloomy- . . eaten for . thirty days 3 looking triceratops stands nearby, and 09(30 hours. Getting hungry. What am 1 several of the ostnchlike slruthiomimids to eat? going scamper busily in the underbrush, hunting They say roasted cycaa core-, aiei I too I know not what. No sign of tyrannosaurs all bad. How about raw ones? So many plants day There aren't many of them here, any- are edible when cooked and poisonous for Circulaling me. rumors — designed to way, and I hope *ney re al; sleeping off huge otherwise, I never studied things in such gel back to me— that if I persist in blocking feasts somewhere in tne o-hor hemisphere, detail. Living in little ou: antiseptic L5 him. he'll abort my career Which is malar- What a fantastic place this is! habitats," we're not required to out- key, course. be of I He may outrank me, but he don'l feel tired. I don'! even feel doors-wise, all. after Anyway, there's a has no real authority over me. And then his frightened— just a little wary. fleshy-looking cone on the just in politeness yesterday cycad (Yesterday? An eon I feel exhilarated, as a matter of fact. front of r the cleft, and it's got an edible look. ago! ) Smiling sma rri:y. tell, ng me he hopes Here I sit, peering out between fern Might well it as try raw, because there's no I'll rethink my ptisilon curing my observa- 'rones a- a scene out of the dawn of time. other way Rubbing stcks :ogetherwill get tion lour on the island. Wishing me well. All that's missing is a pterosaur or Iwo flap- me nowhere. Had he gimmicked my powerpak? I guess ping overhead, but we haven't brought Gelling the off cone lakes some work. it isn't hard, if you know a little engineering, those back yet, The mournful snufflings of twist, Wiggle, . snap, tear— there Not as and Sarber does. Some kmc ol timer ;-;ei to the huge brachiosaur carry clearly even in fleshy as' ii looks. in Chewy, fact. It's a little withdraw the insulator rods? Wouldn'l be the heavy air. The struthiomimias a-e mak- like munching rubber. on Decent flavor, any harm to Dino Island itself, just a quick, ing sweet honking sounds. Night is falling though. And maybe some useful car- compacl, localized d sasie' lhat implodes swiftly and the great shapes out there take, bohydrate. and melts the unit and its passenger So on dreamlike, primordial wonder. The shuttle isn't due to pick for sorry, terrible : me up scientific tragedy, whar a What a brill anl dea it was to put all the thirty days. Nobody's apt to come looking great loss! if And even by some fluke I got Otsen-process dinosaur reconstructs for me. or even to think about me, before out of Ihe unit in time, my chances of surviv- aboard a little L5 habitat of their very own then. I'm on my own, Nice irony there: I was ing here as a pedestrian for thirty days and turn them loose to re-create the desperate to gel oul ol Vronsky and escape would be pretty skimpy, right? Right. Mesozoic! After that unfortunate San Diego from all the bickering and maneuvering, It makes me boil to think that someone event wifh the tyrannosaur it became politi- the endless meetngs and memoranda, the would be willing to murder you over a mere cally unfeasible to keep them anywhere on feinting and counterfeinting, all the ugly policy disagreement. It's barbaric. Worse Earth, I know, but, even so, this is a better political crap__ that scientisrs n hcUge than that, it's tacky. scheme, In just a little more than seven when thsy turn into administrators. Thirty years Dino Island has laken on an al- days of blessed isolation on Dino Island! 1130 hours. I can't stay crouched in this together convincing illusion .of reality. An end to that constant dull throbbing in my cleft forever. I'm 'going .to explore Dino Is- Things grow so fast in this lush, steamy, old, intricate remember wiicn I Mr ik I'm go nc nuts. high-G0 2 tropica: tumosphore! Of course years to carry out the implants we haven'! been able to duplicate the real in reptilian host ova lo see the omDryos Mesozoic flora, but we've done all right through to self-sustaining levels. The only using botanica surv vers, cycads and Iree word that apples is.'raracu/ous Hour dinos ferns and horsetails and palms and come from eras millions of years apart, so ginkgos and auracarias. and thick carpets be it: We do our best. If we have no anced diet for the big c iday l grtsly oi mosses and selagineNas and liverworts pterosaur and no allosaur and no ar- have to snare some fo , covering Ihe. ground. Everything has chaeopteryx, so be it: We may have them though I find the prospect of ealirg raw blended and merged and run amok. It's yet. What we already have is plenty to work frog's legs anymore. hard now to recall the bare and unnatural with. Someday there may be separate I don't bother getting dressed fall four look of the island when we first laid it out. Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous satellite With rain showers programmed to it's Now it's a seamless tapestry in green and habitats, but none of us will live to see that, I times a day, better to go naked anyway brown, a dense jungle broken only by suspect Mother Eve of the Mesozoic, that's me' And streams, lakes, and meadows, encapsu- Total darkness now. Mysterious screech- without my soggy tunic I find that I don't of lated in spherical metal walls some five ings and hissings out there This afternoon mind the greenhouse atmosphere the kilometers in circumference. habitat half as much as I did. And the animals, the wonderful, fantas- the Out to see what I can find, tic, grotesque animals. The dinosaurs are up and about already, -nt We don't pretend that the real Mesozoic ;oming within fifty or a hundred meters i. ever held any such mix of fauna as I've iving dinos. I felt a kmd of ecstasy. Now my nivor them seen today, stegosaurs and oorythosaurs ears are returning, and my anger at this have side by side, a iriceratops sourly glaring at stupid marooning. I imagine clutching wait' a brachiosaur, struthiornimus contempo- jlaws reaching for me, terrible jaws yawn- days rary with iguanodon, a wild unscientific ng above me. reptil jumble of Triassic, Jurassic, and Creta- I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight- them ceous, a hundred million years of the di- their nosaur reign scrambled together. We take 22 August. 0600 hours. Rosy-fingered level: what we can get. Olsen-process recon- fawn comes to Dino Island, and I'm still cons S'.'ucts require sufficient fossil DNA to per- mit the computer synthesis, and we've been able to find that in only some twenty species so' far. The wander is *nat we ve lans. these! Would that they were, if only for accomplished even that mucn fa -eplicate my survival's sake. the complete DNA molecule from battered and sketchy genetic information millions of 1130 hours. A busy morning My first en- Rum glows with flavor in the limelight. 4 partsWhite Puerto Rican Rum, 1 part Rose's." Rose's Lime Juice* . Ron Siegel probes the hallucinating brain to chart hidden features of our mental landscape CARTOGRAPHER OF CONSCIOUSNESS 3*v. -*£ BY BRIAN VAN DER HORST ...jr Ronald K. Siegel removes the control the retrieval of informa- liny vessels from a heavy safe in tion almost at will— including his laboratory. "This is a bottle of thought imagery, daydream im- Ihe original solution processed agery, sleep imagery, or halluci- in Switzerland .for Albert nation imagery." Hofmann." he says. "This is the Certain key aspects of cere- lasl bottle manufactured by bral behavior have emerged Sandoz for Timothy Leary. . . through Siegel's research. "We This is an Oriental batch pro- know that hallucinations corre- duced especially for me." He spond to patterns in the struc- might be a connoisseur of wines ture of the optical system and to lalking about great vintages. But storage information in the brain's these three vials, each the size conical cells," he says. "That in- of a pencil stub, contain enough formation is stored in geometric LSD-25, psilocybin, and opium arrays, which form the Structure to turn all of Los Angeles on. we see played on the visual An experimental psychologist screen during hallucinations. at UCLA's Neuropsychiatry In- Structural interpretation is idio- stitute, Ron Siegel probably matic for each person, but the knows more about how drugs structure itself reflects the com- work than anyone else alive. He mon wiring of the human brain." uses science to determine ex- In addition to delineating the actly what people see during a drug experience. His visual format of hallucinations, Siegel examines the trained "psychonauts" traverse inner space and report question of where and how these visions originate. The back what they see. This enables the psychologist to most integrated explanation, he has found, is "percep- char! elusive features of the mental landscape. tual release." This theory of hallucinations was first for- "We now have a map of all hallucinations in terms of mulated by British neurologist Hughlings Jackson in form, color, and movement," Siegel notes. "While visual, 1931 and was updated by Siegel's colleague Louis our mapping techniques can be applied to auditory, Jolyon West. olfactory, tactile, and probably emotional states We've Normal memories, the theory assumes, are sup- begun to see that the subjective world is just as worthy pressed by the flow of sense information from the out- of serious research as the objective world," side world. "New information," West writes, "inhibits the Siegel's work with she hallucinating brain promises to emergence and awareness of previously processed reveal important new information about how the human information. If the new input is decreased or impaired mind functions. Far beyond the obvious benefits it will while awareness remains, stored images may be re- bring in the improved use and manufacture of pharma- teased and experienced as hallucinations or dreams," ceuticals, scientific drug use may demonstrate enor- In other words, hallucinogens temporarily stem the mous potential in expanding our mental abilities. blinding flow of sensory information that pours into the "Much of the information stored in the brain is in the brain, enabling the individual to explore the awesome form of images," he explains. "By studying hallucina- depths of his own internal universe. Psychologically, tions, we are learning about the storage-and-retrieval physiologically, and neurochemical^, Siegel found, hal- process of those images. We will eventually be able to lucinogens can be described as mirrors of the mind. Unraveling drug visions is the result of painstaking Siegel (left) maps tne meaning ol drug-induced art (above) preparation and exhaustive experimentation, Contrary - "This simply wasn't true. If you wanted to go proved, to be a. Rosetta Stone of human Explosive, rotating lattice tunnels predomi- through the logistics o! gevt;ng permission, hailucination. "We constructed a list of nated, overlaid by complex images drawn lines subject's life. The scenes and you could get it. I think expressions like eight forms from to kaleidoscopes, from the 'The government's hassling me, "red tape," eight colors, and eight patterns of move- forms all danced together around a bright and 'roadblocks' are unreasonable as- ment. Then we trained volunteers in each of light in the center of the image. voyages recalled sessments of what I consider some rather the forms. Many psychonau'f good procedures for ensuring safety and "For example, in training related to tunnel childhood memories and embellishments experimental rigor." forms, we showed hundreds ol slides of of strong emotional scenes. During peak The first step was to select his all- tunnels so that subjects would have a hallucinatory periods, subjects frequently important psychonauts. Volunteers were broad concept of the form." crossed the Rubicon of complete halluci- recruited through advertisements in West In essence, Siegel ran a psychedelic' nation. They described themselves as ac- Coast newspapers and alternate life-style boot camp, drilling his psychonauts until tually becoming part of the imagery and publications. Siegel was not allowed io use they could identify the minutest changes in stopped using similes in their reports, as- naive subjects but did select those who form. They would not only report that serting that the images were real. In this had a minimum number of previous drug "There's a ye low, spiral checkerboard com- state, images changed as frequently as ten experiences. "We didn't want them reliving ing at me from twelve o'clock," but that the times per second. Bui even at the height of old trips on our drugs," he says. "We yellow was 570 millimicrons in wavelength. phantasmagoria, constants appeared wanted to give them all their trips." When Siegel's explorers were finally ad- among psychonauts. Siegel plied his volunteers with agents ministered drugs in isolation chambers, A review of 500 LSD experiences re- ranging from LSD to psilocybin, mescaline, their unprecedented visual education en- vealed that between 62 and 72 percent of PCP, and old-fashioned marijuana, sup- abled them to report an average of 20 times the subjects saw similar simple-form con- plied by the government or pharmaceutical a minute, compared to only 5 times a min- stants, while more than 79 percent re- companies. But belore a subject inhaled a ute with untrained subjects. ported similar complex images. single toke, Siegel trained him with What did Ihey see? Placebos, amphet- "We are finding correspondences of thousands of slides to identify instantane- amines, and mild depressants produced chemical and electrical properties in the ously a veritable jungle of visual forms. nothing but black-and-white random forms brain, linked with what the individual sees These forms were selected from a sys- moving aimlessly. The hallucinogens, how- in his mind's eye," Siegel says. "We're tem devised by Heinrich Kluver in the ever, produced more' vivid descriptions. showing that the subjective world is capa- 1920s. Kluver identified four types of con- First, organized, geometric patterns ap- ble of being mapped and understood de- sistent hallucinogenic images; gratings peared. Slowly they took on blue tints and spite the billions of pathways and neurons and honeycombs; cobwebs; tunnels and began pulsating. Thirty minutes into the present in the nervous system. This will cones; and spirals. Variations in color, voyage, lattice and tunnel forms increased ultimately— perhaps in fifty to one hundred years— allow us to have complete mastery eyes, and sandy, longish hair are reminis- and any pathology that may be there. It over a scientifically engineered inner world. cent of a younger, more penetrating Dick never ceases to amaze me how much resis- We will be able to recall thoughts and im- Cavett, He is thirty-six years old. tance we have built up to accepting that ages at will and to interpret dreams by ob- Over a dark, steaming cup of coffee — very simple fact. jective criteria. With that also will come bet- the only drug he'uses personally— Siegel "One can make a very strong, evo Libr- ter mental health through new ways of digresses about the drugs he deals with so ary, historical argument that our species-, communicating with the mentally ill. The intently in the lab. "I'd like to see laws more as well as others, has always used these hallucinating schizophrenic, for example, in tune with psychopharmacological real- compounds to__alter our states of arousal may not be dissimilar to the hallucinating ity. There is a notion in our country today and our moods." drug patient, with whom we can now com- that drugs are mag cslel xirslral w II :rans- This forms the premise of Natural Intoxi- municate very effectively." form people into either geniuses or ma- cation, a book Siege-1 is now preparing, For most scientists, achieving the first full niacs. They're not. There are dangerous, "We are not the only animal that furns on," understanding of hallucination would be an homicidal, combative people who take he observes. Since the days of the dino- all-consuming task, but not for Siegel. Be- drugs, however, and become more so. But saurs—whoso demise S:f;gel attributes in sides his studies, this Renaissance man it's not the drug, it's too personality. The part to drug overdoses from prehistoric ieaches at UCLA, serves as an editorial drug triggers the underlying personality vegetation--a host of animals have pur- referee for nine prestigious journals, runs a forensic-medicine practice specializing in drug-related deaths, and is a volunteer at UCLA's Veterans' Administration Hospital He has also found time to write classic papers on the effects of such herbal reme- dies as ginseng, kola, and nontobacco cigarettes and reports of experiments with the imaginary playmates of young children. As an avocation, Siegel owns a research- and-development company called Moshka Laboratories, which investigates new sources of drugs— including a cocaine chewing gum. He writes prizewinning poetry, is a capable artist, and has even invented a machine that projects hal- lucinatory images directly onto the retina of the eye. In early trials of FOCUS (Flexible Optical Control Unit Stimulator), subjects couldn't tell the machine's images from re- ality. What's more, subjects demonstrated the same bocli y responses as they would have by taking a drug. FOCUS seems to turn people on without drugs. In recent years Siegel has become one of the leading forensic authorities on drug abuse. He was consulted on such land- mark cases as the Leslie Van Houten "Hel- ler Skelter" trials, where LSD intoxication was a major issue, and Massachusetts v. Miller, in which cocaine laws were declared unconstitutional for the first time. Today Siegel is consulted constantly in drug cases. "I probably get called on one drug- related homicide a day. and many rapes and robberies," he reports. "This year alone I've been called to testify in court for over seventy cases." Robert C. Petersen, assistant director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, holds Siegel in the highest esteem. "Ron's a highly imaginative, creative psychologist, and one of the most competent guys in his area," he says. In the middle of this cyclone of activity, Siegel, a dedicated vegetarian, somehow manages to keep in good enough shape to run 3:15 marathons. And he looks it. Siegel's lean, compact frame moves quickly around his apartment, which is filled with rare-drug books, Huichol yarn paintings, iridescent oils by an artist stoned on yage (a hallucinogenic plant found in South America), and sketches by clinical subjects strung out on LSD. The psychologist's knife-edged face, green 3 , posefully intoxicated themselves. "According to the eleven street-drug- Sophisticated psychopharmacology Elephants eai the fermented fruits of analysis labs scattered across the United opens exciting new vistas in the develop- several trees, which contain 7 percent al- States, we know the average potency of an ment and control of mental activities. . cohol. Some grazing animals live for years LSD dose is fifty micrograms, less than the "These drugs will give us control, and on hallucinogenic jimsonweed. Birds in threshold needed to elicit a full psychedel- through control we will achieve power," Hawaii ingest the mescaline-containing ic experience. Siegel predicts. "We shall also achieve San Pedro cactus. Chimpanzees gobble "People are using LSD today just like greater insight to temper our expanded marijuana. Cats nibble catnip. Boars, por- beer. They spend the day at Disneyland or mental abilities." cupines, and gorillas trip out on plants con- go to a movie. I'm not saying this isn't fun. The most valuable outgrowth of Siegel's taining the psycnodolic ibogaine. Reindeer But I think it's a misuse of a very potent research, though, may have more to do feed on Amanita muscaria mushrooms, agent. I fear that psychedelics have lost with brotherhood than with brain control. and virtually everyone has heard the story that philosophical message that came with His cross-cultural studies of drug visions of how humankind discovered coffee by their widespread introduction in the Sixties. have found that the constants of hallucina- observing Abyssinian goats getting frisky People today often have no regard for the tion transcend cultural boundaries. Every- after eating the fruit of the coffee tree. potential of psychedelics, for the doors of one has the same basic experiences. Siegel paints his discoveries about the perception they in can open the mind. I Weston LaBarres, a Duke University an- pervasiveness of drugs in near-Darwinian think this is almost sacrilegious." thropologist, notes the. importance of such hues. What, he asks, if the tendency of In the future drugs will become legal, findings; "Anthropologists are so used to many animals and most mammals is to- more natural, and much more specialized, cross-cultural differences that when we ward intoxication and the consumption of Siegel expects-. "When we talk aboul natu- see something physiologically similar, we psychoactive drugs 7 If that is true, might ral intoxicants and recreational drugs, we'll prick up our ears. I like and respect there not be an evolutionary drive toward probably have a variety of them to appeal Siegel's work." intoxication rather than sobriety? Perhaps to different types of personalities. We'll "There is a universal common de- as species respond to increasingly com- probably need a stimulant, a tranquilizer, nominator of behavior, "Siegel asserts. "It's plex environmental and social stresses, in- something similar to what Jung called the toxication becomes a most natural state of collective unconscious, typified by sym- affairs in the animal kingdom. Our societal bols like the mandala. Whether you use that respect for sobriety be an unnatural may kind of labeling or choose to call it some- cultural restraint on natural evolutionary thing else, the fact remains that, given an ' cepted: Marijuana has some use in the But none of these have been adequately utility in inspiring creative endeavors or giv- treatment of glaucoma, as an analgesic for investigated, and certainly our molecular ing support to transcendental experi- cancer victims, and- as an antiemetic in chemists can design even better drugs. ences. But it is to say that they are very chemotherapy. There are some research "These new drugs will perform the same similar for all people. I think this reflects the data that suggest LSD and other psyche- general function as their current counter- common biological wiring of Homo sapi- delics help may terminal patients and al- parts," Siegel believes, "but they'll do it ens. The specific content may differ, but coholics. I think these suggestions should better, safer, cleaner. We'll be able to elim- the geometric format of these visions— the fully be more explored and researched in inate the physical side effects, the bad trips. colors, tints, saturation, brightness, move- clinical practice. The perfect drug will get in and out of the ment—will be the same for Huichol Indians "In I terms of recreational use, think body quickly, will have few bodily effects, or residents of San Francisco. potential drugs have as an educational and will affect only those centers of sensa- "There is a harmony in the interior land- tool. They let us experience a wide range of tion and perception we want affected." scapes of all people," the cartographer of mental and emotional phenomena that In this way drugs will become less consciousness proclaims. "We are very provide a rich substratum for learning." frightening, more controllable, and far much the same, and that should increase Unfortunately, "Siegel declares, hal- more useful to the general population. fraternity with our fellow humans. There is a lucinogens today aren't being put to any Siegel feels. They will change the way we brotherhood of man subjectively as well as good use, not even good hallucination. think and the way' we live. objectively." DO 58 OMNI lyM/ lan a speeding t BY ROBERT L. FORWARD ^;hW|ifr»i>f^iQBmSi ard, shielded forever by slowed li space— a black hole. If the star is the size of our sun or smalle radiation into the nigh! a terminal explosion bu- ils end is neither a the one at the center of the Crab Nebula, tremendous gravity, il takes a billion times black hole nor a white dwarf. What was the remnants of a supernova that hap- as much energy to raise a bit of the neutron once a large, red ball ot glowing gas, with a pened on July 4, 1064. It is spinning at star's surface ten centimeters as it does to weak magnetic field threading its center, is 30.22 revolutions per second, slightly fast- lift a rock ten kilometers over Earth. condensed into a white-hot, rapidly spin- er than most electric motors.) Above the crust is an "atmosphere" of ning ball of ultradense neutrons, with stiff If the original star had a magnetic field of metallic vapor that thins rapidly with height magnetic appendages stretching out on a few hundred gauss, as our sun does Atop the tallest mountains, fully 15 cen- either side. Surrounding this tiny, shocked (Earth's is only half a gauss), the field is timeters high, the-atmosphere's density ball of neutrons are the diaphanous outer trapped in the hot gases and concentrated has dropped to one twentieth of surface Tlayers of the original star. Thrust by its mag- as the star collapses— to a strength of 1 pressure. netic field away from the cast-off shell, the trillion gauss. Since a star's magnetic fields Cracks tens of meters long and a kilo- neutron star flies off into the blackness to are not near the spin poles, as they are on meter deep rend the crust, releasing start a new life— as a planet. planets, but poke out of the sunspots near volcanoes of liquid neutrons laced with It's not a promising start for something Ihe equator, the neutron star's magnetic electrons. Iron-vapor clouds rise to the you'd describe as earthlike, and the differ- field also sticks out at odd angles. stratosphere almost 15 centimeters over- ences are enormous. Although hotter than At the star's center is a 14-kilometer core head, brightening Ihe countryside for me- most stars and more massive than its dull of liquid neutrons, with a density of more ters around. Because temperatures in- white dwarf neighbors, a neutron "star" is than 700 million tons per cubic centimeter. crease with depth and the liquid neutrons not a star Stars are njge bal;s of burning Over this is a two-kilometer-thick mantle of undergo radioactive decay as they rise to gas. warm and fuzzy on the outside and hot crystalline neutrons and nuclei. Already the the surface, the lava releases enough en- and. dense on the inside, A neutron star has density has dropped to 1 million tons per ergy to maintain its flow against gravity. a hoi, dense interior, but it is a ball of liquid cubic centimeter. Here the pressure is low Volcanoes build up lava shields many mil- neutrons, not gas. The outside does not enough for some of the protons and neu- limeters high and hundreds of meters have the soft atmosphere of a normal sun. trons to combine into atomic nuclei. Most across, slowly changing the weight dis- Instead, it has a hot, glowing, crystalline are elements from the middle of the tribution of the neutron star. Finally, they crust of iron nuclei. periodic table— manganese, iron, nickel, cause starquakes. The neutron star has a mass half that of and zinc. Starquakes change the height of a lava the sun, but a diameter of only 20 kilome- The crust consists of neutron-rich nuclei, shield or mountain range by a few millime- ters. The gravity >icld at its surface is about mostly iron, The density near Ihe surface is ters in the star's 70-billion-g gravity field. 70 billion times as strong as Earth's. When only seven tons per cubic centimeter, a Because the neutron star is rotating, its first formed, the star spins at more than drop of 140,000 times in only one kilometer. magnetic field gives off pulses of radio 1,000 revolutions per second, but it slows As the star coois and shrinKs, the crust waves each time it comes around, just like rapidly. After a few thousand years it re- wrinkles as it attempts to fit itself to the the lamp in a lighthouse. The star's enor- volves only about five times per second. liquid interior. Mountain ranges raise their mous rotational inertia keeps the pulses (The fastest-spinning neutron star known is masses many centimeters high against the very regular; they can be timed to parts in a % billion. When a cense range of mountains tions off the hot surface, "plants" could run the field of a neutron star is so strong that it rises orfalls in astarquake, the star's inertia a food cycle by using the temperature dif- is many times easier to move along the and spin speed change. We have detected ference between the crust and their cold magnetic field lines than across them. The these changes after quakes on neutron iopsides. usually spherical iron nucleus is stretched stars up to 5.000 light-years away. Picture life on a neutron star: The power- into a cigar ten times longer than it is wide. Mountain ranges, volcanoes, quakes, an ful magnetic field dominates all movement A neutron-star being at a magnetic pole is atmosphere— ihese are very earthlike fea- everywhere on the star. The flow of volcanic ten times taller than one at the equator, A tures to find in an environment so alien. Is lava, the fall of a landslide, and the pas- being at the equator is ten times wider to- Ihere any reason, then, to rule out the pres- sage of vibrations through the atmosphere ward the magnetic poles than transversely. ence of life as well? Probably not. And the or crust all travel preferentially along the However, since their eyes are affected in similarities between our environments, magnetic-field lines, the same way, the beings do not notice the combined with the basic needs of life itself, Even the nuclei that make up the star's distortion. might well give us much in common with crust and inhabitants are affected, Inside The creatures themselves find it many these alien beings. each atomic nucleus there are positively limes easier to travel along the magnetic- One of life's most characteristic features charged protons in rapid motion Magnetic field lines than across them. Moving across is complexity: this is especially true of intel- fields exert a force on moving charges, and Ihe magnetic field sets up electrical cur- ligent life. There is plenty of opportunity for complexity on a neutron star. Compare possible neutron-star beings with man; A 70-kilogram human, composed of an esti- mated 10 25 atoms, shows some signs of intelligence. An intelligent neutron-star being could probably get by with 10 25 nu- clei. Since most of an atom's mass is in the nucleus, such a being would also weigh about 70 kilograms. While terrestrial life forms are made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and traces of other elements, neutron-star life would be formed-mostly of iron nuclei, the predominant element in the crust. To pro- vide complexity, there would be many isotopes of iron, some more neutron-rich than others, and traces of elements near iron in the periodic table. The atomic nuclei would not have captive electron clouds to keep them isolated from one another. Instead, they would share a sea of free electrons. The nuclei would be so near one another that they could exchange neutrons, forming "nuclear- bonded macrornolecules" as easily as human atoms join by trading electrons. Since a typical atomic nucleus is about one millionth the size of an atom, nuclear molecules will react about a million times faster than the atomic molecules in our bodies do, One possible form for an intelligent neutron-star being would be a flat, amoebalike creature about five millimeters in diameter and half a millimeter high, Pack- ing 70 kilograms into this volume gives a density 7 million times that of water, equal to the star's crust. Life on Earth exists because of the sun, Photons come pouring down onto the leaves of plants, and the chlorophyll molecules capture some of their energy to make food. Some of it becomes waste heat, which the plant empties into the at- mosphere through the transpiration pores in its leaves. Then at night the atmosphere releases its load of heat into the dark sky, which has a temperature only three de- grees above absolute zero. For neutron-star life, the situation is re- versed. This" 'plants, instead of spreading their leaves to catch the hot sunlight, must use them to "see" Ihe cold sky. With a tap- root into the hot, neutron-rich crust and a strong supporting stem to lift the top por- rents in their that bodies cause a magnelic tion, its density dropping by 1 million, until it neutron star, of course, but the two cultures "drag." It's like trying to force a path had been transformed into a weirdly might meet in orbit around the star, Looking through a room strung wilh rubber bands. If shaped, and very dead, chunk, of .glowing at a human, neutron-star beings would see the beings push hard enough, the field nickel-iron alloy a huge "violet" skeleton with gaping holes lines move aside to let them through, yet To leave home without blowing up, the for eyes, each larger than the caldera ol a still resist with considerable force. The neutron-star beings will have to take their neutron-star volcano. Between the eye minute the beings slop moving, the cur- own gravity with them. They must either sockets, a cavern deeper and longer than a rents die away and the magnetic field re- invent a lightweight gravily generator for neutron-star Grand Canyon would slash enters their bodies, pinning them to the their spacecraft or take some miniature down toward two rows of dense, violet- field lines like beads strung on a wire black holes along. white teeth standing like two mountain Vision is quite different for neutron-star A nucleonic space cruiser big enough to ranges, one atop the other. Flesh and hair beings. Since they are tiny, their eyes are so hold three or four dozen neutron beings would" appear as a "blue-white" short- small that they must see by ultraviolet light and their equipment would be a sphere the ultraviolet outline surrounding the skeleton, and soft X rays. Living on a neutron star is size of a golf ball. If the ship had a stiff shell with clothing-showing up as a faint like living in the middle of a charcoal fire. of neutron-star crystal with a black hole of "reddish-yellow" wisp in the long-ultraviolet There is.no sun or moon overhead; the 1 1 billion tons mass in the center, the gravity part of the spectrum, "light" comes from the hot crust of the star on the surface, though far below that of the Since the molecules in a neutron-star itself. Everything is whitish-yellow on the neutron star, would be enough to keep its being react a million times faster than ours, bottom, shading to deep red on top, where passengers from exploding. Small flitters the tjeings would live, think, reproduce, the surface faces the cold sky. The beings designed to carry just one being at a time and die a million times faster than we do. A themselves glow white-hot, and their eyes need be only about five millimeters in di- human year would be equal to a million of are raised on stalks to avoid being blinded ameter—the size of a mustard seed. They their years — enough for their species to by their own internal radiance. could use miniature black holes of only 200 evolve. One human day would equal 2,500 Since the star's gravity is what keeps the million tons mass. of their years, enough for the rise and fall of beings dense enough to exist, they will The large space cruiser would have to great empires. Thirty human minutes would have a hard time developing spaceflight. If stay well away from human beings. Its grav- cover the life span of a neutron-star being, a neutron-star being were placed in free ity Meld, even 15 meters away, would be with perhaps only 15 minutes available for fall, the repulsion between their positively one-third g. Any closer than that and the conversation with our scientists during the charged protons would drive the nuclei person would be sucked onto the space- creature's adult phase. apart. As the distance increased, the elec- craft, The smaller sphere could come A chat with the slow-witted, slow-moving trons, which under pressure flowed as a within a meter, so that an observer could humans would try the most patient of the "liquid" around the nuclei, would attach actually see the glowing-hot being astride neutron-star beings. A human word would themselves to specific nuclei, forming nor- it. Even at that, the gravity field on the per- take day, a a sentence a week. We could . mal atoms. Soon the creature would have son's nose would be three gravities! learn a great deal from a life form that knew expanded by a factor of 100 in each direc- We could never visit the surface of a as much about nuclear physics as we know ~ about molecular chemistry, but we had both better use computers to speed the actual dialogue. The time difference also means that we could not spend very long in useful discus- sion. 'If we were fortunate enough to meet a neutron-star race when they had just started to develop intelligence, they would be interested in talking with us for only a few days. After that, they would have pro- gressed the equivalent of thousands of years ahead of us. They could inadvert- ently ruin our civilization by-telling us more than we could handle, either physically or emotionally. Life on a neutron star? Some would say it is impossible, since there are no seas to form the primordial soup and the tempera- ture of even a white-hot neutron star is close to absolute zero, as nuclear energies go. But it is not hard to "prove" that life cannot exist on Earth. The intense ul- traviolet radiation from our. sun is enough to break any molecular bond that has the. temerity to form, and everyone knows that 3§S§-i oxygen is deadly.to hydrocarbon life. What oxygen doesn't poison, it burns, especially when triggered by the terrible lightning storms that ravage, the globe. Life on Earth? Ridiculous! S' So. if one day you see a'ball of light pass rapidly overhead, then find yourself pulled offbalance by the gravitational tug of an incandescent golf ball many meters off, just wave to it. The crew doesn't have all week to waste listening to you say, "Hello! Welcome to Earth!"OQ that may well determine our long-term future. There are some marvelous benefits ahead for No one knows the precise nature of these mankind. But along with every benefit will come a whole new set of problems. choices, but futurists agree that our actions Champion is a forward-looking forest products today will reverberate throughout the years company. We plant seeds for a living. Seeds that take from 25 to 50 years to become mature trees. ahead. Therefore, we think a lot about The Future of the for- company whose entire being is based est. And, of the people who will be around to buy our As a products in the years to come. on the tree, a renewable resource that takes So, during the coming year, in magazine ads like to mature, we have always this, we will continue our program of discussing from 25 to 50 years some of the potential cultural and sociological im- been particularly concerned about the pros- pacts of future technology and change— to help you of make intelligent choices. pects of future generations of forests and You might say, we're planting seeds of thought future generations of people. for tomorrow. So it seems only natural for us to consider The Future is some of the situations that futurists foresee for the coming generations. And to discuss some coming. of the choices that will have to be made. In magazine pages like this, we will con- tinue to look at some of the major issues that But only you can affect us all in the years to come. If you have any doubts about The Future can decide remember this: many of the supposedly "un- solvable" problems of past generations have where it's going. been very successfully solved. For example, we now have insulin for diabetics, ships that fly to Lord Kelvin, the eminent nineteenth cen- the moon and an effective polio vaccine. tury physicist, once predicted: "X-rays will If you agree that The Future consists of a prove to be a hoax"; "Aircraft flight is impossi- variety of alternatives, that choice is unavoid- ble"; and "Radio has no future." able and that refusing to choose is itself a Octave Chanute, an aviation pioneer said choice, you have taken the first step toward a in 1904: "The Iflyingl machines will eventually more active role in your own future. You can be fast, they will be used in sport, but they are learn more by sending for a free brochure not to be thought of as commercial carriers." about the critical issues we face inThe Future Henry L. Ellsworth, U.S. Commissioner of and a bibliography for further reading. Write: Patents in 1844, a man who should have known Champion International Corporation better, said: "The advancement of the arts (of Dept. 200N, P.O. Box 10143 invention] from year to year.. .seems to presage Stamford, Connecticut 06921 the arrival of that period when further im- provement must end." In a comment on this kind of "technological Champion- forest products company with pessimism," science writer Arthur C. Clarke, a its roots planted firmly in Profiles oftheFuture, said: "When a distin- in the future. guished but elderly scientist states that some- We are in the forest products business. We plant trees, grow trees, harvest thing is possible, he is almost certainly right. trees. And from trees we make wood fine paper tor When he states that something is impossible, building products. Plus prii and business. And paper packaging for he is very probably wrong." shipping and selling, Obviously, we can't leave The Future just Because we make our living from the forest, our success depends, in one to the experts. As intelligent and well-informed way or another, on the future, And as they are, they are not infallible. we re planning—and planting—for it. Collectively, we all have to take responsi- bility forthe future. It doesn't just happen to us. We must learn all we can from the past. And use it to help us in the years to come. Champion International Corporation The human race is now making choices Planting seeds for the future The foremost critic of bureaucracy discusses his unorthodox views of big government, population, and a new campaign to end forced retirement IfUTERV/IEUU Stilt in its comple- Alabama. He has published two books recently: The Law: | f* |ork expands to fill the lime available for law, first published Pursuit (John Murray. 1979) and The Law of Longer Life (written 1' ,ion - The wit and simplicity of this I I l Dr. LeComte, Troy State University Press, 1980), in U ^^20 years ago in Parkinson's Law, or the Pursuit of jointly with H. criticism of waywardness and waste to an Progress, made C. Northcote Parkinson famous the world over. His which he turns Irom law made the labyrinths ot bureaucratic process understandable argument in favor of research on longevity. the whole process of government finance," to a generation. Then a history professor at the University of "We need to revise "Ministers should not Malaya, Parkinson became suddenly fashionable as people grew Parkinson wrote in The Law and Profits. their departments need. They should more conscious of the pitfalls of bureaucracy. Since publishing his begin by ascertaining what country can afford to spend." That is law, Parkinson has held visiting professorships at Harvard and the begin by asking what the Thatcher is trying to in her U.K. administration. 1 universities of Illinois and California, and he has lectured at the what Mrs. do visits London, Omni's European 9 French and U.S. naval academies. Celebrated author, historian, During one of Parkinson's to Dixon, spoke to the professor about his law, 1 and journalist, Parkinson, now seventy, lives in semiretirement in editor, Dr. Bernard the social sciences, and his ideas on longevity. One of & Guernsey. He still travels widely, particularly to Scandinavia, where economics, reform; Britain the most precious human resources, Parkinson says, is the wis- I" he is regarded as a prophet of bureaucratic Great and expertise vested in the elderly. Yet we tend to let those s (whose prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, is a committed Parkin- dom The purpose of an antiaging potion would be to | sonian); and the United States, where he often appears on televi- talents atrophy. maintain, harness, such skills. I sion. Parkinson is a professor emeritus at Troy State University, in and thus Omni: Have you modified your analysis of pened since, I don't know, but I suspect the holding scientif c posts a-e quite bureaucratic incapable waste since Parkinson's Law? number of men has probably again risen to of any important research in their own sub- Parkinson: Nothing has happened to seventy-seven or maybe beyond. jects. They are busy, of course, but those change my views on staff proliferation and The disturbing thing about this statistic is actually contributing to science are rela- "committology"— that is, the needless and that it concerns manual, not clerical, work. tively few. Meeting scientists, I have found wasteful growth in the size of committees It raises an awful suspicion that the same one interesting rule to be applicable: A and cabinets. In fac!, there's now even law that I discovered for administration mediocre scientist \§ interested only in more evidence to show how right t was in twenty years ago may apply to manual geophysics, microbiology, or whatever, the first instance. work, too. while a really good scientist invariably has Omni: Most of the examples you put for- Omni: Does this phenomenon extend be- a wide range of interests, probably extend- ward then were British-. Can you cite any yond the United State:;'? ing to art, literature, or music. I first noticed American cases? Parkinson: The real distinction is not be- this with higher-ranking officers Parkinson: in the Yes. When the bridge connect- tween countries but between businesses armed forces after.World War II. The excel- ing San Francisco with Oakland was built, a with balance sheets and those without. So lent general or admiral was always some- team. of painters was hired. This was to be a long as there is no balance sheet, and gov- body who had far wider interests than permanent job: They would start at one ernment does not produce one, there is merely soldiering orsailoring. end, finish the at other, and go back to the nothing to combat proliferation. Similarly Second, there is an absurd multiplication beginning again — a good job with a pen- there is nothing to prevent proliferation of of scientific journals I first realized sion. Twelve this men were employed, but they monopolistic, rather than competitive, when I was working at an American univer- soon came back and said they needed businesses. sity, a first-rate place, and I talked to the reinforcements. So their number was in- Omni: How little competition constitutes a librarian about his problems. He said that a creased to fourteen, which I suspect is the monopoly? large part of his staff did nothing but file right one. Some twenty or thirty years later, Parkinson: I suspect tha! when the and cross-index astronomical numbers of though, the figure had risen to seventy- number of companies in a given industry is scientific journals. As an example, he seven. sub- At the same time, the job had been as tew as five, they probably will have scribed to seventy journals in dentistry mechanized and simplified by the intro- agreed with one another on wages, prices, alone. I found this mind-boggling duction for a sub- of paint sprayers. I should perhaps qualities, and everything else. ject that woutd appear to be of rather lim- emphasize that it was the same bridge: Omni: Have you noticed the same sort of ited scope. Oakland and San Francisco remained waste and inefficiency in science, which is Omni: But why hasn't the market out this exactly the same distance apart. Then now increasingly concerned with interna- right? More journals are now along published by came Governor Reagan, who started tional corporations, big machines, big sci- commercial publishers on behalf of off with the very best of intentions as a ence, and therefore, inevitably, bureauc- learned societies, and budgets are tight for reforming, economizing governor, and all racy? librarians and individuals. his efforts sufficed to bring the number Parkinson: Yes, I see considerable waste Parkinson: Scientific journals are not in- down to about fifty-five, What has hap- in two^areas. First, the majority of people tended to be read. They are printed to sup- port the prestige ot their contributors. De- spite the austerity you mention, in the academic world the motto is still "Publish or perish," To support your position as an as- sociate professor, to forward your ambition of someday becoming a full professor, you must regularly publish articles in your sub- ject. Imagine that the accepted journal in dentistry, nuclear physics, or whatever re- fuses your articles. The best answer is to start a new journal with yourself as editor, thus yielding a very fair chance of getting your articles accepted. Of course there are others whose articles are declined by your journal: so they set up their own. Eventually you have successive collections of articles rejected by earlier journals in the series, and presumably the articles are getting worse and worse, Like speeches made at annual conferences (which people don't listen to, because the real business takes place in the bars and saloons around the fringe), the great thing is getting the credit for making a speech or presenting a paper, Omni: One feature of the past two dec- ades has been the growth of United Na- tions agencies and of mammoth interna- tional conferences on such subjects as the environment, food, and Third World devel- opment. Do you think they do useful work? Parkinson: Here, too. we are stifling our- selves with paperwork and documentation. Our respect for science leads us to imag- ine that we can't decide on a solution of a problem until we comprehensively under- stand it. So we must collect slatistical and other data, Say that you have riots breaking CO'JT WUECONPAGEflS SPACE WITNESS If anyone paints in space, it should be Bob McCali: He's ail packed BYFC. DURANTIII A,Vtist in residence— in space? Why not. Eventually an artist will record the wonders of space firsthand while spending a week in orbit aboard the space shuttle. Prime candidate for this honor is space artist Robert T. McCali. More people have bought more reproductions of McCall's work than of any other space artist's. Usually the owner turns it over, licks it, and mails it to someone else. Six U.S. commemorative postage stamps issued in the past ten years bear McCali reproductions, among the flight to Jupiter, them Skylab , Apollo/Soyuz, Pioneer and the Viking missions to Mars. His Decade of Achievement double stamp was hand-canceled on the moon by astronaut David Scott during the Apollo 15 mission. McCali is working on another stamp right now The heroic mural McCali designed for the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, DC, has been seen by 40 million visitors. Two other large murals were completed by the artist at NASA centers in California and Texas. McCali helped interpret the beginnings of the Space Age for Life magazine by rendering dozens ot on-the-spot paintings from his vantage point at Cape Canaveral, Florida and ater became a key contributor to the NASA art program. He created the promo- tional art for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and submitted futuristic concepts for such films as Star Trek and Meteor and tor Walt Disney studios McCall wants to go into orbit. Broad-shouldered and now sixty he keeps fit and exercises purposefully so that he can accept the NASA invitation it and when it comes. Comfortably dressed for work in a faded jump suit splashed with vivid daubs of paint, he asserts. "Of course I want to go. I want to see how the view and perspective change when you're not standing on Earth ... and to experience Preceding page: Concept ol spaceship for Black Hole; one-man space robot Above Nfc tropolis 4000, Disney studios' gfarj space slat/on. Right: Astronaut firing maneuvering unit. il'd like to communicate the sense of what it's like up (here.? weightlessness, observe others; to sort out the emo- tional impact of being in space and to put it on canvas. I'd give it my best." McCall's best has always been outstanding. Born in Ohio, he won a scholarship and studied at the Colum- " bus Art School. "As a kid. I liked airplanes because they were dramatic and moved fast. I drew knights in armor, and I guess my paintings of astronauts in space suits are analogous— adventurous men risking everything, facing new challenges." As an illustrator in New York in 1949. McCall worked for Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, and several adver- tising firms. His interest in flight did not abate. He sent a "To Whom It May Concern" letter to Life magazine to- gether with a portfolio of his World War II combat illustra- tions. "I told them I believed man would be going to the moon, that I wanted to watch the launch and represent them when it happened," he recalls. Life eventually acknowledged the artist's query with a "we'll keep you in mind." They did. A year later he was commissioned to do 20 paintings in observance of the fifteenth anniver- sary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sputnik was launched the next year. Life soon required illustrations depicting the expanding space program. Kubrick's as- signment for 2001; A Space Odyssey followed. ^Future generations should feel proud of our accomplishments in space...... We are destined to explore and colonize the universe3 The talented space artist is astonished that "so few educated people appreciate the immensity of space and know so little about the cosmos." A neophyte as- tronomer who owns a three-inch reflector telescope. McCall is well aware that the view from space is a deep, inky black. The mural at the Air and Space Museum, however, is painted "as beautiful and inviting rather than black and ominous. Tome, the adventure in space offers incredible opportunities and rewards. "Wernher von Braun hoped to fly in space. He wanted to be 'the world's first orbiting grandfather.' " McCall paused. Then, softly, "I'd give anything to be.'OO Preceding page: Mars astronaut; fueling port. Left: The Future in Johnson Space Cenler mural. Above: Shepard, Grissom, and Young in mural detail: manned rockets from NASA/Dryden. 6 McCall's enthusiasm for science reflects faith in the future. 9 . . FICTION It was an exclusive hotel —you had to kill someone to get in. Only the jury could check you out BY BOB SHAW apartment was unwary user; and the ment— of lhat much he was Theneat, stylish, and com- bright-lettered canisters sure— but to do so, he fortable— not al all like could be bombs that would would have to be fantasti- a machine designed for kill- (:xp!Ode on removal of iheir cally careful. The best plan, ing people. lids. Even ihe simple act of the one he had already de- For a few seconds after opening a cupboard door cided upon, was to make the entrance door had might release a cloud of himself as comfortable as locked itself behind him, inslant-acting gas info his possible in the center of the Renfrew stood perfectly face, and one startled in- living-room floor and lo re- still, faking stock of the take of breath would be main there until Ihe seven It place, frying (o identify Ihe enough to . . days were up. would not most likely sources of If you want to stay alive, be easy or pleasant— the deaih. The kitchen — al- Renfrew thought, keep out matter of bodily functions ways the most complicated ol the kitchen alone would see to that— room in any habitat— was From his position near bu! it was a straight forward one area that obviously had the entrance he could see choice between life and to be avoided. Every parti- into the bathroom, and that death, and Renfrew much cle of food and drop of liq- also looked dangerous— preferred being alive. uid was suspect in case too many chrome fillings He walked info the living poisons had been adminis- that could spring bad sur- room and checked i! out tered; the appliances could prises. He was going to against his requirements, if have been wired in such a survive the mandatory measured roughly ten by way as lo electrocute the seven days in Ihe apart- ten, had blue wall-to-wall SCULPTURE BY SHIRTSLEEVE STUDIOS carpeting, and was furnished with a stepped back with widespread arms and after seven to ten days. The spread, Ren- good-quality settee, easy chairs, and oc- gauged Ihe size of the area he had cleared. frew supposed, was due to such factors as casional lables Several original abstracts It appeared ample for his needs. the size, weight, and general health of the adorned the cream-colored walls. The This -seems a shade loo easy, he subject and the rate of water loss from the room could have to a youngish, belonged thought, his confidence faltering.. Nobody tissues, and in that respect he was doing all intelligent, not excessively trendy person knew what percentage of condemned he could to tip the balance in his favor. He living- just about anywhere- between New murderers actually lasted out the week — it was naturally pudgy around the middle, York Los and Angeles— except for two was the practice, for humane reasons, to and throughout the tour days of his trial he atypical features, One was the complete whisk survivors off to colony worlds in total had loaded all his food with salt and had absence of windows, the other and was the anonymity and secrecy— but if the system drunk copiously of tea, coffee, milk, and display tube in the wall above the artificial could be beaten merely by camping out in water. His tendency to retain fluids, some- fireplace. the center of a room, would they not modify thing he had often bemoaned in the past, the On screen, in pulsing amber sans- it? Was there a chance that the carpet itself had enabled him to increase his body serif lettering, were two words: jury OUT. could become toxic? Or that rapiers would weight by approximately five kilograms- Renfrew examined trie room critically zip upward through the floor during the equal to four liters of life-giving liquid. and decided al once that the largest table, night? That alone would probably be sufficient positioned near Ihe middle of the floor, No, thai wouldn't be lair, Renfrew de- to ensure his survival, but Renfrew had would to have be moved against one.ot the cided, his fears abating somewhat. That gone further Knowing in advance that he . walls to give him the clear central space he way the apartment would be nothing more would be stripped of all personal posses- needed. itself When the room armed than an execution chamber, and the whole sions before being installed in the apart- against him, he was not going lo risk even point of Ihe Capital Punishment Reform Act ment,, he had taken time after breakfast to the most fleeting contact with any of the of 2061 was that it removed the awful fore- spray most of his skin with an antiper- a-'lifscrs 1 comained. For all he knew, every knowledge ot death — the feature of earlier spirant, which, fortunately, was quite odor- piece of furniture would begin to ooze con- systems to which humanitarians had most less. He suspected that its effectiveness tact poison as soon as Ihe jury returned the slrongly objected. There had to be some would fade rather quickly but closing his verdict of guilty, and he wanted to be sure prospect of getting through the week alive. pores and preventing evaporation for even he would not roll over in his It sleep and touch was simply a matter of intelligence, de- part ot a day gave him that extra edge in the something. termination, and self-control. And of lasting battle for life. Only two more measures re- The table was surprisingly heavy when seven days without a drink of water. mained to betaken, he Iried it, to move and tor a moment Ren- The prison micropedia had been annoy- Renfrew glanced at the screen above the frew feared it anchored was to the floor He ingly imprecise about how long a man fireplace, checking that the jurors were still changed tactics, pushing instead of lifting, could survive on zero liquid intake. Some of deliberating. He had been in the apartment this time and the table slid fairly easily, cre- the quoted authorities had avoided giving less than five minutes, but his defense had ating furrows deep in the carpet. When it any estimate at all, and others had been gone so seriously awry that he was, half- had to rest against come the wall, he content to stale that death would occur prepared for a verdict to be reached in record time. Fortesque, the young, state- appointed attorney, had tried to make capi- tal from the fact that the store security- guard shot by Renfrew had himself been indicted, for the manslaughter of an un- armed kid who had tried to run off with a tray of gold rings. The proposal had been that Renfrew was defending himself against a trigger-happy zealot, but it was obvious to Renfrew that the jurors were in favor of trigger-happy zealots and would have been pleased to employ teams of them to safeguard their own property. At that point he had begun thinking very hard indeed. about ways of surviving for a week in— to give the apartment one of its more popular labels — the Hereafter Hilton. The first, of the remaining precaulions was to reduce evaporation of bodily mois- ture even further by turning the heat down. Renfrew located the thermostat and ad- justed it to its lowest level. He then went into the kitchen, filled a tumbler with water, and began sipping it with the intention of in- creasing his fluid reserves. The notion of filling all available vessels and laying in a week's supply of water was tempting, but '}f~;m too dangerous. Any microscopic bubble in a glass could be a poison container to be opened by remote control as soon as the jury had voted. A low but insistent chiming sound filled the apartment. He set the tum- bler down, went back into the living room, and saw that the wording on the screen had changed. "Au revoir, actios, aui Wii-iciornohon. good-bye, addid." It now said, jury voting. "Vote early and vote often," Renfrew said CONTIN.JFDQN PAGE 98 - . UNBREAKABLE y, Diffie had left send you messages that you industry job in California to search i.. wouldn't wan! business competitors to formally for the perfect code. After study- intercept? Perhaps you cringe ature, he camped thought ol a tax audit, ff so, you're going all , the country, visiting the major centers of cryptographic re- ..-./ it's seemed thai the :h. Each night he examined the Revolution would leave us all technical papers from university 'he world. Anyone with enough id corporate labs by firelight. u gall, and the price of a At IBM's Yorktown Heights, New York, lab, a scientist suggested that he look lhan we can r arrived in Palo Alto,' Diffie selves. The insurance industry hasdone called Hellman, and we each immedi- it. So have the credit bureaus Some ately found the other to be the most in- government agencies do little formed person in this field not governed Nowthecomputersthathelp.... . by federal security regulations." / are giving it back— —with The problem they were trying to cryptographic genu is lodged deep in modem code prac- _ have made the breakthrough that i " " . Most coded messages these days builders have dreamed of tor computer to another i a practical code that «.<;, telephone lines. For confirn they are also sent by courier. Bi doesn't coi delays when ...... „.„ told them how volved. A coi With the right programming, most h< : rambling them. It's enough to make pro, snoops weep. In fact, they've s\ publicly against nongovernrr based cryptographers with prosecution under the State Department's Interna- tional Traffic in Arms regulation. Now the Defense Department is seeking the power to review articles on cryptog- raphy and to ban publication of any that it considers too informative. This round in the battle between pri- vacy freaks and code breakers got started when Martin Hellman, a thirty- ?-yeaf-old Stanford University pro- ar of electrical engineering, linked up with another code junkie, Whitfield Diffie. Schooled in symbolic ma the mat PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILLIP HARRINGTON can record, the agency's computers can In the summer of 1976 he finally lound a directory and uses il to decode the signa- decode. sympathetic reception in the Stanford elec- ture. Since no one but you could have used Hellman and Difffe concluded that the trical engineering department, and his the secret key, the recipient can be sure it major obstacle to secure transmission of work contributed to the breakthrough was you who sent the message. And since data over teleprocessing networks lay in paper on the public-key system. Published the keys are based on a one-way function, distributing the key, the instructions that tell that November the article, called "New the recipient still can't find your secret key. the recipienl how to decipher a message. Directions in Cryptography," conceded This makes it possible to sign contracts "Tradilionally," Hellman explains, "keys that sending out a million pieces to foil over a computer network, if ihe sender tries have been moved by couriers or registered spies searching for the one that carried the to renege on the 'deal, the recipienl need mall. But in an age of instant communica- key would be too expensive. Hellman and only produce a copy of the digital signature his claim in court. tions it was unrealistic for computer manu- Diffie remedied this problem by letting to back up facturers to expecl customers to wait days each user place his encryplion key in a When the first public-key ciphers were for the code to. arrive. What was needed public file, at the same time keeping Ihe announced, they dropped like bombs into was a system immediately accessible to decoding procedure a secret, the middle of -a running battle. Six years users who may never have had prior con- Since then Ronald Rivest, an MIT com- ago the National Bureau of Standards de- tact with each other." puter-science professor, and his col- cided to help out the banks, insurance The idea of sending coded messages to leagues Adi Shamir and Len Adleman have companies, and others that were desper- total strangers seemed impractical at first. made the code breaker's job even more ate for a way to keep their proprietary "In the past," Diffie says, "cryptography difficult by using a new set of one-way func- information secret. The NBS invited com- operated on a strongbox approach. The tions, Their method builds encoding keys puter experts to develop a "data encryp- tion algorithm" for comput- sender uses one key to lock up his mes- out of the product of two large prime num- standard IDES I sage, and the recipient has a matching key bers—numbers that can be divided only ers. (An algorithm is the set of instructions to turn plain text that unlocks the meaning. As Hellman and I by themselves and by 1. This generates a by which you use the key talked, we became intrigued by the idea of figure hundreds of digits long. into code and then decode it again.) And a system that used two different keys — one they invited ihe spooks from the NSA to for enciphering and a second for decipher- evaluate the ideas. ing. This method would operate like a The NSA, of course, couldn't be ex- twenty-four-hour bank teller. Any depositor pected to have much interesi in codes that can open the machine to put his money in, it could not break, and a good many critics practical built on but only the bank has the combination to £ A code complained that letting the NSA work on unlock the safe." one-way functions the DES was like putting the fox on sentry For long time now messages have been duty around the hen house a would work like a bank translated into high-security codes by Their uneasiness grew when the NSA converting the words into numbers and machine: Anyone persuaded IBM, which developed the win- ning algorithm, fo withhold the working pa- then scrambling the digits mathematically. could put a message in, What dawned on Hellman and Diffie was pers used to develop it. The NSA insisted but only the that a class ot extraordinarily difficult math- that this was only a security precaution in ematical problems, known as one-way recipient could get the the best interests of all users, but it looked, like their bank machine. A to many as if the government was simply functions, acted meaning out. 9 practical code could be built on them. trying to lock up the algorithm's mathemat- Users would be able to list their encoding ical roots. keys in a directory so that anyone could When computer scientists tried to pub- send them a coded message. Yet only they lish papers suggesting that the new DES would have the decoding key. Eavesdrop- was breakable, the NSA tried to classify pers would have no hope of ever decoding In order to find the decoding key, it is their work. One of the agency's employees, the transmission. necessary to "factor" this giant figure- a man who once proposed to keep tabs on rec- What made this practical was the work break it down into the original numbers. It the 20 million Americans with criminal of Ralph Merkle, a young student at the can't be done, Not even the largest com- ords by wiring them with transponders, University of California at Berkeley. Fasci- puters can factor the product of two num- even attacked the crifics' patriotism in an nated by the notion of a public-key system, bers with more than 50 digits, Only the engineering journal. The NSA finally he began working in one of his undergrad recipient who knows the prime numbers agreed to meet with dissenters, then courses on a one-way function that could used to build his encoding key can retrieve promptly destroyed all tapes of the con- be applied to a code. Lying awake at night, the message. frontation. Inventors working on crypto- he visualized atechnique that would permit The public-key system also solves the graphic devices found their patent applica- authorized users to decrypt messages that other problem in sending coded mes- tions classified and were ihreatened wilh baffled eavesdroppers. sages: How do you know the signal does prosecution for even discussing the "The idea," he says, "was for A to send B not come from an impostor? The Stanford equipment, a message in a million pieces. One of those and MIT teams have both produced a The NSA claimed it would take 91 years pieces would be lagged so that B could forgery-proof digital signature. of computer work to break the DES key. however, use it to find the decoding Key. But anyone The encoding and decoding keys, According to Stanford's Hellman, else would have to sort at random through though complex, are really just mathemat- "DES could be broken by an enemy willing all the pieces to find ihe right one." ical instructions that reverse each other. If to spend twenty million dollars on a com- Merkle's approach did not impress his the code were built on a simple arithmetic puter that could test all the possible keys in instructor, who considered public-key dis- problem instead of on a one-way function, less than a day." The DES key is a string of tribution "impractical." Unable to convince they might say something like "multiply by 0's and 1's, known as bits, It is 56 bits long. his Berkeley teacher of the system's prom- five" or "divide by five." The procedure can All you'd have to do to make it unbreakable ise, Merkle dropped his computer course. be used in either direction. would be to switch to a key with 128 or more Then. he wrote up his ideas for a computer So to sign a coded message, you just bits, Since it wouldn't make the DES device journal. It rejected them as complete trash. reverse the process: Encode your name much more expensive, why was the gov- stubborn? "When 1 read -the referees' criticisms," with the secret key you ordinarily use fo ernment being so Merklerecalls, "I realized they didn't know decode messages. The recipient then "It occurred to us," Hellman says, "that what they were talking about." looks up your public encoding key in the the NSA wanted an algorithm that it could 86 OMNI CONTINUED: ON PS6E.S8 finish their drinks at the bar. On these occa- considerable savings of time and money. IRJTERV/IEJU sions Bartlett found himself alone in the Omni: Let us turn to some contemporary smoking room. He found this so embar- issues. What are your views on the intro- rassing that he usedtc hide in the lavatory duction of microelectronics and its social out in California. While some of us would until the vote was completed and he- could 'Cpe-'cussions? think the first response should be to stop emerge again. Parkinson: My view is that in the most im- the rioting, the first response is usually to Omni: How accu'ately do ;ne social sci- mediate area of application — communica- count the rioters and accumulate informa- ences pinpoint our behavior — in rioting, for tions— the technical means of disseminat- tion about the causes of the riots. Investiga- example? ing information matter less than the art of tion takes the place of action — and indeed Parkinson: The social sciences are almost lucidly explaining it, which is a verbal tech- often the of If takes place thought. you get wholly bogus. We could simply scrub them nique. I think that the contenf of a program buried with information, you will arrive at no out of the syllabus of any university with is more important than the technology conclusion because you haven't even time groat advantage to everyone concerned, Consider the spread of television, now the to read all the documents. partly because of the undesirable people main means of communication. People Omni: Can you offer another example? they bring onto the campus, There is no now take their view of lite not from teachers Parkinson: A friend of mine was the late Mr. field in which is but money beirg squandered frdm television, I think the habit of read- Vernon Bartlett. who was almost the last more recklessly. Mind you, the students are ing among the young is not very wide- independent member of Parliament, When finding this out tor themselves; they are spread and is probably decreasing. tie first came into Parliament, he believed gradually deserting the social sciences Omni: What of the impact of micro- that he must read all the information about because they realize they are drivel, even if electronics in education? Instead of having every measure under consideration, make the teachers don't. a teacher who may be very good, or not so up his own mind, and vote according to his Education is a subject you can scrub good, or mediocre — one leacher and thirty conscience. Then he found that his.desk straightaway. There is nothing in education pupils— we can now have-individual termi- was piled daily with inches, nay ieet, of that need detain anyone for more than a nals, individual interactive systems, so that documentation that he couldn't conceiv- very brief period. pupils can learn at their own rate. if did, ably read, he he would have, no time to There are people who teach, and they Parkinson: Well, that is valuable in itself, in sleep- or do anything else, So he decided are called teachers. Thee are those who that pupils can possibly have a good that as he hadn't digested most of this organize teaching, who can't teach, and teacher rather than have a bad one. Our material, he couldn'l vote at all. Then he they are called educators. " nen there are system has more or less ensured that a bad found a new embarrassment— that every- people who produce books about teach- teacher is the normal daily experience of one else, when the division bells sounded, ing; they are educationalists. Finally, there most pupils. went confidently into the Chambers, looked are lecturers in the subject, and these are Omni: Are you talking only aboul England? their toward their side, I whips on own voted educationalizers. think all but the original Parkinson: I am talking about England as on a measure, perhaps not even knowing teachers could be abolished at once, with- contrasted with Scotland. The latter, much what measure, and- then rushed back to out any loss at all to the school and with to its profit, decided ore; ago that teachers had better be really skilled — above all, that ordinary primary teachers at the village * level must be graduates. England has never recovered from the original mistake of turning the dame schoolteachers into the present primary-school teachers, who seem largely to be old women of either sex. Omni: What about the United States? Parkinson: The American system is appall- ing because it has followed the English example. New Zealand, by contrast, has followed Ihe Scoilisn examnle. wi;h sensa- tional results in the level of literacy. In the smallest town in New Zealand you will find probably three excellent bookshops, whereas in the American equivalent there is usually no bookstore at all — just a few blood-and-thunde'rand sex paperbacks in a drugstore. The final judgment on their system of education is that this is all it pro- duces at the end. Omni: Are you speaking from direct expe- rience? Parkinson; Yes. indeed. I put one of my children into first grade in an American school, where he learned nothing. Indeed. the main effort was to prevent him from learning anything, because if he did so, he would learn by the wrong method. That is educationalism. He went on from there to a different state, where he couldn't go into first grade because he was too young, So he attended kindergarten there, and it didn't make any difference. Then, as a visit- "He knows the origin of the ing professor, I taught an undergraduate universe, but he can't remember where he put his umbrella." class a! a state university, where I met people who had passed through kinder- garten, grade school, junior high, high Omni: How do you see that policy working Some Americans school, junior college — heaven knows in such areas of research as genetic ma- what eise — and al the end go through life they were nipulation, which, rightly or wrongly, cause plainly illiterate. And when I say illiterate, I much public anxiety? am not talking' in without discovering a snobbishly classical Parkinson: On the subject of genetic ma- way; These were people who couldn't spell nipulation and public opinion, I believe the and who should Bombay. never have been admitted notion of democracy that has been current to a university at all. over the last s_eventy-five years has no real Omni: Turning from education to econom- relevance to the world in. which we live. We ics, it often that seems economists, like are still telling each other that public opin- epidemiologists, are better at explaining ion should decide all the major issues of what has happened after an event than at the day, when on many issues the public making worthwhile predictions. Do you has no opinion at all and doesn't pretend agree with this? to have one. Parkinson: I don't believe economics is a Omni: But the public increasingly feels science at all. There is a sense in which my that it ought to be consulted. own field of organization could and method Parkinson: I know, but it reminds me of be described as a high technology. But the those awful scenes when, as we are about economists' powers of prediction have so to devalue the pound or make some other far been unimpressive, and their powers of highly technical maneuver, television sta- analysis tittle better. tions will send out interviewers who waylay Omni: The most striking recent economic bystanders and ask them, "What do you development was the stiff hike in the price- think about devaluing the pound?" And the of crude oil. Why were we taken unawares unfortunate "victim" stutters something in- by that turn of events? coherent. The public seldom has any opin- Parkinson: I would to that add a further ion at all except what it derives from televi- question— about Presidenf Carter, who, sion, radio, or newspapers. having become of aware the energy crisis, Omni: What of public influence on issues produced his energy program two years such as energy policymaking — for exam- ago. Why did he fail to consult the people ple, decisions about where the next who knew about I oil? was attending a con- nuclear-power station should be built? ference at that time in America, and the Parkinson: Well, we are all agreed about speakers included people like the chair- that: If there must be a nuclear-power sta- man of Standard Oil of California, and they tion, it mustn't be anywhere near us. A new assured me that the President had never airport for London is highly necessary, but it consulted with them. must be somewhere else. This sort of pub- This sorf ofmistake was repeated in Brit- lic opinion is not really of any value. ain by the last socialist government. Politi- Whether we should be developing nuclear cians tend to be guided by political con- energy is a question relatively few people siderations and their own ideology about are in a position to understand. I am cer- these things, and they fail to consult ex- tainly not competent on such matters. I perts who actually know about a particular wouldn't venture any opinion at all, subject. Wehave a potentially useful institu- Omni: Are you saying that you would be tion, for example, in the House of Lords, happy to leave all such issues to the ex- and recently there has been some silly talk perts, to -luc.oar engineers in this case? about electing people to it. The whole point Parkinson: Yes, as long as you have of the Lords is that nobody has been brought them into the legislature to act as elected, Its pofential value is in collecting an integral part of it. You can't just select together in one house as much expert opin- some outside experts and take their views ion and professional distinction as we pos- before a subcommittee in order to produce sibly can gather. the policies of the administration. I don't What we need to do now, as a mailer of believe in this approach, because the gov- urgency, is to reform the House of Lords by ernment has probably excluded anyone strengthening it with, shall we say, the three who seemed likely to be awkward. I want to greatest physicians, the two greatest sur- See awkward people in the legislature of geons, the four greatest engineers, the five the future, getting up without being invited most distinguished architects, chartered at all and saying what they think about accountants, and so on, until we have col- technical problems. lected a body of people who could always Omni: How concerned are you about the form an expert committee at any time. nuclear arsenals of the world? And how do Omni: There is, of course, no counterpart you see the future oi the global economy? I to the House of Lords in the United States. believe you anticipate some sort of cata- Parkinson: Unfortunately, the Americans clysmic political event in the short term in made the mistake of creating another Britain. But are you optimistic or pessimis- elected house. What is the point? We have tic on the international front? an elected legislature, and anything that Parkinson: I am not being pessimistic in this can achieve, it already has I achieved. saying that the present system in Britain is would rather have a legislature in which bound to end in a cataclysmic disaster: It is the oil magnates, for example, were pres- bound to happen, and we can't make any ent. Even if their speeches weren't Bombay very progress until it has. We need to sweep the eloquent, at least they could not say after- cards off the tabie siar The gentle gin. and again. I would wards that they hadn't been consulted. be more pessimistic if I could imagine our him cians have been given to cance until the age of fifty, then to retire system of parliamentary government going the loys the pclil him out of the labora- with are extremely dangerous, while at sixty-five and boot on another fifty years: That is equivalent to play else is themselves relatively un- tory in order to bring in somebody blowing out your brains, isn't it? the.politicians are unintelligent people. When dreadfully wasteful. On the global issue of nuclear weaponry, educated and people who are in a posi- I suggest that the danger at the you imagine giving Ayatollah Khomeini nu- I not impressed with am decide for them- play with, you have a tion to contribute should moment of the USSR and the United States clear weapons to selves— and be encouraged by others -to exchanging bombs over Afghanistan. They desperately unnerving picture. until they are, say, ninety or a Omni: Aren't you being somewhat pes- live actively are plainly going to do nothing of the kind. be more significant hundred. The decision to do this must The Russians, although obtuse in some simistic about most of the their own because it is philosophical. quite as obtuse as that. Nor issues of the day? ways, are not pill if there were a technique or but there is one tiny Omni: But are the Chinese. They already have a nu- Parkinson: Perhaps, to make that possible, you would presum- I have tried to make to clear potential, and their rate of accelera- contribution that ably also get a lot of people wanting to go than that of the Russians, current affairs in my new book on geriatrics. tion is far greater racetrack. in on spending more time at the I would like to see the and relatively far greater than that of the One development They wouldn't, though, be- human life. By this I Parkinson: West. Tha upturn curve shown by Chinese tulure is an extension of philosophic side is important. extension for a certain number of cause the technology is sensational when you think of mean life decide that someone must retire at their own choice, not for every- We now the level from which they started. people, of sixty-five or seventy, and he says, "At last I it takes longer and concern is with nuclear weapons in one. In a scientific age My myself." The standard answer, master all thai is known can enjoy the hands of people of quite terrifying in- longer for anyone to is to to among Americans particularly, take a specify Iran at the present about a given subject and then begin stability. I would- you professor who year's voyage around the world. Then I a time, where we see a country run by a contribute. remember your golf handicap down. Then with "I don't know." try to get person or people whom we might de- answered a question not He had maybe two more years doing crossword scribe—not unkindly — as more or less im- but with "That is not known." on doing that: he point where he could confi- puzzles. A man can't go becilic, and visualize a future when people reached the dies of boredom. I would say that today you as stupid as that may acquire these dently say that. achieve My father once discovered that the sys- are going to see would probably need to be fifty to weapons. 1 don't think we for schoolteachers was position in some subjects. tem of pensions this happening for another ten years, and I such a splendid from the government's point of it possible to extend the I believe is would like to think that by then the people schoolteachers lived an av- someone could still view, because who have acquired the technology will also period of vigor so that people are erage of only eighteen months after retire- wisdom, but there "is be active at ninety, as some have acquired the of writ- ment. People die of boredom more than suggest this. already. George Bernard Shaw was still nothing in history to die of finally died of anything else. Correction: They Our biggest basic difficulty in the West is ing plays' at ninety-two. He other people ex- having broker', his hip and oeing boredom and because tha! while our technology and science have boredom, active life would scientist is not in a pect them to die. A longer advanced dramatically, our politics is still confined to bed. If a contribute anything of signifi- put a stop to this. DO the politics of the horse and buggy. Some of position to working it to see that ends up in the mar- security information from hostile exploita- ketplace." Bell Northern UNBREAKABLE CODE Labs, a subsidiary tion," he complained. "The very real con- of the Canadian phone company, has hired CONTINUED FROM PAGE 86 cerns we at NSA have about the impact of Diffie to help make electronic eavesdrop- nongovernmental cryptologic activity can- crack. That would prevent anyone else in ping more difficult. At the company's Palo not and should not be ignored. Ultimately the country from using a ioolproof code." Alto research facility, he is leading a cryp- these concerns are of vital interest to every With that controversy to prepare their tographic research group thai wants to citizen of the United States, since they bear way, the public-key codes have received a show callers how ihey can mask their vitally on our national defense and the suc- warm welcome from just about everyone identity, cessful conduct of our foreign policy." but the government. Some New York banks Some computer experts, such as Another NSA employee; Joseph A. have already decided to reject the MSA- George Feeney, invented who the concept Meyer, has warned his colleagues in the backed 56-bit encryption standard. An of- of EDP time sharing and who heads Dun Institute of Electrical and Electronic En- ficer at Banker's Trust Company said his and Bradstreefs advanced-technology gineers that their work on public-key cryp- company refused to go along with the fed- group, voice concern about the practicality tography and data encryption might violate eral plan because it "did not meet all the of these promised systems. "The unbreak- the International Traffic in Arms regulation. bank's requirements." Bell Telephone has able code is brilliant a piece of conceptual This law, which the government uses to also rejected DES on security grounds. work," Feeney says. "These inventors have control the export of weaponry and com- These corporations may be better done an incredible job. But some of us puter equipment, can even be invoked to served by private companies hoping now wonder whether the process may turn out thwart basic code research. to market coding devices based on the to be beyond the current state of the com- As a result, people like University of Wis- systems MIT and Stanford inventors are try- puter art. We still don't know how long it's consin computer-science professor ing to patent. "Since we would share some going to to lake get this dream going and George DaVida, who recently tried to pat- of the royalties," Hellman says, "some gov- whether the cost will be realistic." ent a new cryptographic device, have run ernment people suggest our opposition to The NSA, though, has already begun to into trouble. Although his work was spon- DES is motivated by self-interest. Sure, we whine about the prospect of companies sored by the federally funded National would benefit if public-key systems go into and private individuals communicating Science Foundation, the Commerce De- widespread use. But the facts are that our over foolproof lines. The agency's director, partment told DaVida that he could be ar- method provides real protection and DES Vice Admiral Bobbie Ray Inman, is so anx- rested for writing about, or discussing, the can be broken." ious thai he recenlly broke official policy to principles of his invention. A similar se- Ftivest is already consulting for com- go on record about this sensitive matter. crecy order was issued to a Seattle team panies that hope to market foolprool "There is a very real and critical danger that had invested $33,000 to develop a systems. "What we want," he says, "is to that unrestrained public discussion of coding device for CB and marine radios. develop an add-on encoding device for cryptologic matters will seriously damage Protests from the scientific community computer terminals that any user could af- the ability of this government to conduct persuaded the government to lift its secre- ford. We're building a prototype now signals and intelligence and protect- national cy orders in both these cases. At least for now, academics and inventors can con- tinue to write and confer on cryptographic- schemes. But the threat of renewed gov- ernment harassment has complicated fur- ther research. Universities have agreed to defend professors against federal prose- cution related to code research, but they can't protect students. As a result, some students have decided not to contribute papers to scientific conferences. In at least one instance Hellman had to shield two of his graduate students at Stanford by read- ing their reports for them at a meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic En- gineers, It's too soon to know whether the gov- ernment will move to block use of the public key, but Hellman and his colleagues tear that young cryptographers may be scared away by Inman's tough admonitions. This could hold up the practical refinements necessary to make the unbreakable code widely available. A real chance to stop crime in the electronic society might be postponed indefinitely. With computerized theft increasing every year and computers controlling more of society's daily ac- tivities, this doesn't seem wise, Buf this issue appears secondary to Washington cryptographers, who sound as if they would like to reserve the public key for their own use. "I'm not suggesting government agents want to listen in at will," Diffie says, "but I'm sure they don't want to be shut out. For them the perfect code is the one only they can break." DO Burrowing chin-deep in the I mud, watched The alternative, I told myself grimly, is a diet in awe and SAUROPODS weird fascination. There are of fern fronds and frogs, and you haven't those among us who argue that the carni- been much at catching good the frogs. I vores ought to be segregated— put on their tried again. Success! counter with a major predator. own island— that ft is folly to allow recon- I'd have to call corythosaur meat an ac- There are nine tyrannosaurs on the is- structs created with such effort to be casu- quired taste. But the wilderness is no place land, including three born in the past eigh- ally butchered this way. Perhaps in the be- for picky eaters. teen months. (That gives us an optimum ginning that made sense, but not now, not predator-to-prey If ratio. the tyrannosaurs when natural increase is rapidly filling the 23 August. 1300 hours. Al midday I keep reproducing and don't start ealing island with young dinos. If we are to learn found myself in the southern hemisphere, each other, we'll .have to begin thinning anything about these animals, it will only be along the fringes of Marsh Marsh, about a them out. One of the problems with a by reproducing as closely as possible their hundred meters below the equator. Ob- closed ecology — natural checks bal- original living and conditions. Besides, would it serving herd, behavior in sauropods: five ances don't fully apply.) Sooner or later I nol be a cruel mockery to feed our tyran- brachiosaurs,-two adult and three young, was bound to encounter one, but I had nosaurs on hamburger and herring? moving in formation, the small ones in the hoped it would be later. The killer fed for more than an hour. At the center. By small I mean only some ten me- I was hunting frogs at the edge of Cope end came a scary moment; Belshazzar, ters from nose to tail tip, Sauropod appe- Lake. A ticklish business: calls for agility, blood-smeared and bloated, hauled him- tites being what they are, we'll have to thin cunning, quick reflexes. I remember the self ponderously to the down edge of the that herd soon, too, especially if we want to technique from my girlhood the cupped lake for — a drink. He stood no more than ten introduce a female diplodocus into the col- hand, the lightning pounce— but somehow meters from me. I did my most convincing ony. Two species of sauropods breeding it's become a lot harder in the last twenty imitation of a rotting log, but the tyran- and eating like that could devastate the years. Superior frogs these days, I sup- nosaur, it although did seem to study me island in three years. Nobody ever ex- pose. There I was kneeling in the mud. with a beady eye. had no further appetite. pected dinosaurs to reproduce like swooping, missing, swooping, missing; rabbits— another dividend of their being some vast sauropod snoozing in the lake, warm-blooded, I suppose. We might have probably our diplodocus; a corythosaur guessed it, though, from the vast quantity browsing in a stand of ginkgo trees, quite of fossils. If that many bones survived the delicately nipping off the foul-smelling yel- catastrophes of a hundred-odd million low fruits. Swoop. Miss. Swoop. Miss. ^Carnivore alert! Such years, how enormous the living Mesozoic intense concentration on my task that old The corythosaur obviously population must have been! An awesome T. rex could have tiptoed right up behind smelled something race in more ways than their mere physical me. and I'd never noticed. have But then I mass. felt a subtle something, a change, in the air, wicked this way coming, for it I had a chance to do a little herd thinning maybe, a barely perceptible shift in dy- swung around between myself just now. Mysterious stirring in the namics. I glanced up and saw the spongy soil right at my feel, and I looked corythosaur rearing on two big ginkgos and went its hind legs, look- down to see triceratops eggs hatching. ing around uneasily, pulling deep sniffs into galumphing away. Seven brave little critters, already horny that fantastically eaborale bony crest that and Too late. Treetops parted. beaky, scrabbling out of a nest, staring houses its early-warning system. Carnivore 9 around defiantly No bigger than kittens, alert! The corythosaur obviously smelled but active and sturdy from the moment they something wicked this way coming, for it were born, swung around between two big ginkgos The corythosaur meat has probably and started to go galumphing Too away spoiled by now, A more pragmatic soul very late. The treetops parted, giant boughs For a long while after he departed I stayed likely would have augmented her diet with toppled, out of the forest and came our buried in the mud, fearing he might come or little one two ceratopsians. I couldn't original tyrannosaur, the pigeon-toed one back for dessert. And eventually there was bring myself to do it. we call Belshazzar, moving in its heavy, another crashing and bashing in the They scuttled off in seven different direc- clumsy waddle, ponderous legs working forest --not Belshazzar this time, though, tions. I thought briefly of catching one and hard, tail absurdly swinging from side to but a younger one with a gimpy arm. It making a pet out of it. Silly idea. side. I slithered into the lake and uttered a sort of whinnying sound and went scrunched down as deep as I could go in to work on the corythosaur carcass. No 25 August. 0700 hours. Start of the fifth the warm, oozing mud. The corythosaur surprise: We already knew from our obser- day I've done three complete circumambu- had no place to slither. Unarmed, unar- vations that tyrannosaurs had no preju- lations of Dino Island. Slinking around on mored, it could only make great bleating dices against carrion. foot is fifty times as risky as cruising around sounds, "terror with mingled defiance, as Nor, I found, did I. in a module, and fifty thousand times as the killer bore down on it. When the coast was clear, I crept out and rewarding. I make camp in a different place I to I had watch. had never actually seen saw that the two tyrannosaurs had [eft hun- every night. I don't mind the humidity any a kill before. dreds of kilos ot meat. Starvation knoweth longer And despite my skimpy diet I feel In a graceless but wondrously effective no pride and also few qualms. Using a pretty healthy. Raw dinosaur, I know now, is way the tyrannosaur dug its hind claws into clamshell for my blade, I started chopping a lot tastier than raw frog, I've become an the ground, pivoted astonishingly, and, away at the corythosaur expert scavenger— the sound of a tyran- using its massive tail as a counterweight, Corythosaur meat has a curiously sweet nosaur in the forest now stimulates my moved in a ninety-degree arc to knock the flavor— nutmeg and cloves, dash of cin- salivary glands instead of my adrenals, corythosaur down with a stupendous namon. The first chunk would not go down. Going is naked fun, too. And I appreciate sidewise swat of its huge head. I hadn't You are a pioneer. I told myself, retching. my body much more, since the bulges that been expecting that. The corythosaur are You the first human ever to eat dinosaur civilization put there have begun to melt dropped and lay on its side, snorting in meat. Yes, but why does it have to be raw? pain and feebly waving its limbs. Now No choice about that. Be dispassionate, Nevertheless, I keep trying to figure out came the coupde grace with hind legs, love. Conquer your gag reflex or die trying. some way of signaling Habitat Vronsky for and then the rending tearing, the I and I jaws pretended was eating oysters. This time help. Changing the position of the reflect- and the tiny arms last into 1 at coming play. the meat went down. It didn't stay down. ing mirrors, maybe, so I can beam an SOS? 94 OMNI a long. First in lorly-eight hours. Did the Sounds nice, but I don'i even know where food the island's controls are locaied, let alone eggs fall out of a nest somewhere over- how to run them. Let's hope my luck holds head? Do stegosaurs make Iheir nests in out another three and a half weeks. Irees, dummy? Fever diminishing. Body aches all over. 27 August. 1700 hours. The dinosaurs Crawled to (he stream and managed to know that I'm here and that I'm some ex- scoop up a little wafer. traordinary kind of animal. Does that sound weird? How can great dumb beasts know 1330 hours. Dozed off. Awakened to find anything? They have such tiny brains. And haunch of fresh meat within crawling dis- my own brain must be softening on this tance. Struthiomimus drumstick", 1 think, protein-and-cellulose diet. Even so, I'm Nasty sour taste, but it's edible. Nibbled a starting to have peculiar feelings about little, slept again, ate some more. Pair of grazing not far away, tiny eyes these animals. I see them watching me. An sfegosaurs odd, knowing look in their eyes, not stupid fastened on me. Smaller dinosaurs holding big at all. They stare, and I imagine them nod- a kind of conference by some cycads. ding, smiling, exchanging glances with And Bertha Brachiosaur is munching away "When I listen each other, discussing me. I'm supposed in Ostrom Meadow, benignly supervising scene. to be observing them, but I think they're the whole to a cassette observing me, too, somehow. This is absolutely crazy. taking care crazy. I'm tempted to erase 1 think the dinosaurs are of No, that's just it apart!' I'll it me. But why would they do that? I take the entry. But I suppose leave as a record of my changing psychological . doubi of it state, it nothing else. 2 September. 0900 hours No at all. They bring me eggs, meat, even 28 August. 1200 hours. More fantasies cycad cones and tree-fern fronds. At first about the dinosaurs. I've decided thai the they delivered things only when I slept, but 1 big brachiosaur — Bertha— plays a key now they come hcpoing rich , up to me and role here. She doesn't move around much, dump things at my feet. The struth lorn im ids but there are always lesser dinosaurs in are the bearers— fhey're the smallest, most orbit her. eye contact. Eye agile, quickest hands. They bring their of- ! around Much 'Stevie s reputation as a perfection- dinosaurs? Let it stand. ferings, -stare me right in the eye, pause as contact between ist is well known . Before he takes a That's my perception of whatthey're'doing. if waiting for a tip. Olher dinosaurs watch- cassette home, it must deliver big ing the distance. This is a coordinated kind of sound I get a definile sense that there's communi- from studio sound. The all the take apart. cation going on here, modulating over effort. I am the center of activity on he can't The cassette Stevie likes most is some wave that I'm not capable of detect- island, it seems, I imagine that even the the high bias TDKSA. TDK SAhasa ing. And Bertha seems to be a central tyrannosaurs are saving choice cuts for startling musical memory. You'll nexus, a grand totem of some sort, a — me. Hallucination? Fantasy? Delirium of hear ihe mil timbre of the human fever? I feel lucid. fever is abaling. I'm am I talking about? The switchboard? What voice. The vibrant dynamic energy still too stiff and weak to move very far, but I What's happening to me? of strings. The blast and bluster of effects of think I'm recovering from the my rock. No nuance is beyond its 30 August. 0945 hours. What a damned fall, With a little help from my friends range. No instruments forgotten. filthy major deck manu- fool I am! Serves me right for being a The world's voyeur. Climbed a tree to watch iguano- 1000 hours. Played back the last entry. facturers, themselves perfection* - ists, use the SA to set the sound I in- dons mating at the foot of Bakker Falls. At -Thinking it over, don't think I've gone standard in their machines. TDK the climactic moment the branch broke. I sane. If I'm sane enough to be worried makes sure it will keep selling dropped twenty meters. Grabbed a lower about my sanity, how crazy can I be? Or am standards. The shell alone goes it badly I jusl fooling myself? There's a terrible con- limb or I'd be dead now. As is, pretty Ihrough 1,117 checkpoints. With a flict what I think I perceive going smashed around. I don't think anything's between lifetime* warranty tor every part. on here and what I know I ought to be broken, but my left leg won't support me That makes it easy to like. And hard and my back's in bad shape. Internal in- perceiving. to take apart. juries, too? Not sure. I've crawled into a little rock sheller near the falls. Exhausted and 1500 hours. A long, strange dream this I all dinosaurs standing maybe feverish. Shock, most likely. I sup- afternoon. saw the in were connected to pose I'll starve now It would have been an the meadow, and they honor io be eaten by a tyrannosaur, but to one another by gleaming threads, like the die from falling out of a tree is just plain telephone lines of olden times, and all the humiliating. threads centered on Bertha. As if she's the The mating of iguanodons is a spectacu- switchboard, yes. And lelepathic mes- io the lar sight, by fhe way. But I hurt loo much to sages were Iraveling through her powerful describe it now. others. An extrasensory hookup, pulses moving along ihe nes I dreamed 31 August, 1700 hours. Stiff, sore, hun^ that a small dinosaur came to me and of- gry, hideously thirsty. Leg slill useless, and fered me a line and. in pantomime, showed if great flood of meters, I feel to hook up, and a when I try to crawl even a few me how I the as if I'm going to crack in half at the waisl. delight went through me as made I High fever. connection. And when I plugged it in, of How long does it take to starve to death? could feel the deep and heavy thoughts Ihe dinosaurs, the slow, rapturous philo- 1 September. 0700 hours. Three broken sophical interchanges. I bizarre- eggs lying near me when I awoke. Embryos When woke, the dream seemed still alive— probably stegosaur— but not for ly vivid, strangely real, the dream ideas . lingering as they somelimes do. I saw the 0900 hours. We stand face to face. Her had this greatest of races been allowed to animals in about me a new way. As if this is head is fifteen meters above mine. Her live to fulfill its destiny. not just a zoological research station but a small are I eyes unreadable. I trust her and I feel the intense love radiating from the community, a settlement, the sole outpost love -her. titan that looms above me. I feel the contact ot an alien — civilization an alien civilization Lesser brachiosaurs have gathered be- between our souls steadily strengthening native to Earth. hind her on the riverbank. Farther away are and deepening. ofi it. Come These animals have minute dinosaurs of half a dozen other species, The last barriers dissolve. brains. They spend their days chomping on immobile, silent. And I understand at last. greenery, except for the ones that chomp I am humble in their presence. are I They I am the chosen one. am the vehicle. I on other dinosaurs. Compared with di- representatives of a dynamic, superior am the bringer of rebirth, the beloved one, nosaurs, are cows and sheep downright race, which but for a cruel cosmic accident the necessary one. Our Lady of the Sau- geniuses. rule the earth I would to this day. and am ropods am I, the holy one, the prophetess, I can hobble a little now coming to revere them, to bear witness to the priestess. their greatness. Is this madness? Then it is madness, and 3 September. 0600 hours. The same Consider: They endured for a hundred I embrace it. dream again last night, the universal tele- forty million years in ever-renewing vigor. Why have we small hairy creatures pathic linkage. Sense ot warmth and love They met all evolutionary challenges, ex- existed at all? I know now. It is so that flowing from dinosaurs to me. cept the one of sudden and catastrophic through our technology we could make And once more I found fresh tyrannosaur climatic change, against which nothing possible the return of the great ones. They eggs for breakfast. could have protected them. They multi- perished unfairly. Through us, they are res- plied and proliferated and adapted, urrected aboard this tiny globe in space. 5 September. 1100 hours. I'm making a dominating land and sea and air, covering I tremble in the force of the need that tast recovery. Up and about, still creaky, but the globe. Our own trifling, contemptible pours from them. not much pain left. They still feed me. ancestors were nothing next to them. Who I wilt not fail you, I tell the great sauro- Though the struthiomimids remain the pods before me, and the sauropods send bearers of food, the bigger dinosaurs now my thoughts reverberating to all the others. come close, too. A stegosaur nuzzled up to me like some Goliath-sized I pony, and pet- 20 September. 0600 hours. The thirtieth ted its rough, scaly flank. The diplodocus day. The shuttle comes from Habitat Vron- stretched Qi am drawn to her. I out flat and seemed to beg me to sky today to pick me up and deliver the next stroke its immense neck. could worship her. Through researcher If this is madness, so be it. There's a I wait at the transit lock. Hundreds of community her vast body surge here, loving and temperate. dinosaurs wait with me, each close beside Even the predatory carnivores it: powerful currents. is are part of She the next, both the lions and the lambs, Eaters and eaten are aspects of the whole, the amplifier. By her gathered quietly, their attention focused en- yin and yang. Riding around in our sealed tirely on me. modules, we could never have are we all connected. The suspected Now the shuttle arrives, right on time, any of this. holy-mother. From her gliding in for a perfect docking. The air- They are gradually drawing me into their emanate healing impulses.? locks open. A figure appears. Sarber him- communion. I feel the pulses that pass be- self! Coming to make sure I didn't survive tween them. My entire soul throbs with that the meltdown, or else to finish me off. strange new sensation. My skin tingles. He stands blinking in the entry passage, They bring me ot their food own bodies, gaping at the throngs of placid dinosaurs their flesh and their unborn young, and they arrayed in a huge semicircle around the watch over me and silently urge me back to knows what these dinosaurs might have naked woman who stands beside the health. Why? For sweet chanty's I sake? achieved if that crashing asteroid had not wreckage of the mobile module. For a mo- don't think I think so. they want something blotted out their light? What a vast irony: ment he is unable to speak. from me. More than that. I think they need millions of years of supremacy ended in a "Anne?" he says finally. "What in Gods something from me. single generation by a chilling cloud of name-"' What could they need from me? dust. But until then — the wonder, the gran- "You'll never understand," I tell him. I give deur . . the signal. Belshazzar rumbles forward. September. hours. 6 0600 All this night I Only beasts, you say? How can you be Sarber screams and whirls and sprints for have moved slowly through the forest in sure? We know just a shred of what the the airlock, but a stegosaur blocks the way. what I can only term an ecstatic state. Vast Mesozoic was really like, just a slice, liter- "No!" Sarber cries as the tyrannosaur's shapes, humped, monstrous forms barely ally the bare bones. The passage of a mighty head swoops down. It is all over in a visible by dim glimmer, came and went hundred million years can obliterate all moment. about me. I Hour after hour walked un- traces of civilization. Suppose they had Revenge! How sweet! harmed, feeling the communion intensify. I language, poetry, mythology, philosophy? And this is only the beginning. Habitat barely wandered, I aware of where was, Love, dreams, aspirations? No, you say, Vronsky lies just one hundred twenty until at last, exhausted, I have come to rest they were beasts, ponderous and stupid, kilometers away. Elsewhere in the La- here on this mossy carpet, and in the first that lived mindless, bestial lives. And I reply grange belt are hundreds of other habitats light of dawn I see the' giant form of the that hairy we puny ones have no right to ripe for conquest. The earth itself is within great brachiosaur standing like a mountain impose our own values on them. The only easy reach. I have no idea yet how it will be on the far side of Owen River. kind of civilization we can understand is the accomplished, but I know it will be done I am drawn to her. I could worship her one we have built. We imagine that our own and done successfully, and I will be the Through her vast body surge powerful cur- trivial accomplishments are the determin- instrument by which it is done. rents. She is the amplifier. By her are we all ing case, that computers and spaceships I stretch forth my arms to the mighty crea- connected. The holy mother of us all. From and broiled sausages are such miracles tures that surround me. I feel their strength. the enormous mass of her body emanate that they place us at evolution's pinnacle. Iheir power, their harmony. I am one with potent healing impulses. But now I know otherwise. Humans have them, and they with me. The Great Race I'll rest a little while. Then I'll cross the done marvelous, even incredible, things, has returned, and I am its priestess. Let the river to her. yes. But we would never have existed at all, small hairy ones tremble! OO 96 OMNI tion had been tried, but the principal objec- There was another chiming sound, and Hinon tions to legalized killing had remained the the message on the screen was replaced same; It was totally inhuman to tell a man by a new set of words scribed in raw crim- exactly when and how he was going to die, son: VOTING COMPLETED— AWAIT VERDICT. aloud in jocular tones, trying to neutralize then leave him to sweat out his time. And if On the lower part of the display a sweep the spasms of alarm he had feit on realizing the state was inhuman, could its citizens be hand began remorselessly erasing a that his very existence was now being laid 7 expected to be otherwise sixty-second clock. I'm going to be all on the line. He took a cushion from a chair It was basically a question of how to be right, he thought. All I've got lo do is stay and set it in the middle of the door, then cruel in a kindly way — and a workable an- put lor seven days. hesitated, frowning. A cushion was just as swer had come along in 2061 . The lengthy, His gaze picked out two vertical cracks much an artifact as a microwave oven, just soul-destroying delays of earlier systems in the skirting board of the wall opposite as capable of being booby-trapped. He had been eliminated by direct implementa- him. It looked as if a small, flap-type door skimmed it back onto the chair and squat- tion of the majority vote of a thlrteen-man had been built into the base of the wall, He ted on the carpet, his face turned toward jury, and the dreadful certainty of death stared at the door, feeling oddly threatened the screen as he waited for the final an- had been replaced by the challenge of a as he tried to guess its purpose. It had nouncement. In addition to his fear he week in the apartment. Not only were the nothing to do with ventilation, too awk- could feel powerful undercurrents of ex- exact time and method of execution de- wardly positioned to be an electrical-sys- citement, and it came to him that the provi- cently shrouded in mystery, but there was tem access hatch, too small to be a cup- sions of the 2061 act had been successfully also a ray of hope that the grim event could . . board. . Renfrew's eyes widened as he implemented in the present system. He be avoided altogether. And that made all noticed the slightest trace of wheel marks was about to be sentenced to death. Yet he :he difference. fanning out across the carpet, and under- had absolutely no sense of imminent Renfrew found that he was tense, alert, standing blossomed in his mind. doom. stimulated, and — above all— confident Robotic cleaners! The inevitable reaction lo the steady in- that he was going to beat the system. There The apartment was as immaculate as crease in violent crime had begun in the remained only a trace of furtive, niggling only an automated cleaning system could last quarter ot the twentieth century with doubt, His idea seemed foolproof, but it make it, which mean! that at night, when the one state after another reintroducing the had been rather easy to conceive. It had, in occupants were asleep in bed. silent little death penalty. By the middle of the twenty- fact, been the first scheme to blossom in machines came out of the walls and first century capital punishment had be- his mind, and he knew perfectly well thai he scavenged every speck of dirt, But he come almost universal, coast to coast, and was anything but a genius— if he could wasn't going to be in bed! He was going to the moral dilemma lacing the legislators come up with a successful plan, anybody be laid out on the floor while the busy robots had in grown proportion. How could one could. Did this mean that nobody but the came nosing and nuzzling around him, and condemn killing on the one hand while occasional moron ever paid the supreme any one of them could be capable of killing going on taking human lives with the other? penalty? Or was there some other incon- him in a dozen different ways. How fast did Variations in the actual method of execu- spicuous factor he had overlooked? they travel? How many were there 7 Could he avoid them? Renfrew looked at the clock. Twenty sec- , onds until the apartment declared war. He half-rose, his face turning toward the kitchen. Was there time to run in there, snatch up the lightweight table, and get back with it? Would he be safe squatting on top of the table? What if. . .? His hands fluttered to his mouth as he heard the final chime that signaled the jury's verdict. He glanced involuntarily in the direction of ihe screen, then froze, his chin sagging with incredulity as he read the three words electronically emblazoned across the face of the tube. verdict: not guilty. The breath left his body in a noisy, qua- vering sob. He pushed a hank of hair away from his forehead, as if giving himself a better view of the glowing words might change their import. The message re- mained the same. He was a free man! Renfrew got to his feet, suddenly con- scious of how much he had been dreading the ordeal that had lain ahead. He took a last look at the apartment, gave a low chuckle of relief, then strode to the door with a buoyant tread, keyed up for his first taste of liberty in many months. The doorknob did not turn when he grasped it. Instead it fired a cloud of poison through the skin of Renfrew's palm, a poison so swift-acting that he had no time to realize he had been tricked by executioners who, in their determination to be humane, were not above telling a little white lie. DO ACCELERATIONS CONTIMUED FflOM PAGE 49 nuclear power aren't good bets for cars before 2020, if ever. By that time we may have pushed piezoelectric power orders of magnitude higher lhan we can get irom crystals today. There's faint hope for Slirling and Ran- kine engines. A Stirling's piston is forced back and forth by rapid expansion and contraction of a working fluid trapped in a chamber Fuel is burned outside the chamber, its heat conducted to and from the fluid. Through very high heat-transfer rates (liquid lithium? Peltier effect?) a Stir- ling can be astonishingly efficient, but too big and expensive for its modest output. Stirling power just might be the best sur- prise of the 1990s, but the odds are long. and time is short. The Rankine layout-a steam engine with recirculation condensers, for exam- ple—yields tremendous torque, and pol- lutants can be almost nil. But it doesn't promise to triple our fuel mileage. The more powerful ones might run into buyer resist- ance unless stylists find a way to make huge condenses aopea r attractive. Bill Lear dropped his Rankine-powered police cruiser project because, among other things, "They would have looked told ridiculous. I couldn't afford that," he Omni. "Sure they'd do the job, but those heat exchangers would've stuck out like elephant ears." Lear's own choice of cars? His gullwing Mercedes coupe. "A basket it." case," he admitted, "but I love to look at Only when power plants of high energy density become cheap and nonpolluting can we expect to make general use of per- sonal hovercraft. It will probably still require less energy to roll on bearings than to ride on an air cushion, and energy efficiency will still be crucial enough to keep hover- craft in the special-use category. Though our cars will be far better en- gineered, they may become less numerous as we begin to polarize our attitudes about them. If cars grow more expensive while mass transit grows better and cheaper, many people may give up owning cars. This is already hapoemrg increasingly in urban cultures. And the better our com- munications, the less our need to travel, even for business. Wraparound home video may further popularize social dating comfortable sportsman's billed by electronic links so that many mixed-sex This is a Black mesh {air cooled) and adjust- pairs aren't, strictly speaking, linked at all. cap. any size head, with an official This could curb population growth: as con- able to Tester" patch on versation becomes more verbal and less "Jack Daniel's Field shade your eyes carnal, we can save energy both coming the front. Guaranteed to of conversations, and going. and start a lot price includes postage Beyond the initial polarization between My S5.25 car people and non-car people, we might and handling. expect further schisms, be'ween those who Send check, money order, or use Ameri- use a car to reach a destination and those can Express, Visa or Master Charge, who keep one primarily to enjoy the ride By including all numbers and signature. 2020, however, our automotive foolishness will be largely deliberate, and wholly af- fordable by those not addicted. OO FICTION The Collector could see the bauble was old, but was it authentic or just a piece of junk? sir, is lovely— might "Nowhere, a and But as the cloth touched it, the wail- I say, traditional — example." The ing came forth, long, low and chill- Seller pointed finger at the a decora- ing . Echo or not, it went right through tive sphere, sel against a velvet the Seller's soul. background cloth. HE "The echo is fresh," said the Col- The Collector leaned on the edge lector, smiling for the first time. "The of the counter and studied the bau- spirit must have departed only re- ble. Its workmanship might be good, cently." but it was hard to tell, owing to large, "So I'm told, sir." The Seller re- sooty stains on its surface and, be- sumed his bit of dusting on the sur- neath that, what appeared to be rust CURIO face, more confident now, for he'd or some fatal corrosion that had per- seen the smile and knew he had a manently marred the interior. sale. "That's precisely what the "I'll let you have it cheap," said the Caravan Master said when I bought it Seller, spying the critical took of the from him, sir— the spirit has but re- Collector Business wasn't good; the SHOP cently departed." shop was seldom visited anymore. The Collector squinted through his "Is if— the Collector touched at it BYWILLiAM KOT2WINKLE glass, savoring the moment, knowing with his monocle, studying the piece the piece must be his. for the wail more closely— "still enchanted?" was strong. He could listen to it at his "The occasional wail, sir' You know lector turned the ball in his hands, leisure and learn the story of the the phenomenon, I'm sure." the examining portions of the sur- bauble, who had made it and when. "The true spirit, or merely an face not corrupted by time and bad All that would still be in the echo. Pity echo?" handling. It was shameful the way the true spirit had fled — that would The Seller sighed. He couldn't mis- certain pieces deteriorated. But the have been a find! represent the piece. He'd like to, nat- work authentic; was he didn't need "Well, I suppose I'll have to have urally. He needed the sale. But he tell the Seller to him that. You could this," he said "My wife will hate it, of couldn't afford to offend an important see the little original touches all over course." customer. "It no longer contains a the object, though they were badly "Because of the wailing, sir?" true spirit, sir, I regret to say." encrusted. Unfortunately, you "Puts her off. Gives her the The Collector nodded, turning the couldn't clean the damn things, no creeps." trinket slightly with the edge of his matter how you worked at them; once The Seller continued his dusting, "I monocle. the corrosion began, it couldn't be must admit, it gives me the creeps, "But." the Seller continued, a trifle reversed. He wondered sometimes too." urgently, "the echo is authentic, sir." why he bothered with them at all. But "You don't know how to listen," the "I'm sure," said the Collector, with a then, it was always amusing when Collector said. "You must get past the sideways glance, his eyes showing company came and one had a new superficial sound and hear the only a momentary flicker of con- piece to show. He could have it put in traces of its inner voice." tempt. a gold mount; that'd show it off to "You have the knack for it, sir, that's "Well, sir," said the Seller, defend- better advantage. Or hang it from a clear" The Seller masked his own ing himself against the glance, "there chain in his study, where the lighting contempt behind a cheerful smile. are clever copies in existence. The was usually muted and the defects of He'd be glad to have the cursed ordinary collector can be deceived. the sphere wouldn't show too badly. thing out of the shop and be done Not that you, sir"— to .." he hastened "Let me . . . please, sir The with its bloody wailing. correct himself— "are an ordinary Seller pulled out a cloth from his "Much to be learned, much," said collector." pocket, attempted to shine the tiny the Collector, aware that he was re- "Happy that you think so. " The Col- patch of transparency on the ball. vealing too great an excitement and SCULPTURE BY NICK ARISTOVULOS knowing he'd suffer in the bargain, but he didn'l care at this point. The wailing had thrilled him. These little ornaments were al- ways filled with surprises, even when they were as old as this one and all that re- mained of their glory was a fading echo. "Microbes," he said, inspecting the ball oruirui with his glass again. "They say that's what ruEXT causes the deterioration." "I've heard the same, sir. Tiny organisms that feed upon the workings." "Once it was brand-new," the Collector said, holdingthe ball up to the light, "Can we ever conceive of the beauty it must have contained? How splendid its workmanship was? If the spirit that once inhabited this ball were Still present, it could tell us more " than just who made it and when — He paused, his eyes shining with the intoxica- tion ot the connoisseur. "It would engage us in deep discussion, whisper to us of the wondrous workings of its mechanisms, give us the secret of its maker. It would grant us, in short, the favor of ifs enchanting company, but"— he placed the ball back on — its dark velvet cloth "this is a lifeless trin- ket now." The Seller concealed a sneer behind his polishing cloth. These collectors were such pompous old bores. Listening to their twaddle made him sick. "You saw my sale sign, sir. Fifty percent off all items in the shop." "Yes," said the Collector, disappointed at his failure to kindle true appreciation in the Seller. But what did these merchants know of subtlety? And in any case, once he was home and visitors came, then he could ex- pand fully, then he'd have his fun in the comfort of his armchair in the study, with the tire crackling and the bauble suspended on a suitable chain, in the shadows by the window, perhaps. "All right, how much do you want tor it?" "As you can see, sir, through this bit of transparency, the center is filled with jewels—" " "But surely that's not unusual — "The fakes, sir, are glass-tilled—" : The Collector adjusted his top hat, turned up the collar on his cape. The bau- ble was in his pocket, and a thin smile played upon his lips. He'd driven a hard and cunning bargain. The Seller graciously held the door, sly satisfaction in his eyes. He'd gotten twice what the trinket was worth. These foreign collectors often think they know it all. "Do you remember, perchance," asked the Collector, drawing the sphere from his pocket as he stepped into the bright street, "what the Caravan Vasts' called this thing when he sold it to you?" "A peculiar name, sir," replied the Seller. "He called it Earth," "Earth. I see. Very well then, my good man, I shall undoubtedly visit you again." SCIENCE FICTIO "My pleasure, sir, always." The Seller closed his door and watched as the Collector walked on down the glitter- ing, milky boulevard. OQ some sixteen-millimeter films of mothers theories of sound and the spoken word, FHEATER and their babies," Wilson recounts. "When "We're all blind and deaf all the time," a baby cried, the mother would pick him up Knowles says. "If you blink your eyes, you're CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 1 and comfort him. My friend slowed down blind for that time. What do you see? If you possible in theater to alternate more fre- these films and looked at them frame by are blind, you have a feeling or impression quently between these interior and exterior frame. He found that in three out of eight of sight. The body sees — feels— the vibra- impressions to make new views of reality. cases the initial reaction of the mother in tion of colon If you're deaf, you don't hear, "For instance, if you are watching televi- the first three frames is that of attacking the but your body does." sion and there is a newscaster who says baby. And in the next three frames she In Knowles's script for Einstein on the that President Kennedy was assassinated demonstrates another emotion; In the next Beach, the recitatives take on an incanta- today, you don't notice that the newscaster she's doing something else again. When tory tone through the repetition of phrases is wearing a black suit with a red-and-blue the mother saw the film, she said, 'But I love and thoughts. Language is dissolved into tie. But if you turn the TV's sound otf and my child. That's not what's really happen- its primary components of sound. "I'm in- turn on the radio and listen to Mozart, or ing,' which is very complicated. In that split terested in separation," says Wilson. "In something else, perhaps you look at the second there are many different emotions, Edison, the actors were hooked up to radio picture more intensely, or listen to the music many physical reactions. We can't illus- mikes so that their voices came from more intensely, or both at the same time. It's trate what we're feeling. It's too complex." speakers placed in back of the audience, difficult to see and from a source other hear at the same time, than the one that was but I think it's some- seen. In addition to thing we're going to these mikes, there do a lot more of." were sometimes as Einstein on the many as sixteen dif- Beach revolves ferent tapes happen- around several recur- ing simultaneously." ring visual images, Currently at work on each having its own a six-and-a-half-hour thematic music and program for West dances. Trains: The German TV— to be toy trains of Einstein's smooth whiskey broadcast at 11:30 boyhood seguetothe A rm. and run through trains later used as is a work of art. the night— Wilson analogies to explain sees television as the the theory of relativity. A smooth whiskey at 101 proof dramatic medium of The trial scene, ac- the future. "Televi- is cording to critic a masterpiece. sion's scale is so dif- Robert Palmer, "reso- ferent from theater's. nates with the awe- The space, time, tex- some implications of ture, color — every- his discoveries." The thing is different. TV stunning vision of the happens quicker In Spaceship: "repre- the theater I can senting perhaps the spend half an hour potential for liberation walking five feet. In a and transcendence performance in Bel- that Einstein also un- gium I did almost that, leashed." and seventeen hun- But there is no way dred people sat and to convey the com- watched. On TV they plex interrelationship never would have. TV of images, is as Einstein WILD TURKEY 101 PROOF,* YEARS OLD about close-ups, himself wanders the KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON the movement of the BLYOND O Li PLICA HON. stage at times or eye, impact." stands apart from the Wilson's future may action, violin in hand. be today, but you'll Its elements are formed into a coherent plot Communication and the nature of have a hard time seeing it in the United only in the mind of the listener/viewer. speech itself have been central concerns States. Einstein and Edison sold out in a It is difficult, too, after being raised on of Wilson's theater. Personal speech dif- matter of hours in New York, but popularity high-school productions of Our Town and ficulties overcome in adolescence led him could not offset production costs. Lacking on Broadway musicals, to envision the the- to devote a great deal of work and attention government subsidies, Wilson can rarely ater of Robert Wilson. What is drama, when to the problems of brain-damaged chil- mount one of his productions. meaning and emotion, its most conven- dren. He taught painting and body-move- "In Europe I'm already part of the main- tionally important aspects, are taken away? ment classes and later involved many of his stream:" he says. "But here we're dealing Wilson splits the atom of conventional students in his productions. with a young country, only two hundred theater. What remain are the component Christopher Knowles is a student and years old. But it's about to grow, to change." particles— lighting, costumes, sound, friend who helped to write certain pas- There are hopeful signs. Wilson has sets, dialogue, music— all independent, all sages in Einstein on the Beach. Knowies, been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, traveling along randomly convergent autistic from birth, has grown to become an and a modest production of his latest work, paths. Without the usual strictures of text, accomplished poet and graphic artist with Dialog/Curious Goorge. olayed seven days plot, and subplot, we're freed to explore the Wilson's guidance and support. He has in New York. The tide is changing for this individual drama of each component. collaborated on some of Wilson's major director, whom Eugene lonesco has called "In the Sixties a friend of mine made works and has Influenced Wilson's own 'America's most important dramatist." DO 103 J space, plunging through faraway galaxies, spiraling toward the Milky Way Stars blur past until one dot in particular grows from a fuzzy speck to a sphere of soft-blue and green. The globe ex- pands, landmasses become distinct, clouds part, and the surface nears. After a flight spanning millions of light- years, we come gently to rest, gazing out on Alexandria and Egypt, and we find the Greek scientist Eratosthenes busily computing the circum- ference of planet Earth, This is the prelude to an ambitious new television series called COSMOS. A saga of scientific discovery, the $8 million Public Broad- casting System presentation claims to be the first TV pro- gram to blend state-of-the-art special effects with nontech- nical language in an effort to take some of the scare out of science. The 13-parl series, scheduled to begin Septem- ber 28, takes the form of an epic journey The viewer is carried along on a tour of the universe, conducted from the comfortable seat of a quaint, almost cathedrallike, Wellsian spaceship whose pilot— the host and principal writer of the series— is Carl Sagan, Cart Sagan takes a trip in "The Time Machine" (from the George CARL e oi the same name). At right, at Lowell Observatory, Sagan retraces the martisn SAGAN'S controversy and how it led to the Viking exploration of Mars. COSMOS This intergalactic TV saga takes the scare out of science BY JEFF ROVIN According to Sagan, the distinguished continue planetary exploration.) tion ever attempted, and an excursion into In COSMOS, among the worlds: astronomer and Pulitzer Prize-winning au- Sagan is assisted in his odyssey through the human brain. Carl Sagan reaches out lor the thor, COSMOS was born iour years ago time and space by some innovative video The secret behind the special effects is a moon (top) and walks through while he was a scientist attached to the wizardry. Among the many special effects new camera system linking computers to the inner solar system (lower Viking Mars mission. Deeply annoyed by in COSMOS is a 25-minute journey from the cinematography. Microprocessors simu- right) in one of the more than the bland, uninformed reporting that realm ot remote galaxies 8 billion light- late motion through space, and the com- 100 sets and locations in the dogged that historical event, he estab- years away past quasars, exploding radio puter can place as many as six galaxies in new TV series. In a discussion lished Carl Sagan Productions, whose galaxies, black holes, pulsars, interstellar correct spatial relation to one another. of the curvature of space, he purpose, in his own words, "is to bring sci- clouds of gas and dust, the Orion Nebula, Sagan is convinced COSMOS will en- holds up a three-dimensional ence to the public in an accurate, en- and all the planets in our solar system. lighten a large audience because the pro- projection of a four-dimensional thusiastic manner." COSMOS is the first There is also a dramatic re-creation ot the gram is entertaining rather than pedantic. hypercube, or tesseracl (top tangible by-product of this commitment. great Library of ancient Alexandria, a rep- "I enjoy popularizing science," he de- right), in program 10, devoted to The program is also an opportunity for resentation of Sagan's Cosmic Calendar clares. To those critics who say the casual cosmology The 92 naturally Sagan to drive home an important cause of (which compresses the 1 5-billion-year his- personality of COSMOS undermines its in- occurring chemical elements — his: the exploration of our solar system. tory ot the universe into a single cosmic tellectual integrity, Sagan counters, all but hydrogen and helium (See page 35 for Sagan's plan on how you year), a plunge into the living cell with the "Popularization, it must be remembered, is made in the insides of stars can participate in urging our government to most accurate representation of DNAfunc- not the same as vulgarization. "OO (right middle photograph). ONLY YOU FANZY He could afford the best, but this one was on the house BY SHERWOOD SPRINGER Throughout the habitable domes of "I'm looking for Fanzy." Mr Lefkoviz (he solar system, from Venus to Ihe said. moons of Jupiter, there are beings "You have an appointment?" who will tell you, if the subject comes up. "No appointment." that the Titanians as a race are shrewd. "Can you tell me the nature of your crafty opportunists of a high order. business?" This, of course, is a myth True, there "In such a place there is another kind of " are natives of Titan who may possess business9 Ihese characteristics, but they are prob- "Oh." the girl said. "In that case /'// show " ably no more numerous, relatively speak- you around ing, than similar inhabitants of any other "No. I have to have Fanzy," clime. If pressed for an example, however, "I'm sorry Thai's impossible." one might bring up Mr Lefkoviz "Why impossible?" One evening, at the tail end of a busi- "For one thing, Fanzy's not one of the ness trip to Mars. Mr. ' Lefkoviz rode a girls. She's director here. And for another, rackshu along the silicon streets of Crater she's retired. From floor duty, that is." City until, finally, he reached the D2 Mes- "That she can be telling me herself. Tell cence Mall. Fancy's Place was third on her Mr. Lefkoviz is here." the left. Persistence may indeed be the most Mr. Lefkoviz banged on the door with powerful force in our society. It was obvi- his muggerstik Through a peephole a ous Ihe violet-skinned filly was not going pair of purple eyes gave him Ihe once- to dissuade Mr Lefkoviz from reaching over. The door slid sideways, and Mr. Lef- his objective. She decided to let her boss koviz crossed the threshold handle the situation. "Can I help you?" the girl asked. Clad The director was working on govern- only in sandals and a simple yellow tunic ment forms when Mr. Lefkoviz was that was draped to a poinl fifteen centi- ushered into her office. If one liked his meters below her navel, she was obvi- females ample, Fanzy was ample. What ously a Callistan. violet skin and all. was more, even a crilical connoisseur of PAINTING BY ERNST FUCHS amplitude would have neon to.'ced to admit Among other [hinos.slie'li blow your mind." interesting evenhg Maybe she should that Molher Nature, in overendowing, "No." keep her hand in occasionally just for prac- had used fine judgment in contouring the "Well, then we come to the giant vulva tice. Tod bad Lefkovizes came along only landscape, plan.tfrom Venus. You can slip into her up to: once in a lifetime. "What do you want?" Fanzy asked. your armpits. Believe me, the massage you In that, Fanzy was wrong. "I want you, Fanzy." get from her is the living end. I mean ulli- "Are you some kind of nut or something?" Early the next morning the door in D2 " "Is it only a nut, Fanzy, that would ask tor It's no use. My mind is made up. For you Mescence Mall ^.; as aga n ha-'r-iereci by a you?" I've got plenty o' robles How much do you muggerstik. There"s.ioo'd Mr. Lefkoviz. At this, she dropped ne papers on to her want?" 'All night I couldn't sleep, thinking of desk and looked at Mr. Lefkoviz with mild There is no shaking this clown, Fanzy you," he said to Fanzy, who hadn't yet got interest. Middle-aged, balding a little on thought. Her simplest course was to name the blankel fuzz oul of her eyes. lop, a certain Ihickehing at the belt line, a figure so outrageous the poor John would "My God, Mr. Leikoviz, it's the crack of and apparently an outlander with antece- have to beat a retreat. She stoo.d up, dawn. Can't we have some coffee?" dents not dissimilar lo her own, Mr. Leikoviz stretched her arms out to the side, and "So fine, bring coffee." in.no way turned her off physically In addi- gazed down a- her extensive mammary ar- Fanzy looked at him with suspicious tion, he had lhat air of assurance, quiet chilecture. eyes. "My price, you know, is no cheaper humor, and flattering determination. He "We're looking at five hundred robles, Mr. this time," -also was — Lefkoviz." she said. Withou! a word Mr. Lefkov z brought cut Fanzy slapped a lid on her thoughts. She Mr: Lelkoviz was also staring at the ar- what was lefl of the roll and handed it to her. already had an adequate lover. As lor busi- chitecture. Then, pulling out a small roll of She leafed through itandiound it precisely ness, going back on the floor was just ret- currency, he peeled off five c sp huncred- correct. They dawdled through coftee, and rogressing. roblenoles and placed them on the desk in Fanzy led him upstairs. "Mr. Lefkoviz. it's out of the question. One front of her This lime, at leave-taking, she held onto of my delightful playmates will take care of "So who haggles?" he said. his hand. All things considered, clients of you. Have you ever been caressed by a Fanzy took a deep breath and let it es- his caliber should be tendered some ap- furry wogglie from Ceres? She's soft as a cape through her teeth. There was no way preciation. teddy bear," out lor her now. but — what the hell, she "When am I going to seeyou again?" she "No. Fanzy A wogglie I don't want." thought, five hundred robles was five asked. "How about a' mermaid, then? They do it, hundred robles. As she picked up the "Who knows?" he said. "I'm going back loo, you know You just have to know which money and placed it in a desk drawer, she to Titan today." scales to lift." couldn't help wondering what the current "Titan? Why, what a coincidence! My "Oh? Every day I learn." record was in the G'ness Book. mother lives on Titan." "How abou: trying one- of our rare woo- An hour later she accompanied him per- "I know," said Mr. Lefkoviz "She gave- me androids, Stateside? It woo imported from sonally to the door. certainly had been an a thousand robles to give to you. ' DO UFD daily to both Marcia and her husband. Tapes of the experiments were made from April 1976 through February 1978. During session 6, on November 8. 1977, Marcia described her first contact with extrater- restrials; "I seemed to be in a place of wheels. It was being made manifest that all creation is based on some form of rotary motion, whether axial or around a great! center. There are whole hierarchies of s chetypes descending from abstract to concrete realms of being, and this was the place where these patterning principles are given their initial momentum." An all-too-familiar thread weaves its way through yet another of Marcia's inner jour- neys. "I strongly sensed the quality of be- nign beings, who for the sake of discussion can be labeled aliens. The unexpected conclusion of tuning in on the vibratory fre- quencies ol these 'aliens' was the recogni- tion that they were us! Or at least we were being used as tools of their reconnoitering." This conforms to Jung's interpretation. "As our dreams show very clearly," the psy- chologist writes in Flying Saucers, "UFOs come from the unconscious background, which always expresses Iself n numinous SPERRY ideas and images. This slrange phenome- AUTHENTICITY h non . . . suggests that consciousness has lost its balance, enabling a one-sided view to prevail. If consciousness loses its. bal- ance, then man views things from one eg computtque ng camputique eg camputique angle only and reduces them to a single principle involving a superior intelligence. h|» Lett INTRODUCING n Texas Instruments Civilized man, like primitive man. is mindful mI PACKARD ^electronic calculators JHE HP-85! of the gods, of the spirits, and of fate and . .. e«.ss Ti5no the magical qualities of time and place." While Moore's drug experiments appear to support June's -lyooiriesis, an ultimate proof remains elusive. Could these cere bral UFO experiences indicate the need to search for a new "psychology ot being"? Do we all desire to go beyond the material and social aspects of life? Lyall Watson suggests that man is undergoing a revolu- tionary change in consciousness, heightening of awareness in the psychic Tl HOME COMPUTER realm, which may explain UFO phenomena. MAGINATION MACHINE One who disagrees is Desmond Morris, II Plus 16K - anthropologist and author of the best seller lUp^pU'computer APPLE The Naked Ape. "I don't believe man is now ^appla^/ NEW developing new psychic properties," Mor- tvr^ruT.vr VI PAOGRAMM ris declared. "Man has inherited ancient psychic abilities that, until now, have i\ dormant owing to a preoccupation with D scientitic analytical of think- and modes nsysiErnxw S*:Z ::. ing." Morris believes this highly developed WE WILL BEAT OR MEET ANV COMPETITOR'S PRICE DN MOST ITEMS IF HE HAS MERCHANDISE ON HAND A. specialization could be brought to light if science reevaluated its significance. "Slowly the scientific community is becom- WRITE OR CALL FOR FREE CATALOG ing more open to psychic thought, but it is not totally convinced of its genuineness. Rather than speculate on its origins, m camputique what's needed, is to promote advanced 3211 SOUTH HARBOR BOULEVARD. S research into new areas of physics and biol- Iw.th OLL FREE (800)854-0523 ( 1714)549-7373 ogy, which may lead to a better under- " standing of what UFOs are all about. "OO PROFESSIONAL DISCOUNTS onal challenge and ft Weofterastirnulatirl^and unique hands-on tech- it of fullycor safe i your experience and a comprehensive benefit ; of gen- xicRsge that includes 24 days vacation per year. ,~ u ,,ia Physics cud a I, constructs sPLT.PDX.and University), Post Offic Box 451, I Jersey 08544. An Eq al Opportunity/ Aff in Action Employer M/F/i 1 *lu*ma 1*1 ivsic* Laboratorv astronaut Gordon Cooper, who was asked about a UFO that he allegedly saw in the- FDRuan skies over Germany in the 1950s. He said CONTINUED FROM PAGE :A that he and others sighted, and tried to such a small teat would be immense, yet pursue, "groups of metallic, saucer- Randi would have no difiiculty whatever in shaped vehicles at great altitudes overthe duplicating the feat by no less than several base." He claims that this continued for thousand existing technical means. Would "several days in a row," Unfortunately, these Circuit Design Specialists Randi's duplication disprove the existence objects outmaneuvered the pursuing fight- of a psychic force? Did the invention of the ers and sped away each time. automobile disprove the existence of the. It would be very interesting to have Mr. horse? No. There is more than one way to Oberg interview Mr. Cooper and bring out get from point A to point B. The transition is the details ot this sighting. A trained and made just the same. respected man such as Mr. Cooper would Randi's proposition puts the true psychic make a very credible witness. {if one exists) at a disadvantage. Deform or Mike Bucker ice in digital and ai break a remote object. (Microwaves? Parti- Richmond, Va. design, to contribute to tle^ cle beams?) Divine the presence or nature installation and iesiina of mi ot a concealed substance. (Oil company In the Interview with Gordon Cooper, he is geologists do it with seismic waves.) Isn't quoted as saying. "I think we could very invisibility merely a light-refraction trick? likely bring together the talent to build a The ten of diamonds weighs more than the time machine," and later, "I do believe ace because it carries more ink, UFOs exist and that truly unexplained ones Electrical Engineers It any true psychics exist. Randi's chal- are from some other technologically ad- " (Neutral lenge is superfluous. One day Randi's bank vanced civilization." balance will decrease by $10,000, and no Putting these two ideas together, is it not latesafimi one in the data-processing department will reasonable to think that 'the UFO may be a be able to explain it happened. time machine from advanced civiliza- power vacuum technol how an instrumentation and co C. J. Anderson tion right here on Earth, say, 100 years Burnsville., Minn, hence? Thus. UFOs would be vehicles, not Mechanical Design from outer space, but from "outer time"— Engineers James Randi replies: / am puzzled by your possibly crewed by little green robots. " 1: comments. My ofler is lor a "psychic" dem- Peter H. Adams -ns to problem: onstration. The "psychics" claim that these Wentworth Falls, N.S.W are not tricks, that they work; and that they Australia ^MM happen in a manner not ordinarily explain- able by regular science. Was Gordon Cooper just pulling our limbs, As for moving a steel ball, it the condi- or was he unwittingly suggesting some- Rr Design Engineer tions were correctly set up and it the psy- thing rather strange? chic could indeed cause the steel ball to I was particularly struck when I com- roll, he or she would collect the prize. The bined two statements Cooper made: (1) fact that I could also do this stunt by trick- that it was theoretically possible to con- ery would not invalidate the win. It is up to struct a time machine, and (2) that he me to see that I allow no "ordinary" forces doubted that some UFOs were from "any- (magnetism, gravity, heat, etc.) to be used where on Earth" because of their "perform- to move the bail. The requirement is that the ance capabilities." Systems/Applications ball move without these ordinary, normal Since it has been speculated by others Programmers forces being used— in other words, by ("Dark Sanctuary," May 1979) that any in- paranormal force. I don't know where you terstellar travelers would find some diffi- got the idea, that duplication of the phe- culty in withstanding Earth's gravity after mm nomenon invalidated the demonstration. living and evolving in a zero or fractional m Incidentally the weight of the ink used to gravity during the time required to traverse J edge TOPS- 10 i S/ portray nine diamond shapes on a playing interstellar space, and since they could DEC 10, PDP-11 or card is minute — so minute that it falls well quite easily resupply themselves from the within the average difference in weight of asteroid belt or from Jupiter and its satel- Systems Analyst any two playing cards. Thus, your ten- lites and would have no need to visit Earth, I Create and manage program librc heavier-than-ace statement is neither per- am led to believe that these smaller craft including catalog of CPM and Qui tinent nor correct. that Cooper allegedly pursued over Ger- PERT routines. Coordinate with othe My offer is now more than 75 years old. many were not nterstei>ar :no r iginatall. but My money has never been safer. in fact are from somewhere here on Earth. That is, they may be time-traveling ships Oberg vs. Cooper that will have been developed from the very An interesting conflict occurred in Omni's technology hinted ai by Cooper March I960 issue. In the UFO Update arti- If so, then Cooper and Omni should Vacuum Engineer or cle, James Oberg, as usual, chose to "de- claim credit for all the UFOs we've sup- Physicist bunk" a questionable tabloid UFO-sighting posedly been sighting. story. This is ot course easy, for any in- Richard E. Bridges formed UFO researcher is aware that these Kalamazoo, Mich. tabloids tend to supersensationalize ob- servations of UFOs. The Age of Science Fiction At variance with this, a sighting is men- I beg to differ with Jetf Rovin's Film column tioned in Omni'B Interview with former U.S. [March 1980]. Rovin's first mistake was in labeling films like Star Wars. The Black are great, not Id mtntion the legal and ethi- BUY BACK Hole, and Star Trek as science. fiction. Their cal barriers, animal ova must be used. own creators admit them to be science fan- Two years ago researchers in Hawaii SOME OF THE tasy, Star Wars especially. They are obvi- found a way to treat hamster ova by remov- ously not high-brow films — because they ing the outer layer so as to allow human FUTURE! were not intended to be. sperm to penetrate. The ova, being of a different species, die immediately. There is Though I thoroughly enjoy "literary" sci- nnrui gb~ ence fiction like Dune (by the way, films no long-term evidence as yet, but there is a based on Dune and Childhood's End are in sirong indication that this test is much more the works, and we've already had The Mar- reliable than sperm examination. in a tian Chronicles andTha Lathe of Heaven), I This lest is currently being used find the films mentioned also enjoyable. study oi DES sons, who seem to show a Besides, the audience for true science fic- higher rate of infertility than the general tion is still small compared to the numbers male population but who show no deviation of fans of films like Star Wars, thus making in sperm analysis. It is also hoped that this really good films uneconomical, But this test might be used as an alternative to the situation won't last long. Since Star War's, expensive and uncomfortable tests that | ushered in the present sc eoce-fiction/fan- are now being given to married women who tasy boom, sales ot all kinds of science evince iniertility problems. This should be a fiction at bookstores have gone up. People desirable goal for someone concerned who started by reading novelizations of wilh human life, which Kathleen Sommers films are drawn into the world of classic professes to be. science fiction. Dennis S. Murray Rather than berate them for their lack of Kent, Wash. NOVEM3ER79 "~DBCEMBER79 .. characterization, we should be thankful that these films are introducing science fic- New "Manhattan Project" iWPIi tion to the masses. The Age of Science The end of economic prosperity as we have Fiction is just getting started. cometo know it in this country is looming on J. Michael Smith the horizon. The reason is energy. Using St. Bruno, RQ. and wasting vast quantities of energy we Canada are forced to import vast quantities of ex- pensive oil from the Arabs. man Guinea Pigs Jane S. Wilson suggested [Continuum, a '"human guinea pig," I feel I must May 1980] that we undertake a "Manhattan comment on a letter submitted by Kathleen Project" ior energy Specif caNy. sne sug- Sommers [Forum, March 1980]. Without gested full-scale development of fusion experimentation on humans, no new med- power. Once fusion power is realized on a icines, no new vaccines, and no new surgi- commercial level, our energy appetite will cal procedures would be available to be satiated for centuries to come. There people who 'most certainly would die with- was an inleresting implication in Ms. Wil- out them. son's article. As an alumna of the Manhat- partici- Abuses have occurred, I concede, but I tan Project, she seems eager to submit that, for each test-tube baby de- pate. Perhaps those from the fission-power stroyed, hundreds — no, thousands — of project who are still alive could lead the babies have escaped the ravages of polio, way in a fusion-power project. We should smallpox, and diphtheria. call on them. Perhaps they could unite and hepatitis the President to give them-, and the I am currently involved in a B ask i/accine study thai, if successful, will save many others who would be needed, the many health-care professionals inc. :c opportunity to reach yet another scientific mention dialysis patients, diabetics, and milestone. drug addicts) each year. Let's take the $30 billion the generals give it to the am not well paid, but I am very happy want to spend on the MX and ne a part of this work. scientists to spend on energy independ- Ron Halbert ence. Baylor College of Medicine Robert W. Ford. Jr. Houston, Tex. Rock Hill, S.C. Ms. Kathleen Sommers says that HEW was Stewed Mice tunding research into the fertilization of As an avid reader of Omni, I was somewhat hamster eggs by using human sperm. This surprised to see the "Educational Alcohol" erroneous statement should be corrected. item [May 1980] among the usually excel- iertilization lent pieces in Continuum. JULY 80 AUGUST 80 The object of these tests is not but the fertility of the male donors involved. Drs. Ronald L. Alkana and Elizabeth S. of male fertility Parker conclude, from their research that Backlssues snown above $3.50 each In the past the only test unpleas- Prices Include postage and handling. was a microscopic examination of the mice given ethanol remember an sober mice do. Send check or money order to: sperm to determine numbers, shape, and ant experience better than motility. This process has proved very in- They base this finding on the results of tests OMNI BACK ISSUES positive a nega- in which sober mice repeatedly moved to- BO. BOX 903 accurate, both as a and as FARMINGDALE, NX H737 tive indication of fertility. The only true indi- ward a dark hole, wherein a mild electric " cation of male fertility is the ability of sperm shock awaited them, in less time than Offer void after April, 1981. to penetrate an egg. Since the technical drunken mice did. problems inherent in obtaining human ova A mouse that is given alcohol and then . THE PAST IS GONE THE PRESENT LOST AS IT ARRIVES. THERE IS ONLY TOMORROW OMNI is more than a magazine. It is a time ...and a place. It is the realm of imagina- annrui tion and the era of our destiny. OMNI Subscription Dept, Journey to OMNI. Explore the boundaries of P.O. Box 908, Formingdale, N.Y. 11737 the mind, Venture beyond. Discoverworlds Send me one year of OMNI (12 issues) ot S6 off the newsstand understanding and epochs that defy and price, Here's my check Qor money order D'or $18 (For tantalize curiosity. United Kingdom su ascriptions, send payment of £1i to 1 2Bramberf?oad London, W14.J There have been two years of tomorrows in OMNI, All that remains is the future. Share it,, .Subscribe now and begin your journey to tomorrow with OMNI's special second anniversary issue on "Human Evolution." This is one of your last chances to get OMNI at its current low rate. ..so don't hesitate. c Print clearly piea-e ~'c-es '.di L, S a:>o PG. ana U.K., Can- Tomorrow waits for no one. ada one e : sewro'ccec S6'o', 5 ;,.o ; c'c~bnro~e Payment must occomoc'V orce' A cv, 6-3 week- ?c»' oeWe-v o- first '': :ssue. Offer vo d c*e< r,'crc- ' W DD980 O rUl lU I THE second anniversary - moves more slowly Ihan one that is given gory- that of a volitional, rational animal, saline is only proof that alcohol is a depres- Volitional means "capable of self-directed sant action," Rational means "dealing with the Dt-Alkana's claim, that memory is en- environment primarily by the use of con- hanced could be better supported with ceptual faculty." This means that man is not more conclusive testing, e.g., one in which a Skinnerian gremlin whose actions and the mice that remember better must react reelings are determined by his immediate and move iasler than control mice do. environment but rather that he chooses to It is not valid to draw conclusions based perform his actions in accordance with his on insufficient testing, as any sever blind values. men prove on the subject of elephants. Because man is mortal, he must have Robert M, Sonnicksen values; hence, the concepts of good and Chicago, III, evil. If man were not mortal, such distinc- tions would not be necessary. It is a Dr. Ronald L, Alkana replies: The mice were metaphysical given (i.e., it exists in reality not under the influence of alcohol when necessarily) that men will value some they were tested, as implied in the article things highly and others less, but what they (paragraph 5, lines 8-12). The mice were value must be chosen. trained, injected with alcohol immediately The source of values is man's mind. He is after training, and then tested for their above all not an instinctive animal. He must memory of the shock one after week the discover what it is he should value by the alcohol injection. Therefore, there was no same means that he uses to rule his life— alcohol in their systems to slow them down by his conceptual, rational ability. when they were tested. The longer retention Kathleen Stein's, item "Scent of Sex" latencies in the mice that received alcohol [Continuum, April 1980] distressed me cannot be explained by an etfect of alcohol quite a bit. What she and the "scientists" fail THE VIKING PRESS, on their mobility. I DEFT ATE-OMN to realize is that one feels sexually attracted 625 Madison Avenue, New York 10022 toward someone whom one values and that • Send me copies of NUCLEAR Time Travelers these values are chosen; they are not NIGHTMARES (u $10,95. [ enclose I just finished reading "How lo Build a Time ! metaphysically determined, wishes total. (Please include sales tax One to Machine" [May 1980], and I thoroughly pplicab' am engage in sex with someone who meets fascinated, Up to now I had no idea for shipping.) that one's standards of value, not because he or Ihere was feasible I Name any way to build a real she smells like a hog. time machine. However, there is one very I Address This kind of error arises when one con- important paradox that I think Dr Robert L, fuses the metaphysically determined (real- I City Forward should have into. gone This para- ity) with the chosen (artificial). dox is, simply, this: If you went through the Bruce Douglass time machine,-when you reached your des- Eugene, Ore. tination, would you meet yourself? Think about it. Say you had been given Tuning Up an Acme Superdeluxe Time Machine (built, I found the problem involving the piano for the sake of argument, a month ago) and tuner [Games, June 1980] particularly in- you wanted to go back to yesterday. If yes- teresting. Though your answer is quite cor- terday you had been where the time ma- rect, you might find it interesting that pianos chine was at the time you teleported back, are purposely tuned slightly out of tune to would you be ihere waiting for you? allow for the varying string gauges in- Some people would consider this to be volved. If a piano has each string "per- an unsatisfactory condition. Not .so. What fectly" tuned, chords played on it will sound better friend could you possibly have than like mud. A truly perfectly tuned piano is yourself? Here's another prospect. Sup- one that has each string precisely out of pose a person wanted to take over the tune. Thanks for the intellectual challenge world, -and suppose this person had all the each month, ships and missiles and laser cannons (?) James D. Port needed for such a task, but not enough Menomonee Falls, Wis. DO followers loyal to his cause. Now picture this person getting OMNI into his time machine PHOTO CREDITS and traveling back one minute, picking up Page Guccione. page a, Diane Jackson Cliff the version of himself in this time zone, TIME CAPSULES. and '• gsW.DouglaaK.-k going back *:. another minute. Imagine him age 18, I Hog Love "*•'" bte .-.v^S I As an animal, man forms' a distinct cate- " By DickTeresi Oppenheimer, the Robert man Anderson was too ill to attend in person; who headed the team of Los so his paper was read by someone else Alamos scientists that gave while he listened in via telephone hookup us the atom bomb, was a superlative from California. Anderson remarked that physicist, but his arithmetic was awful. His anyone could have discovered the posi- sloppy calculations sometimes affected tron in a single afternoon simply by the validity of his results, following Dirac's theory. When Dirac was Carl Anderson won the Nobel Prize for questioned about this — why had he, his discovery of the positron at the age of himself, not postulated those positively forty-two, but he had to wait seven more charged electrons?— he replied, before years obtaining full professor status "Because I did not have the courage." at the California Institute of Technology. Tidbits such as these enlivened the Want to make big bucks in space? Now Symposium on the History of Particle there's a college course that tells you how. Physics, held recently at the Fermi National This fall at The New School, in New York Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), in City, Mark B. Chartrand III, chairman of the Batavia, Illinois, and attended by many of Hayden Planetarium, will be leaching a the pioneers who had made that history, class entitled "Working Space: A Primer to They included Nobel laureates Paul Dirac, Extraterrestrial Profits." Willis Lamb, and Julian Schwinger. Chartrand will explain how money is Dirac, at seventy-eight, was the grand already being made with communications old man of the symposium. He spoke for satellites and in spinoff areas, such as the an hour and a half without notes about the insurance business that has grown up development of his theory, which revo- around the satellites. He'll also explore lutionized the concept of quantum some up-and-coming technologies, such Mark Chartrand: Big bucks ir mechanics, providing the theoretical as the manufacturing of drugs and optic background for much of the past years. fibers in assislarii 50 space. f iearures crew twisted. I Chartrand sees his potential students became very anxious because I didn't as businessmen, interested laymen, and know whether I would be able to come invest people who might want to in space back from this strange world where I didn't industry— "the guy who wonders whether know where I was, because it was the first he should sell his Con Edison stock be- time. ..." Hofmann had taken a very tiny cause he heard the solar-power satellite dose of LSD earlier at his lab and had not is going to put him out of business." expected any real effects. The 14-session course begins Thursday Hofmann was in New York recently to evening, September 25. promote his new book, LSD: My Problem Child (McGraw-Hill), and the inevitable In this country, we always associate the question of Timothy Leary came up. psychedelic drug LSD with Timothy Leary Hofmann was direct: "I was always who promoted the drug's use in the 1960s. suspicious of Leary I had the feeling he But the real father of LSD is Albert was naive. He was so enthusiastic that he Hofmann, the seventy-four-year-old retired wanted to give it [LSD] to everyone, every director of natural products research for young person. Hold him, 'No, give it to Sandoz, Ltd., the Swiss pharmaceutical people who are prepared for it, who have firm. Hofmann took the world's first acid strong, stable psychic structures. Don't trip, by accident, on April 16, 1943— while give itto young people,' riding a bicycle through the streets of Leary, of course, ignored this advice. Basel, Switzerland. "I kept pedaling Even so. Hofmann feels the youth culture harder and harder," Hofmann recalls, "and of the 1960s compared favorably with I thought was locked into a spot. Finally, I what's happening today "It is a crazier got home and everything had changed, time now," he said, "but in quite another terrifying. had become My neighbor came direction. I think in the Sixties there was Paul Dirac: No postulation of positrons. in and looked like a horrible witch. My more of a psychological revolution, more 118 OMNI of a search lor another kind of reality, writers and ar- sts a-e granted a license. another aspect of life. Now there is always they face the possibility that il might be anxiety about the terrible things that could suspended. "The only way a license can happen, the fear ol war and destruction of be withdrawn is if the business in question nature, Ihe economy— more rational ceases to operate," retorts Paul Smith, questions and problems. There was a director of the Fairfax County license more mysticai component in the Sixties." division of the Office of Assessment. "It is We'll tell you much more about Albert not a regulatory license. There are no Hofmann in an upcoming Omni interview. restrictions on practice. It is for revenue or tax purposes only." Fairfax County, Virginia, has given new In a letter to Locus, the newspaper of meaning to the expression poetic license. the SF field, Sheldon noted this attitude Residents there actually need a license to satirically, writing, "Their position is that write and sell science fiction. One- such their license is a revenue-raising formality. resident is Alice Sheldon, better known to Tr^ey claim that no- such license has ever SF readers as the Hugo and Nebula been denied or revoked on substantive award-winning James Tiptree, Jr., and grounds, Never mind if you are a cosme- Racoona Sheldon, two pseudonyms she tician being sued for turning your clients' writes under. hair into green tentacles, or an undertaker The reclusive and publiciiy-shy Sheldon who is chairman of the Coven of Practicing was notified in May 1979 that the county Vampires. You still get your license by considered her a business and expected return mail." her to apply for a "specialized occupation Although she probably does not earn license." She refused, thus risking a fine of enough by writing science fiction to owe a in jail for each tax, Sheldon is pressing onward with the up to $300 and/or 30 days John Isaacs: A mind's eye beneaih the day of noncompliance. fight as a matter of principle. She has Essentially, Sheldon fears that once joked thai she "might train a skunk to carry to help lift objects into space. He made the applicalion in," and in reality she is heaolines several years ago when he ready to go to jail, if necessary. pointed out that the American habit of County Assessment Director Smith driving on the right side of the road notes that he is not aware of anyone ever increases ihe number of tornadoes in being prosecuted under the ordinance. the United States. Amazingly. Isaacs "But it is still on Ihe books," he says, "and I held no Ph.D. — only a bachelor's imagine there are situations where it could degree in engineering. come to the point where someone would Roger R. ReveNe, director emeritus of go to jail." Scripps, said, "John Isaacs had more original scientific ideas every month than John D. Isaacs, perhaps ihe premier mosi scientisls have in a lifetime. John's oceanographer in the world, died of ideas didn't simply sp'mg full-blown out of cancer June 6, at his home in Rancho his subconscious, bui rather out of per- Santa Fe, Calilornia. ceptive observation of the ocean and its Isaacs, former director ol the University creatures and out of a profound, almost in- of California's Institute of Marine Re- tuitive, knowledge of the laws of physics and sources and a professor of oceanogra- chemistry. In his mind's eye he seemed to phy at Scripps Institution of Oceanography be able to see the actual motions of the since 1948. was featured in an interview ocean's waters beneath the surface and in the August 1979 Omni. the ways fish actually behave in their Isaacs was one of science's struggleto survive." Renaissance men. He proposed, in Isaacs's own favorite saying was "When - ' I 1949, the idea o towing iceoergs from I meet the Maker of the universe, would Antarctica to droughl-plagued areas. liketobeableiotellhim a little of how it He also developed ideas for a skyhook works." Albert Hotmann: New thrills a technique of using the earth's rotation He was sixty-seven. OO 119 HE HAS INNER VISION conrinriuruicATiorus [May 1980] in the Congressional Record on May 1, 1980. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1D As an enthusiastic proponent of our na- will tion's program, I was delighted to I find it ironic thai an agency that space invent different sets of terms to describe read Mr. Michener's sensitive and eloquent the orbit of a craft going to Luna, as op- arguments for a healthy and aggressive posed to the orbit of one lifting off from U.S. space policy. Although I am not a sci- will benefit Luna (remember "Apolune/Perilune, entist, I believe that America Apocynthion/Pericynthion"?), cannot re- from dedication to a transcendent national place the word manned with 'slatted. goal. The space program is a thoroughly positive not a reaction to the Someday, I suspect, the private sector will endeavor and discover the wisdom of women in space as crises and dilemmas of our earthly condi- a matter o! economics. Our smaller mass, tion. our ability to concentrate on trivial detail. Howell Heflin and other advantages will give us our place United States Senate when private business ohases out NASA. Washington, DC. Someday. Mary H. Waison Last Men on the Moon Austin, Tex. The romance of the manned space pro- gram always appealed to me. I remember What's in a Title? watching, anxiously, as Neil Armstrong Communications [June 1980] included .a slowly, slowly climbed down the ladder, and I I privileged to see such a sight. The Ancients called it temper tantrum by G. Gerard Massimei, a felt very I dentist. He complains that an Omni car- didn't realize how privileged I was until COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS toon referring to a dentist as Mr. rather than read your description of Senator Harrison Dr. "is an insult that demands an apology." Schmitt in Omnibus [June 1980] as "one of There are no physical limita- This is laughable and illustrates something the last men to walk on the moon." It makes to Inner vision . . . the that children never tions I find very distasteful. me sad to think my may psychic faculties of man know Of all the world's professionals, only the see a man's footprint on another world. no barriers of space or time. A military, politicians, higher educators, Margaret A. Hartzell world of marvelous phenomena judges, clergy, and doctors insist upon a Seattle, Wash. awaits your command. Within title. In the military, there is an obvious the natural — but unused — chain-of-command function; in law and in I was reassured to learn that Senator Harri- functions of your mind are dor- academe, title indicates relative authority, if son Schmitt, former astronaut in Apollo 17, mant powers which can bring little else; in politics, authority and constitu- has embarked on a legislative career about a transformation of your ency are indicated. [Interview, June 1980]. life. But in medicine, the title is clearly a. self- This country needs people of genuine- Know the mysterious world serving device (hugely successful) to accomplishment in public office, and I within you and learn the secrets place oneself in the public mind somehow hope Senator Schmitt will not weary of the of a full and peaceful life! above one's fellow citizens, solely on the government's snail-paced bureaucracy. The Rosicrucians (not a reli- basis ot one's chosen work. Even lawyers, We need leadership based on logic and gion) are an age-old brother- another preposterously self-important lot, know-how, not on public relations and hood of learning. For centuries don't call themselves Attorney Jones, or media hype. they have shown men and whatever. R. Nester Ellis York, N.Y. women how to utilize the full- Mr. Massimei, you are indeed a doctor, New ness of their being. This is an and I applaud any expertise you may have, but you are no more important to society Gaia Abandoned age of daring adventure . . . but small correction to I the the greatest of all is the ex- than an engineer, a scientist, a plumber, a must suggest a collect- E. Lovelock [July ploration of self. Determine grocer, a policeman, or a garbage Earth column by James your purpose, function and or—Messrs. (Mmes., etc.) one and all. Mr. 1980]. Specifically, I am referring to the of polite name that was men- powers as a human being. is not an insult; it is a -form and Greek goddess's If which is correctly spelled as Gaea. Write for your FREE copy proper address. your ego prevents you tioned, it the article. I of "The Mastery of Life" — from seeing this simple truth, it is too bad. not Gaia, as appeared in found it hard to believe that such an error Today! No obligation. No sales- Robert C. Buckley Calif. would be overlooked when the author was men. A nonprofit organization. Daly City, of such magnitude. Address: Scribe Z.M.I. doing research Illegal Listening Ben Geer The ROSICRUCIANS Regarding the column by Dr. Bernard Hollywood, Fla. ™ Dixon entitled "Listening to Life," which San Jose, California 95191 U.S.A. appeared in your February 1980 issue and Both forms are in fact correct. Gaia ;s the , SEND THIS COUPON scientific original Greek spelling: Gaea is a Latinate 1 which detailed some of the latest Scribe Z.H.I. efforts in attempting to communicate with version of the same. Lovelock preferred The ROSICRUCIANS (AMOHC) it important that Gaia, in his article and in his book on our flora friends, I feel is Dr both San Jose. California 95191 U.S.A. Dixon know that listening to plants is ille- which the article was based fGaia: A New Please Bend me the free book, The Mas- gal—it is I'eavesdropp.ing. Look at Life on Earth, Oxford University tery of Life, which explains how I may MarkShuler Press, 7979J.-Ed. learn to use my faculties and powers of Calgary, Alta. Canada Correction Namf Because of a typographical error, the name Peter Address . On Record of Nobel laureate Sir Medawar was place A. misspelled [Life, July 1980]. We apologize I to James City __State Zip was pleased and proud Michener's article "Looking Toward Space" for this oversight, OO OSSAMER GIANT EXPLDRMTIORJS By Ben Mayer Earth had lost all communication essential link in a network of radio tele- sheltered its northeastern exposure and with Voyager 1. The media scopes that reaches from Spain to denied the approaching visitor a sky- carried the story of a probe cast Australia. silhouetted contour until almost the last adrift on its journey between Jupiter and Weeks earlier I had been invited by Tom moment. Saturn, disoriented 990 million kilometers and Eva Kuiper, husband and wife astron- As nonstation personnel, we first from Earth. Any number of circumstances omers, to visit the "big dish" during one reported to the crew supervisor, in the could have contused the on-board com- of their observing periods. By a stroke of mission-support building. After meeting puters, causing Voyager to lose its fate, my arrival would coincide with a day with the Kuipers briefly, we set out on a critical lock on the guide star Canopus. of excitement, even crisis, when research tour of the two-story complex, beginning in The hapless craft was moving uncontrol- might have to defer to the urgent demands a long corridor flanked by impressive lably outward at the dizzying velocity of of the Voyager mission. computer consoles. Row upon row they 8,320 kilometers per hour. As one drives the lone access road stood, with names as mind-boggling as "If we bombard it with commands, il toward the facility, scale plays tricks on the their functions: There was a Maximum may pick up our signal and reacquire its eye in the endless expanse of the Mojave Likelihood Convolutional Decoder, and reference stars," the technician explains. Desert. The first antenna to come into view nearby a Polarization Track Receiver. One "Then the main antenna will point in our Was not the famed one. A sign identified it bank of equipment was performing critical direction again." We are standing in the as the Venus station — one of the many timekeeping functions with a cesium- " operations room of the Goldstone Deep smaller dishes located throughout the vast rubidium clock. Attached to it was a large Space and Satellite Tracking Facility, next space-communication complex. The decal that read: Mickey Mouse Time' door to the famous radio telescope for name commemorates the detection of Amid this phalanx of machines, how- 1 which the station is named. The immense Venus by radar in 961 , when a radio ever, human hardware was conspicuously antenna structure— a prototype for iden- signal was first bounced off the planet. absent. I wondered where the technicians tical installations— has fielded many of the Forty-eight kilometers farther north, we were whose job it was to put the disabled splendid Martian and Jovian scenes por- came to a gently undulating range of craft back on course. trayed in television space-shot specials. barren hills. In the distance, dwarfed by "The entire worldwide operation of the Situated near Barstow, in southern the emptiness all around, stood the antenna system is remote-controlled from California, the deep-space antenna is an celebrated dish. A protective slope the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasa- dena," I was told. "From there the scientists oversee all the activities on their data- system terminals." That is why so many of the instrument panels had oscilloscopes or cathode-ray tubes displaying data that were, in turn, monitored by closed-circuit TV cameras. The talented men and women who were at this moment deciding the fate of a craft one light-hour away were themselves housed three hours to the southwest, The tour continued. We set out to investigate the antenna itself. Its base consists of a round, four-story structure, on top of which the giant saucer revolves and tilts. Walking between the mission- support complex and the pedestal struc- ture, we passed the plant where large generators are housed to provide power for all critical space missions. Reliance on long overland power lines is too risky when manned spacecraft are being tracked. Power failures can spell tragedy. As one approaches the monumental edifice, one's eye is drawn upward to Goldsione's "big dish": white metal filigree interspersed with the azure blue Of the desert sky. where the white structural beams are 121 interspersed amid the azure blue of the desert sky. Like spokes in a wheel, they converge on a huge elevation bearing. Its rugged sturdiness serves as a reminder of metal-straining wind loads and the 7.25- million-kilogram burden it must carry. The entire revolving upper part of the radio telescope is" suspended on a thin blanket of oil, which is kept under pressure, The central instrument tower, around which all systems turn, is hollow and exiends deep into the foundations of the pedestal. A subterranean tunnel leads back to. the basement of the mission-support building. Cradled along the walls are shelves upon shelves of cables. Only an hour earlier they had conveyed signals commanding Voy- ager 1 to fire a tiny stabilizing jet. By [he time we returned to the facilities building, Voyager had already been handed on to the next antenna, a third of a world away. With the craft oul of Gold- stone's reach and the great dish free, the original experiment for which I was to be an observer could begin, Besides the Kui- pers, the astronomical team included Pro- fessor James Gunn. the well-known cos- mologist, and Dr Gillian (Jill) Knapp, both from the California Institute of Technology. A Pitney Bowes Company Movement of the antenna is controlled by a Name servo mechanism operated by an em- Com ployee of the Bendix Corporation, the sub- contractor charged with the operation of City the facility. "They won't let us touch the con- i Mail to: Dictaphone Corp., 105 Oak Street, trols," somebody had said. rap.. Rye, N.Y. Norwood, New Jersey 07648 The purpose of the investigation was to establish a connection between traces of* ATTENTION COLLEGE STUDENTS! radiation left over from the big bang of cre- ation and very hot gases suspected in cer- tain clusters of galaxies. Since remnants of the primordial fireball pervade our entire universe, their effect on million-degree gases elsewhere in space can be studied. FOR FUTURE To collect the tenuous electromagnetic radiation from objects thousands of light- years away, a scan is performed. While magnetic tapes electronically record the slightest fluctuations in radiation, a visual record is also kept in real lime. An electri- RE ERENCE cally charged stylus traces a series of squiggles roll of paper. Moving? We need 4-6 weeks notice of a Listing/Unlisting Service? Omni makes on a moving graph change of address. Fill in the attached form the names and addresses of its subscribers "What we are looking for today," Dr, Tom below, available to other publications and outside Kuiper says, pointing to the paper "will companies. The publications and com- amount to no more than an eighth of a cen- New Subscription or Renewal? One year panies selected are carefully screened for timeter of constant change on this graph." of Omni is $18 in the U.S., S24 in Canada their acceptability and quality of their offers. It is only then that the impact of the quest money orderfor the appropriate amount and strikes you full force: a 42-meter-high in- allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Please check the appropriate box below. strument tower supporting a 64-meter- diameterdish, a full 3,374 square meters of in search of traces of electromag- New Renewal Attach mailing label below and send to: antenna ] D s ^hption netic radiation, which — if they register at ! omn/ all — will reveal their presence through PO. Box 908 [ Please remove my This is a change of needle-thin deflections, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11737 namefromyour address; my new later in the day, while the astronom- | Much I mailing list. address is below. ical experiment was nearing completion at Goldstone, word was received via the Aus- tralian antenna that at Greenwich Time, day I Arlrtroq.c 350, hour 20:30, Voyager 1 had once again I all Hity ' " State 7ip locked onto Canopus and that systems were working normally It was on course to Payment must accompany order. qc ggo rendezvous with the planet Saturn on No- I vember^. 1980.DO GALACTIC JEC STARS By Gregory Benford could a black hole be from the galaxy Ihen oxoards into a has been stirring them up. This works out years. Howdriven out of its home galaxy? luminous, roughly circular patch. The to be close to 10 million The whole Idea seems bizarre. other blue jet is longer and wider and Imagine several black holes orbiting another in gravitational depression. Intuition suggests, tor example, that if makes a sudden right-angle turn. one a several undergo there is a black hole at the center of our There are also two red jets. The more Occasionally holes off own galaxy, gobbling up stars and spew- obvious is exactly opposite the first blue near-miss "collisions" and carom one like billiard balls. This can knock ing out clouds of gas, it should stay jet. The other lies very nearly counter to another well entirely. In fact, put. After all, what is so monstrously the dogleg blue jet (only 1 1 degrees off). one hole out of the in calculations show that two or more holes powerful that it could push a black hole Nothing like these jets has been seen opposite direc- out of the gravitational "well" at the any other galaxy. They are all remarkably can often be ejected in galaxy's center? One rather convincing straight. Careful study of NGC 1097's tions, thus conserving angular momentum. candidate is another black hole. spiral arm structure shows that the gas is Some very energetic objects — perhaps from Bizarre or not, a clash between black disturbed near the jets.This means the jets black holes — were probably ejected holes may be the best explanation for one must pass through the disk of the galaxy. the galactic center at very high speed. of the strangest astronomical discoveries Whatever made them was orbiting in the They ionized the matter around them, it, sprayed out made in recent years. A barred spiral same plane as the bulk of the galaxy. swallowed some of and This left a straight path of luminous galaxy, dubbed NGC 1097, seems to show It seems likely that a single powerful debris. trash as several faint "jets" that all point back event caused both jets. If the galaxy were material, like picnickers dumping , toward the exact center of the galaxy. steadily spewing out a beam of matter, for they go. There are bright, diffuse patches Jean Lorre, of Pasadena's Jet Propulsion example, we would expect to see a of light near where the jets depart from Laboratory, made a computer-enhanced curved jet, bent by the galaxy's motion, the galaxy, and this suggests that the litter photothat suppresses the image of [he just as a moving firehose makes a curved let! behind was highly energetic. galaxy (the mottled blob) to bring out the spray of water. We can use this to estimate Many riddles remain. Why are the coun- blue spiral arms and the jets themselves. the age of the jets. The spiral galaxy ter jets red? One explanation is that the black Two blue jets sfand out clearly from the rotates one full turn every 300 million blue jets come from more energetic "holes" random coloring of the background sky. years; so the size of the disturbed areas in holes than the red ones do. These in fact groups of objects that were The shorter one spreads as if moves away the spiral arms indicates how long the jet may be ejected as a body from the gaiaxy. Such orbiting families can be unslable, can even ricochet off each other, ejecting one of the black holes from the family. This mighl also explain the asfonishing right-angle turn the long blue jet makes. Perhaps at this point one large black hole was thrust to the side and several smaller holes went the opposite way. If the smaller holes were less active, we would not see them. This explanation implies that the galactic center held a swarm of black holes of varying sizes, with whole clumps being ejected. A similar breakup might have caused the round blotch where the other blue jet ends. It Is very difficult to explain the right-angle turn by positing a steady flow of matter out of the galaxy NGC 1097 is about 60 million light-years away. So we are seeing a relatively recent event. Elliptical galaxies are usually noted for their violent activities, and spirals such as our own galaxy are thought of as pe- destrian places. NGC 1097 shows that spirals are not always quiet. Their centers interstellar speedways. NGC 1097: If black holes did may resemble DO 123 " J: -'«... *>wl contrast, our sun is a medium-sized star 13. Pencil. A hard pencil can draw a line whose estimated lite-span is 10 billion more than 30 miles long. The Jumbo refill It is for years.- presently thought to be 4 billion a ball-point pen may be rated up to ANSWERS TO GAMES (PAGE 129) to 5 billion years old. 10,000 teet {less lhan two miles ot writing). 1. Life expectancies are greatest in Swe- den— 72 years for men, 77 for women, The 8. The Venusian day is longer. It takes 14. Aluminum cans. As garbage, these United States, with expectancies of 68 and Venus 246 Earth days to rotate once on its containers last a long time, but not forever. 75, respectively, does not. even rank among axis. Jupiter, despite its massive size, is Plastic bags will last 10 to 20 years; plastic the top ten nations on this measure. spinning like a lop. It makes one complete jars and bottles, between 50 and 80 years. rotation in jusl 0.41 Earth day— about ten Those aluminum cans, however, won't de- 2. Sponge. A black Seychelles tortoise (a Earth hours. Jupiter rotales taster lhan any teriorate appreciably for nearly a century. species now extinct) was captured in the other planet in our solar system. Seychelles Islands in 1776 and was 15. Footballs. Game balls in the National housed in an artillery barracks on the is- 9. Oak. The life-span of a red maple tree is Football League have shod ife-spans. Be- land of Mauritius. There it lived until 1918, a mere 1 10 years; a sugar maple rarely lives cause the home team is required to provide when, seemingly in excellent health, it fell past 275 years. A white oak may live nearly 24 new balls for each game, and because 8 — through a gun emplacement and died twice as long: It has an expected life-span to 12 of these balls are actually used — and - 152 years after its capture. At capture, the of 450 years. then discarded, given away, or sent to the tortoise was already an adult, making its practice field — a ball could be said to last final age at least 170, perhaps more. This is 10. Paper wrap. Meat kept unfrozen in the about six minutes of playing time. The life of the longest documented life-span of any refrigerator should be loosely wrapped to a hockey puck is even shorter. The New vertebrate animal. Still, the invertebrate allow il to "breathe," Kendig and Hutton York Rangers, ol Ihe Nalional Hockey sponge lives much longer. Sponges have say. Air circulation keeps the outside of the League, may use 40 pucks a game (an no known life-spans and, theoretically. meat dry and inhibits bacterial growth. A effective life-span of 1.5 minutes each). But could be immortal. A red sponge may be snug plastic wrap or aluminum toil inhibits n baseball it is not uncommon for 100 or plucked, ground up, diluted, and forced this partial surface drying, causing bac- more balls to be used in a single game. through a handkerchief into a mist of tiny teria to multiply faster. There are some specks, clouding the water in its aquarium, oxygen-impregnated wrapping papers 16. Equal. Home plate in Yankee Stadium but by the next day or so it will have re- that release their oxygen to the meat, in- lasts just about as long as a basketball net formed into a new sponge, shaped exactly creasing its life-span, Cooked meat should in Madison Square Garden; Each is as it was before. not be placed in the refrigerator un- changed twice a year. til it has cooled to room temperature, since 3. Sperm. The Red Cross stores refriger- condensation will form inside the wrap- 17. Copyrights. A U.S. patent gives an in- ated blood only three weeks; after that it ping, spawning bacteria. Also, if the meat ventor exclusive rights to his invention in r goes to laboratories for research. Sperm is^stillhot, it will raise :'~\e:e^oe atute of the the United States for 17 years, a term that is lasts much longer. Healthy, normal babies refrigerator and everything in it, decreasing not renewable. According to the revised have resulted from artificial impregnations the lite-span of other foods. copyright law, anything created or pub- with sperm that had been stored frozen for lished after January 1,1978, belongs to the as long as 13 years. The real storage limit is 11. Bread. Lettuce lasts three to eight days author for the rest of his life plus 50 years probably much higher; Bull sperm frozen in the refrigerator. Rinse, dry, and store let- after thai unless he signs specific rights as long as 25 years has produced healthy, tuce in a plastic bag. Head e:5uce can be over to the publisher. Creations copyright- normal calves. freshened by cutting a slice from the bot- ed before that date are' protected for 28 tom and setting the head in cold water. years from the lime of first publication, with 4. Bat Rats live only up to 6 years, but bats Never store lettuce near pears, plums, ap- the possibility of renewal after that period can live 20 years or longer. ples, tomatoes, or avocados, for the fruits for 47 years more, giving a total copyright give off a gas that can cause the lettuce to life-span of 75years. 5. Pekingese. It is a general rule in animals develop brown spots. Bread may be kept that larger species live longer than smaller up to five days at room temperature, two 18. Srnokey the Bear. Oswald was twenty- ones, but this rule is reversed in dogs. A weeks in the refrigerator, and three to six four when he died in 1963. Smokey the Pekingese has a potential life-span of 20 months in the freezer. Thawed bread stales Bear symbol of the National Park Service, years; a fox. terrier, 16 years; and a Saint faster than fresn oread. Storing bread in the died on November 9, 1976, at age 26. Bernard, 14 years. refrigerator may inhibit moid growth, but the cold makes bread dry out very quickly; Scoring; Which Lasts Longer 6. Housefly. The average life-span of put bread in the fridge only when hot houseflies runs between 20 and 30 days. weather demands it, and only for limited Based on 17 scorable items (#16 was a There is record of an extremely sheltered fly periods of time. ringer); thai lived to be 70 days old. If you said the 15-17; Excellent. "Not marble, nor the mayfly lives longer, give yourself credit only 12. A carnation. It lasts up to two weeks; gilded monuments of princes, shall outlive " if you meant to include its larval stage— in fresh-cut roses stay fresh an average of this powerful rhyme. which it may live up to three years before it seven to ten days. Flowers purchased from William Shakespeare blossoms into full adulthood as a fly. But a florist last an average of two to three days 13-14; Very Good. "The world's a bubble, when the big day arrives, things happen less because n too-, that long tor them to be and the life of man/Less than a span." last. With no functional mouth or stomach, shipped to the shop. Cut flowers kept out of — Sir Francis Bacon the adult mayfly has no lime for eating: It water will die quickly, but if they are thor- 10-12; "Life is an end in itself, and Good. . has only seven or eight hours left in its lite to oughly watered and refrigerated just before the only question as !c whether it is worth " mate, lay its eggs, and die. being displayed, they will wilt more slowly. living is whether you have enough of it. The reason; Flowers go into shock if they -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 7. Black hole. According to Stephen Hawk- are accustomed to a plentiful supply of wa- 8-9; Fair. "Life isn't all beer and skittles." ing, the Cambridge University physicist, a ter, which is then suddenly cut off. After — Thomas Hughes, in Tom Browis black hole with the mass of our sun can be refrigeration it takes a while before the School Days 54 expected to be around for 10 x 20 billion process of degeneration catches up with 0- 7; Poor. "Life is short; live it up." years, the present age of the universe. By the trauma of a waterless ex stonco. -NikitaS. Khrushchev DQ tag OMNI A maddening toy and a new quiz: it's about time By Scot Morris "People became infatuated with the consisting of nine subcube faces) is a puzzle and ludicrous tales are told of single color. Enjoy this pleasing symmetry shopkeepers who neglected to open their while it lasts, because youmay never see stores Pilots are said to have wrecked it again once you start to play with the their ships, engineers rush their trains past puzzle. It is possible to twist each of the stations and business generally became cube's six faces around its center. The " demoralized. illustration at right shows the top face — Sam Loyd, describing (he impact of his (consisting of nine subcubes colored red 15 Puzzle, all the rage in 1873 on their topmost sides) beginning to rotate. From the starting-position it would ERNO RUBIK'S MAGIC CUBE be possible to rotate the yellow face, or the green face, or any of the three unseen A remarkable new mathematical toy has faces (colored blue, white, or orange). been driving people to distraction in After four random twists the colors are recent months. It promises to become so confused (as in the illustration on next more widespread than Instant Insanity. page, lower left) that it is very difficult to Master Mind, and Piet Hein's Soma Cube. restore the cube to its original condition. If Perhaps even more popular than Sam you can manage to get even one face Loyd's 15 Puzzle, introduced more than a back to a single color in 20 minutes, you still century ago, which is in novelty stores are doing well. Then it becomes more such an object be made? I don'l know today the toy has been sold as the "Magic frustrating: To get a second face backioa anyone who, after examining a cube, has Cube" in Europe for almost two years. single color, every twist seems to destroy successfully "reinvented" the mechanism Ideal Toys is marketing it in the United' irrevocably the first face. that is inside. All who have seen the actual States as "Rubik's Cube." Ideal advertises Rubik's Cube as having workings agree it is a truly brilliant piece of II ever there was a toy that deserves a ."Over 3 billion combinations— just one three-dimensional engineering. it. is by-line, this is Erno Rubik a sculptor, solution." The slogan is a considerable For many months I had one cube and architect, and design instructoratthe understatement. Actually, according to wondered how it worked. When I got a Academy of Design, in Budapest, British mathematician David Singmaster, second cube, I decided to sacrifice the Hungary. The thirty-six- year-old professor the number of different color patterns first to satisfy my curiosity. With a butcher invented his cube about five years ago. is in the quintillions. It is precisely knife, a screwdriver, and a hammer, I set to The cube (below) appears to be made 43,252,003,274,489,856,000. work, determined to chop it in half, if up of 27 smaller subcubes. When you first Solving the puzzle requires developing necessary, to get at the innards. After receive it, each of its six laces (each a strategy, or algorithm, to restore any discovering the cube's innermost secrets, randomized cube. Several methods have I was surprised to find that my anti- been devised. Two years ago a few intellectual solution had not destroyed it at mathematicians specializing in group all, and I was easily able to replace all the theory were able to restore a cube in less subcubes and restore the puzzle to than five minutes with a maximum of working order. between 150 and 200 moves. By last fall, I'll leave the reader with the exercise a110-move'method had been discovered, of deriving a hypothetical mechanism, and just recently a 41-move solution was which could be inside Rubik's Cube, that announced. Since the cube can be would allow it to behave as it does. (Hint: It randomized in just four or five twists, it isn't rubber bands.) Next month we'll show would seem there is still room for im- you what actually is inside, and we'll tell provement in the solutions. you how a cube can be opened easily Those who are mechanically minded without resorting to my Cro-Magnon may be more puzzled by the internal tactics. Be forewarned: If you take one of mechanism of the cube than by restoring these apart and then reassemble the its color symmetry. How does the thing pieces randomly, you'll have exactly a work? As you twist the faces in every one-in-twelve chance of doing it correctly. direction, each tiny subcube becomes That is, in 11 tries out of 12, you will put the separated from its original neighbors, and pieces back in in an arrangement that has yet the cube never falls apart. How can a different parity than the original start 5 " position,, and no amount of twisting will 15 Puzzle. Those "ludicrous tales" of ever restore the cube. The possibilities ior people beino. driven to insanity are cheap practical jokery are obvious. beginning to come in. Business hasn't The property called parity (from per- become "demoralized" as yet, but there mutation mathematics) played a big part are reports of cubists missing their, in the promotion of Sam Loyd's original 15 subway stops and neglecting appoint- Puzzle. Loyd offered $1 ,000 lo anyone ments, classes, and jobs. We await the who could arrange the 15 sliding squares first divorce suit in which Rubik is named in serial order, 1 - 15, as shown in the as corespondent. illustration at far right. In the marketed For an exhaustive mathematical treatise, version ail numbers were arranged "Nofes on the 'Magic Cube'," send S3 to correctly, except the 14 and 15 in the David Singmaster. Polytechnic of ihe bottom row were reversed. Loyd's money South Bank, London, SE1 0AA, England. was safe. Of [he more than 20 trillion conceivable arrangements the 1 of THE WHICH-LASTS-LONGER QUIZ squares, it turns out that exactly half could be achieved from his starting position. The "The depressing thing is that this remaining half, including the one the prize loudmouth bird is going to outlive me. was for, have an opposite parity- and are — Owner of. a white-naped South Human blood or human sperm (in impossible. If the 14 and 15 (or any other American parrot preservation out of the body)? two squares) were lifted ou! of the box and A bat or a rat? exchanged by hand, however, all of the What's the longest human life-span? ten-trillion-odd arrangements that had There are frequent news stories about a A Pekingese or a Saint Bernard? previously been possible would now be one-hundred-thirty-year-old still as spry as A housefly or a mayfly? impossible, and vice versa. Loyd's $1 ,000 a ninety-year-old, but most such claims was never claimed. Loyd was never able. cannot be substantiated by birth records. A black hole or our sun? to patent the puzzle because a "working The record for the longest documented A day on Venus or a day on Jupiter? model" of the solution had to be filed with human life-span is currently held by the Patent Office. Since the puzzle: was Shigechiyo Izumi, who was still living in A maple tree or an oak tree? impossible, Loyd had no prototype. Japan at press time and who turned one Beefsteak wrapped snugly in foil Rubik holds a patent on his cube and hundred fifteen on June 29. (or plastic) or beefsteak wrapped is paid, through his Hungarian manu- Questions about how long people and loosely in paper? faclurers, for every cube sold to ideal. animals live are often answered by wild His cube may have as long a life as Loyd's guesses based on unreliable data and a . Lettuce or bread? dash of folklore. Finally, there is a book that . A rose or a carnation? sets Ihe. record straight on the longevity of everything — from tortoises to hockey . A pencil or a ball-point pen? (Which pucks, from black holes to bologna io can write ihe longest line?) dreams. Frank Kendig, former executive . Aluminum cans, or plastic bottles (time editor of Omni, and Richard Hutton, a to deteriorate as garbage)? free-lance writer, have published. a. com- (consider pilation of answers in Life-spans — Or How . A hockey puck or a football Long Things Last (Holt, Rinehart and their effective life-spans in Winston, Copyright 1980 by Frank Kendig professional sports)? and Richard Hutton). . Home plate in Yankee Stadium or This quiz is based on the book. For each a basketball net in Madison Square pair of items, underline the one that lasts Garden? longer. Answering and scoring: page 126. . A patent or a copyright? . Lee Harvey Oswald orthe original SmokeytheBear?DO 2. A tortoise or a Sponge? iswerson page 126. -ypes of Theories Thu LA5T he development of pen WORD lha; ihere are physio : ogic By David E. H. Jones +Hereis.an.exceilent example of how not to say something in an important journal. *' ircugh benavkjral manipula