Omni Magazine (October 1982)
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I...fti onnruiOCTOBER 1982 EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETQN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: DICK TERESI V P -GRAPHICS DiRFC'CP "RANK DEVINO ART D:RZC"0R: F JZABETH WOODSON ruRCRFAN -Drop dr Bernard dixom A^/-,OC:,vr P'.,RUSHER MARIA'-AE -CWA-SON D RFr"QR 0= ADVERTISING: -OvVARD PL SSNER CONTENTS PAGE RIRSTWORD Opinion Kathy Keeton 6 OMNIBUS Contributes 10 EARTH Environment Yvonne Baskin 18 SPACE Comment James Oberg 22 24 LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon MIND Behavior Tim Whitaker 26 BOOKS The Arts Ray Bradbury 34 FILM The Arts Mitch Tuchman 36 PAINTING The Arts Michael Schrage 38 BREAKTHROUGHS Technology Michael Edelhart 42 EXPLORATIONS Travel Norv Brasch 44 CONTINUUM Da!a Bank 47 MYSTERIES OF THE MIND BRAIN TRANSPLANTS William A. Nolen BEYOND THE BRAN Sir John Eccles MIND TRIPPING Article Judith Hoops' MIND MACHINES Article Philip J. Hilts 104 BRAIN FRONTIERS Pictorial Gurney Williams III, Dava Sobel Jeif Go ; cberc 112 KARL PRIBRAM Interview Judith Hooper 128 ROUNDATION'S EDGE Fiction Isaac Asimov 64 A MATTER OF PACT Riction Rudyard Kipling 84 VIDEO WIZARDS Article Phil Wiswell 88 THE EYE OR REALITY Pictorial Roberl Sheckley 96 FARMER ON THE DOLE Fiction Frederik Pohl 118 PSI-QTESTll Experiment Stephan A. Schwartz and Rand De Mattel 136 ANTIMATTER UFOs, etc. 151 STARS Astronomy Allan Hendry 190 SHAT T ERED HAIR Phenomena Redken Laboratories. Inc. 196 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 200 LAST WORD Humor John Ficarra 202 Ariisi BicX'an Palulian portrays a hollow android, searching trie easiness of space. The cold, sterile silicon is softened by human eyes, which symbolize the evolution of mind and ::s eo:phenomenon, supermind. (Courtesy of NEC Electronics, USA, inc.) 4 OMNI , .'. we need a ':.' , . .' . reasoned, ! i: . !! 9rS3"y" ihe NASA's planners same month as ;he t.wenty--ifth anniversary reusable shuttle that can. carry relatively then of the launching of Sputnik ;. Ir was heavy loads into orbit and pome Oc'obc; 4, 1957. when ihe Soviet Union' : back for. more. We would a ; so need a opened the Space Age with the first' station in orbit to serve as a base, a ' i "terminal" on the tar end oi the shuttle i ateinte oi Earth. ( th hne. And we would ne.ec\ a "space tug" from to^ croits .because; if current schedules iiold. the thateould take payloads space shijille Columbia will undertake its :o h:ghe;- one;*, such as rhe geosyn- first operational '^gh; and place two chronous Clarke orbii, where commu- communications satellites in orbit. nications satellites operate. ' The Space Age has come a long way ' Neither Nixon, Ford, nor Carter would- in its first quartor-cemury. from lis lund the entiie integrar.ee prog/am. So rackieD ihe tost, hardest, part: history-making fin ,i :l i m to NASA and the- reusable wo-khorse Co'ump.'a the -shuttle. And n its much shorter span of four Now we' should be working on the years Qmm has come a long way. too, with second step. SOC. The station would more than 5 million leaders each month serve as a base in orbit for long-fern \ two books published, tol: highly popular scientific and industrial experiments, military .observations, Omni Science t lotion specials, ana an biomedical research, award-winning Television sones to boasl of. and communications, astronomical The chfef reason tor Qrnnfs success studies, and much more. ot is. ct cou-se, you "he rea.de:. Yen nave the planets, verified the faith that Bob.Guccione had and comets could be assembled ar the -.'- FIRST when he siamed tins magamne and nave: i - ii t omponents 1 '.' :'.' . i . proved to a skeptical world that you : .: ' are confident about the future and be checked out at the SOC, and the IAJDRD interested' in scientific research, in the station could even serve as a base for exciting prospects of space- exploration, satellite. repair and maintenance- crews. .. By Kathy Keeton robotics genetic engineering. To According to Major General James extension-; biotechnology, ano the many Abraham-son. di-ecior ot the shuttle iA permanent U.S. nine- areas covered m each issue. program, spaee-oi'iented industries Omni s, yO:n vision oi the future is aiready represent a 820-biltion-per-year space station could: be LKe creative, optimistic, and unafraid oi new market in the United States. The SOC v^il put into orbit for challenges. allow Industrial and. commercial firms to " political leadership in prra more permanent l . operate only slightly more money Paradoxical v. ojj space in seems t.o be looking l::aci<wa~d not '.basis, to build new products zero than Americans (on Earth) and forward; it -does not seem to understand gravity, to create new jobs spent on pizza in 19813* that, by leacriing tor the stars we can strengthen the American economy make life vastly -better hereon Earth. Still, we do not have a decision to-'go " On-duty. Fourth, President Reagan ahead with the SOC. Senator Harrison witnessed the lancing of Columbia's Una! -:. Schm.'itt believes, part ot the reason is teat mission, and saic ;n a speech to thai we do not have enough trained h he hak-mili on er: : uus'as-s who had scientists or engineers m Congress or the gathered a; Edwmds A;- Force Base to administration to make informed, effective event "This is "he decisions on scientific and technical . see the spectacular' historical equivalent to the driving of the questions. f ' golden spike mat completed ihe irsi This. is something to remember, with elections corning next . tor* up transcontinental -aNroad. We must congressional aggressively to the future by demonstrat- .monih. Where do the -candidates -'in your ing the potential oi the shuttle and esrao- srafe and your cistrict stand on the they of lishing a more permanent presence . space program? Hdw aware are stronger efforts in scientific - the ior . need inspace" . Those are fine words. But where are research and education? ' the deeds to match them? NASA and several aerospace . The President has not cailed tor a new contractors have studied various space- program to b.iiid a permanent space station ideas. James Beggs NASAs station in Earth';; orbit. Without such a administrator, has told the-- press/that a station, talk of "a more permanent Space Operations Center could be buiii. for presence in space' is mere rhetoric. a'toial cost ot about S9 billion and couid In NASA parlance, the space station is be finished by 1,988 That cost is only re! slightly more than what Americans Center, or SOC. It is the next logical' step spent on pizza in 1981. ir oui space program, now that the Would you give up a year's worth of shuttle appears, to be weil on its way to pizza to see a permanent UtS- space 7 nil operational status. station' erected in orbit if you would, write When NASA originally proposed ihe .to the President and let him' know. Send ' shuttle program to the Nixon White House us acopy of your letter. Or would you in the early" 1970s the snulte was one rather see you' children celebrate the [hire ct i^\e agency's total plan. To operate twenty-fifth anniversary' of. Russia's first economically and e :'ficicni!y ;u space. space station 25 years from now?DO. DR/inJIBU! 5ince its inception, Omni has hurdled. But when and if this research Specialists now insists :na: consciousness covered numerous scientific pays off, Nolen expects, the benefits need not be associated with the brain at breakthroughs and has been a to mankind will be staggering. all. Something akin to awareness may celebrant of exploration. To mark our What is the connection between body emerge in silicon processors as they fourth anniversary, we look at the and soul, brain and mind, physical evolve in complexity. To assess this uncharted landscape of the brain, in substrates and mental states? The answer potential, science writer Philip J. Hilts this "Mysteries of the Mind" issue. How is still far off, but eminent neuroscientist visited World Computer Chess champion did self-awareness emerge from the gray Sir John Eccles believes some important Belle and learned thai its moves are matter of the cortex? Whence do ideas, clues have surfaced. Eccles, who won virtually indistinguishable from those made dreams, and emotions spring? What a Nobel Prize in 1963 for his pioneering by human chess masters. Still, "this is the relation between consciousness study of synapses (junctions between paragon of brute, logical, mathematical and the labyrinthine circuitry of the nerve cells), has been a staunch propo- force, " he maintains, is anything but cerebral hemispheres? There are many nent of the view that an immaterial force human in its mode of thought. To judge unknowns, but modern science has directs neuronal processes. In "Beyond for yourself, turn to "Mind Machines" made great strides since the nineteenth- the Brain" (page 56) the Australian-born (page 104). A science reporter for the century author Ambrose Bierce defined scientist discusses current efforts to track Washington Post, Hilts traces his interest in mind as "a mysterious form of matter down "the ghost in the machine." if his artificial intelligence to a meeting with a secreted- by the brain." To appreciate just hunch is correct, it is not a pervasive prominent figure in the field, John how far we've come, turn to "Brain spirit, as once was thought, but is actually McCarthy, who is profiled in Hilts's newly Frontiers" (page 112), a specie! guide to centered in a precise anatomical location. published book, Scientilic Temperaments. recent findings in neurophysiology, from Not all the experts concur with Eccles's Science-fiction fans weaned on Isaac advances in understanding the electrical opinion.