ARTHUR C. CLARKE ON GIANT SQUIDS jiTiTn -JANUARY 1992

THINGS YOU MUST t&£T

i

•' ' ^-' I ,,/- 'A I I I I L REPORT CARD ON THE PLANET MAPPING & FICTION BY URSULA K. IE GUIN JANUARY 1992

GUCCIONE EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB PRESIDENT; KATHY KEETON EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL

: GRAPHICS D HKCTOR : RANK DEVINO MANAGING l-D ""OH OAHOI INE DARK ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM DEPARTMENTS 30 Continuum First Word Environmental report card By Margaret Wertheim 44 Physics and 51 Things You Must the Theory of Everything Know About 8 Technology, Forum Science, and By Keith Ferrell Your Future Space and the presidency By the Editors of Omni 11 • Everything Communications (well, almost) you always Readers' writes know 12 wanted to about science but were | Space " afraid to ask By James Oberg 50 The Soviets sell out 14 Fiction: Encounter with the Body Gorgonids By Keith Harary By Ursula K. Le Guin Tinkering with evolution 56 16 Mapping the Mindfields Tools By Bob Berger By Sandy Fritz 62 real birds Whirlybirds, OMNI Treasure Hunt 18 Preview Wheels 64 PI By Jeffrey Zygmont Fiction: Carl's Lawn and Smart highways as Garden By Terry B'sson 1 Earth 70 By Ben Barber Squid! Third World recycling 26 By Arthur C. Clarke Games 75 World of Electronic By Scot Morris Games The year's best games COVER 28 85 departure for Omni, high- Interview i Political Science This month's coverjs a By Thomas Bass By Tom Dworetzky lighting our list of important things to I explained art and photo credits, page 97) Chaos ".iling trauma facilities know. (Additional

: : n i- i ! i

Hi .. .. "'I. I . 'I 5

Printed in itie USA it 9 world (except Itie Uf i: srts copy-rig 11 ed. )y COMAG, Tavistock F

. tele rj!-.c:is:' -3CC- "

FIRST WORD

UNIVERSAL HARMONY: everything The search for a mathematical description of By Margaret Wertheim

Universe contains find an aesthetically empty, for the e are living in a unique desire to | are all part f% pleasing and spiritually satisfying nothing but itself. We I I moment of history, tor in- it, not separate entities but %J %J many physicists be- description of the Universe—it's of the language of terconnected vibrations participat- they are on the verge of find- just that they use lieve the whole. Protons, petu- mathematical de- numbers not letters. The great ing in ing a complete ga- physicist Paul Dirac, nias, and people, galaxies and scription of the Universe—a The- quantum equations predicted the zelles—we're all harmonies in the ory of Everything. Encompassed whose once universal song. graceful equations suppos- the existence of antimatter, in its believe that to have Some physicists our past, our present, said, "it is more important edly will be the Uni- one's equations than to as well as describing how and our future. beauty in to be the way it is, fit experiment." From verse came The question that needs to be have them modern age the Theory of Everything will also are doing it? We the beginning of the asked is why we interpret in the sixteenth cen- explain why it did. If we individuals and our society as of cosmology as description but al- mathematical it not just'as a whole why are we looking tury, the quest for a a — explanation of why our description of the Universe has so as an for mathematical description of Wertheim, film- a exist, then we predominantly a spiritual Universe came to maker and the Universe? The usual answer been will find ourselves in the metaphys- searching one. Its underlying philosophy is science journal- is that physicists are ical domain. And so we must ask, Theory of that truth is beauty and beauty is ist, is writing for truth, and so the will a mathematical Theory of Ev- the Ultimate truth, and both can be expressed Pythagoras' Everything will be satisfying mathematical formulas. erything be a spiritually book Truth. However, this presuppos-- as Dream, a of existence? This is not For this reason, physics is one account about the es that mathematics is sufficient aesthetic pursuits of something that scientists alone the totality of exis- of the great attempt by physi- to describe Western cul- Giotto's frescoes, can decide. Since it is? our time. Like to describe tence. But how do we know cists ture has largely abandoned myth- belief Michelangelo's sculptures, and universe in The fact is we don't. The the ological and religious accounts of be- Bach's fugues, the Theory of Ev- language of that it is remains just that— a the existence, the mathematical ones phys- erything is a high point of West- mathematics. lief. The founders of modern best have come to play a key role in the ics—Kepler, Galileo, Des- ern culture. Some of the physicists to- psyche of our society. Space, cartes, and Newton— mathematicians and time, and matter, change and pos- iderstood this, day are engaged in constructing in math- of mathemat- sibility are all now defined but today a mathe- it, and all sorts new ematical terms. Our horizons, limi- matical perspec- ics are being developed for the then tations, and dreams are being tive on reality is purpose. If they succeed shaped by physicists' equations. too often taken to their theory will be a concrete need to assess this mathemat- be self-evident. expression of the ancient Pythag- We account not just as scientific While a desire orean belief that the Universe is ical metaphysi- theory but also ; as a to find truth is a a vast harmonic system. cal framework for our lives. 'motivating factor for The models physicists are now of Everything is an developing in working toward The Theory physicists, it is not the Everything do por- extraordinary construct whose only one. They are al- their Theory of scope and power challenge us to driven by a tray a Universe full of patterns The view and symmetries—a harmonic Uni- confront it head-on. its summit will be breath- verse that is mathematically beau- from takingly beautiful. The challenge tiful. It is this theoretical beauty survey what more than any hard evidence facing us will be to and assess what it that convinces them they are on we see us emotionally, spiri- the right track. And it's not hard means to — scientifically. In doing so, to see why. tually, ourselves confronted Today, according to physics, we will find with a choice of whether we the Universe is a multidimension- want to stop there, atop the al force field, and everything that of Mount Everything, or if exists is a concentrated vibration peak wish to press on—and if so, in this field. All things come from we is not just It where? That challenge the field, and to it they return. is for all. DO it is for scientists; it us is everything that is, and yet FDRUfin

VOTE FOR VISION: Are there visionary candidates? Are there politicians who know what space exploration means to the nation and the world?

technol- system. This is affordable vision J^^ s we enter Election Year ing. It's tough to create bureaucratic design, al- at its best. M^k 1992, it would be nice ogy to certainly tried in Third, is some sensible, firm, # m if our officials—those though we've past time to comfortably funded plans for the in office and those seeking to this country. Now it's humans beyond our grav- be—gave some serious thought try something different: a space future of well. Are we or are we not build- to the future of our space pro- program based on engineering re- ity ing a space station, and what is gram. Nice, but unlikely, alities, commercial needs, scien- Past its primary purpose? Is our next We're in the heart of a reces- tific goals, broad vision. long-term goal a return to the sion that may in actuality be a de- time, but not yet too late or trip to Mars? Will we pression. Certainly we are beset How about a modest, four- moon a these journeys on our by domestic challenges that legged proposal for getting our be making international partner- more dreary every week. space program in motion again, own or in and maintaining ship? These questions must be an- its momentum swered; firmly and with some in next 24 once it begins sense of finality, the going. to move? Funda- months so that we can get mental to the pro- And once we're going, funding treat posals is the must remain constant: Let's idea of steady these as engineering and scien- state funding. En- tific challenges, not political foot- gineering pro- balls constantly in motion from jects work best one committee to the next. and most eco- Fourth is a schedule of substan- nomically when tial tax incentives for private invest- they are under- ment in the commercial and indus- taken with funds trial development of orbital for in hand, rather space. Serious tax cuts than having to space investment will bring seri- busi- take hat in hand ous investors into the space every year to ness. And that will mean jobs, beg for continui- which the country sorely needs. this implies a willingness Health- V-W(?are, housing, ty from Congress. All of .part of the people to take education, unemployment, AIDS, The first leg is a revamping of on the

I the peo- and more—can we afford to con- our launch systems. Already un- a long-range view. think than ready; it's the tinue dreaming about a space- der way, the revamping needs to ple are more are thinking in the based future? be funded at realistic and con- politicians who on" this issue. Do we Can we afford not to? Surren- stant levels, and at levels high short term politicians who dream of dering one of our noblest enough to provide for unmanned have only of leading in dreams may be the costliest de- heavy-lift vehicles for lobbing leadership or well the polls? Could we find a candi- feat we ever suffer. Keeping that large payloads into orbit as more economical date who can call on our spirit of E dream alive, on the other hand, as smaller and A call to act to adventure, who's willing to take a is unlikely to bankrupt the nation vehicles for bearing humans renewing our in exchange for the pos- on or take money away from social space and back. few risks na- space program programs. Even an ambitious Second among the priorities is sibility of large rewards for the an just might be space program need cost only a a serious resumption, fully fund- tion and the world? effective elec- Difficult times demand dream- fraction of what we're spending ed, of deep-space robotic mis- year issue. challenges call for vision- tion on social programs. .sions to the planets and bodies ers; vital aries. I've listed no specific dol- What costs more is aimless- of our solar system. No other un- lar figures here: That's a job for ness, a lack of direction and pur- dertaking— not even humans in Are there candi- pose. We've spun our space pro- space— costs so little and does the politicians. fuel as the dates out there who are ready to gram wheels, as it were, for as much to dreams help the world go out friere?We'd more than a decade, letting bu- sight of distant worlds, the sense from them. reaucrats sap the scientific and of astronomical vistas, the flow of love to hear —Keith FerrellDO engineering heart of the undertak- information from elsewhere in our onnrui connnnunjiCATiorus

READERS' WRITES: Omni's evolution issue stirs the passions of all persuasions

Creation vs. Evolution ufacturing technologies for .35-micro.n

I enjoyed Keith Ferrell's article "The random access memory chips. The tech- Chasm of Creaiionism" [Forum, Octo- nologies we are developing can be ap- ber 1991], and I agree with him 100 per- plied to a wide range of end products. cent. What I would like to see is religion SEMATECH has suffered from the pub- change and keep up with the science lic perception that we were formed to of the day instead of trying to take us restore America's presence in the back to the Dark Ages. DRAM marketplace. Rather, we were Patricia Kameika formed to provide the U.S. industry the Bay Shore, NY domestic capability for world leadership in semiconductor manufacturing. As one who is trained in both science Miller Bonner

and theology, I was intrigued by Keith SEMATECH Ferrell's article "The Chasm of Creation- Austin, TX ism." Though I am not a proponent of creationism, and I agree with Ferrell's Dinosaur Debris conclusion regarding opposition to the It seems to me that with such a prepon- teaching of creationism in the public derance of "strike zones" claiming re- schools, I found his argument to be sub- sponsibility for the death of the dino- ject to the same dogmatic thinking that saurs [Earth, October 1991], the real cul- he labels as unscientific. While it may prit may have been a "wild pitch." If the be true that evolutionary theory has real killer were a dust cloud depriving none of the normal trappings that are the earth of heat, light, and oxygen, usually associated with religion, the the- then why would the culprit have to

ory itself it carries with some definite theo- have struck the earth at all? Why logical assumptions. To suggest that couldn't a pair of asteroids or meteors "faith is personal, science universal" have collided in space, causing the and that "faith is subjective, science same results? The earth's gravity objective" is not only debatable in and could have attracted not only enough of itself, but it betrays a lack of theo- resulting dust to blind the sun, but also logical acumen. enough larger sized pieces of debris to The Rev. Steven E. King account for several of the "pretenders" LaSalle, MN claiming responsibility.

Robert J. Mika Blood Typ-o Las Vegas, NV Check Continuum, October 1991, page 28. There are approximately five More on RU 486 to six quarts of in blood the average hu- I am a 16-year-old high-school student man body. This comes to 5 percent (1/ writing to commend Thomas Bass' in- 20) to 7 percent (7/100) of body terview with Etienne-Emile Baulieu in weight, not one sixth. At your estimate, your September issue, Hundreds of thou- the body of a woman weighing 135 sands of children die each day from mal- pounds would contain 22.5 quarts or nutrition in overpopulated countries 5.5 gallons of blood instead of approx- where birth control is limited. RU 486 imately 5.5 quarts or about 1 Va gallons. could help. I have a message for anti-

Elizabeth Hauptli abortionists: If being against abortion is Dubuque, IA one of the most important things on your list, then make your time and en- Semicorrect ergy count. Telling people what to do I read with interest, and agreement, and what not to do won't make a world Tom Dworetzky's column [Political Sci- of difference, but opening your door to ence, September 1991], One para- a mother and her child in need will. graph, however, needs clarification. SE- Kathy Sigmund MATECH's mission is not limited to man- Ontario, Canada DO PSST! WANNA BUY A SPACESHIP?: spacecraft Desperate for cash, the Soviets are hocking their spare By James Oberg

Pricing the equipment has voice on Ihe tele- failed miserably, and with the ec- impossible be- Thephone sounded hesitant onomic crisis precluding a sec- proved next to tossed the cause there is no sales history on and conspiratorial. "You ond try, space officials scrap which to base a price scale. Max don't know me," the caller dis- backup hardware on ihe sold for a few cents Ary of the Kansas Cosmosphere closed unnecessarily, "but I heap to be had been offered training space- need your advice." Fatalistically on the ruble. by the manu- the The Fobos probe is a recent ad- suils for $10,000 but patiently, I asked man "They don't know how dition to an intriguing list that vis- facturers. what it was all about. I get a lot un- scientists began hand- to price it," he says, because, of strange calls. iting-Soviet der the Communist system, they "What do you think we could ing out to Western space muse- idea themselves how It describes sevenieen had no sell a Soviet spaceship for?" he ums. mock- much the suits cost to make, in asked. "What kind of price might spacecraft and engineering course of his dealings with _ we expect?" ups for sale but gives no prices. the spacecraft purveyors, two Not so long Among the entries: a demon- of Soyuz land- groups often offered him the ago, I'd have im- stration mockup a hardware for prices that dif- mediately dis- ing craft "with three dummies, on same fered by as much as a few mil- missed the of- stand"; a Soyuz-TM spacecraft lion dollars. fer as a crank demonstrated in France in 1988; vehicles The spaceship sell-off has its call, but now four actual manned limits, Durant observes. "It's not that an econom- flown in 1987 and 1988; a nose family jewels," section of a Vertikal probe; a 1:5 like these are the that nothing as- scale model of the Buran shuttle; he says. -noting first-in-space Yuri and, for the truly ambitious, a sociated with sale. "There's just pair of full-scale Energiya super Gagarin is for booster mockups—you pay for so much of the stuff that they'll al- transportation. ways have plenty left," vast supply of former Sovi- Despite the Soviets' efforts, ac- Other than the Sput- space equipment, a primary stum- Even the et Union, everything is for sale. tual sales have been rare. A and bling block to significant sales re- Soviet Union's The caller provided just enough nik replica sold for $10,000, up mains a lack of Western appre- prized Mir obscure details about the hard- a Japanese concern snapped module for ciation for Soviet space hard- space station ware he was selling and the sci- a Mir space station But that situation is being may soon entists he represented to earn more than two million dollars and ware. even by an unpre- resold it to a muse- remedied now go on the block credibility. Not long ago, the idea then quickly potential cus- cedented series of museum exhib- as the space of swinging such a deal would um. By and large, criss-crossing North America. program holds have been a cosmic thrill, but tomers have balked at the multi- its on the oth- Hundreds of thousands of Amer- the equivalent such reactions had faded after million-dollar price tags Soviet group icans will soon know the differ- of a garage sale. the tenth or twentieth call. er spacecraft. One for a ence between a Progress and a I informed $1.6 million As gently as I could, has demanded a Soyuz and a Salyut, my caller that entrepreneurs and backup Venus probe and re- Prognoz, and a Mriya. even Soviet space officials in ceived not even a nibble. and a Mir With my survey nearly complet- search of hard currency have "The Japanese ruined the mar- phone rang once more. flooded the market with Soviet ket, with that Mir deal," complains ed, my

began a journalist I space vehicles. The equipment Fred Durant, the former top offi- "Jim, listen," from Washington, D.C. "I'm he offered was the backup mod- cial of the Smithsonian's Air & knew of in touch with a Russian at the em- el to the two Fobos probes recent- Space Museum and now one on bassy who's working for a cosmo- ly launched towards Mars and its the world's leading authorities They've got this Vostok rock- small moonlets, an ambitious in- spaceflight memorabilia and naut. sale, three million, negotia- ternational project that promised space art. "I'd have paid et for for ble. Where do you think we can to assay Martian resources and $150,000 to $200,000 a flown find customer?" prove the feasibility of refining rock- Vostok," he says, but so far a not another of no, I thought, et fuel on site. Its success could none have been sold. Much Oh now at least their prices have paved the way for manned the equipment for sale is some- one. But negotiable. Maybe they're interplanetary flight within a de- what unremarkable: 'They have are cade or two. But both probes had so many used reentry capsules." learning. DO BDDV

BRAVE NEW GENES: . by altering our Dm? Are we ready to shift the course of human evolution

By Keith Harary

through abor- exorbitant premiums. Employers scene is an inner-city an undes.ired sex decide whether could discriminate against job can- Thehigh school in the dis- tion. "If we can't legitimate of prenatal didates whose genes make tant future. Although the it is a use to able to abort them candidates for diseases students are all biue-eyed, fair- screening be we that might mean higher insurance blonds, they represent a based on sex, then how can skinned days. to abort based on premiums or extra sick range of racial lineages. The gov- hope to decide informa- genetically determined char- Easy access to genetic ernment decided long ago that it other deem undesir- tion could also limit individuals' re- was easier to eliminate superficial acteristics that we productive choices. Those car- differences between rac- able?" says Keiley Thomas, an ev- physical un- at the Univer- rying genetic traits deemed es than to overcome bigotry and olutionary biologist Berkeley. desirable might even find them- prejudice Most of the students sity of California at in "genetic quaran- This question is only a precur- selves placed are male and tall because their Scientists tine" and prevented from reproduc- believed that such traits sor of what is to come. parents or 15-year ef- ing either" through social stigma would help their chances of get- are now at work on a some 100,000 genes outright sterilization. Fetuses deter- ting ahead in life. But the near- fort to map mined not to meet complete dissolution minimal standards earth's ozone Advances in of the could also be de- layer has led to an genetics could stroyed or altered can- help cure epidemic of skin through recombi- cer, and a fatal virus many debilitating nant DNA technol- illnesses that affects only tall ogy. "Unless we're also blond boys is spread- but it could careful, we may see ing rapidly. Ninety prompt new entire populations discrimi- percent of the stu- types of artificially altered well dents in the class of nation as by families and the governmental 2081 may not live to as state," warns Troy control Duster, a sociologist reproduction. As bizarre as this of and author of Back scenario sounds, we Door to Eugenics. may soon be able to Despite the risks, guide the course of of course, gene human evolution, therapy promises Ongoing genetic re- substantial benefits. search should en- "Doctors intervene able- us to cure a in the natural host of previously un- course of diseases beatable diseases all the time," says and perhaps prese- neuropsychologist lect such character- our 46 chromo- Nancy Wexler, who chairs the istics as children's sex, hair type, spread over project, HGI's Ethical and Social Issues eye color, skin shade, ultimate somes. The $3 billion Initi- Working Group. "Gene replace- height and weight, and even such called the Human Genome provide ment therapy is actually a holistic intangibles as disposition. With ative (HGI), will ultimately blueprint of kind of medicine because the doc- this prospect looming closer, ex- us. with the genetic nature's rem- estab- tors.. are using own . ,, .,,. ,,- race. Once ,..: ,,..-,, ;;: . .,, tech- the human perts are, ;l , warning, ., that our routine to edies, the healthy genes, to help nicai expertise may be advancing lished, it could become identify the patient. more rapidly than our ability to type iniants against it to Yet whether genetic research manage genetic information. and manage inherited tendencies heart dis- fulfills its proponents highest Consider that amniocentesis, toward maladies like addition, aspirations, social protections widely used to detect genetic ab- ease and alcoholism. In companies- might re- must be. implemented. Says Tho- normalities in developing fetuses, insurance inherited mas, "We've got to establish re- also reveals the baby's gender, fuse to cover certain guidelines for these po- - declaring them sponsible and doctors report a surge in the health problems, or charge tent genetic techniques." DO practice of eliminating children of preexisting conditions, Listen To youR Head.

SONY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: birds Owning the sky, hoodwinking the law, and hearing the

By Sandy Fritz

GUNSH1P 2000 A SPEEDER'S GUIDE TO MicroProse Software, 180 Lake- AVOIDING TICKETS front Drive, Hunt Valley, MD Sergeant James M. Eagan, 21030. $69.95 NYSP (Ret.) Avon Books, 1991. PLUSES: Accurate simulation, $4.99 lots of helicopters. PLUSES: The precocious title Awfully violent. MINUSES: says it all. VERDICT: Start your copters, MINUSES: Could be con- densed into a leaflet. Gunship 2000 updates the clas- VERDICT: A must-read for sic combat helicopter simulation, chronic leadfoots. providing more birds, more ord- and feed his ego— nance, more detailed scenarios. This book tells you how to movements) gotten seconds. Try flat- Graphics and sound have speed and how to avoid getting in under 30 delivering the feel of pi- tery. "That's a noble mustache, a boost, a ticket if caught. How many good tactic: loting a helicopter. books can claim such utility? officer," Another before You're given the tools to han- Eagan says cops are terrified the Potty Ploy. "Officer, accom- that ticket, could you dle incoming threats and of being shot when they pull a you write

I need to plish your missions. A detailed speeder over. Your job: Make follow me to a rest stop? your immediately." manual helps you to learn the cop feel safe (no sudden use a bathroom crafts' capabilities, and a nice re-

notice that sev- KNOW YOUR BIRD I couldn't help but eral of the entries in More Future SOUNDS and booklet. Lang Stuff would be old hat to Omni Cassette tape Green Publishing, readers, including blue roses, Elliott. Chelsea Post Mills, computerized shrinks, and refrig- Rt. 113, P.O. Box 130, 1991. $12.95 eration by sound. Obviously the VT 05058. authors have good taste. Learn the language Much of the future stuff is ma- PLUSES: terializing even as you read: voice- of birds. Requires an illustrat- activated microwave ovens, under- MINUSES: included). sea walkie-talkies, "sun alert" ed field guide (not refresh- watches mated to ultraviolet sen- VERDICT: An eccentric, sors. Fun contraptions, but ihe au- ing diversion. thors' naive reporting, combined intellectual chal- irritating If you enioy an play feature lets you with a truly mastering the lan- design, thrt lenge, try sion after you've flown it. Some of book guage of birds. Discerning the missions, incidentally, bear ens to derail se the subtle differences between more than passing resemblance ous browsers. species could take a lifetime. to recent events in the Persian Volume one covers yard, gar- Gulf, For a wild first-class ride in- den, and city birds; volume two to deadly situations, look no fur- isolates the calls of country ther than Gunship 2000. birds. Even a casual listen will en- MORE FUTURE STUFF able you to tell the difference be- tween a cheerfully singing bird Malcolm Abrams & Harriet and an alarmed one. But to go Bernstein. Penguin deeper, you'll need field glasses, Books, 1991. $10.95 detailed guide book, and pa- PLUSES: Products a tience. Hearing a call in the wild from the near future. and then finding it on the tapes MINUSES: Ugly book design. requires an aural memory rare in VERDICT: Something for human beings. DQ everybody. : uemc WWftMfri 7*\CH.

and t ; - - 1 Pping : uy two more

.-:;_: .' . \ 29.95. plus ig am ha may cancel ;;''^;;::^Q

: :

. .".'"'' mes a **><).

if Ihe CIu

:lory package. If riots

/erytliing within 10 days for a full refund J further obligation. your credit ci and our toll-free number. Call 24 hours a day: 1-800-538-2233???

Columbia House Laserdisc Club Dept.FYG P.O. Box 11 12, Terre Houle, Indiana 47811-1112

Yes, please enroll me under the terms outlined in Ihrs advertisement As ci member. need b,v ?n , J more coming year.

e these 3

HJc-utli

S.'.Ki

e Cheek How Paying: UUHEELS

INTELLIGENT HIGHWAYS collectors Electronic road maps, hand-held navigators, and automatic toll

By Jeffrey Zygmont

each car will communicate Costantino relates municatewith traffic management tor in James with a computerized traffic central how he recently spent systems to guide drivers away to help people get around. This two hours traveling eight from heavy congestion. years hence there system is still in the test and dem- miles to his office in downtown Maybe 20 onstration stages. Before it can be speed of will be Advanced Vehicle Control Washington, an average government will be automatic used,the federal four miles per hour. Considering Systems. These must set standards that will allow camel caravan travels at chauffeurs that take complete con- that a equip- freeways equipped all the various pieces of eight, he says, "they moved trol of a car on together harmonious- tracking sensors, allowing it ment to work twice as fast 7000 years ago as I with ly. Then comes the task of install- move now." to join a platoon of like-equipped cars traveling to- ing the systems' public portions- on gether at high sensors and monitors to report speed while their traffic conditions, computers to drivers read the process the information, broad- comics or snooze. cast systems to distribute it. Costantino says In the meantime, private indus- develop lower cost equip- it will take maybe try must close. $35 to $40 billion ment for cars. Motorola is naviga- over the next -20 So is GM, which expects these years to develop tor sales to take off when to the and test these tech- back-seat drivers drop and may- price of an auto air conditioner or Today, traffic nologies be as much as radio— maybe $600 to $700. Op- coming of congestion is too $250 billion to timists say all this may happen by choreographed, great a problem build the systems. the middle of the decade. The intelligent to ignore, he it closer to So far, federal IVHS experts push vehicle and high- warns. Costanti- support seems as- 2010. Stan Honey says, "It could way systems no is executive di- sured, especially happen sooner than the IVHS com- in which cars com- rector of IVHS as the U.S. com- munity thinks." municate with America (Intelli- pro- Honey is the pioneer in street Vehcile High- petes with computerized traf- gent founded Etak, grams in Europe navigation who fic controllers way Systems), a and Japan. The Eu- based in Menlo Park, California, that steer them nonprofit group ropean and Japa- in 1983. Etak now provides digi- away from jams formed in August system- that tal map data bases for traveler 1990 at the re- nese advise and direcl information and transportation quest of the De- drivers are management systems to the Jap- partment of Trans- enough to anese. Honey says that compa- portation, mainly vanced be put into wide- nies in Japan are developing to coordinate the use once hand-held navigators that could many traffic con- spread destina- squabbles over is- guide travelers to their trol programs. Traffic information could be IVHS America, sues like stan- tions. and internation- broadcast over private networks. a public-private partnership of dards for national "I wish the IVHS community than 300 members includ- al uniformity are resolved. more sys- the first ele was more familiar with today's ing state and federal agencies Advocates say are al tems," he says. Rather than rein- and car and electronic compa- ments of smart highways U.S., pointing venting such devices as electron- nies, oversees a dizzying array of ready in use in the road maps that guide drivers technologies. They include Ad- to such systems as the automal ic : through unfamiliar territory, Hon- vanced Transportation Manage- ic toil collectors being tested iden- ey argues thai official efforts in in- which monitor traf- Oklahoma and Florida. They ment Systems, systems individual car by reading an telligent vehicle highway fic and try to ease congestion, tify an should build on technology that al- and Advanced Traveler Informa- ID number transmitted via radio, guide- deducting toll from ready exists and set up the tion Systems, which utilize dash- automatically lines thai would let companies re- board mounted navigators like the driver's account. computer naviga- ally start selling the stuff. DO TravelPilot. Eventually they'll com- Eventually, a EARTH

LESSONS FROM THE THIRD WORLD: Sometimes the simplest ideas turn out to be the bbst ones By Ben Barber

were 15 minutes While most of us high There pay pric- Each time i throw a plastic left before the -train from es for tasteless trucked vegetables plate in the trash, I remember Bombay to Delhi to from was one coast to the other, the how I tossed the banana leaf

leave, so I decided io buy a cup city of Chinese Shanghai pro- from which I had eaten my rice of "cha," sweet, milky Indian tea. duces all of its own vegetables, to the ground in Madras, India,

I gulped the brew served in a fertilizing them with human and saw it immediately chewed brown clay cup in order to return waste, and exports a surplus. In up by a gentle cow. And I remem- the container before catching the a similar vein, Washington, DC, ber the Artibonite Valley of Haiti train. Looking around, however, has begun packaging sewage where not a speck of plastic, met-

I noticed other customers simply sludge for lawn fertilizer. al, or glass spoils the earthen dashing their empty cups to the Still, our ingrained garbage hab- paths, fields, and courtyards. ground where they were quickly its will die hard. crushed into the red-brown earth "It's a mindset, a Learning by the throngs, These, were dis- mentality," says from our neigh- posable cups— Indian style. Steve Hirsch of bors: Could

A month later, I bought coffee Volunteers in Tech- the old-fashioned, to go at Washington, DCs Union nical Assistance. ecologically

Station. It came in a plastic foam "Every time I go correct ways of cup that will take hundreds of to a garage sale, different years to decompose in a landfill, Isee people throw- cultures see all the while giving off ozone-de- ing away things

stroying chemicals. After I drank that are consid- application?

the coffee, I tossed the cup into ered gold in devel- a plastic trash bag to join a grow- oping countries." ing collection of serving items des- Recently in Mar- tined for the dump. rakesh, Morocco,

I wondered, how could we Hirsch says he make the technology flow—typi- lost the key to his cally from West to East— a more bicycle iock and even exchange, with the planet visited a lock- as beneficiary? Would my chil- smith to have the dren one day buy drinks, sweets, lock cut away or even compact discs in packag- from the chain, es made from leaves, bamboo, or Instead, the lock- other materials that decay into a smith drilled four rich compost? "There's a big ques- small holes, re- tion as to what is adaptable from moved the lock's ,the Third World," remarks re- Innards, made a searcher John Young of the new key, and

WorldWatch Institute. "Much of it reassembled the takes low wages and a need for lock in about ten materials to justify. Sometimes minutes. "Where you can extract a kernel of Third could you have World wisdom." done that in Already some McDonald's fran- America?" Hirsch. asks So far I am aware of no system- chises have cut down on foam In fact, technology these days atic search for appropriate, cost- packaging. Paper cups are mak- flows almost exclusively from the effective, Third World ideas that ing a comeback, and many cities West to developing countries: sat- can be adapted in the West to pre- are introducing recycling for news- ellites, miracle rice, bypass sur- serve the planet. But as the barg- papers, plastic, aluminum, and gery, and plastic bags. Yet India, es loaded with garbage find few- glass. Though these may not Africa, China, and Latin America er places to dump their loads, look like it, Young says, they are remain storehouses of knowledge some of the oldest ideas on Third World solutions to ecolog- that might help save the planet earth may turn out to be the ical problems. from the glut of its most important. DO — ' BAnnes

BEST BETS FOR FUN SEEKERS: The top games range from cards to kinetic sculpture By Scot Morris

mals and languages. And Our choices of the best new game can be played blank cards allow you to games and products are solitaire or by any number of create lessons for your own listed not by preference but players, all trying to be the neighborhood or places by suggested retail price. first to shout, "Set!" spotlighted in the news. Set (Set, Inc., 301 The Spiral Stair Puzzle String Ray (With Design in Cowley, East Lansing, Ml (Architest, 2269 Chestnut Mind, $129.95). Created 48823; $11.95). Chil- Street, #350, San Francisco, by a London artist who dren often beat adults and CA 94123; $30). Can wanted an interactive kinetic girls often beat boys at you solve this intriguing Ray con- full any side of the board, sculpture. String this "family game of visual puzzle even when given on that sists of an ordinary string perception." Not since instructions to build the but gravity demands the tiles built up the side stretched between two Pictionary has a game spiral staircase from eighty be bottom of the rotating motors at the ends appealed to such diverse maplewood pieces around a from the "rabbit ear" anten- central newel post? Careful pyramid, The object is to of two turned on, the planning, a steady hand, join exactly five of your nas. When and a generous supply of pieces— and no more— at patience definitely pay off. their sides. And patterns Along the way, learn some may continue around the basic engineering— the edge of the pyramid to the running bond course, Step next side. Master Labyrinth and cantilever— and an GeoSafari (Educational appreciation of this ancient Insights, $99.95). Can you architectural discovery. find Mount Vesuvius, Lake Master Labyrinth (Interna- Victoria, the Atlas Moun- tional Playthings, $34), Two tains, and the Gobi Desert to four players must move on the world map? Marketed their pieces through cor- as an electronic geography ridors in this science-fiction learning game for kids, art board game, racing to GeoSafari can challenge pick up (in numerical order) inquisitive minds of any age. twenty-one ingredients A handicapping system lime limits string vibrates and assumes eighty-one cards, each with required for casting a magic allows separate answering so that, for all kinds of beautiful forms, four pieces of information spell. The corridors shift for might get a from pure sinusoidal waves symbol (diamond, oval, or on each turn, so a path that example, a child answer while to chaotic patterns. An squiggle); number (one, is open on one turn may minute to adult will get only fifteen adjustable strobe light adds two, or three shapes); color be closed on the next. an a rainbow of color. String (red, green, or purple); Careful planning will open a seconds. can also order Ray is beautiful "scientific and density (open, solid, or path for you and close it for You additional quiz cards that art," a three-dimensional shaded). Deal twelve cards others. If you don't look ight sculpture sure faceup on the table and ahead, you'll find yourself range from flags and puzzles to fascinate look for three-card "sets." stranded in a cul-de-sac , goodies. to ani- all. DO They can all be green away from all the diamonds with one of them Pyramis (Abalone, $.35). A open, another solid, and strategy and visualization the third striped, for ex- game for two players, ample. Or they can aii be Pyramis is a simple, original different—for example, idea. The rules can be one open green diamond, learned in seconds, but the two solid red ovals, and three strategy is far from trivial. striped purple squiggles. The board is a three- For any two cards in the sided pyramid that rotates deck, only one other card so players can see all will complete the set. The sides. You can place a tile 26 OMNI PDUTicALsaeriJce

CRISIS IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM: next casualty Trauma care units are in shock, but you may be the By Tom Dworetzky

Dallas, just another typical Innight at Parkland Hospital's trau- ma center: three dozen cases on the floor— a full house. There's an innocent civilian caught by a stray bullet during a drive-by shooting, a driver crunched in a pileup on the inter- state. When the radio warns that yet another hemorrhaging individ- ual is en route, the people at Par- kland wave the ambulance off to another hospital farther away. "Trauma sat," is how they put it— for trauma unit saturated. Tough Trauma is an luck. The delay costs a life. equal opportunity This type of situation has rachet- tragedy. But ed trauma care to crisis propor- hospitals every- tions in cities around the country. where are Trauma units everywhere are over- being forced to crowded as never before. This close their full house is not, however, a trauma centers. boon to hospitals. Parkland, a pub-

lic facility, expects to lose $23 mil- call the first sixty minutes patients in hospital. Besides the doctors lion this year in unreimbursed ex- a unit after injury the golden hour. Stud- penses thanks to trauma care, uncompensated trauma passed on as ies show that mortality can be re- which can run up to a half a mil- care that must be other pa- duced by as much as 70 percent dollars per patient. Overall, increased prices to lion place within also the disruption if intervention takes trauma care is running nearly a tients, there's schedules and the golden hour. It can drop as $300 million a year in uncompen- of operating room affects patients low as 30 percent if treatment is sated funds in Texas alone. Pri- physicians which There's also delayed four hours in severe cas- vate hospitals, unable to take slated for surgery. the pos- es in which shock is a factor, losses, are being forced to the fear physicians leel at these worth sued by the trau- "That's why trauma care is close their trauma units. Domino sibility of getting care for, with paying for, like a public utility," effect! Closings push more of the ma patients they prior patient- says Anderson.- load onto the remaining trauma whom they have no Lastly, What's to be done? One sug- centers— driving them deeper in- doctor relationship. unfortunate reality gestion, according to Anderson, to dept and forcing more hospi- there's the centers with units are where vic- is to finance trauma tals to close their units. "You may that trauma instruments most like- societal ills wind up. taxes on the not think this is important to you," tims of many to cause trauma: cars, guns, says Parkland's president and In the crowded halls are the fall- ly losing battle with and ammunition. The cost would CEO, Dr. Ron Anderson. "But trau- en -in our def- increased use of as- be small for the individual. The is an equal opportunity trag- drugs, the ma could be cov- sault weapons, rising crime, All icit that Texas runs edy. It doesn't matter what your nature ered almost completely by a $15 life-style or health insurance is have combined to shift the from blunt injury tax on auto registration alone. like," About 140,000 Americans of trauma care And the benefit is as clear as car year from these severe (such as car crashes) to penetrat- die each wreck (knives bullets). At insurance. You may never injuries, and trauma is the lead- ing injury and would you drive in the past, blunt injuries your car, but ing killer of people under age for- Parkland 70 percent. Now, around without coverage? Maybe ty-five in this country. led with about you'll never need a trauma cen- A recent study conducted by shockingly, penetrating injuries ter, either, but do you really want the General Accounting Office de- make up 70 percent trau- to risk the possibility that none termined that there are other im- The difference that prompt so profound will be around if you do? DO pacts of this crisis that affect all ma care can make is conjTiruuunn ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT CARD: overflowing What's your take on the air we breath, the water we drink, landfills, big holes in the sky, and other pollutants?

of living is to be avail- Last spring, an arma- able to the world's da of jets from the next generations, in- corners of the four dustry must devise globe landed in the an- ways to insure this by cient port of Rotter- providing medicines, dam, in the Nether- potable water, hous- lands, offloading an ing, transportation, of cargo, exotic array and communications Top level executives for the world's new in- from the world's larg- habitants. At the est and most influen- same time, industry corporations, in- tial must devise ways to Alcoa, Exxon, cluding provide these essen- Union Carbide, and tials for twice again as converged to AT&T, many people without achieve a unique ob- destroying rain for- jective. Over 750 del- ests, poisoning rivers convened at egates and oceans, expend- the second World In- ing all reserves of fos- dustry Conference on destroying the Earth's protective ozone layer, Environmental Management (WICEM) organized by the sil fuels, or These are the csrd.na orin;;ioles of sustainable development, International Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with World Indus- regard- according to the Final Declaration of the Second the United Nations to exchange insights and ideas Conference on Environmental Management, which enjoins ing the future of planet Earth. try solve industry to employ its "technical competence to many very fact that CEOs and VPs represented their compa- The tomorrow's." considers of today's environmental threats and preempt nies clearly shows that in the nineties, big business What can industry do? Integrate environmental criteria in- the environment an important issue. Helmut Sihler, con- economic practice; provide managerial, technical, and fi- ference chair and head of Germany's Henkel Corporation, to environmental problems; analyze "environmental audits"— similar to the tradition- nancial resources to tackle advocated en- company's eco- the environmental impact of any new product during its al economic audit but instead tracking a or recycling; tire life cycle— from raw materials to disposal logical performance on an annual basis. William Ruck- improve energy efficency; apply First World environmental elshaus. chairman of Browning-Ferris Industries (and former standards to Third World factories;, and extend economic head of the Environmental Protection Agency) proposed technical assistance to developing nations to help worldwide access to information on "green" policies and prod- and them develop ecologically sound practices. ucts and an aggressive program to inform the public adhere to the demands of sustainable devel- about corporate environmental performance. In order to corporations can no longer "export pollution" to coun- The world's corporate head honchos shuttled between opment, whose desire for development translates into lax envi- seminars expostulating the joys of environmental manage- tries his closing remarks to his colleagues ment and promulgating the notion thai businesses work ronmental regulation. In assembled at WICEM, E.S. Woolard Jr., chairman of Du with governments and environmental groups. At WICEM, history of environmentalism in the shadow of a doubt as to whether or not a Pont, said, "When the there was not a devel- quarter of this century is written, sustainable company should clean up one's own baliwick. Sawy corpo- last opment may prove to be the major conceptual advance to rations understand that to operate competitively, they must taken place during that period. We should be encour- operate clean. To insure that this credo becomes orthodoxy have that industry has demonstrated an ability to think throughout the world, CEOs debate the concept of sustain- aged creatively about the environment, to think across industy able development. Big businesses have studied the demo- boundaries, and to think not only of the graphics as assiduously as anyone and know that the lines and national incjsirigl'zoc nations, but of the whole world." expected to double in the next 38 needs of world's population is — MELANIE MENAGH years. Conferees devoutly believe that if a decent standard cofUTimuunn

and WHAT THROW AWAY PUTTING erns in New Mexico WE NUCLEAR WASTE IN Yucca Mountain in Nevada. ITS PLAGE An impressive array of technologies offers hope for radioactive Some 4.7 million cubic cleaning up the target date meters of nuclear waste mess by the these possibili- have accumulated in the of 2019. Of United States since the ties, the most promising accord- Manhattan Project in 1942, may be vitrification, Buelt, a and the radioactive piles of ing to James debris—generated by the researcher at Battelle Institute's Pacific military as well as 112 Memorial operating nuclear power Northwest Laboratory in plants—grow by 100,000 Richland, Washington. in- Food wastes cubic meters every year. Inserting electrodes 37% Paper products 7% Plastic Currently, most of the to contaminated soil, vitrifi- 18% Yard waste 6%

subjects low-level I 6% Other waste material is sealed in cation 10% Metal

cesium and I 4% Wood steel drums and tanks waste like 10% Glass and buried 30 to 40 feet strontium to 615,000 kilowatt- hours of electricity and of deep in unlined trenches at NO ROOM AT THE too: Chicago will run out temperatures of 3.000T. federal sites in South " v.."...,. space by 1994, Los Angeles turned one Carolina, Washington State, The technique by 1995. Community resist- area into a 900-ton and Nevada. But these test Remember the Mobro, the ance has made new dumps block of leach-proof, glass- waste dumps are steadily huge, trash-laden platform nearly impossible to site. nuclear like material. regulations filling up while the that headed out from Islip, EPA safety host of Plasma technology, anoth- September will industry and a New York, in search of a passed in local er contender, superheats to expense of federal, state, and landfill and returned months also add the waste with a flame hotter agencies try to choose later because no one would building a facility. They several controver- than 18,0OO°F. It decreases require that new landfills between accept it? It looks like the for a more the volume of contaminated- wells to detect sial contenders Mobro will be a symbol for have liners, metal-reactor hardware permanent storage site, the Nineties, groundwater contamina- by a factor of 4, reducing it including Carlsbad Cav- Landfills are closing at a tion, monitors to detect to metal ingots. for frighLcning rate. According to methane, and a means Yet another technique, tor 30 the Environmental Protection monitoring teachate bioremediation, stabilizes Agency (EPA), the United years after the site closes. radioactive soil and ground- recycling States had 20,000 landfills in More aggressive water through naturally 1978. By 1988 that number can reduce the volume microbes that occurring had dropped below 7000. of waste, and some envi- use nutrients to immobilize are calling During the same interval, the ronmental groups radionuclides. Still more of munici- on manufacturers to cut the - country's volume exotic and perhaps too they — pal waste increased from amount of packaging expensive is transmuta- — 150 million tons to 180 million use. But fundamentally, tion, which puts long-lived, just tons. Each person in the American consumers hazardous components of United States now throws buy too much and throw it spent fuel back into a away an average of 3.5 away. To help combat this reactor core and then uses environmentalists pounds of solid waste a day. problem, fission to break the Today, 16 states have less encourage a vigilant ap- components down into —"precycling." Given than five years of landfill proach of elements with half-lives of two roughly capacity left, says Allen the choice perhaps 300 years, far they Blakey of the National Solid equivalent products, shorter than their normal Underground radioactivity: Vterk- Wastes Management Associ- say, buy the one with less lifespans.— George Nobbe Fischetti ers prepare waste tor burial. are in trouble, packaging.— Mark I ation. Cities WHAT'S COMING "It's hare! losay ; f the wale' OUT OF has ;7]0"en better or worse," YOUR FAUCET? says EPA water officer Maria Gomez Taylor. "But we do Six years ago, Congress have more standards. The told the Environmental Pro- number has doubled in the tection Agency (EPA) to last we years." regulate 83 of the nation's The EPA and the state worst drinking water contami- authorities lack the funds and nants, following up the personnel to enforce those Safe Drinking Water Act, standards adequately, Be- passed nearly 20 years ago. tween 1986 and 1988, the So far the agency has Centers for Disease Control established legal health limits tallied 26.000 cases of and set safety standards for waterborne illness, possibly about 60 of the contami- only a fraction of the real nants, including vinyl chlo- total. Today, the EPA ride, a probable carcinogen. estimates, one in six Does this mean America's Americans drinks lead- tap water has improved? co.-ita'T, neted waier, and a

recent survey discovered the two gases comoinc with from smokestacks also nitrate in more than half the water in the atmosphere to removed the alkaline calci- drinking wells tested. Chlo- produce sulfuric. acid and um that- used to help rine is routinely used to nitric acid that fall as rain. neutralize acid rain. In disinfect municipal Despite squabbles over the addition, the country has water supplies, although under cost, the 1 970 Clean Air Act paved so many dirt roads certain conditions it can and -subsequent amend- and changed its agricultural combine with organic matter ments went a long way practices so much that it to produce poisons. Seven toward cleaning up industri- produces less neutralizing out of ten al emissions. But they failed limestone dust. Americans regular- ly drink chlorinated water, to neutralize the rain. Acid rain leaves agricul- which From 1970 to 1988 man- ture largely untouched, may double the risk of accusing bladder cancer. made emissions of sulfur but it devastates buildings, In an effort to eradicate taint dioxide in the United States some forests, and cul- ed tap water once and for all, decreased, between 28 tural items,. such as the sc-o experts advocate percent and 30 percent, stone lions at the New York now new disinfectants rather WHO'LL STOP THE according to the U.S. Public Library. than new standards. But these RAIN? National Acid Precipitation The residua! effects of alternatives may Assessment Program acidification on lakes and produce In the '-1990 as-yet-unknown health prob- Seventies, seien- (NAPAP), The amend- streams will probably linger lems of their own. sts began to discover that ments to the act mandate for decades, even when while water disinfec- lakes from New York to that by the year 2000 such the provisions of the 1990 And tants are a major problem, Sweden had become vine- emissions.be reduced to Clean Air Act gradually cut "99 percent of harmful y, acidic pools devoid of 50 percent of 1980 levels. acid rain. "In sensitive areas chemicals in drinking fish, frogs, turtles, snakes, Sadly, the acid rain keeps like the Adirondacks," water are there through the and plants. They blamed on falling, "Acidity in where soils are thin and lack careless disposal of industri- the damage on acid rain, a rain does not seem to go alkaline material, "we pro- al and household waste," phenomenon caused by down," says Patricia ject only 8 percent of the. sulfur says Washington State dioxide and nitrogen Irving, NAPAP director. lakes will improve in the: next oxides University drinking-water emitted by power It seems scrubbers 50 years," Irving says. expert Richard Bull, plants, factories, and cars; installed to remove fly ash —Scott Fierman coruTiruuunn

emissions, which forced In the last three years, it has auto to build spe- not exceeded .35 parts automakers cleaner cars to be sold per million. We cut pollution cial, California. in half during a period when in when sunlight population more than Smog forms doubled and cars increased hits hydrocarbons and oxides emitted by from 2.3 to 9 million." nitrogen Nevertheless, the levels oi various sources: Cars account for about 50 percent smog in Los Angeles air : of the troublesome pollut- stiii oxcesdsd ederal stan- industry contributes dards of .12 parts per million ants, 25 percent, and of ozone on 130 days in another products, includ- 1990. By comparison, New consumer paint hair spray, York City, the next worst ing and supply the rest. Angele; city, violated Federal stan- 't look tike it. but Los Smog gets in your eyes: Maybe it doesn Los dards an average of 17 days To sense how much in 40 years. air is cleaner than it's been has improved, a year from 1987 to 1989. Angeles' air fumes at Mexico just 14 years ago, Los sniff the FIT BREATHE "Our air is cleaner than Still, AIR TO levels ex- City, says Mary Nichols of the ever," says Tom Eichhorn, Angeles smog Resources Defense South ceeded federal standards on Natural Decades ago, comedians spokesman for the recent Council. "They have only Quality Manage- 208 days, making the that in Los Angeles Coast Air quipped improvement. one third the cars we do but District thai encom- drop a major you woke up to the coughing ment standards Air-quality officials attrib- exceed ozone These days, the passes the Los Angeles of the birds. 70 percent of the time." 1955 our ozone ute the cleaner air to birds and the comedians area. "In —Ben Barber per million stringent state standards for have changed their tune. levels hit .68 parts

times higher.. Eighty- The damage to wildlife left and in ocean-floor sediment. several NO SHORTAGE OF impact, on the five percent of the eggs laid the greatest It continues to damage the OIL AT PRINCE beaches Native American residents see grassesand to enter the near heavily oiled WILLIAM SOUND of 15 Alutiiq villages. They food chain through the have failed to hatch. eggs exposed to had to completely halt their Prince William shellfish that otters and other Salmon To a visitor. subsistence food gathering Even the oil in 1989 showed 70 Sound off Alaska seems a animals eat. arid hunting in 1989 and to percent greater mortality, symphony of snow-capped well-intentioned efforts begun and larvaefrom heavily oiled have only gradually peaks and rocky beaches. clean the water' with to resume their life-style. chemicals, and the beaches streams had club fins and But the mussels are .laden —Ben Ba'ber left other abnormalities. with hydrocarbons, sea with hot water, have microor- otters sicken and die, and damage,.destroying the bald eagles that survive ganisms at the bottom of the' may well carry the tick- food chain. Impossible to say ing time bomb of -reproduc- "It's area tive damage. how long before the These are a few of the returns to normal," says long-term-effects of the Robert Adler, a lawyer with, Resources massive spill of 11 million the Natural Council. gallons of crude oil from the Defense Exxon tanker Valdez on Some 350,000 to 500,000 spill, and March 24, 1989, in pristine birds died in the Prince William Sound. While many more had their disrupted.. Al- most of the oil evaporated, breeding bald broke down, or was c eanod though 144 of the 2,200 spill off Alaska's area, were wildlife ooni mx. as me 1939 f.xxon oil up, much remains in the eagles in the- Oil and proved. dead, the toll is likely Sound subsurface of the beaches found ^ coruTimuunn

response to this threat, atmosphere, some 9 to atoms, which destroy ozone-. In nations 30 milesabOve-the. earth's Subsequent experiments the industrial. world have agreed to surface, that protects in the late Eighties revealed of the' phase out production of us from the sun's ultraviolet that an ozone hole may North CFCs and other ozone- radiation—is vanishing. soon form over the depleting chemicals by the By 1985 scientists realized Pole, as well, with, some year 2000; developing that a "hole" roughly scientists predicting, that than 10 percent of the countries have- until 2010' to twice the size of Antarctica . more by do the. same. Still, that 'had formed in the ozone ozone there will vanish some CFCs survive in the layer above that continent. decade's end.. Recent' indicate atmosphere for 75 to 125 Now, during the' months- of satellite data also years compounds this September and October, that ozone is disappear- problem. "Even if we don't about two thirds of the ing from the Northern twice the rate add another ounce of ozone that, once shielded Hemisphere at chlorine to the atmosphere," TRUTH Antarctica disappears. . previously suspected. THE HOLE says Mike Kurylo, NASA's Aircraft experiments Consequently, the Envi- manager for upper-air .proved that chlorofiuorocar- ronmental Protection research, "it will take about bons (CFCs)—substances Agency now predicts an skin- a century for ozone levels used in spray cans, air con-. additional 12 million to return to their pre-1 985 ditioners, and refrigerators- cancer cases and 200,000 the resultant deaths in- the levels, before ozone records since 1978 show are the primary cause of the States over the next hole occurred." a. rare form of Antarctic- ozone hole: CFCs United that ozone— - Steve Nad:S chlorine 50 years. oxygen found in the upper gradually release

EVERYTHING OLD IS aluminum cans. Reuse of NEW AGAIN glass also continues to rise, as does the composting of Recycling, an afterthought yard waste. as recently as the early But recycling has become Eighties, has become sec- an industry and thus subject ond nature to many Ameri- to the vagaries of the cans. Since 1986, 40 states marketplace. While Ameri- have enacted legislation cans recycle one quarter of requiring communities to the 67 million tons of paper recycle parts of their waste. consumed annually, the The effect has been recycling industry probably remain- dramatic. In 1980 the nation couldn't handle the alu- recycled only 14 million tons ing three quarters even if about 55 percent of all

it in. Because of its municipal solid waste people brought virtually none to demand for recycled paper and burned packages supply, efficient, but recycling plastic so-called aseptic produce energy. In 1988, 24 now roughly equals of such a low is expensive, requires a lot of produce pulp million tons were recycled, few recycling mills are being energy, and generates grade that no one wants to and 26 million more were built, says Allen Blakey of the pollution. The furor over juice buy it. incinerated to produce National Solid Wastes Man- To boxes epitomizes the plastic- Further improvement in electricity, according to agement Association. recycling predicament: Amer- recycling hinges on legisla- Marge Franklin of Franklin increase demand, environ- purchase more than tion, including financial Associates, a consulting firm mentalists want the federal icans For example, the begin procur- four billion of the convenient incentives. in Prairie Village, Kansas. government to Seattle charges little each year and city of now Recycling of certain mate- ing recycled paper. boxes recycle almost none. Made residents for each can of rials continues to increase The paper recycling paper, garbage collected. The country now process has been refined so of laminated layers of steadily. Mark Fsci'eth foil, and plastic, these — recycles 55 percent of all that it's inexpensive and KING ARTHUR I

The International Arthurian Society Please mail by January 31, 1992. <7o The Franklin Mint

Franklin Center, Pennsylvania 19091 1 Please enter my order for the authorized re-creatior of King Arthur's Excalibur sword. Crafted of hand- polished tempered steel and embellished with sterling silver and 24 karaL geld electroplate. The MR/MRyMl«_ custom-designed display is included at no addi-

Ineed SEND NO MONEY NOW. I will be billed in ter, equal monthly installments of S67.S0" each with my first pay men i due prior u, shipment. CIT¥/STATE/ZiP_ —

coruTiruuunn

BY THE NOT- Boston, New York, and other I'M A LUMBERJACK SO-BEAUTIFUL SEA cities. Heavy rains overflow AND I'M OK sewage plants, spilling raw rivers and Once, only driftwood, human waste into After decades of public seaweed, and shells washed bays. Redesigning these oressure and regulation, will take up on America's beaches. sewage systems the IIS. logging industry Now, hypodermic needles, billions of dollars. has finally become at least plastic bags, and other Garbage dumping, how- somewhat environmentally and potentially dangerous debris ever, is easier to regulate responsible. American de- Marine Pollution litter our shores. Despite control. The mand for wood- continues to the United widespread publicity, gar- Treaty, signed by rise, yet the nation's forests outlawed bage continues to be States in 1987, has are'growing faster than other dumped at sea. dumping plastic and they're being harvested. but enforcement In 1988, six East Coast trash ai sea, In 1990, logging, compa- recently, so states issued 475 ocean and has been lax until nies planted some 1 .9 see the bay beach closures and "it's too soon to billion seedlings, according Jil Zilligen of trees. In advisories due to high effects." says to the' American Forest than younger bacteria counts, reports the the Center for Marine Council (AFC), which repre- addition, logging compa- Natural Resources Defense Conservation. sents the forest products nies tend to plant more is needed trees, mostly Council (NRDC). By 1990, "Enforcement industry. In recent year's, the fast-growing under- to the number jumped to 1429. the Coast Guard is volume of new growth softwoods like pine, "The problem does not staffed and underfunded," has increased faster than satisfy replanting regula- praises practice reduc- appear to be getting better," Zilligen says. She that being harvested. But tions; this reported boats desirable says NRDC environmental citizens who potential problems remain. es the volume of engineer Diane Cameron. dumping trash, including Though growth outpac- hardwoods like oak. To cruise ships recent- The major culprit in passengers of es harvest nationally, the help, loggers have whistle on their pluck select bacterial pollution is sewage who blew the two run about even in the ly begun to Barber that mixes with storm water in captains.—Ben Pacific Northwest, and trees from woodlands, prove logging there is accelerat- which may not -ic raster than in. any other economical, says Gerry region. Also, the timber Gray of the American Association, a industry still rails against Forestry legislative restrictions. conservation group. "There are several hun- The most potent issue, dred thousand acres in the however, is regulation of Northwest we can't harvest private land. About 57 because they are home to percent of the country's the spotted owl," protect- forests are privately ed by the Endangered owned, according to the Species Act, the AFC's National Forest Service. John Heissenbuttel says. State governments regu- "And depending on how late private lands, and wetlands are defined in their record is spotty: It's pending legislation, we unclear how much replant- may lose another 60 million ing or management takes acres nationally." place at all. in these vast Significant amounts of areas. Whe- industry logging in the West have ther the timber relatively taken place in that region's continues its old-growth forests, which good record, Gray says, sustain a greater diversity will six-pack that you enjoyed last Saturday life rest largely on how aggres- . The plastic holder from the of plant and animal ccuirs k\H a oirc Please remember to cut the rings. Walk An Inch In My Shoes

Beware The Red Ant Menace - And That Spider's Ready For Breakfast.

I'm an ant. You've stepped on me, poisoned me, cursed me—even held a magnifying gla

over me. But do you know what it's like to be me? SimAnt- * SlMANT" The Electronic Ant Colonyy pputs you in my place. This new game from creators s the of SimCity and SimEarth™ lets you experience life as an ant. Fight for queen and colony. Face hungry spiders and menacing hordes of enemy ants. Endure abuse from merciless those humans. So easy to play even a human can do it — but, based on real ant biology and behavior, SimAnt has the depth of

play and serious gaming challenge to really drive you buggy. So, before

you step on another ant, walk an inch in my shoes. All six of them.

SimAnt is available now at your favorite software retailer,or call MAXIS 'f$SP direct at 1-800- 33 -MAXIS.

Macintosh and VGA screens shown. Available for Macintosh. DOS version available

SimAnt, SimCity and SimEartn are trademarks of MAXIS. ©1991, MAWI5. All rights KjClCiCJCMl€lClCiC|Clf>S>t coruTiruuunn

REPORT CARD ON THE ENVIRONMENT (AND WHERE TO SEND IT)

add your own, please mail or fax this page, or a copy of it, to the If you agree with our grades, or care to projects that might actually bring, person who can most easily put in motion the homework and longterm these grades up.

Send this page to: Or FAX it to: George Bush The Environmental President, George Bush The Environmental President, The White House (202) 456-2461 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC 20500

Dear Environmental President: issues are in need of improvement. I he We regret to inform you that your grades on environmental presence in office. upcoming grading period— Election Year 1992— may prove crucial to your continued environmental issues. We look forward to your improved performance on these and other

Sincerely,

A Fellow Citizen of Our Beleaguered Planet

AS DETERMINED BY OMNI MAGAZINE: MY OWN OPINION: RECYCLING GRADE B . LANDFILLS GRADE D+ LOGGING GRADE C OZONE HOLE GRADE D AIR POLLUTION GRADE C OCEAN DUMPING GRADE D- DRINKING WATER GRADE D PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND .... GRADE F ACID RAIN GRADE C NUCLEAR WASTE GRADE C- (See the January 1992 OMNI for explanation of grades.)

42 OMNI ' —

ried through a tradi- create ultrafast com- genes can manufac- voluminous applica- central computer that the act. The giant alternate ways of OMNI, we selves, we arrived at tion to tional copper-cable puters or tiny ma- ture pharmaceuticals the U.S. Patent will tell the weights pharmaceutical firm producing our food. a good this month's cover Office. Atspend telephone wire. Over chines that can enter in their milk. When Venter's mis- how to respond in Merck & Company One possible solution story casserole, if , deal of time —a "pharms" sion: the next few decades, the body and de- bovine drug 12 patenting some order to stabilize the has decided to collab- was recently suggest- science, you will, of items looking ai as phone companies liver drugs or perform are working full force, CHAOS: Chaos 348 new human building. Before such orate with scientists ed by an expert panel and we feel are interest- technology, replace copper wire precise surgical they'll eliminate the challenges the deter- genes. As we usher in buildings become com- from Cornell Universi- ot the National Re- the future, encoun- ing, imaginative, and the - with fiber-optic cable. functions. need for expensive ministic notion, the new year, the U.S. monplace, however, ty to collect samples search Council. In- tering far more important. Some factories. What's Patent they will be able to drug bedrock of West- Office is hold- the world may experi- ot plant and inverte- stead ot full-sized innovations, we've covered in genetically ideas, offer film libraries and more, the ern science, that ing its breath, expect- ence disastrous trem- brate species in the livestock, the panel OMNI before; others and insights than we interactive information engineered cows one can predict ing a gold gene rush ors—some in our own cover in may be new to you. could ever services. Fiber-optic 8 will reproduce them- future events by of scientists arriving to backyards. An earth- old; others ! of Some are pages a technologies are revolu- HUMAN GENOME selves with each new gathering enough patent every manner quake of magnitude 6 magazine. lie on the cutting monthly tionizing medicine. PROJECT: The mam- generation. information. Chaot- of human gene. But on the Richter scale, discussions with edge of speculation. i Fiber-optic instru- moth effort to identify ic systems, how- Maynard Olson, a similar to the San scientists and lead- If you'd like to see us ments, for instance, and map the 100,000 ever, appear to Washington University Francisco quake of cover any of these ers of technology, allow physicians have an underly- geneticist and mem- 1989, is likely to strike wide reading, reflec- items in greater 10 ber of the Human along the Midwest's to view and treat the ing, unexpected, conver- depth, please drop tion, and body internally with- SUPER- order; when plotted Genome Project's ad- New Madrid fault our- us line. sations among a out surgery. CONDUCTIVITY: graphically, they visory panel, thinks site of a series of . What do high-speed yield elegant geo- patenting human DNA severe quakes in computers and is a philosophically iffy 1811 BEGMMNGS some scientists split ^ metric patterns. Sci- —by the year super-efficient the difference and ^Bi pow- entists have taken idea. "It's like patent- 2000. er generation have say the universe is in common? They 15 billion yearsold, j based on evidence are tantalizing prod- ucts promised by SCIENCE is the or- and research as ' researchers working THINGS derly arrangement well as supposition. > develop supercon- of knowledge about ductors— materials the universe and its YOU MUST that conduct electrici- workings, derived individual genes with- ty with almost no from careful observa- in the 46 chromo- resistance and little ABOUT is not. KNOW tion, recording, analy- ASTROLOGY: to the task of and never has been, a somes of the human loss ot power. Until i, and repeated finding order in body. Taking some S3 recently, the best testing ot conclusions. science. dynamic systems SCIENCE, billion and 15 years to superconductors re- once believed complete, the govern- quired extremely cold big sohke, bi© to be random technowgy TOP TOMATO: Atha- ment-sponsored pro- temperatures. The dis- TECHNOLOGY, nasios Theologis and ject may prove even covery of high-temper- colleagues at the more ambitious— and ature, ceramic-based TECHNOLOGY is AND YOUR Expres- fruitful. Knowing the superconductors in science put to practi- Plant Gene however, in Albany, sequence of the 3 1986, made 10 cal use. sion Center promise of FIBER OPTICS: More California, have built a billion base pairs of the early THE GENE RACE: superconductivity a than 20 years ago, top tomato: Their new the human genome On June 20, 1991, the possibility for ARTICLE BY Corning Glass Works plants, produced via DNA that contain our real National Institutes of genetic heritage may these and many other Health presented biol- THE OMNI STAFF introduced optical li- genetic engineering, applications. ogist Craig THE AGE OF bers— glass threads, take more than twice one day allow re- Venter's diagnose THE UNI- as long to ripen as searchers to ing the periodic VERSE: Most ordinary tomatoes. As and treat inherited ta- Costa Rican forest. suggested, we should disorders as well as ble," he says. Naked The is scientists today put a result, the tomatoes hope that some turn to "microlive- currently incurable dis- DNA sequences be- of the species b of our uni- will stay fresh on long will be stock" — miniature ver- the eases such as cancer used to make new sions of cattle, verse at 10 to 20 bil- journeys across sheep, and AIDS. drugs. Profits the goats, lion years. However. country or even from and pigs, and around the world. drugs, in turn, will be other diminutive spe- poured back into a cies, including the 14 fund for saving the giant rat. "Like com- EARTHQUAKE rain forest. puters, livestock for '" PHARMACOW- PROTECTION: Using use in developing NANOTECHNOLOGY LOGY: We may soon "smart" technology, WOMB countries should be TAKES JAPAN: The be using bovine facto- future builders will getting smaller and Japanese have a new ries to manufacture fashion structures able becoming more 'per- to shake off earth- laller than rage: nanotechnolo- drugs. Researchers sonal,'" the NRC where technology from Britain's Agricul- quakes by incorporat- 16 report said. "Con- a human gy, ing massive weights hair, capa- is built from molecular tural and Food Re- DIET FOR A ventional 'mainframes' or braces that coun- RAIN ble ot carry- parts. Building ma- search Council, and a FOREST, INC.: SMALL PLANET: As such as cattle are too teract the ing per- chines that have company called Phar- oscillations. When it comes to humans take up more large for the world's Sensors will transmit haps a thou- working parts the size maceutical Proteins, saving the rain forest, and more space on poorest people; they sand times of molecules, sci- have shown that cows information about seis- multinational corpora- the planet, we may require too much vibrations to the data car- entists will eventually endowed with foreign mic a tions are getting into have to come up with space and expense." — a — A-

Scientists are worried sion at the bite and victim is better off than that food production cortex is 10 times as sucking out the if it or the earth's capacity ven- was looking for great as a monkey's; 17 19 om — doesn't really food; it injects more to absorb waste may 1000 limes as great as work BIODIVER- GREENHOUSE not keep up with and may do venom into its prey to the more harm SITY: Scattered EFFECT: During demand. Moreover, than good. paralyze or kill it incision among hundreds of summer drought of with widespread de- The is prone quickly. thousands of plant 1988, alarmed scien- forestation, the need to infection, and the tists sounded a dire suction method has species lies a wealth for firewood, the Third 00 world is been found to remove of genetic information. warning: The World's principal fuel, ACME CELLS: One of the species growing dangerously increasingly ex- at best just 18 percent 27 Many will typical neuron, a warmer, due to the beach is not miniscule of the venom. Also, ICE is denser than have never even been ceed sustainable QKSTKMS KIDS ASK pyramidal cell, has up as doctors identified. much less greenhouse effect yields. Other forces shavings of rock, recommend room-temperature wa- : to 100,000 specific you might think. In- trying to slow the ter, and heat rises. studied. Most of them may serve to curb the connections to other stead, it's the skele- circulation of blood Sunlight never will be. Selec- population crisis: Sci- should heat cells. "The pyramidal tons of ancient plants with something like an the surface of tive breeding practic- ence may develop 20 cell is the of acme animals. of Ace rather es of modern agricul- ways to accelerate MOON IN MOTION: and Some bandage water faster than biochemical evolu-

those organisms used than trying to stop it water ture and widespread food production, and The moon has earth- at the bottom. tion."—Dominick Pur- calcium, either as part with ice or a tourni- deforestation are kill- disease, already wreak- quakes—or, more ac- So why doesn't ice pura, Dean, Albert their skeletons quet; the bitten area ing them off at ing havoc in the Third curately, moonquakes. of own form on the bottom, Einstein College of very or as a shelter. Others badly needs blood to instead of the of breakneck speed. World, is sure to Most of these top Medicine, New York. literally of reduce With each dies a devastate pockets of weak quakes are were made potential tis- bodies of water? It together and expand, takes its time to absorbed library of genetic the earth's people. caused by tidal forces glass and sue damage, And if turns out that water remaining on the revolve: 230 million information, possibly resulting from in- silica, the main ingre- the snake attacked in reaches its greatest surface because of years, known as one in glass, from self-defense, the bite including the clues to creases in the Earth's dient density before it freez- their lower density. galactic year. The 04 and ocean- kicking cancer or gravity as the moon sea water es—at 39.2° F heit. Milky Way has only MORE THAN SEE: floor clay. Over the It feeding a hungry 21 moves closer to the then expands as it been around for about There are 125 million part of its' years, water and other freezes, so the water world. OZONE MADNESS: Earth during 52 galactic years, rods and cones in the organisms 39.2' Stratospheric ozone orbit. Others most ground between and 26 or 12 billion years. Our retina impulses whose these plants and 32° (the freezing levels over Antarctica likely occur when SALT in the oceans sun. the earth, and follow the pathway to point) is less the process by which have reached the dense comes from several the other planets trek the primary visual 16 lowest levels ever and thus rises to the sources: minerals over a million cortex, the size of carbon dioxide and a surface. As water at from LEAD ON ICE: Green- other gases from recorded, according eroded rocks trillion miles each postage stamp. In the freezing land's ice serves as power plants and to recent satellite point that are carried into galactic year. monkeys, the primary monitor turns into ice, the the ocean an invaluable automobiles absorb reports. In other 24 by rivers, visual cortex is 15 pollution. Two various crystals bond volcanic rock, and of lead the sun's infrared words, that ozone THUNDER: is shay matters percent of the whole scien- basalt that decades ago, rays, much like the hole is now immense. caused by lightning; erupts up lead from below the tists found that walls of a greenhouse. Watch out for an the two are insepara- Hail to Thee, O Isaac one. Asimov's Bio- concentration in Green- skin can- ocean floor. The con- The experts cautioned increase in ble. A lightning bolt Asimpvt graphical Encyclo- land's ice had in- cer worldwide. centration of salt that rising tempera- heats the air around it How to pick the pedia Of Science & about 200- has remained stable creased tures from the buildup to 50.000T, and this best put of Asimov's Technology—-The since ancient at about 3.5 percent fold of fossil-fuel gases hot air does what science books? women and men pollution for about 1.5 billion times. The would in time flood every hot thing does Not easy. But those behind the history. reflected the emis- years. coastal areas and turn 22 it expands. This of us who have read Asimov's Chronology sions of lead-based cropland to waste- GAIA HYPOTHESIS: incredibly fast expan- and loved Isaac's Of Science & Dis- scien- land. A worldwide In 1972, British sion produces- work have learned covery—-Who did part this research, Lovelock on debate, however, is tist James sound akin to a sonic from, him that the what, and when. The, bodies governmental up. had a vision: The is 29 also warming boom. easy way rarefy Human Body— How world LIGHT around the Other scientists have earth was a giant the right or the best we work. The Human WEIGHT: A began limiting the characterized the tem- living organism whose way. Brain— How we square mile of sunlight surface of the cortex; amount of lead added functions were molten or partly mol- animals down into the " weighs about three perature increase as a bodily Here's. my pick of think. Understanding in humans, 3 percent, to fuel. It may work: In rock below the granules of sand that pounds. typical climate shift. the atmosphere, the ten the 10 best of Isaac Physics—Hard sci- Sunlight has meaning humans form our beaches. By a recent study of seas, life itself. Calling moon's surface shifts. Asimov's weight because it 01 have five science ence made simple. times as Greenland ice, lead last long- the way, the grayish exerts pressure his theory Gaia ('guy- Moonquakes books.—Keith Ferrell Realm OfNumbers— on CONNECTED: There much higher process- concentration had er than earthquakes— sand usually found anything it ah') for the mother Asimov's New Trouble with arithme- encoun- are 200 billion neu- ing of initial visual like in your decreased by a factor Earth goddess, Love- the landing of the elsewhere, ters. If all the sunlight rons in the 20 Guide To Science— tic? Read this. Es- brain; 10 to Apollo 12 lunar mod- backyard, did indeed reaching of 7.5. POPULATION lock proposed that Every home, needs says—Anyoi Isaac's Earth could 50 times that many the erosion life set the moon come from be weighed, it EXPLOSION: The environment and ule collections of suc- would glial, nutritional, and vibrating for more than of rocks. tip the world presently sup- are two parts of a cint articles and scales at more "support" cells; mil- ports more than 5 single system which two hours. essays. Our Angry than 87,000 tons. lions of trillions of 05 billion people. Be- interact in a self- Plane!—-Written with connections between BRAIN GENES: Only regulating and self- these ceils. cause population Frederik Pohl, this is; 1 million genes are Critics 26 growth is exponential, correcting way. an eloquent exami- necessary to encode SUCK: Doc- staggering 10 say Gaia can't be 25 DON'T for the a nation of 00 growth, devel- the dam- SKELETON BEACH: tors now know that the IN billion people will proven and therefore age we're doing to GALAXY opment, and function sand time-honored advice share the planet's is more akin to That soft, white MOTION: Like the plan- 02 of the brain through- our world. Atom— religion, you curl your toes in for treating a snake ets, our galaxy, diminishing resources philosophy or new book and a ON THE SURFACE: out life. bite—making an inci- by the year 2025. not science. when you go to the masterpiece. the Milky Way, re- The surface area of volves. The galaxy the human cerebral CONTINUED ON PAGE 1(M THE FIRST CONTACT WITH THE GORGONIDS

Mrs. Jerry Debree, the heroine BY URSULA K. LE GUIN could have a drink and she that it was clear they knew of Grong Crossing, liked to never had gotten to see the what they were talking about, look pretty. It was important to JERRY people with the masks come, "Few hours' drive, that's all," Jerry in his business contacts, DEBREE WANTED but now he talked about how Bruce said. "But y'see, most of course, and also it made they really knew how to put tourists want to stay on the her feel more confident and TO SEE on a native show in the USA. beaten path. This is a bit kind of happy to know that her SOMETHING He said a few scruffy abos more on the inside track." cellophane was recent and jumping around weren't go- "Bang-up shows," said her eyelashes REALLY really well ing to give tourists from the re- Bruce. "Nightly Corroborees." glued on and that the high- EXOTIC ON HIS al world anything to write "Hotel any better than this lighter blush was bringing out home about. The Aussies TRIP, BUT dump?" Jerry asked, and her cheekbones like the girl at ought to visit Disney World they laughed. No hotel, they the counter had said. But it HE DIDN'T KNOW and find out how to do the re- explained, "It's like a safari, was beginning to be hard to HOW ALIEN al thing, he said. see—tents under the stars. feel fresh and look pretty as She agreed with that; she Never rains," said Bruce. this desert kept getting hotter THE OUTBACK loved Disney World. It was the "Marvelous food, though," and hotter and redder and red- COULD BE. only thing in Florida, where Bruce said. "Fresh kangaroo der until ft looked, really, al- they had to live now that Jerry steaks. Kangaroo hunts daily, most like what she had always ILLUSTRATIONS was an ACEO, that she liked see. Witchetty grubs along thought the Bad Place would BY KENT WILLIAMS much, One of the Australian with the drinks before dinner. look like, only not so many men at the bar had seen Dis- Roughing it in luxury, I'd call people. In fact, none. neyland and agreed that it it; right, Bruce?" "Could we have passed it, was amazing, or maybe he "Absolutely," said Bruce. do you think?" she ventured meant amusing; what he said "Friendly, are they, these at fast, and received without was "amizing." He seemed to abos?" Jerry asked. surprise the exasperation be a nice man. Bruce, he "Oh, salt of the earth. she had safety-valved from said his name was, and his Treat you like kings. Think him: "How the fuck could we friend's name was Bruce, too. white men are sort of gods, have passed it when ha- we "Common sort of name y'know," Bruce said. Jerry ven't passed one fucking here," he said, only he said nodded. thing except those fucking "nime," but he meant name, So Jerry wrote down all the bushes for 90 miles? Christ she was quite sure. When Jer- directions, and here they you're dumb." ry went on complaining about were driving and driving in the Jerry's language was a the Corroboree, the first old station wagon that was all pity. And sometimes it made Bruce said, "Well, mite, you there was to rent in the small it so hard to talk to him. She might go out to Grong Cross- town they'd been at for the had had the least little tiny ing, if you really want to see Corroboree, and by now you sort of feeling, woman's intui- the real thing— right, Bruce?" only knew the road was a tion maybe, that the men who first At the other Bruce road because it was perfectly had told him how to get to didn't seem to know what he straight forever. Jerry had Grong Crossing were teasing meant, and that was when her been in a good humor at first. him, having a little joke, He woman's intuition woke up. "This'll be something to had been talking so loud in But pretty soon both Bruces shove up that bastard Thiol's the hotel bar about how dis- were talking away about this ass," he said. His friend Thiel appointed he had been with place, Grong Crossing, way was always going to places the Corroboree after flying all out in "the bush," where they like Tibet and having wonder- the way out from Adelaide to were certain to meet real abos ful adventures and showing see it. He kept comparing it to really living in the desert. videos of himself with yaks. the Indian dance they had "Near Alice Springs," Jerry Jerry had bought a very ex- seen at Taos. Actually he had said knowledgeably, but it pensive camcorder for this been very bored and rest- wasn't, they said; it was still far- trip, and now he said, "Going less at Taos and they had had ther west from here. They to shoot me some abos. to leave in the middle so he gave directions so precisely Show that fucking Thiel and "

IHEY WERE PAINTED IN SPOTS OF WHITE ON BLACK, AND "They almost don't look be braver than her, too; but his musk-oxes!" But as the sometimes he got angry morning went on and the human," she said, very softly their feelings, when she was afraid, like the road went on and the desert so as to not hurt her eat that if they spoke English, since time he made went on— did they call it "the stopped the car poisonous fish, or a fish that bush" because there was one Jerry had and flung the doors open and might or might not be poison- little thorny bush once a mile rummaging out the video ous, in Japan, because she or so?—he got hotter and hot- was camera, said she was afraid to, and ter and redder and redder, "Hold. this!" she threw up and embar- like the desert. And she just everybody. So she She held it. Five or six of the rassed began to feel depressed and tail black-and-white people just sat in the car and kept the like her mascara was caking. had sort of turned their way engine on and the air condi- She was wondering if after all seemed to be tioning on, although the win- another 40 miles (four was her but they with something at the dow on her side was open. lucky number) she could say, busy hill or rock or what- Jerry had his camera up "Maybe we ought to turn foot of the shoulder now and was ever it was. There were some on-his back?" for the first time, when things that might be tents. No- panning the scene—the far- he said, "There!" welcome them away hot red horizon, the There was something body came to or anything, but she was ac- queer rock-hill-thing with ahead, all right. THEIR HAIR WAS shiny places in it like glass, "There hasn't been any iuallyjust as glad they didn't. "Hold this! Oh for Chris- the black, burned-looking sign," she said, dubious. LIKE BLACK what did you do with ground around it, and the peo- "They didn't say anything ROPES STANDING sake, all over. There the— all right, just give it ple swarming about a hill, did they?" UPON here." wece 40 or 50 of them at "Hell, that's no hill, that's a least. It only dawned on her "Jerry, I wonder if we rock—what do they call it- THEIR HEADS. should ask them," she said. now that if they were wearing some big fucking red rock—" what?" he any clothes at all she didn't "Ayers Rock?" She had looked rather funny. Funnier "Ask who having trouble with know what was clothes and read the welcome to down than the ones at the Corrob- growled, they "1 cassette thing. what was skin, because hotel in Ade- oree even. guess they're the under tlyer in the and "The people here—if it's all were so strange-shaped, laide while Jerry was at the natives," she said aloud. photograph. Remem- painted or colored all in plastics conference. "But "What the shit did you ex- right to Jerry ber at Taos they said that stripes and spots of white on that's in themiddle of Austra- pect, Frenchmen?" — black, not like zebras but it like a joke, when the lia, Isn't it?" said, but he said — sake, you don't more, complicated, more like "So where the fuck do you and she laughed. But "Oh! "For fuck need fucking permission to skeleton suits but not exactly. think we are? In the middle of goodness!" she said involun- photograph a bunch of na- And they must be eight feet Australia, what do you think tarily, getting her first clear were short, natives. tives^. God! Did you ever took tall, but their arms this is, fucking East Germa- sight of one of the tucking National Geo- almost like kangaroos'. And ny?" He was shouting, and "Big fellows, huh," he said. at the graphic? Shit! Permission*." their hair was like black ropes he speeded up. The terribly "Bushmen, they call 'em." all over their It wasn't any use standing up straight road shot them That didn't seem right, really getting when he started shouting. heads. It was embarrassing straight at the hill, or rock, or but she was still over people without of seeing that tall, And the people didn't seem to to look at whatever it was. It wasn't the shock in what he was clothes on, but you couldn't Ayers Rock, she knew that, thin, black-and-white, weird be interested anything like that. stand- doing. Although it was quite really see but there wasn't any use ir- person. It had been just hard to be sure what direction In fact, she couldn't tell, ritating Jerry, especially ing looking at the car, 'only looking. actually, if they were men or when he started shouting. she couldn't see its eyes. they were actually thick, hairy "Aren't you going to get out women. It was reddish, and Heavy brows and Black, of the fucking carl" They were all busy with shaped kind of like a huge VW eyebrows hid them. she said. their work or ceremony or what- bug, only lumpier; and there ropey hair hung over half its "It's so hot," didn't really mind it ever it was. Some of them were certainly people all face and stuck out from be- He she was afraid of get- were handling some things around it.and at first she was hind its ears. when hot or sunburned or like big, thin, golden leaves, very glad to see them. Their "Are they— are they paint- ting too weakly. anything, because he liked be- others were doing something utter isolation —they hadn't ed?" she asked, and tougher. She with cords or wires. They seen another car or farm or "They always paint 'em- ing stronger could even have didn't seem to be talking, but anything for two hours—had selves up like that.": His con- probably said that she was afraid of the there was, all the time, in the scared her. Then as they got tempt for her ignorance was because he liked to air a soft, drumming, droning, closer she thought the people reassuring. natives, " a

kPERRY SHOVED THE CAMERA RIGHT UP CLOSE TO ITS

said. rising and falling, deep now. Now they were open, "Yes," she "Thank sound, like cats purring or and looked once straight at you. Good-bye!" voices- far away. Jerry, and he turned to They hummed. Jerry started walking to- stone. He just stood there, She got in and closed the ward them. one hand on the camera and window and turned the car on a "Be careful," she said faint- one reaching for his gun, around there wide motionless. place in the road— and ly. He paid no attention, of course. Several more Space Ali- there was a signpost, Grong They paid no attention to ens had gathered round. Crossing, although she crossroad. him either, as far as she They all had their eyes shut, didn't see any could see, and he kept film- except for the ones at the She drove back, carefully ing, swinging the camera ends- of their hair. Those glit- at first because she was fast- around. When he got right up tered and shone, and the lit- shaky, then faster and should get close to a couple of them, tle red tongues flickered in er because she they turned toward him. She and -out, and the humming,. Jerry to the .doctor, of also couldn't see their eyes at all, droning sound was much course, but because but what happened was louder. Many of the hair- she loved driving on long straight fast like their hair sort of stood .up and snakes writhed to look at her. roads very bent toward Jerry— each HEAD, AND AT Her knees buckled and her this. Jerry never let her drive thick, black rope about' heart thudded- in her throat, except in town. foot long, moving around THAT IT but she had to get to Jerry The paralysis was total and permanent, which would and bending down exactly PUT ITS HAND She passed right between two Aliens and. have been terrible, except as if it were peering at him. huge Space OVER afford full- At that, her own hair tried to reached him and patted that she could — round-the-clock, first- stand up, and ihe blast of the THE LENS. him "Jerry, wake up!" she time", for Jerry, air conditioner ran like ice said. He was just like stone, class care poor be- down her sweaty arms. She voice sticking in her throat, paralyzed. "Oh," she said, cause of the really good with the got out of the car- and. called as one of the Space Aliens and- tears ran down her deals she made TV the his name. pointed with its little weak- face, "oh, what should I. do, people and then with rights for the video. He kept filming. looking arm and hand at what can I do?" She looked people it all over the She went toward him as the car. Jerry shoved the cam- .around in despair at the tall, First was shown Aliens fast as she could on the cin- era right up close to Its- thin, black-and-white faces world as Space Land in Australian Outback, but dery, stony soil in her' high- head, and at that it put its- looming above her, white sci- heeled sandals. "Jerry, come hand over the lens. That teeth showing, eyes tight then it became part of real — shut, hairs staring and stirring ence- and history as Grong back. I think made Jerry mad, of course, "Shut up!" he yelled so and he yelled, "Get the fuck and murmuring. The murmur Crossing, South Australia: The savagely that she stopped off that!" And he actual- was soft, almost like music, First Contact With the Gorgo- short for a moment. But she ly looked at the Space Ali- not angry, soothing. She nids. In the voice-over they could see the hair better now, en, not through the camera watched two tall Space Ali- told how it was her, Annie Laurie Debree, had and she could see that it did but face to face. "Oh gee," ens pick up Jerry quite gent- who have eyes, and mouths, too, he said. ly, as if he were a tiny little been the first human to talk carry with outer with little, red tongues dart- And his hand went to his boy—a stiff one—and our friends from ing out. hip. He always carried a gun, him carefully to the car. space, even before they sent into ambassadors to Canberra "Jerry, come, back," she because it was an Ameri- They poked him the the said. "They're not natives, can's right to bear arms. and bacK seat lengthwise, but he and Reykjavik. There was they're Space Aliens. That's there were so many drug ad- didn't fit. She ran to help. She only one good shot of her in their saucer." She knew dicts these days. He had let down the back seat so the film, and Jerry had been in shaking, and her high- from the Sun that there had smuggled it through the air- there was room forhim the sort of been sightings down herein port inspection the way he back. The Space Aliens ar- lighter was kind of streaked, Australia. knew how. Nobody was go- ranged him and tucked the but that was all right. She "Shut the fuck up," he ing to disarm him. video camera in beside him, was the heroine. DO said. "Hey, big' fella, give She saw perfectly clearly then straightened -up* their Ursula K. Le Gain's most recent action, Don't The Space hairs looking down at her me a little huh? what happened. book is Searoad (HarperCollins, just stand there. Dancee- Alien opened its eyes. with little twinkly eyes. They 1991). Her 1990 novel, Tehanu, dancee, OK?" His eye was There were eyes under the hummed softly, and pointed won the Nebuia Award, and she glued to the camera, dark, shaggy brow's; they with their childish arms back has also won the Hugo and the National "Jerry," she said; her had been kept closed till down the road. Book Awards. 54 OMNI APPING THE MINDFIELDS

Hard wired: An array of Magnetic field maps Williamson applies SQUiBs Is slowly reveal not only solid- state being lowered the mind's eye, but physics Jo examine to within a millimeter the mind's ear the brain at 'work. of subject's skin. and the mind's voice.

interested in superconductive phenom- cles per second. They are measurable and originate in many sors are isolating an area in Lu's brain where there's a sup- The huge padded door opens. Beneath subdued lights, a state physicist more parts of our brain pillow ena, Williamson was led to brain mapping through his fasci- when we're alert yet relaxed— thus the med- pression of Alpha waves; Lu is seeking the image of a man lies prone, his head held stationary by a vacuum itation nation with the SQUID. "Not calamari," he says, "super- link. Some call it the "idling wave," but the Alpha's boat." The area isolated is the primary visual cortex, the re- used to immobilize broken bones. He stares up at a large, quantum interference device. S-Q-U-l-D." actual purpose, says Williamson, has yet to be explained. gion in the back of the head where everything we see from fiberglass, cylindrical probe, which with intinitessimal slow- conducting take advantage of a subtle quantum effect. At It's not Alpha waves per se that interest the NYU neuros- the outside world has its basic processing. ness, descends toward his forehead and stops within a millime- SQUIDs extremely low temperatures where electrons couple togeth- cientist. With the SQUID he's able to monitor tiny, specific The point, according to Williamson, is not what Lu imag- ter from his skin. A radio-frequency transmitter on the probe waves. These waves can be thrown out of areas where the Alpha rhythm briefly stops. The power ined, or even that the Alpha was suppressed for a second communiates with two electronic cubes secured by a vel- er, they form magnetic fields. SQUID sensors meas- goes off, so to speak. This occurs, for example, when you as Lu's association occurred. What's important is the cro sweatband on bis forehead, marking the probe's target sync by the weakest use your brain to It fluctuations. access a memory. stops, too, when you strength of the suppression and especially where it occurred. skull. Racks of electronic machines surround him. ure these inside his a comparison does this have to do with the brain?" Williamson make between one image and another. But it This demonstrates thai primary visual areas are involved A wiry, energetic professor with an impish sense of humor, "So what he's not about to tell me yet. stops in a different area of the brain. The various patterns of with mental imaging, the visions inside our heads. and with a glance, motions me to follow him asks rhetorically, I nod, but "When adjusts a dial, "Alpha wants to talk about how SQUIDs work. "This fancy suppression," in fact, may be the patterns of we generate images, mentally compare an image with oth- out. The door whooshes shut. First he Thermos bottle. It thought in action. ers previously of the twenty-second cen- container over Lu's head is nothing but a seen, or even respond to a word shown on a I in an operating room am not Although relies the same vacuum insulation as your Thermos; we there is no standard for Alpha-wave rhythm (in screen by finding an image for the object the word repre- tury, but on the ninth floor of Mew York University's Physics on folks it's heck of a better vacuum." some stronger than in others), the sources of each sents," he says, "it looks like we use the primary visual area Building, in a lab where solid-state physics and the "wet" just have a individual's rhythms located. array of of the probe, are five coils wound of su- can be The SQUID sen- and also an area very close to it. Which means that where world of neuroscience interpenetrate. Instead of microscopes At the bottom sors is niobium wire bathed in liquid helium at four placed over a predetermined brain area. With care, the brain responded to the visual image of the word boat focused on thin slices of brain tissue, the rooms are crowd- perconducting it's possible (about -450A F). Each coil has a SQUID sen- to the locate a center of activity with an accura- and where it 'saw' the image of a boat are next-door neigh- ed with electronic scanners, oscillators, and computers. One degrees Kelvin it gener- cy of three millimeters. it. a magnetic field appears, bors. "Which means," Williamson says, "that visual brain ar- of the more impressive machines has stenciled on it NEU- sor attached to When With the neuromagnetometer, in coil's superconducting circuit. A Williamson tests a brain func- eas take part in forming what we call the mind's eye, a ROMAGNETOMETER. The mouthful of a title describes pur ates a current the fields flowing in the coil, converts it to tion — recognizing a face— and notes if, when, and to what place where visual associations occur." planet's most sensitive detector of magnetic fields, capable SQUID, sensing the fancy electronics outside monitor the degree the spontaneous Alpha waves briefly stop. The mind's eye. And not just that, but the mind's ear and of measuring the magnetic fields emanating from a human a voltage. "The and provide signals that mimic the mag- A test is occurring right now. In that eerie "noise- proof" the mind's voice. brain, only one billionth of Earth's geomagnetic field. SQUID'S responses (noise-proof brain. By monitoring the rhythms of Alpha room meaning magnetic-proof; the walls are Do we also remember music and invent sounds in the This particular machine is registering the brain of gradu- netic field of the waves, can get a real-time photo of where certain lined with mu-metal, a nickle-bearing substance that literal- same place where they were originally recognized? Do ate student Zhong-Lin Lu, and it is doing so to create a to- we ly attracts in Lu's mind." magnetic fields and guides them around the cham- those sweet unheard melodies, as John Keats once said, pographical map of his thoughts. thoughts are going on The mysterious biofeedback stuff that was ber), Lu lies beneath the probe. From the other room, Wil- occur in the same auditory cortex as the heard melodies? "It's amazing how little we know about our brains," says Alpha waves? liamson of sixties? "The same wave," Williamson ad- whispers to him via an intercom. "Imagine a boat," "Of course," Professor Williamson continues, "we don't the lab's director, Samuel Williamson, the neuroscientist who, the rage the are not exotica or part of an ersatz sci- he commands. Beside me, Williamson points to a computer know how a composer uses previously heard sounds to cre- his psychologist partner, Lloyd Kaufman, is a leading mits. Alpha waves with screen where and rhythmic in a bandwidth of 8 to 13 cy- the squiggles have abruptly stopped. "The sen- ate a new melody. pioneer of this strange new cartography. Formerly a solid- ence, but real ARTICLE BY BOB PHBTOGBAPB BY DAN McCOY 2

Caught in the act: Magnetic field's fluctuating from left to right. The direction will then reverse, and this cycle wiil fee repeated—about 1 times a second.

construct of like measuring a whale with your thumbnail. To have to IERE IUST AT THE a topographical field map of a cortical region, you Next years's funding should beginning stages of this work, measure at 30 to 70 locations. system of 37 sensors. A group at the Low Tempera- which is why we need a map, so we bring a of the Helsinki University of Technology is can find our way back when we've ture Laboratory with 122 SQUIDs sampling the whole increased our skills." Williamson and building a machine corporations in collaboration Kaufman's mapping has confirmed head. A consortium of Japanese (Ministry of international Trade and Industry) are that there is a tonal map in the with MITI SQUIDS. "hearing brain" that mirrors musical about to unveil one with 200 sensors and the software to coordinate them scale. The NYU team showed that a "That many the next step," Williamson says. "A system group of nerve cells in a tiny area will move us to monitor the field anywhere about the head." temporal lobe reacts to a C note, another group to a that can of the use the will do with the new mind atlas? "Well, so on, up the scale like the ivories on a key- What we WC sharp, and "There part of your mind that imagines," says Williamson. board. A topographical map. exciting applications, many in preventive medicine. "As we map the mind," Williamson says, "we discover how are many distinguish between seems Ultimately, we hope it may help to organized and very efficient it is. Everything highly probably won't be frequently, the psychiatric disorders. One area where it have its logical juxtaposition." Ever more to electrical noise . . . although with used is the operating room. "Too much .brain is being compared to a supercomputer, devices," he says, "though surgeons will refer to its data dur- trillions of interconnections and distributed networks a its to CAT advanced par- ing surgery." Won't that be the same as referring brain is far more sophisticated than the most scans can't. individual, wet scans? "The neuromagnetometer sees what CAT allel processor. Yet metaphors abound of tiny, a functional image, not an anatomical one— and computers linked and working simultaneously to' solve im- It provides its also complementary to PET, but has a mensely complicated tasks—functions within functions. "We it's noninvasive, rapid time response. You follow changes quickly." have known about the brain's so-called supercomputer but more application which Williamson has suggested is the all components are, how One not how it works, where the tiny annual brain check. "Every six months you go see your den- the tasks are broken down," he admits. checkup, too? If we know what your provides an example of mental multitasking. tist. Why not a brain Williamson can compare. Part of normal brain looks like magnetic-fieldwise, we "Suppose we're alone in the jungle and see a tiger. can be noted, problems nipped in the bud." At visual system sees stripes, another sees movement, Deviations our prob- present, though, there is that nagging lack-of-database approximately at the same instant. With magnetic field meas- Not enough brains have been "SQUIDed." But with a urements, we can determine their interplay and which part lem. enough array of sensors and the lower cost that mass dominates." {Williamson thinks it's the stripes part that dom- large production might bring, one day we might simply sit under inates unless the tiger is jumping at you, then a motion de- this hairdryer-looking device and in a matter of minutes get tection system kicks in first.) "From there we hope to find a complete picture of our mind live and kicking in real time. where the tiger memory is stored ('What is a tiger?'} and, At the Henry Ford Clinic in Detroit and elsewhere, neu- finally, how to react ('run like crazy'). roscientists are using neuromagnetometers to study the "In short," Williamson says, "we are beginning to learn migraines and epilepsy. The data is already avail- what's happening during this complicated series of tasks. causes of tests on infants. Early stuff. Mag- able to perform rudimentary hearing It's truly brand new stuff." Practically brand-new detection for tumors, Alzheimer's disease, and many other netic imaging's first studies of the brain's response to visual problems are realistic prospects. "And of course,as display were done at NYU in 1972 by Williamson and Lloyd brain brain records what's going on in the rest of the body.it Kaufman and their "long-suffering" grad student, Douglas the could provide helpful signals." Brenner. In 1975 their first paper appeared. Much trial and more esoteric testing? Determining genius, for exam- error were needed to sort out irrevelant noise, the bane of And ple? not?" Williamson replies. "We have no clue at the the machine. "You want to know what real noise is? The BfvlT "Why moment of what to look for, but that doesn't mean it couldn't line 12 stories below the lab. We did the early work without be done. Such things are eventually solvable and doable." any noise shielding at all. That's trial and error!' meter has What about studying unusal powers of thought and creativ- But from its murky beginnings, the n euro magneto playwright John Guare's brain 7 The been improved by a factor of more than 10. From simply cor- ity? Peering at the processing of computer maven William Gates? A roborating the easiest neural tasks, the Williamson/ thought we're at it, dis- test to determine a child's potential? And while Kaufman team is now on the frontier of major mapping expand and widen the highways of our own imag- coveries. Thanks to Williamson and Kaufman's early work, a means to means of, say, a biomagneticfeedback machine? there are now 50 groups around the world doing biomag- inations by the not?" Williamson says again. If we can understand netic studies. "Why that understands, anything's possible." And if you What's holding back progress? Mostly it's money. William- organ map, you can go just about anywhere. DO son's SQUID uses an array of just five sensors, which is sort have a good in One of these prizes could be yours if you can follow the clues THE GREAT OMNI TREASURE HUNT

flight for two on American Airlines Reading OMNI is always rewarding, you could have if you won our of the world's most romantic but especially so next month. The Feb- GRAND PRIZE, a 1992 GEO Track- to one (value; $2,000). ruary issue features our eighth an- er LSi 4x4 Convertible, complete cities, Paris, France the beginning. nual Great OMNI Treasure Hunt, with sporty aluminum wheels (value: And that's only So be sure to see the February is- where a little bit of detective work can $12,935)1 sue of OMNI for official rules, elues, pay off in fabulous prizes! Other prizes include a 1992 HON- of the prizes. Here's a sneak preview of a few DA Nighthawk 750 Motorcycle (val- and a look at the rest miss it] of the prizes. Just imagine the fun ue: £4,1 99). There's also a roundtrip Don't

62 OMNI . w To commemorate Star Trek's® 25 th Anniversary Paramount Pictures Presents THE STAR TREK WATCH The first officially authorized watch of its kind.

Stardate: 1991.

It's been twenty-five years since Captain Kirk and the courageous crew of the Starship

Enterprise™ first ap- peared on the screen

and carried our hopes and

dreams to the stars.

Now, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of STAR TREK, Paramount

Pictures presents the first officially authorized STAR TREK WATCH. A bold new timepiece

crafted in high-tech solid stainless steel. Embla- zoned with the image and Delta emblem of the

U.S.S. Enterprise™ Complete with a. precise Swiss quartz movement and a sleek, black leather

strap. Available exclusively from Th

Franklin Mint for just $195, payable

in convenient monthly installments. Explore new worlds with your STAR TREK WATCH. RETURN ASSURANCE POLICY

If you wish to return any Franklin Mint purchase, you may do so

within 30 days of your receipt of i Intelligent Life Forms Are Wearing ^fc that purchase for replacem THE STAR TREK® WATCH WW credit or refund.

The Franklin Mint Please n il by January 31, 1992. Special Order Deportment Franklin Center, Pennsylvania 19091 Please enter my order for THE STAR TREK WATCH, to be crafted for me in solid stainless steel, with an exclusive STAR TREK 25lh Anniversary logo etched on the reverse

I need SEND NO MONEY NOW. Prior to shipment of my imported watch, please bill me for my deposit of $39,* and the balance, after shipment, in four equal monthly installments of

$39* „.,, -, each , , r, ™ s „, s,„ ^ 4 „. a ,™ ,

SIGNATURE

Mfi/MRS/MISS ADDRESS

CITY/STATE/ZIP MOURNING FOR Tl IE GOOD OLD DAYS. WE ARE ^

IUST OFF ROUTE ONE: HE BACKED THE PICK- UP TO THE J CARL'S LAWN 6= GARDEN J J SHED END OF THE GREENHOUSE JAND QUIZZED ME WHILE I THREW EQUIPMENT

EICTION BY TERRY BISSON "IT WAS THE ONLY ORGANIC LAWN IN THE SUB, AND FOR TV YEARS IT ALMOST MADE IT, BUT NOW THIS LOOKED LIKE THE END.

Got the Syiovan, the T le quick Dipro fix gives a green flush to the ~'"rs? The Thumper, skin ny little leaves c ;h Elm chip for the hem sigh with relief through the soles of my I. We might make it by there today." eet. But unless the Batura-solution coming up ht, mournful June day. Tt rem the IV grid fou d living roots, the whole

id hard. The i hing would be a was e.

ooked grave <. s he put the sprayer back ntn the truck. "If it's ot looking better by Wed- UBS fey call me," he said to the Barbers. "You stling leaves,

I told me when we were back on t

mm ' IV, and now this looked like the i lught a of the line. " fly with ;. Barber \ iding the at door looking m days nobody is insured. 1 ~ J m h the drive just as

nf — " said as he got out id looked at his yellowini dred thousand dollars ($104,668.29 to be pr„„

I sometimes watched Carl do the books). "It's too late, is it, Carl?" te, Mr. Barber," Carl ; Princeton by^j it's the only place that'll alio

girl with i

d yellow. A darker u the yard, like paper

. ._ ....o flame. "Code Six, Gail," Carl said, revising his original assessment. "Giv five liters of straight Biulo speed inject. And ilofoqqer."

hand covered the top of m>

i. f spilled in a four-can of Bi, added head. "Just as I thought," h

_ rt - some Phishphlakes for good me said. "Cold as ic

' the underpumps whining on Super. Out find something l... „ ed up and down the lawn can eat, Gay?" lytaline sprayer, while the

y-

al home on Route 303. The d

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MEL ODOM "

them day and wave in the wind. fall over. You've got to feed was one of those cheap, sixteen-bit bask in the sun night. Let me show you these new if there were any, would be and jobs that you can't walk through, that on- The bugs, from Microsoft." He threw fooled. Dutch Elms ly look right from a hundred yards or so. switch on the holoprojector while I Carl was in a great mood. Ten me- the Carl had sold it to them last fall. It was hundred and twenty- started piecing together the senso- supposedly upgradable, but in fact the ters of Pat at three "See how great they look?" Carl of five dollars a meter is a nice piece of fence. company that made it had gone out the roots them- said. "Go ahead, walk all the way business over the winter, and now the change. And since them. call them The Immor- couldn't selves are not alive, you can put them around We chip was an orphan; you never untreated .ground. There's tals. Bugs don't eat on them, they change the variety or even the colors directly into them is about the sliding of a shov- get sick, and all you have to feed of the flowers without a whole new CPU. something this projector up that stirs the blood of a one-ten. We can set explained this hesitantly, expect- el into the dirt Carl have to worry nurseryman. on the roof, so you don't ing an argument, but the funeral home over it." the life, right, Gail?" Carl about cars running manager signed for the new chip, a Hall- "This is "I sort of wanted something that mark clone, in a minute. "It's one of said. grinned back at him. cast a shadow," the manager said. franchise operations, Gail," Carl I nodded and these here at Even though something about the dirt "You don't want shadows said on the way back to the "shop. had didn't smell wrong. the mall anyway," said Carl, who "They don't care what they spend. didn't smell right. It for everything when he was didn't smell at all. an answer should they? It's all tax-deduct- It just Hell, why have to worry Upgrade selling. "And you won't ible under the Environmental the Byron's, Carl sold about shoppers walking through flowers much anyway. After lunch at Lord I never liked Act. his hand through Garden State t reeS "_he passed Even organic ones." two electric trees at the —"and spoiling the image, Mall. The manager wanted the trees the trunk main entrance, and either. That's what this fence is for, Tuesday was a better day because we for a display at the assistant is setting up. had to talk him out of organics. which my lovely got to dig. We put in ten meters ot Pat- Carl electrics any bet- Ready, Gail?" agonian Civet Hedge at Johnson, John- Carl doesn't like the sections of white picket sometimes they are I set two Patag- ter than I do, but son & Johnson. Pat is not really and snapped alternative. fence next to the tree onian; the name is supposed to sug- the only wanted real trees," the them together-. gest some kind of hardy stock. It's "I sort of "That's not a holo," said the actually cyberhedge, a fert-satu rated manager said. don't," Carl said. manager. lattice with dri-gro bud lodg- "Not outdoors you plastate Solid plastic," Carl said. organic trees are too frail. Even "No, sir. at twenty-millimeter intervals on "Look, ments than just keep afford them— and you "And it does a lot more But the tiny leaves that if you could a 3-D grid. driving through can't— they get weird diseases, they people from walking or grow out of it are as real as I am. They the trees. The pickets themselves are sophisticated envirosensors. Made in Singapore. Watch." on the fence, and since I turned there was no wind, Carl blew on a pick-

et. The leaves on the trees waved and wiggled. He covered a picket with his hand and a shadow fell over the tree- tops. "They respond to actual wind and sun conditions, for the utmost in total realism. Now, let's suppose it looks like rain. ..." Carl That was my cue. I handed a pa- per cup and he sprinkled water on the pickets with his fingertips, like a priest giving a blessing. The leaves of the trees shimmered and looked wet. "We call them the Immortals," Carl said again, proudly. "What about birds?" "Birds?"

"I read somewhere that birds get con- fused and try to land in the branches or something," the manager said. "I for- get exactly." Carl's laugh was suddenly sad. "How long since you've seen a bird?"

Wednesday was the day we had set aside to service Carl's masterpiece, the Oak Grove at Princeton University. These were not ailanth-oaks or compos- ite red "woods"; these were full-sized overcharged. that grew not "Well run some tests to see what his reaction is to being white oaks of solid wood out of pots but straight out of the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 98

. 9

luck, now know that a giant squid that The long, saw-toothed lower jaw of the giant squid, and by great good We has surfaced in tropical waters is almost whale was gaping wide, preparing to fas- Yorkshire TV's camera crew was able had been cast ashore certainly dying—though not necessar- ten upon its prey. The creature's head to film one that viewers ily harmless, as the Pearl discovered. was almost concealed beneath the writh- in Newfoundland. Millions of blood functions efficiently only at the ing network of white, pulpy arms with have seen the resulting sequence; al- Its very low temperatures, a few degrees which the giant squid was fighting des- though the specimen was only an im- female, a mere twenty-five feet above freezing point, found in the perately for life. Livid sucker-marks, twen- mature enough, and gives a abyss. In warm surface waters, the ty centimeters or more in diameter, had long, it is scary really big blood's ability to absorb oxygen is great- mottled the whale's skin where those very good idea of what the cir- especially if, ly reduced, so any squid in these arms had fastened. One tentacle was specimens must look like— grow up cumstances is literally suffocating. already a truncated stump, and there as the evidence suggests, they This is reassuring news for swimmers could be no doubt as to the ultimate out- to 150 feet in length. Peter Bench- and divers in the tropics, but they come of the battle. When the two great- In his radio interview, of the schoo- shoudn't press their luck. And in subar- est beasts on earth engaged in com- ley mentioned the case reported (by the London tic waters, the giant squid can be agres- bat, the whale was always the winner. ner Pearl, 4, July 1874) to have been sively hungry— as was demonstrated by For all the vast strength of its forest of Times, Bengal by a giant the life-raft incident described in "Mys- tentacles, the squid's only hope lay in sunk in the Bay of Sri Lan- terious World," when one survivor car- escaping before that patiently grinding squid, a'few days after leaving grave. ka's southern port of Galle. My beach ried sucker scars to his . . jaw had sawn it to pieces. .

kilometers Needless to say, I can't wait to read That was merely the beginning of my bungalow is just a couple of

I wish it luck, I'm coast, I stood at the Beast, and though literary involvement wilh Architeuthis. A further along the so how the un- more than a little worried about its im- few years later (1957) the short story water's edge and described have passed this pact. Jaws was largely responsible for "Big Game Hunt" (reprinted in Tales lucky schooner must the appalling carnage wreaked upon From the White Hart) was a tongue-in- the shark population during the last cou- cheek account of an attempt to capture ple of decades, which now has marine a giant squid— a project which had conservationists seriously alarmed. In most deplorable consequences (or all ^Whatever happens, P. Benchely is probably the worst concerned. fact, thing that's happened to sharks since In the novel The Deep Range (1957) please asteroid polished off the dinosaurs seriously, describ- that I took this idea more this they remember — around 65,000,000 B.C. and boiled the ing a scheme for immobilizing a giant are beautiful, Gulf of Mexico. . . . squid and bringing it safely back lo the he not trigger I sincerely hope does surface for for observation, using chem- wonderful creatures. another ocean pogrom, aimed at the gi- ical anesthesia and electrified fences. Try to ant squid. If he does, it will serve him It might even work; I'd like to see some damn well right if he catches one the millionaire try it out. come to terms with them next time he's out fishing. My favorite treatment of the subject, can. if you This century has seen a complete however, occurs in the story already transformation in our attitude toward oth- mentioned, 'The Shining Ones." This er animals, including many once con- tale may one day have some practical sidered implacably hostile. This is par- repercussions, because it pointed the to her Close En- ticularly true of marine mammals: wit- that Sri Lanka's magnificent east coas: very spot on way Fatal Kind. ness oceanahum trainers putting their harbor of Trincomalee would be ar counter of the squid that sank the Pearl- heads in the jaws of killer whales— ai site for an Ocean Thermal Energy Con- The giant once regarded as the most ferocious of version (OTEC) plant, using the temper- after her master's completely unprovoked on the all marine mammals. And there's a lo- ature difference between the surface rifle fire, let it be noted—was lying specimen de- cal guide (not with my company) who and the freezing abyssal waters as a surface exactly like the of Dick: feeds sharks by presenting fish to source of power. Efforts are now under scribed in Chapter 59 Moby a great white mass them— in his mouth. The last time I saw way to put this idea into practice. In the distance, rose, rising higher and high- him, he did have a few scars. . . In "The Shining Ones," an OTEC pro- lazily and az- Such underwater antics suggest an ject was frustrated by a species of er, and disentangling itself from the our prow interesting possibility. The giant squid giant squid that, alas, probably does ure, at last gleamed before highly intelligent an- variety like a snow-slide, new slid from the is almost certainly a not exist. I assume there was a glistening for a moment, as imal: given the opportunity, it might be that— like their smaller cousins the cuttle- hills. Thus its cousin that charming it subsided, and sank. Then as playful as — fish — could communicate by rapidly slowly mollusk, the common octopus. changing luminescent patterns, so once more arose. . . all Who will be the first diver to win they were, in effect, living TV screens. Almost forgetting for the moment Dick, gazed Architeuthis's friendship, and snuggle The last words of my hero, before he thoughts of Moby we now down comfortably in that "nest of descends on his final dive to repair the at the most wondrous phonomenon hitherto re- anacondas"? damaged installation in the Trinco can- which the secret seas have No, I'm not volunteering. As "Myste- yon are: "Whatever happens, please re- vealed to makind. A vast pulpy mass, breadth, of a ious World" showed, my dive gear is a member this—they are beautiful, wonder- furlongs in length and lay floating on tasteful shade of yellow. ful creatures Try to come to terms with glancing cream-colour, the water, innumerable long arms ra- P.S. them if you can." Hated Jaws 2 because it had such So much for fiction; now for fact. diating from its centre, and curling and those horrible television se- twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if a tragic ending. All When I was making my at hapless object brats survived, while the beautiful ries, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious blindly to clutch any into fried fish. to feature the_ within reach. shark got turned World, I was" determined a

We've made it a practice the with friends and family rr last couple of years to take an INTERACTIVE bers as well as solo. If you occasional look at the evolv- buy a computer, consider add- ing nature of interactive elec- RESOLUTIONS ing a" modem to put you in tronic entertainment: video touch with players all over the and computer games. In the BY KEITH FERRELL globe. Play throughout hu- interactive entertainment in- man history has been a dustry, better perhaps than er systems available, it's easy a computer, buy the most ful- means of getting people to- anywhere else, we get a to make a misstep, Shop ly functional and multiply use- gether. The same can be clear glimpse of the power of around; play different sys- ful one you can afford, true of electronic play, silicon technology to reach al- tems in stores or in friends' you're going to use the sys- Fortunately, despite — or most everyone. Games exert homes, check out the soft- tem for entertainment, you'l perhaps because of— an all but universal appeal. ware racks. want graphics and sound. poor economy, interactive As a result, the interactive vid- 2) If buying a system for Get plenty of memory and stor- technology prices are drop- eo revolution has achieved children, look at its durability age capacity. Buy an expand- ping precipitously, even as success of all but overwhelm- as well as the range of soft- able computer. the power of the technology ing proportions. Even as ware available for ages and 5) Be alert and open to climbs higher. A couple of some pundits and analysts tastes. Video games can be new technologies; 1991 saw hundred dollars buys a state- suggest a softening of the frustrating as well as engag- multimedia technology begin of-the-art video game con- market, they're looking at a ing; shop for engagement. to come of age, offering en- sole. Two thousand dollars or thriving, multibiNion-dollar 3) Consider a computer as hanced motion and sound as less can net you a computer endeavor. well as a video game con- well as increased capacity system that would have cost On the following pages sci- sole. The two are not mutual- via CD-ROM and other pub- five times as much just a cou- ence-fiction writer and OM- ly exclusive. Don't rule out a lishing technologies. It costs ple of years ago. Half that Nl's Electronic Universe col- computer for children. Re- more, but you get more. gets you a perfectly service- umnist Gregg Keizer lets his cent months have seen the 6) Don't play in a void, able computer that can han- imagination roam through the introduction of hardware pe- This is the most subjective of dle all but the most sophisti- decades ahead, speculating ripherals and software prod- the recommendations but cated entertainment software. about the interactive futures ucts developed specifically one worth considering. Inter- Technology evolves. Be that today's successes for younger users. Addition- active doesn't mean simply prepared for that. The system might build. There are excit- al value accrues as the interacting with the video you play on today and the ing worlds waiting for us. computer grows with or computer; kgame games you play on it may we'll Here take a moment the child. get a system that look like antiques in just a few to offer some New Year's res- 4) If you buy will let you play years. olutions— suggestions, real- And when that t ly—that might help guide you comes, when new systems through the interactive enter- come online, you'll see yet an- tainment marketplace; other leap in the power of ir 1) Let your taste in soft- teractive entertainment soft- ware guide your hardware pur- ware to delight and divert, if chases. This sounds simple, form and entertain, to provide but considering the number play that's not quite like any- of different video and comput- thing that preceded it. II? Simple. Dial up Real-time access to mil- World War mer statesmen will be the bill. That's Pay your phone friends and lions of opponents means TOGETHER a bunch of online rage. Imagine teeing up with of advice you ALL one piece of Me- that you can play what go up against a swarm you the real Nicklaus or Trevino at heart to should take to —and FW-190jnterceptors want, when you want, against NOW 109 and a computerized golf coursel of the decade— if the end flying simulation players of amazing abilities or in a fighting, All the while, the commu- you're playing games at quotes, over Germany. against people more your GEnie's Air Warrior, a simple come close. If stock nications companies will be home. rotisserie base- match. You can dispose of and cable television Why play raking in the charges. may air battle. Select computer news, At- Silicon entertainment that rely over your phone line by ball or fantasy football when games on the com- home entertainment, the mo- games offered one-on-one come where be a solitary sport at an electronic puter's intelligence— never the turn of the century, inter- you can cast you don't have to leave the ment—man against machine play over phone lines. Game- net and pull in enough play- more than a hollow enemy, specific networks even rose active entertainment will, too. couch to take on anyone, any- in an uneven contest—but as entertainment ers to field an entire electron- even near the end of the dec- to the challenge and drew Your home where, will depend in large phone lines link players in player sees ade and experience will sport a phone ic team? Each — the un- part on keeping across the players with promises of in- center the phone webs that stretch a first-person predictability and ingenuity jack at its back, while inside the field from lines open. conceivably across stant access to opponents country, perspective, plays the posi- of a living, breathing foe. For gaming and high-quality group the black box you'll find Don't let your kids tie up the globe, solitaire chance to be a hefty price, you may even chips to transmit and receive, tion, and has a the telephone. A busy signal will give way to endless, on- games. goat. Even if you get play against a real profes- available to- encode and decode, and hero or may cost you the '97 World going contests between part- But what's in right field, at sional; online tours by tech- compress and decompress stuck out Series, World War II, or a roving elec- day—from The Sierra Net- ners; teams, and a view no nically savvy baseball stars, the immense amount of data least you'll have million bucks. bands. Social interac- work's theme park-style tronic senior golf greats, and for- Falcon 3.0's that courses back and forth box seat offers. —Gregg Keizer be the result, but the construction to tion may at video table and Might simula- through the phone lines. You Or sit a i driving force behind phone head-to-head mm- best mm with the lift finger to dial— play poker The tele- won't a . tor—is but a digital taste test ^- •"* ' v*. -J new universe competit- \ will be human II|IM , play Las Vegas or Dead- pick from by the the game console will do it from communications, of interconnected What fun is there in beat- of what you'll ion. South Dakota. Relaxed nineties. for you. You won't even have wood, computer, ing bonehead computer? end of the interactive a laws in some Telecommunications gi- to look hard for someone to gambling and Interactive Online entertainment first fever- entertainment op- since your machine will states—fueled by lotto among the ants are getting ready to play, entertain- won a beachhead online by portunities. automatically compile a list even let you bet modem crowd with easy-to- move from information trans- ment revolutions Dial the credit card. Gambling hits a up and play card mitters to information provid- of opponents based on display board and even are rapidly someone, anyone, games, times, and skills you national motherlode that chess, backgam- ers. Fiber-optic cable may games like couldn't have coming together to anytime, your home by describe. Don Corleone any- and blackjack. Multi- not make it into mon, imagined. create a whole in the world. but it'll Want to crew a B-17 in player combat followed, like the end of the decade, LINKS So realistic, you'll think you're there a great time of year for a round of golf.

• Digitized graphics & s

ergolf $59.95 game. "— Golf World CHAMPIONSHIP COURSES

§J^\j\sC JjT SLC. UT 84116 handy, The Simpsons are in a bind, and it's up to you like sidewalk signs, trash bins, even cats, treacherous backyard, the haunted burial ground, to bail them out in two new blockbuster computer dogs and raccoons. Each level ends with an a wild nightmare starring Itchy and Scratchy and games from Konamif especially fiendish foe like a bionic Mr. Burns, or a more. Gain special powers by finding the three The Simpsons™ Arcade Game brings home all giant Krusty the Clown head. Pair up with a friend cool objects you need to enter the Radical Zone, the action and humor of the original, arcade hit. and double the Simpsons' chances of survival. Do home of the all-time coolest thing in existence. With Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa racing to reunite your part to bring America's most animated family Along the way grab radical weapons you'll need the family after Maggie's nabbed during ajewel back together again. like the Burp Gun, Water Balloon, Spray Paint Can heist. Pick your favorite family member and charge Bart's in trouble, man. The whole Simpsons and others. Your adventure's filled with notorious house is through all eight arcade levels and both hilarious weirded out. And it's up to you to help Simpsons ne'er-do-wells, including Ms. Botz the bonus stages. Krustyland, Springfield Discount him find the coolest item in the universe in his own baby sitter, the Space Mutants and Sideshow Bob. Cemetery, Moe's Tavern, it's all here. Including action/ adventure, Bart's House of Weirdness™ vibrant 3-D scenes, Bart's digitized voice, music Featuring Bart's digitized voice, music inspired by maintain youi ^J KONAMI inspired by the TV series, and original Simpsons the TV show and The Simpsons' veiy own warped Cool Factor by *^ animation. sense of humor. gobbling up donuts. Any false move will definitely Clobber hordes of bad dudes and bizarre enemies Become Bart and enter six weird worlds cost you coolness, but forge ahead, man, and help using each character's unique attack move, as attached to your room. Choose your paths and out everyone's favorite troubled youth. well as patented tandem attacks. Hurl whatever's journey through the Simpsons' spooky attic,

%ur contributbn can give ^_and provide help for hope to a desperate family-^ (/^ troubled youth. —

stand your ground in the Hor- Modern war is electronic war. net's Nest or fall back to Without computers, smart WAR save your division? weapons would be as dumb NO MORE If you want, you can as their (reefalling, nineteenth- watch the play unfold as the century predecessors. Ad- bumbling semble paper-based board computer makes all the de- vanced jets wouldn't fly, anti- puter replays the closely, with cisions. Multimedia helps missile missiles wouldn't moves of real generals. After games more counters representing battal- here with video, digitized stand a prayer of connecting all, no human player would ions and regiments. You'll speech, musical scores, and with their targets, and soldiers moronically duplicate Pick- play the most expensive war sound effects that enhance would be lost in the dust and ett's Charge or Custer's rush on displays that lie the experience. You'll be able storm of battle. War games, to the Little Bighorn. Current games flatonthetabletop. Based on to follow Xenophon's march kriegspiels to the Prussians computer war is either rough flat-screen LCD television across Asia Minor, complete who invented them, let mili- and sketchy or too complex technology, such electronic with scenes of the mountain tary minds practice their to master without West Point maps are touch sensitive; put passes he fought through, vid- craft without expending pre- training. In the former, the to the screen to pick eo clips of ruins of the peri- cious commodities of bullets computer screen does a a stylus piece, draw a line to or- od, and background informa- and bodies. poor job of replacing a paper up a its march, and tap the tion about the Persian Empire War games, not just weap- gameboard, while in the lat- der fingertips. Role-play- screen to tell it to attack. at your ons, went electronic as sol- ter, the PC feeds you so Brighter presentation may ing military games will arrive, diers demanded a more re- many decisions that you war games snap out of too, that let you see war from alistic mimicry of the fog need a staff to handle the make doldrums, but it will be the fictional perspective of a of war. Duplicating war load. The best military soft- the them out single combatant. Replay the on the home comput- ware of the nineties will their play that pulls history ghetto. Civil War from a Virginian's er may not get you a make better use of the com- of the military bury you under point of view, for instance, spot on the Joint puter. Rather than bog you Rather than real sol- details, your the minutia of command- with all the choices Chiefs of Staff, but it can down with game sys- How many tons of stores diers faced. Battle re-crea- let you face the challeng- computerized tions appear in rotoscoped an- will let you give must be brought forward es of conflict. Organiza- I tem to feed your army? to- imation; the confusion of bat- Bon, logistics, and strategy marching orders in plain — morrow's computerized tle is generated in your living play well on the computer English. offer elec- room. With such sophisticat- screen; re-creating Adjustable levels of in- war games will tronic aides-de-camp who ed wargames available, the history.. is simple terest will be built into all the scut work for lines between military training when the com- every war game so that it can handle muiiUmk entertainment be used equally well by kids you. You look at the big pic- and historical won't cit- studying history ture, whether that's tactical or will blur. We become generals and by fanatic bat- strategic. As Napoleon, do izen soldiers or the vicarious experience tle buffs. Games you invade Russia or swim but give some a better feel will feature high- the English Channel instead? may resolution maps As Yamamoto, do you strike for both the challenge and of war. The day may of the battlefield the Americans at the Coral chaos the only wars for a satellite's- Sea or head east into the In- come when from eye view. Some dian Ocean? As an infantry know are Ihose fought commander at Shiloh, do you plastic discs.—Gregg Keizer

With luck, a sophistication we'll put away and realism our warlike that's light-years tendencies, and removed from retire the tin soldiers, plastic real bombs and airplanes, tanks, but it's and toy generals. unlikely we'll ever outgrow our love el war games. And war games themselves are rapidly growing up, acquiring THE 1991 DEMO Powerpak A NEW SOFTWARE DEMO EXPERIENCE! PREVIEW-AND PLAY-OVER $200 WORTH OF THE LATEST GAMING SOFTWARE! The 1991 Demo Powerpak is ordinary no software sampler. It lets you experience each game playing it! by Play-not just watch- the opening levels of the hottest new software releases Get the feel of how each game plays, and decide which games you prefer before you Puy!

The 1991 Demo Powerpak includes playable previews of:

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE* DANGER ZONE-HEAD TO HEAD Enter the world of spies and intrigue AGAINST TOP GUN'S BEST* In this new adventure offering from A new flight simulation experience Konami Software. Create your from Konami. Learn Jet-fighter tactics own agenfs, set up wiretaps, and from three veteran war aces, thrill to don disguises, as you try to stop an multiple target views Including "missile plot underworld to topple the cam, "and fly missions solo or in government! simultaneous, two-player split screen I

MARTIAN MEMORANDUM WORDTRI5 FACES.. .THIS III Private eye Tex Murphy is in back a A new challenge from the TETRIS You'll meet some pretty strange hilarious new Interactive movie people at Spectrum HoloByte. The fast characters playing this addicting Soviet adventure from Access Software. For action, falling blocks now have mind-teaser from Spectrum Holobyte. the first time, players will able to letters on be them, which players try to Falling block pieces of famous and interact with full motion video charac- form Into words.' Time is of the not-so-famous faces must be stocked ters on a disk- based product, as they essence os you try to maneuver letter In the proper order (mouth to chin, help Tex face murder, romance, tiles to spell words, as they fall from eyes to nose) to form complete faces. deception, and prophecy from present the top of the screen into the well. If Remember there are no points for day-San Francisco to the year 2039. you like TETRIS, you'll love WORDTRIS. "douPle chins' in this game!

You'll also receive a complete, ready-to-run version of "Best PC Games" as a special bonus. This disk contains 9 challenging games! There are also diskount coupons enclosed with each 1991 Demo Powerpak to use toward the purchase of your favorite PC products. 640K required. VGA required for some demos, r ~1

YE5I Send the 1 90 me 1 Demo Powerpak, so I can experience the hottest new releases from the best commercial software housesl Send me the disk format checked below. Requires high density drive 5-1/4" D Disks(Setof4)-$9.95 3-1/2" Disks(Set of 4)-Sl 1.95

Address Moil your personal check or money order fo- City State Zip Special Demo Disk Offer D Check D Money Order MasterCard DViSA 324 W. Wendover Avenue, Suite 200, Greensboro, N.C. 27408 Signature Acct. #_ . Exp. Date_ car's position is transmitted to Life's a game. Literally. ITS OWNSELF: the other players once every Technology working its LIFE ten minutes. You may lose way through one of the coun- THE GAME your shadows for a while, but try's most influential comput- eventually they'll corner you er labs, Xerox's Palo Alto Re- an everyone over a square mile of down- and paint your car with search Center, may one day badges that beam that disables monitoring de- town, Whoever gathers the infrared be abls to turn our world into wears, and most, wins. Close in on a your engine once it washes playing field. vices that know where one immense ar- badge, your glasses tint red. across the detectors Researchers at Xerox everyone is, it's a snap to ranged on the trunk lid. it, The You're getting warmer. PARC envision a time when mark one wearer as More traditional electronic high and low, At the shopping mall, larg- of computers fill a others search hundreds entertainment benefits, too. aided by the computers. er arcades will include indoor room. Tiny computers affixed computer eyeglass arenas where computing Carry a slate-style Post-it note-sized badges Hints appear on to work, for in- somewhere on reigns. Take on the arena's on the train to keep track of your wherea- screens. It is mo- and computer, which fires low- stance, and its cellular forward calls to you no 44th between Hilyard bouts, connect you with powered lasers at its targets, dem could matter where you are, and Creswell Streets, it is travel- a next-century version of your favorite opponent. Wait- organize your work ing south on Park. in help you plane? No problem, could turn an Steal the Rag. The computer ing for a on a real desktop. You carry Or a game knows where you are by read- Just call up a game on your around larger computers entire city into a labyrinth. Cer- let the computer blocked off ing your badge but gives you slate and with pressure-sensitive tain streets seem by comoile a list of possible play- Berlin Wall-like barriers; a break early in the game screens for note-taking and with You glasses purposefully missing.The long- ers in the same airport. electronic communications. they're not, but the though, the could meet over coffee and if they are; er you play, Wall-sized screens act as dig- make it appear as play face to face while you to negotiate the more accurate its laser ital bulletin boards and group- you have try to await- your flights. maze to reach an exit before strikes become. You work slates. ev- crawl, and leap from one When computers are ubiquitous com- the others. run, This idea of games could even could turn end of the arena to the other erywhere, puting, with microprocessors Treasure hunts before the laser touches go commercial. Stores everywhere, has implications high tech, with badges at- knocks you might run instant contests to entertainment, tached to inanimate your badge and for electronic 40k Here's the out of the game. get customers. computers and lo- objects Wf scattered too. When on the inside of Out in the country, ubiq- shop, a map cation finders are every- the LCD glasses indicates. be uitous computing might take where, games can from here a different turn. Imag- Here you are. Get played almost anywhere. ine a highway to there in half an hour and Add other 4£fo high-tech ;hase game you win a discount. accessor- UPries— LCD where Ubiquitous computing glasses that project words, im- takes entertainment out on ages, and symbols right in the streets, or, at the least, front of your eyes, for in- out of the family room. You'll stance and you ^fchave — be able to play anytime, workings of twen- the ^^ anywhere. ty-first-century entertainment. How will we find time to Take hide-and-seek, for ex- work? —Gregg Keizer ample. With computerized As computer technology spreads invisibly throughout our world, we'll have more and more chances to make games out of real world places, events, and experiences. The world will be our playground, and each of us will be able to play a part on the global gaming stage. IRJTERV/IEUU PACKARD NORMAN .

Having predicted order in many wild and irregular systems, a Prince of Chaos now takes on evolution and the stock market PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL DISMATSEK

The Chaos Cabal started in the late sev- of the Chaos Cabal rose meteorically in the enties as a rogue band of physics grad- physics community. uate students at the University of Califor- The son of a high school mathematics nia at Santa Cruz. As a founding member, teacher, Packard grew up in Silver City, Norman Packard was an early instigator New Mexico, along with fellow Cabalist, of a scientific revolution. Using comput- Farmer, whom he met in Explorer Scouts. ers salvaged from the physics department After attending Reed College and Univer- basement or cobbled together from sity of California at Santa Cruz, Packard scratch, Packard and his colleagues went on to a NATO fellowship in Paris and Robert Shaw, Doyne Farmer and James several years in Princeton at the Institute Crutchfield, shocked the scientific com- for Advanced Study. Now at the Univer- munity by discovering that many aspects sity of Illinois' Center for Complex Sys- of nature are intrinsically unpredictable. tems, he is also a consultant to organiza- Even simple deterministic systems that tions ranging from the Santa Fe Institute seem to have precise rules for going to the Italian government. Married to his from one moment in time to another, if pro- former Italian tutor, Packard spends jected far into the future, enough devel- much of his time in Milan and Turin. It was op loops, folds, spirals— all telltale signs in Milan where Thomas Bass, who first of order giving way to chaos. chronicled the adventures of Packard and in the process of throwing predictabil- crew in The Eudaemonic Pie met Pack- ity out the window, the Dynamical Systems ard for this interview. Collective, as the Cabal was formally Today Packard, 37, is embarked on sev- called, took delight in finding chaos al- eral major projects that are outgrowths of most everywhere it looked—in heart at- his work on chaos. One involves the study tacks, epileptic seizures, stock market of evolving systems— things like snow- crashes, weather patterns, and even drip- flakes and the stock market; another at- ping faucets. Instead of being straight- tempts to model evolution itself. And Pack- jacketed into solvable linear equations, ard and friends are also starting a sort of reality was now allowed to run wild in the investment firm to ride the chaos of the nonlinear, dynamic patterns it actually financial markets themselves. Allied in all prefers to take. these ventures as both tool and subject Mother to this invention was the com- of his mathematical art are computers, puter. It alone has the patience to project thinking machines that Packard expects simple systems far enough into the future quite soon will start evolving on their own. where chaos begins to wobble their tra- jectories. And no one is more agile than Omni: You were involved in the Eudae- Packard and friends at delineating cha- monic Pie experiment for so long. Why did os through feats of silicon wizardry. you stay with it? But even before the Cabal came the Packard: A certain amount of it was this Eudaemonic Pie, collective a now-fabled conviction that it was possible, [to beat of young physicists including Packard and the casinos] and feeling the necessity to Farmer who built toe-operated micro- realize this conviction. That was perhaps computers to beat the odds at roulette the root of the obsession, proving to our- in Las Vegas. Time after time, the Eu- selves as well as the world at large that daemons went back inside the casinos, it was a viable program. Our scientific in- risking life and limb from the pit bosses in dynamical systems and pre- to try out yet another configuration of diction, and so there was a kind of coin- their gambling hardware and programs. cidence, too, that fed the fires of obses- Knocking over conventional physics and sion —although it's not clear from that pro- making it pay at the casinos were Pack-^ ject whether we learned more about the ard's two early claims to fame. After science of dynamic systems, microcom- his dubious start in life as maverick puter design, programming assem- grad student and gambler, Pack- " bly language, or other things that ard as weil as the other members ' maybe aren't scientific knowledge. 9

with terms, you might think of my organisms Omni: Will you go back to the casinos? bacteria. I'm writing a paper a petri dish trying to find Packard: Absolutely not! Not to the ca- section on how evolutionary processes as bacteria in a are teleological. Teleology is the study sugar. When an organism has enough sinos of Las Vegas! But I am at this very it reproduce, and the genet- moment going to the casinos of Wall of things that seem to exhibit purpose- food, can of the organism will be Street and Chicago's futures market. ful behavior. ic makeup new fallen slightly different than that of the parent. Our interest in financial markets has flow- Teleological explanations have Omni: Have you seen any mutations in- ered into the starting of a company, The out of favor because the fundamental species? Prediction Company, cofounded by me laws of nature allow you to derive the to variant Species in the real biological with Doyne Farmer of roulette fame. consequences of various actions with- Packard: selective repro- We're teaming up again with Eudaemon out dealing with their purpose. But world are related to little creatures have no colleagues to apply complex data anal- many aspects of evolutionary process duction, My discrimination. They just repro- ysis to the financial markets. We hope cannot be derived from fundamental such that with each other. But groups of or- to start trading fairly large funds very laws, at least in the same way you duce characteristics do saon. We have a business manager can derive the trajectory of a missile. ganisms with similar and I'm now trying to find wheth- and corporate structure, so cosmetical- Omni: How is chaos theory linked emerge, er these groups are stable enough to ly it's quite different than our gambling to evolution? of is that be considered separate species. An forays in the early days of the Pie. Packard: One aspect chaos informa- advantage of a world within a comput- Omni: How will your analysis of the simple systems can generate it forces you to define con- stock market and the study of evolution- tion as the system evolves. You put in er is that species in the simplest pos- ary models come together? simple rules and starting conditions, cepts like and observe all this very sible context. Ideally, the thrust of this Packard: If the stock market or biolog- stand back, simply from work is to slash away at some of the de- ical species change statistical contexts, complicated stuff coming It tail of biology and discover the few el- the learning algorithm [program] doing the trajectory of the chaotic system. capture essential evolution- your data analysis has to know what ements that ary behavior. kinds of evolutionary changes are pos- Omni: Is your biosphere similar to sible. And it must respond to these Richard Dawkins' [author of The Self- changes. The two realms will meet 6My model when computers become sophisticated ish Gene]? Packard: In my biosphere, random ge- enough to recapitulate evolutionary biosphere has little netic changes alter my organisms' sur- changes. For example, in economic sys- one-celled vival strategies. I'm not reaching in tems, the algorithms assume everybody organisims moving there and twiddling knobs on the organ- out there is implementing some kind of isms as Dawkins does with his biomor- average behavior. But in fact, people around in a two- accepts or rejects mutations are gradually changing their minds, phs, He dimensional world. The on the basis of aesthetic appeal. My changing their strategies in evolution- aren't as photogenic as Dawkins', ary ways. Right now, the learning algo- only other thing bugs organisms in my biosphere live or have no of taking those but rithms way in this world is food. die based solely on whether a genetic changes into account. The two ap- change is functional in the environ- proaches will meet when people's grad- ment. If an organism gets enough ually changing attitudes and interac- food, it will persist. tions within the economy can be mod- the organisms are, in a eled using evolutionary models. feels almost like you're getting some- Omni: So learning during their evolution? Omni: You're saying that relationships thing from nothing. sense, Packard: Precisely! A population of or- within the marketplace and people in Evolution is even more complex evolving sys- ganisms, with each one shifting its sur- their economic life display behavior than chaos because an strategies during reproduction, resembling evolutionary processes. tem is constantly becoming increas- vival is implementing a learning algorithm. Packard: Right. In fact, people's chang- ingly complex. Since I begin with sim- or Lineages of organisms are learning to ing attitudes and behaviors are evolu- ple things, either in data analysis survive, but their learning is limited by tionary processes. evolutionary model building, I don't world self-con- Omni: How do you formulate models of have to be too smart to start the proc- the fact that their is evolve to tained. They are only adapting to their evolutionary processes? ess. Then I let the world environment, which is constantly being Packard: You begin by characterizing show me its complexity. to the presence of the the defining properties of evolutionary Omni: What did your first models of the changed due other organisms. It's very hard to tell process. One is an increase in complex- evolutionary process look like? Perelson, just what goal the organisms are learn- ity; another is an increase in informa- Packard: Doyne Farmer, Alan ing to achieve. .tion processing capability. Still another Stuart Kauffman, and I began by con- for the Omni: What applications might such is the constant ability of the biosphere structing stripped-down models learning systems have? to generate new possibilities, which origin of life, the immune system, the evolving Packard: They'll help us understand cre- then come to have a function or pur- economy, and the biosphere— all of evolutionary ative processes. The principles under- pose in the biosphere— that is, the liv- which are undergoing lying evolving learning systems could ing, interacting organisms in the change. My model biosphere has little thinking machines, earth's complex web. one-celled organisms moving around in be used to make oth- Instead of merely organizing knowl- Another problem is figuring out if a two-dimensional world. The only algorithms the com- evolutionary change has a sense of er thing in this world is food, a source edge, learning ask puter to exploratory tasks and direction. Some people call this direc- of energy. Basically, the organism's perform discover things it wasn't explicitly pro- tion "progress," but this is a loaded genes encode a strategy for moving to- food. I'm trying to get my bugs to grammed to do. Learning algorithms, word, and I'm not sure I want to say ward biospheres, other genetic that humans" represent progress over^ learn this task as they evolve. In real model and 86 OMNI "Jeez! Musta been one hell of a party!" 9

ducing the chaos is a strange attrac- methods allow for the introduction of cre- tories starting out from nearly the very tor. A system starts out in some state ative elements into computer programs. same states will ultimately end up small in- then relaxes onto an attractor. If The creative potential of thinking ma- far away 'from each other, Very and differences are expanded by the you kick it a little bit, it gets jostled away chines is what intrigues me. itial has been from the attractor and then relaxes When the smart analysis algorithms way the system evolves. This called the butterfly effect, or "sensitive back down onto this object that lives in can perform as well as. I envision, they space? should become an integral part of the dependence on initial conditions." Say state brook. If Omni: State space?!? United Nations and the policy-making a leaf runs down a babbling brook Packard: A strange attractor is an ob- decisions of every major government. you drop another leaf in the pre- is dropped the first, it ject in state space just as an ashtray Ideally, they will make it much easier to cisely where you thing for a little an object in space. Except in a state find social, economic, policy paths to might do the same like x, will something com- space the coordinates are not y, stable, productive situations that now while. But soon it do reason is because zcoordinates. They depend on context. seem to be eluding us all over the pletely different. One the at The state space of an economic sys- world. Debt-ridden national economies you didn't put the leaf in brook first. And tem is the value of all the stocks, the struggling to attain some kind of equi- exactly the same place as the magnified money supply, foreign exchange rates librium by making radical economic the slight difference becomes the exchange rates of the dol- changes provide a classic example of into a completely different behavior. (such as in lar and Deutsche mark), the price of hard decision-making involving many, Omni: What examples of chaos exist treasury bonds, Standard and Poor's in- many factors. our everyday world? is Rob dex, and so on. These are the state John Reed, president of Citicorp, fund- Packard: A dripping faucet Cruz] classic exam- space variables and its coordinates. ed the Santa Fe Institute in part to har- Shaw's [UC Santa system. Water running Just as you can describe the geomet- ness the skills of several branches of ple of a chaotic periodi- rical properties of this ashtray, so can science to combat these large-scale so- slowly out of a faucet will drip you describe the geometrical properties cial issues and to search for nontrau- of a strange attractor in state space. matic paths to equilibria. He assembled Omni: Is a strange attractor a force economists, natural and computer sci- like gravity? entists to synthesize new perspectives 6When the Packard: A strange attractor is not a on large-scale global problems. A ma- kind of force—it doesn't have the same jor thrust is the development of evolu- smart analysis algorithms physical reality as gravity. The state- tionary models and learning algorithms. perform can picture for a dripping faucet Omni: How do you define chaos? space certain kind of structure. as well as I envision, shows you a Packard: Chaos is a particular kind of The state space data for the stock mar- random motion, one that combines they should ket may show the same kind of struc- both randomness and structure. The sys- become an integral ture. These structures can be identified tem starts somewhere in space and as manifestations of a particular kind of goes along until it falls onto an attrac- part of strange attractor. The meaning of the tor. With the simplest kind of attractor, Nations. the United variables for each of these state spac- a fixed point, the system goes toward es is different, but the attractor is the a single state and stays there. You see same. The science of chaos tries to fig- this with a marble in a bowl; it rattles ure out which kinds of attractors are com- around until it reaches the bottom of the will smooth- monly found everywhere. bowl. With a periodic attractor, the sys- cally. Water running fast flow the in between is a re- One outstanding question in tem cycles through a sequence of ly. But somewhere water drips erratically. field is how to classify these peculiar states, like a metronome's arm moving gime where the which sometimes resemble lop- If represent it the right way, this er- shapes, left to right and back again in a regular you are all the pos- ratic dripping displays not only random- sided butterflies. What cycle. If you perturb it briefly, it tends very definite struc- sible shapes, and which ones are com- to return to its set cycle. ness, but also the monly found in nature? We don't have Now, the intrinsic randomness of the ture of a strange attractor, of the answers yet, but some people are chaotic system limits predictability. But A strange attractor is the envelope fun- very skilled at writing equations of mo- the structure of the attractor implies all possible behaviors of a system. A description of water dripping tion that produce strange attractors. that you can predict part of the time damental infinite Omni: [Santa Cruz mathematician] what the system will do. Chaos repre- from a faucet requires an Ralph Abraham wrote, "Many people be- sents an indeterminate level of predict- amount of information to completely state of falling drop's sur- lieve that the connection between cha- ability between, say, the motion of the specify the the complexity in the otic attractors of theory and those of ex- planets, which is derivable, and some- face. Yet with all that periments is fictitious." thing completely random, like particles water drop, the behavior system itself collapsed into a simple Packard: That statement is out of date in Brownian motion. Chaos represents sys- can become by now. Ten years ago people were un- tems that are random in the long run but structure that needs only a few varia- Other kinds of random- certain whether the strange attractors have just enough structure so that in the bles to describe. being illustrated by computers had any short run you can figure out what they're ness don't have this "collapse" into a of is pro- relevance to physical systems like drip- going to do. The name of the game for my simple form. A lot randomness compli- ping faucets. By now we have strong data analysis techniques and learning duced by something much more evidence connecting these random phe- I call that chaos. algorithms is to probe that limit. How tar cated. And wouldn't involve nomena in the real world to the ab- into the future can you predict? Omni: Does chaos always a models we study. Omni: How do you recognize chaos? strange attractor? stract, simple sense, is Omni: Are there strange attractors all Packard: Random behavior in a system Packard: Chaos, in the strict from some sim- around that we're not trained to see? that is mainly deterministic leads to a randomness produced Packard: Right. In a decade 1 predict particular property of chaos. Two trajec- ple form, and the geometrical form pro- 88 OMNI 9 —

there wilt be children's computer pro- felt our research would have broad ram- search out ways of thinking and solv- grams for strange attractors. ifications in many fields, and this has ing problems they were not explicitly pro- Omni: Would chaos and strange attrac- turned out to be the case. In fact, the grammed to do beforehand. tors ever have been discovered with- research has forced us away from spe- Omni: Some people are terrified by the out computers? cialization. (Many of Rob Shaw's spe- prospect of creative machines, but you Packard: Experiments that once in- cial effects for the movie Split, were pro- seem quite pleased by it. volved flasks and electric wires are now duced by chaotic systems.) Packard: I expect computers will start done in the laboratory of the comput- You've Omni: said one task of chaos the- participating in our evolutionary reality. er. The computer provides such a cru- ory is to introduce the analysis of crea- There is a human tendency to be wor- cial jump in the way we do science be- tivity into the scientific endeavor. ried about the survival of ourselves and cause it allows us to move into realm Packard: a Science has generally not con- our species. But in an evolutionary where not all equations have solutions. cerned itself with creative processes be- time scale, these things come and go. Nonlinear systems can display their cause they involve phenomena inher- I can't really get too depressed about feathers, and all of a sudden we see ently underivable from fundamental law. the prospect of humanity not being they have a whole bunch of plumage Many scientists assume science will around forever. Evolutionary, you that linear systems didn't have. The sci- eventually tackle the entire range of nat- would expect something else to come ence of chaos is a process of discov- ural phenomena, including creative proc- along eventually, and It will be interest- ery, and in the process, these new esses. Today we have the hydrogen at- ing to see what does. The advent of kinds of behavior display themselves. om and a few simple molecules; tomor- these new participants in the evolution- The trick is to figure out ways to view row we'll be able to derive properties ary process might well give us a them in their full intricacy. of complex molecules, then cells, then chance to see what interesting things Omni: What was the importance of the eventually organisms and brains. But will arrive next. That's exciting rather Chaos in Cabal the early history of cha- this assumption is absolutely false. than depressing. os theory? Omni: If they're capable of creativity, Packard: Our biggest contribution to the could computers replace their masters? field was to push the idea of looking at Packard: If you feel threatened, you can real data and asking whether it came always pull the plug. Computers can par- from a strange attractor or some other iWe're still ticipate in our evolutionary process in kind of random motion. We developed carrying on the idealistic many ways without being antagonistic. some of the first steps for answering vision The fact that new elements come into these questions characterizing of the and the biosphere doesn't mean everything strange attractors. The development of Chaos Cabal's early else has to die. And even if some ele- learning algorithms to press predictabil- research into ments die, is it really a shame we no ity as far as it can be pressed is an out- longer have dinosaurs? Maybe if we die growth of those first physics, statistics, steps. This is one out then some other even more beau- of the most important parts of chaos the- biology tiful species will be created in the fu- ory today. ture. I have a certain aesthetic attach- economics, and art. Omni: As scientific revolutions go, cha- ment to evolution itself, and if one of our os seems to have been accepted rap- creations stopped this evolutionary proc- idly and with little opposition by the sci- ess, I'd find that offensive. But it's entific community. more likely to happen with atom Packard: You're right. But there is still There are certain points beyond which bombs than computers. DO uncertainty in the field about what cha- you can't derive what is going to hap- os theory is going to produce, what its pen at the next level of complexity. Cre- CREDITS -applications will be. Chaos is a ubiqui- ative aspects of evolutionary process- Cuver, left; i=rErd>; : orov'BtoCi-.srriii^Scence P'pj'o UBreryiPhoto Researcher?; tous canter left: Tad JanocirsW aspect of reality, and it's import- es are an example of how these deriva- '-.I ami*!-: ?'>:", ': esn- !- ter riglii: P,1,y Rueil; right: l.yr.r M Stu":e/— aoe ant to understand its mechanisms, but bilfty gaps can occur. Bank: background: Pete Turner page 6: Douglas it's not clear that this will allow us to From the Greeks to the present Kirkland; page 8 lop: Berq -.gr '::..,; .-.-. ™w R bottom: Shel Secunda; page 12: Sovephoto; page 14: build better I .-:- a mousetrap. wouldn't sug- because science got tied up in deriv- Mel Ddem: page 16 11:1. gest spending billions $oarchers;paQe16certs;:;. : i,v..-,.^-. -i-.ij,- on strange attrac- ing things from :::' I fundamental the i ir,v.:,; ?„:,:: law— M h , Ms page 18: Steve tors and :i'.s: :''. .:;,. :. ;:},;e 2$ •::.. ' :• ;.;-"; chaos theory as it initially idea of change as having its own reali- Image Bank; page 26: GoltTiied Helnweln; pane 28: emerged, but I might well suggest ty got left by the wayside. There was age 32 top: Cathryn Bongiorno; page 32 bottom: spending billions trying to understand an intellection bifurcation, -• and the cre- :->..-.-v.. page j; :r,i, :.;>. „.5 q.. ;s evolutionary bottom: Pol-frOIAiPeter Arnold, processes. page 35 top: I arry ative aspects of the world became reli- Gordon, page 36 bottom: Pol-W-SD/Pcter Arnold- Omni: You used to aspire to be a Ren- gious questions. This dichotomy broke page 36 top: NASAyPeter Arnold: page 38 bottom: I). S.I B-.nc.p.'iO'.o Inc.; page 40 top: Brett Froome'i aissance man. . . . down wjth the advent of Darwinian ev- The Image Sank; page 40 bottom: (-red 5s..'t-idamj

-teicr Ar.io'd 1,?-, Packard: I still play ic; page 44 lop: Ad- l.ljs.y.Ti l: im- the piano, play Go, olution. But science is still having a age Bank; mS/page 44 bottom: Mark Tomally/Master and sing choral music, if even | am hard time formulating theories about ev- 45 bottom left; Jed Spell man/S:ock Photo; page forced to pay the price of mediocrity in 45 bot- olutionary experiments because it return for diversity. I've managed to main- takes so damn long and the systems John Sanford/Scierice Pholo Library; page 46 middle left: «r=r V R- r:t/ThB Image Sank: page 46 middle tain a certain breadth in my intellectual are so complex. But computers are now nghL Kellh Kent/Science Photo Library/Photo Research- ers; page 46 bottom: h ., A-ioers.ti:.:: l.-.tao Ba-i, endeavors, and, in fact, all of us in the giving science a new tool for address- page 49 lop: Dag Sunderc/The Image Sank: page 49 Santa Cruz center: '; !:uie/ir, ti i™ c tlank; group have been extreme- ing these creative phenomena. sl page 49 bottom nghr: MarkTomalty/The Image Bank; page 49 Bottom ly lucky in this regard. We're still carry- Computers will become creative ma- left: Rick I r &:l -'nn/Black- Star; pages 70-71: Painting by Else Bosllmann ing on the idealistic vision of the c National Geographic Society; pag- Cha- chines in much the same way you're '"' '5- a : : : I, os f-srke-.'So sires Cabal's early research into physics, creative machine or that the biosphere Photo UbraiyytVioto Researchers; page 104 middle: Dennis Kunkel/CNfil/Phototake computational theory, biology, : :;.„- statistics, is a creative machine. Computers will NYC: page 104 bottom; : economics, and art. At the time, we become creative by being able to branch on the farthest tree, and CARL'S LAWN clipped the black one to a steel rod driv- No en into the ground-colloid. Then I got ::;ON:iNI.'ED =H0:.' =AuLt* back in the truck. pulled up on his "ground"— a ,09-acre ecotrap colloid The grounds dean just as Carl hit the reservoir saturated with a high-elec- three-wheeler ifs, switch. few students hurrying to trolyte forced-drip solution of Arborpryz- A stopped and looked around, be- inamine Plus, the most effective (and class as the current ripped expensive) IV arbo-stabilizer ever devel- wildered, the pavement under them. ands, oped. The ground colloid was so firm through see the Carl hit it twice more. I could that the trees stood without cables, ful- topmost twigs of the trees flutter, but ly 44 feet tall. They were grand. The no feeling there, and hardly Grove was seven oaks in all, only two there was far below where the taproots were or less than the state forest in Windham. any si- in on themselves in dark and Princeton was the only private institution curled lent misery. in New Jersey that could afford so many "That oughta wake 'em upl" the organic trees. butts. called out cheerily. But something was wrong. There grounds dean Carl ignored him. He was in the wasn't a leaf on any of them. at the base of one of "Code Seven. Gail," said Carl with an grove, kneeling the oaks, and he motioned for me to undertone of panic in his voice. I come over. "Volunteer," he whispered, limped up the hill as fast as I could brushing four tiny blades of fescue Pro-Tec bicycles make and checked the vats under the Human- seen that full with his fingertips. "I haven't ities building, but they were almost it fingertips, years." I felt with my work your butt I left in 'i easy to and the solution was correct, so delicate green filigree, them. Trees aren't like grass; there an incredibly hard. Plus trim your hips eagerly and shamelessly alive. It was was no point in cranking up the IV nutrients that should pressure. feeding on the upright pump and thighs. Unlike an have gone to the tree roots, which had Carl was honking the horn, so I got look for somehow lost their will to live. back in the truck and we left to bike, Pro-Tec's recumbent tech- Gail," Carl "I'm sorry I yelled at you, the Dean of Grounds. He wasn't in his said, brushing his knees off as we nology concentrates your effort on office. We found him at Knowledge stood up; awkwardly, he leaned over Hall, watching an outfit from Bucks Coun- dramatically and brushed mine off, too. "I don't these areas and ty do a scan-in on the north wall ivy. The hear know what's getting into me." And it wasn't quite dead yet; I could ivy he had increases your caloric usage. was true: it was the first time its brown moaning as the software faint refuge I had sought scanned and replicated each dying yelled at me since you the look you want in his nursery sixty-six months before. Pro-Tec gets tendril, replacing it with a vivid green the grounds dean that we image. Then the old stuff was pulled Carl told I and with a great aerobic workout. check on the Oak Grove tomor- foster— down with a long wall rake and would both knew the getting headache. row, and we left. But we bagged. I was a watch the morning nevx while electroshock was too little, too late. On Plus you am "1 just came from the grove," Carl the nursery, Carl demanded. "How long have the oaks the way back to short, working out. A Pro-Tec workout is didn't talk about his beloved oaks at all. been bare like that? Why didn't you Instead, he talked about the volunteer. you need call me?" convenient, and effective—where when grass just grew, "1 figured they were automatic," "Remember Gail?" he said. "It was everywhere. You eliminate all excuses said the grounds dean. "Besides, no- it to be. Call now to or didn't have to feed it, or force it, body's blaming you." money it, or anything. Kids made that stand between you and a great shape. The image-ivy came complete with plant stop it! It cutting it, Hell, you couldn't butterflies, hovering tirelessly. about our limited lifetime warranty. grew on the roadsides, grew in the me- Ask "It's not a question of blame," said dians, grew up through the cracks in Carl. Exasperated with the grounds CALL NOW TO RECEIVE A FREE Trees, too. Trees grew dean, he put the pickup into gear. the sidewalk. and it turned he said. "Let's head wild. Leave a field alone VIDEO TAPE: (800) 453-5332, EXT. 415- "Jump in, Gail," we've got a into a forest in a few years. Life was in I think back to the grove. damn 22321 Gitberto, the air, like wild yeast; the whole e: Pro-Tec Sports. Code Eight -.here. It's time for the sourdough bread. Re- Thumper." world was like Dept.415, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, 926SS. member, Gail? Those were the good The Thumper is a gasoline-powered days." induction coil the size of the "alligator" old looked away, but not I nodded and we used to warm the greenhouse sprang unbid- back when the winters were cold. before tears of self-pity den to my eyes. How could I forget the While Carl cranked it up, 1 pulled the good old days? two cables attached to it out of the truck bed and started dragging them to- on Wednesday the Barbers ward the trees; they grew heavier as By noon called, so we swung by their they grew longer. hadn't on the way to lunch. The ominous "We haven't got all day!" Carl place there, but the cable to a low brown edge was still yelled. I clipped the red ProTecSports | HERE'S THE ANSWER TO ATTENTION COLD ROOMS DIRECT MARKETERS! (AND HOT ROOMS IN SUMMER) EOUALIZER 1 Pis* MAKE NEARLY REGISTER AIRFLOW 4 MILLION IMPRESSIONS BOOSTER EVERY MONTH!

INTRODUCING: aaHEBBSC All Jerrold, Oak, Hamlin, Zenith, Scientific Atlanta, THE OMNI Pioneer and all specialized cable equipment avail- able for shipment within 24 hours. EMPORIUM For fast service MC/VISA or C.O.D. telephone orders accepted. 60 Day OMNI now offers direct marketers a Guarantee (Quantity Discounts] 8 product showcase custom tailored to A.M. to 5 P.M. C.S.T. Monday their special advertising needs. through Friday, Reaching nearly 4 million readers, the 1 Send self-addressed stamped en- "OMNI EMPORIUM ' will consist of 1/6 velope (60c postage) for FREE page, black and white ads, 2 1/8" wide CATALOG by 4 5/8" deep.

Display rates: OU'LL QUICKLY PEE1 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION $3,000 per 1/6 page ad CALL 1-800-999-3267

Camera-ready artwork is requested. If necessary, OMNI will provide creative assistance to advertisers at an addi- tional asar

Deadline for the materials is the 1 st of the second month preceeding the issue date.

For further dstails write" OMNI EMPORIUM 1965 Broadway New York, N.Y. 10023

Glenn Smith at (212) 496-6100 ext. 1544 Fax (212) 580-3693 magazine of the future car LIVE! kept for the future. Store your issues in OMNI new Custom Bound Library Case The uncertainties in life no longer of black simulated leather. Ifs b need to be a mvsterv. Speak live wifh if, and it will keep 12 issues In m!r Psychic Tarot Card Headers as they deal condirion indefinitely, "he spine is embossed HEAR EVERY WHISPER the cards to reveal your future. Tarot itith the gold OMNI logo, and In each case OVER 1 MILE Cards have beer: use-ii for centuries by AWAY! there is a gold transfer for Kings, Presidents and Business recording the date. Leaders io see ;he future and aki them in their day-to-day decision making. (13.95 each; 3 for $24.95; for 6 $45.95) Now (lie power of faroi Cards are iust a Simply attach the postpaid USA orders c-ik Foreign vt.« nferotow _ phone call away, 2-i hours a day, to any av battery and van can hear every orders odd SI .50 additional for sound in :

To: OMNI MAGAZINE .Jesse Jones industries £?9 E. Erie Aye 1-900420STAR VT-73 mlcrotransniltWr- chip with mlnlatuS Phiia.. PA 1913d miorophone 9V baltoiy connector and instruction- L CREDIT HOLDERS $49.95+ Jl.SO SSH ™ nave, buy 2 lor £45 CARD (orders over $15) lach with Irse FIND OUT S&H! Can toll Iree. MO, VISA, HC Ic CALL TOLL FREE l-SOO-972-5858 WHAT mmeolale shipping by U.S. Mall. COD's add $4. Or mail your order, clearly showing your THE FUTURE DECO BOX 607 account number one" signature. Pa. residents HOLDS FOR YOU. BEDFORD HILLS, INDUSmitS- NT 10507 add 6% sales tax. call 1-800-759-3533 z< hhs. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

grass toward the center of the lawn was while I tossed and turned, trying to worry, we're not going to take out a brighter green, almost feverish-look- these stately oaks until we absolutely ing in spots. "At least it's stfll alive," have to. They're like old friends to the Carl said, but a little uncertainly. I Thursday morning we approached the students, Carl. Do you know what they shrugged. I didn't feel good. university with a mounting sense of call the grove?" The Dean looked at "That girl doesn't look right to me," dread. I had known it all along; Carl me and winked; I guess said Lord Byron because he at lunch. I had to find knew it as soon as he pulled up beside thought I was chair young. "The students a I because couldn't balance on the trees and shut off the engine. I call it the Kissing Grove!" a counter stool. didn't even have lo get out of the truck "It's not a question of blame," Carl "She'll be all right," said Carl. Next to feel the silence through the soles said. I'd never seen him so depressed. to empathy, optimism is his best quali- of my feet. There life was no in fhe Oak I wasn't feeling so hot myself. ty. "And I'll have the usual." Grove. Carl's pride and joy was dead forever. "You should send this girl home, Carl," Carl spent the afternoon doing the The volunteer fescue was gone, too. Lord Byron said when we stopped for books while I dozed on a cot at the of- We got out to look, but it had dried up lunch. "How long has she worked for fice end of the greenhouse. "What I overnight and only brown blades were you? Gay, honey, lose have you ever taken in I plants make up in cybers," he left, withering in the network shadows a sick day?" said. "I'm the only nurseryman in the of the bare branches. Maybe the "She lives in the greenhouse," Carl state who still services organics— but Thumper had killed it; or maybe it had said. "She doesn't exactly work for me. you know that. Funny how it all balanc- just run out of life, like everything else And leave her es cap alone; nobody out, Gail. I First make money poison- seemed to be doing these days. wants to look at a bald ing or cutting head." the grass; then I make "Nobody's blaming you," said the more trying to keep it alive. When that grounds dean. He had come up behind We spent the afternoon goes, there's a fortune pulling IV fit- in greenlawn. us unnoticed and put his hand on tings. The Delaware Golf Club is one of Paint it every spring. Same with trees. Carl's shoulder. "To tell the truth, Carl, the fanciest clubs in the Garden State, First it was sales. Then it was mainte- we've been having funding problems. and the nance, fairways as well as the greens life supports. Now it's electrics. I'm not sure how long we could have had been organic not so many years Hell, I don't know what I'm complaining afforded to keep the ground feed go- ago. This year we had finally lost (he bat- about, Gail. I'm making more money ing anyway. What would you think of tle on the greens. Thursday than ever, was the yet somehow I feel like I'm going to videoleaf? Or we could even deadline for us to get our hardware out going out of business. ..." try silicyberbud branch implants, at so they could lay the He talked permaturf. on and on all afternoon, least for a season or two. But don't Carl drove the pickup straight up the WANTED: BALDING MEN FOR HAIR GROWTH STUDY ALL NATURAL PRODUCT!" "PARTICIPATE IN - FREE - HAIR GROWTH STUDY' AT HOME WITH ^iiiree' To insure eligibility, without any cost^obligatM Daniel Rogers International is seeking men with a -hair hair loss problem to participate in a -FREE -^ ^ _ flftft _ A_V%- _%_%Q*x^r,J growth study. The study will be conducted using "WWW «0M '-r "'>-• and follicle cvsimpiycompiete andm?" an all natural herbal based shampoo cleanser known as "Naturally Yours." It is a thinning completely safe and natural treatment for DANIEL ROGERS N7EPNAI.Or.AL of your own '-: Suite hair that is applied in the privacy .",f: -I ;:n ;ige Road #426 home and requires no medical supervision. The ER Stanfo'G. Conn. 06905 is being conducted in order to measure the study Name: . degree of effectiveness of "Naturally Yours" in stopping hair loss and regrowing hair. Daniel Address in this Rogers will select individuals to participate City: hair growth study - without any cost or obligation '- verification of in an effort to obtain independent Phone:_ effectiveness through testimonial letters and an.iiMim u4MmB pictures. hair or already have If you are beginning to lose Hairpieces bald spot, you are a good candidate. Simply M.-i'iv.i cn-i a Transplants to return the accompanying coupon n^i :x-d complete and Years of h. Medically pis your ;-;:un:er o: : ors be eligible for selection. Or, in order to insure c Ove- ini 7'- rcer: •/ eligibility, call us toll free. There is no cost or : obligation. Please, act now!

all darkened at once cruel blue. Route One was little paler. Then it ignoring the angry shouts and sky was fairways, closing, and there was si- Carl turned on the siren as like an eye of the golfers. The greens jammed and curses give out, so I the shoul- lence. I felt my knees angrily un- well as the light. He drove on looked like the moon. Carl truck. one wheel on the asphalt and leaned back against the screwed the nozzles and the fittings der, with not too late, is it, Carl?" asked other on the green-painted rocks. "It's and threw them into the back of the pick- the Whisper- Mr. Barber, coming to the end of the pipes under the By the time we got to up, but left the wife followed him, sniffling it already walk. His I could see was ground; they weren't worth the trouble ing Woods with fear, keeping her feet on the cen- take to get them out, at least too late. it would away from the dead The neighbors were standing around ter of the walk, person working alone. I was too for one The thin dying smell had giv- the edges of the Barbers' front yard, ground. dizzy to do much more than watch. en way to a foul, wet, loathsome, ugly mut- watching the grass turn yellow, then yel- "Every spring it gets worse," Carl if some great grave had low-green, then yellow again, flickering stench as tered as he bounced across the last fair- alcohol fire in sickening waves. way, through the ditch, and onto the like an faint crackling noise and road. "Are you okay? Do you There was a county asked. a thin dying smell. want me to pull over?" over," cereal!" said one of "Hey, mister, your boy is falling throw up but nothing would "Sounds like I tried to said one of the kids, tugging at Carl's the kids. come. "His hat came off," Carl knelt down and pulled up a sleeve. Carl. "And her smelted the roots; "She's not a boy," said barely up. My once- clump of grass and Friday I could get is Gaea." I'd never heard him get sniffed the air and looked over at me name dark skin looked pale reflected in the he time. "Code Ten," he it right before. Carl was as if for the first windows of the greenhouse. another voice. Hadn't we "What's that smell?" asked glass with the truck key. said in a curiously flat tapping on the sniffing not the lawn had to come? neighbor. She was already ten o'clock. both known this day It was but the wind, the long one, the one that "Code Nine, Gail!" he said. "I'm get- all the way around the world. "Look out!" one of the neighbors shout- blows ting the truck." Carl said to the Bar- back!" "Excuse me," the Barbers. "I couldn't un- ed. "Get It was He ran over and tried to pick me Carl The brown at the edges of the yard bers. derstand what she was saying," gone. I too far starting to darken and spread in- up but was said as he pulled out into the traffic. He was isn't it Carl?" said crackling grew louder as it "It is too late, the emergency flasher to ward. The gave me Carl, nodding, began still-green center; it Mr. Barber, and "But it closed on the plug in and set up on the dash. I so would I if could have pulled back once, then again, each to cry, and must be bad. Hell, she was screaming." grass a anymore. DO the. wave leaving the yellow-green It was a bright, hard spring day; .

promises to alter, fending virus later A person in a perhaps forever, the than those in poorer persistent vegetative worlds of entertain- families. That delayed state has reflex func- ment, education, sci- exposure may trig- 36 tions but is incapable ence, and industry. ger abnormal cell HEADY WEIGHT: of any thought, intel- proliferation. The average brain lect, memory, speech, weighs about three or awareness of self or pounds. Lord Byron environment. Cogni- 47 had one of the tive death: Some 50 COMPUTERrriMPIITFR VIRUS heaviest— 5 pounds, bioethicists, philoso- computer MOZART'S SKULL: ounces. physicians is a piece of 2.25 phers, and thought code that contains It's long been think the definition of instructions to do at that the body of the death should be things: Place great composer consensus is that it is least two expanded to include Amadeus computer a copy of itself in any Wolfgang 07 persistent vegetative the fastest Mozart was lost in a world. The other computer sys- DISPROPORTION: in the communal it contacts (for large The brain makes up 2 fastest computer 20 tem much, example, over a com- grave. His skull, how- to 3 percent of body years ago was puter network) and ever, was said to weight but uses 20 much slower than the reside in Salzberg's computer to- perform some task, percent of all oxygen. 42 fastest such as placing a Mozarteum. Is it true? END: Disruption of day, but both were message on Apparently yes, ac- the brain supercomputers. To- particular blood flow to of the screen. Specially cording to a group for eight to ten day, a supercom- designed programs, French researchers leads to puter performs aroi ind 38 seconds they have often called vaccines, who say PARTS: The limbic dysfunction; three to 100 million floating- neutral- positively identified the point operations per can find and system, evolutionary five minutes leads to anthroplo- ize viruses. skull. The older than the cere- permanent brain dam- second. gists, from the Univer- bral cortex, is essen- age; after five min- our books, our sity of Provence, behavioral and death. tial for utes, reconstructed the emotional expression. head in clay and hippocampus, an 45 The it matched LIFE con- found of the limbic ARTIFICIAL area historical as well as essential for sists of manmade system, is contemporary portraits pieces of computer 46 learning and memory LEUKEMIA AND THE of the composer. processing. code that behave recent study much like living RICH: A British Office fiND FINUIY . . things: They repro- from the duce, often producing of Population Census- shows 39 varied offspring; they es and Surveys contract debilitating that children from HEARTS AND are 51 wealthier families BRAINS: illnesses; they die. more likely to develop THE FUTURE IS: The brain uses 15 leukemia. The reason, ajbeyond our control percent of all cardiac researchers specu- (NOT!), b) where we'll output, three-quarters rest of our late, is that children in spend the quart of 46 1 of a quart to lives, c) what we make VIRTUAL REALITY: richer families may blood a minute, DEPRESSING A computer hardware/ to an of- of it. FIGURES: At any software technology persuades users time in the U.S., 12.6 that head of the research, of 40 percent of the popula- of the "reality" suspects that pater- environments. AT THE TOP: The tion suffer from a artificial nal cocaine abuse mental disorder. Over Using optical devices, 49 causes defects such brain is the enlarged the very fast processors, RIDE learning disabili- end of the spine. 25 percent of HITCHING A as sensors — population suffer a and and ON SPERM: It's ties and memory mental disorder In feedback devices at- known that drugs problems. to human their lifetime. tached- taken by pregnant 41 users, virtual reality women can damage TWO DEFINITIONS MFORMAHON allows practitioners to the fetus. Recent simula- AND A REVISION: INFORMATION move through research from the tions of real environ- Brain death: when no Temple University ments such as rooms part of the brain School of Medicine- and houses, to functions. Persistent suggests that co- achieve the illusion of vegetative state: Part 44 caine can hitch a Even flight, to visit historical enter. of the brain is HOW SUPER?: ride on sperm, antiquities or distant destroyed. The brain computer experts the egg, and dam- worlds— all artificially stem, the most primi- have a tough time age the developing supercom- created by computer. Yazigi, tive region, usually defining a embryo. A. infancy, VR remains mostly intact. puter. The general Still in its