<<

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 129 618 SE 021 481

TITLE Why Man Explores. INSTITUTION California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena. SPONS AGENCY National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Va. Langley Research Center. PUB DATE 2 Jul 76 NOTE 46p.; Symposium held at Beckman Auditorium, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, July 2, 1976; Photographs may not reproduce well

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$2.06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Conference Reports; Conferences; *Futures (of Society) ;*Research; Space; *Space Sciences; *Symposia IDENTIFIERS NASA; *National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ABSTRACT This document presents a transcript of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration panel discussion held on July 2, 1976, in conjunction with the Viking Mission to Mars. The panel consisted of Norman Cousins, Ray Bradbury, Jacques Cousteau, James Michener, and Philip Morrison, and the principal topic was a philosophical discussion of the question, "Why does man explore?" Also discussed are tha implications of finding life on Mars and man's future.(SI)

*********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. ***********************************************************************

U S OEPARTMENT OFHEALTH. EOUCATION &WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEENREPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RUCEIVED F ROM THE PERSON OP C;Nr.AN./ATIONORIGIN- ATING IT POIN '.f, :E A, OROPINIONS EcEssARILY REPRE STATED DO 1,c1 INSTITUTE OF SENT OFFICIAL r.ATIONAL EDUCATION POSITION ORPOLICY

rores otographed by Viking 1 fror leared its rendezvous with th(

3 Why Man Explores

Sponsored by NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER

Hampton, Virginia

A symposium held at Beckman Auditorium California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California

July 2, 1976

4 I1 N. I

Panel

Norman Cousins, Moderator

Ray Bradbury

Jacques Cousteau

James Michener

Philip Morrison

5

ii Foreword

This NASA EducationalPublication(EP125) was prepared from a transcript of a panel discussion held on July 2,1976, in conjunction with the Viking Missions to Mars.

The members ofthe "Why Man Explores"panelwere selectedas authoritiesinclassicaldisciplinesrelatingtoexploration.The panel discussions were notrehearsed, and the transcript was prepared from audiotapes made during the session. This reportis formulated inthe d i rect conversational style in orderto retainthe impromptu atmosphere andtobestconveythethoughtsdeveloped duringthe discussion.

Donald P. Hearth Director, Langley Research Center Introductory Remarks

DONALD P. HEARTH way,bytheway,becauseit is northwestoftheplannedlanding G ood evening. NASA's Langley site.Current plans are to land on R e sea rch Center is pleased to the17thof July at 3:00 inthe sponsorthissymposium. The morning, Pacific time. has embarked on a United States That's what exploration is really all step in man's trulyhistoric When one exploresthe ofoursolarsystem a b ou t. exploration u n known, one shouldlookfor withtwoVikingspacecraft. We surprises and be prepared to alter feelthatitisappropriate,at this one'scourse.But, why does man point in time,toexaminethe atall?Itisnot just the why manexplores explore basic reasons explorationofthesolarsystem has theurge to and why he that isthetopicofthis explore. Whenthisevent was symposium but of our own Earth scheduled, e recognizedthatit might not be possible to land the and indeed of the entire universe. We are here this evening to discuss firstViking on Mars on July 4th this question. becauseoftechnicalproblems or Martiansurprises.AfterViking I I willnow introducethepanel. wentintoorbitonthe19thof Starting on your leftis an author, June,thetechnical problems phil osopher,poet,Mr. Ray lessened and webegantolearn Bradbury.Next is an explorer, some marvelous things about Mars. oc ea nogra pher, environmentalist, LastSaturdaynight,theViking CaptainJacques Cousteau. Second ProjectManager made a prudent from theright is an explorer, decision to explore the planet from au tho r, p hilosopher,Mr. James orbit somewhat longer, and to look Michener.And,nexttoMr. fora harbor somewhat safer than M ichen'er is a physicist, a theoriginal site. Yesterday, he cosmologist, andindeed a f ound a safer harbor and the hu ma n ist, Dr.PhilipMorrison. landingwillbe intheso-called F inally,themoderatorforthis "Northwest Territory."That name evening, theeditorofSaturday wasselectedin a veryscientific Review, Mr. Norman Cousins.

iv 7 Panel Members' Presentations

1

8 He has been active in organizations working for since the e nd o fWorldWarII. He is NORMAN COUSINS President of the World Association Norman Cousins has been editor of of World Federalists and Honorary Saturday Review magazine, except PresidentofWorld Federalists, U.S.A. for2years,since 1942. He first came tothe magazinein 1940, 4 He hasreceived many awards for yearsout of Teachers Collegeat his work in journalism and for the ColumbiaUniversity. He was causeofpeace,includingthe previouslyeducationreporterfor personalmedallionofPope John the New York Evening Post and X XIII,presentedforhis literaryandthenmanaging editor participationinnegotiationswith o f CurrentHistory, amonthly R ussiaforthereleaseoftwo journalofworldaffairs.During Catholic leaders from Iron Curtain WorldWarII,hewas editorof prisons. U.S.A. magazine. He was awarded the Peace Medal Duringhiseditorshipof Saturday o f theUnitedNationsby Review,the magazine expanded its Secretary-GeneralU Thant. Heis readership from the original 20 000 therecipientof honorary degrees to a presentcirculationof inhumaneletters,literature,and 500 000. lawfrom31collegesand universities. Cousinshaswrittenandedited more than a dozen books on many Cousins and hiswifelivein New subjects, from biography to politics Canaan,Connecticut.Theyhave tophilosophy.Hislatest bookis fourgrowndaughtersandan CelebrationofLife(1974),a adopted daughter fromHiroshima, dialogueofimmortalityand who now has a son. Cousins has a infinity.Hehaslecturedon deepi n te restinp hotography, 'Americanhistorythroughoutthe pursues activesports, enjoys chess, world, often under the auspices of and, whe.1 no one is around, likes the U.S. State Department. to play the piano and organ.

2

9 NORMAN COUSINS conceivable, could be trusted when itdraws suchgrandconclusions. Thank you, Mr. Hearth. The answer, perhaps,is that in the Thequest ion,"whyexplore?" veryactofraisingthequestion, pertai ns less to theViking I Darwinprovedthehuman mind expedition in particular than to the capableofrisingabove the nature of the humanmind in limitationshe thought inherentin general.We areheretoconsider a supposedlyunflattering notjustthephenomenonof a evolutionaryhistory. Hisquestion journeytoMarsbutthe maybe reminiscentof a remark phenomenon of intelligence.The attributedtoGroucho Marx, who factthat we can conceive of the was invited to joina country club inconceivable, and comprehend the but declined, saying he didn't want i ncomprehensible, is perhaps the to belong to any country club that highest exerciseof the human would admit a man like himself. brain,symbolized sodramatically Ou r question tonight, therefore, by the exploration of Mars. i nvo I ves not ju st science but Itis a terrible thing,Tolstoisaid, philosophy,for our answer has to to watch a man who doesn't know come out of our view oflife, out whattodowiththe of our concept of history, out of incomprehensible,because generally ourunderstandingof human he winds upplayingwith a toy progress, and mostlyoutof named God.Pasteur sawnothing instinctiveawarenessthat we can pa rticularlyterrifyingor always dobetterthan we are unsatisfyingaboutthissituation, doingifweemancipateourselves sayingthatthe only thing to do from our fearsinorder to search in the face of the incomprehensible the horizon for new prospects. So is tokneelbeforeit.Butthat we look to our traditions and our whichis most incomprehensible of p h H osop h y as we expandthe allisnot a distant pliei but the human presence in the universe. human minditself;kneelino under Some historians seehistoryas an thesecircumstances may represent accumulation oferror.But history the u I timatevanity. Butthe is also the story of the defiance of attempt to comprehend the mind, the unknown and of what happens ratherthantoworshipit, isan when man triestoextend his exercisedevoutlyto be reach.Suchdefiance isnecessary consummated, if not wished. because conventionalwisdom has This is the direction inwhich never been good enough to run a Viking is taking us.Whereisit civilization.Notallproblemsare likelytolead?Darwin oldproblems;therefore, new contemplated his work and thought approaches and ncw truths have to and considered the possibility that be discovered. his theory oflife could only lead to the existence of a deity. But he Inorderto answer thequestion, drew back from this lineof "why explore?,"then,itbecomes thought by asking himself whether necessarytorefertothe the mind of man, which has been phenomenon of human progress. I developedfromthelowestmind have a theory that progress is what

3

1 0 is leftoverafteronemeetsan foot on the Moon but that he set impossible problem.The reasonit eye on the Earth. He was ablefor issafer to travelin a Boeing 747 thefirsttime to developa true than tositin your bathtub is that perspectiveonthatbeautifulwet adequate thought has been given to blueball, as ArchibaldMacLeish allthethingsthat can go wrong describedit,whichpossessedthe when you arein a 747, and not millionsuponm illionsof enoughthoughttowhat cango conditionsthatexistedinprecise wrong ina bathtub. When you are and exq u isitecombinationthat in a 747, the expertsrelieve you made life possible. oftheresponsibilityformaking And,fromthatstationinspace, correct decisions. Thisis something what was moststrikingofallto that does not happen inyour the human mind was that human bathtub. What I am tryingto beings themselves held the price of suggestisthatthemore difficult life so cheaply. and complex the undertaking,the Despite the gift of intelligence, the morelikelyit is thatknowledge will be gained that can be applied giftof m ob ility, the giftof perception,thegiftof morefruitfully fa: beyond the historical anticipation, human beings are undertakingitself. Viking I issuch an undertaking. preoccupied with undertakings that canmakelifeonEarth Seven years ago,almosttothis uninhabitable. Nothing we make on day, I wasin war-torn Biafra. We Earthisingreater abundance than werein a jeep. A planeloomed destructiveforce. We have amassed behind us out of the Sun and dove 30 000 pounds of destructive force downonthejeepin a strafing for every man, woman, and child run. We plunged into a ditch, face onEarth. We don'thave 30 000 downinthemud. I could pounds offood in reserve for contemplate that evenas we were everyhumanbeing onEarth,or pressing our faces into the muddy 30 000poundsof med icines, Earthinsafety from our brothers, books,or any of the things that men founditpossibletowalk en noble life.But we have an erect on the Moon. That evening, infinity of force to use against one the war suddenly came to ahalt, another.In the middle of aforest at least for a few hours. The word of bombs on Earth,itisdifficult had spread through Biafrathat to see the tree of life. human beings were setting foot on the M oonforthe firsttime. once said that Suddenly everyone had a new man can neverresist any folly of pe rspective. Itdidn't last long which the human mind is capable. enoughtocausethe war to end Itisquite possiblethat thefolly altogether, but for a few moments we have known on Earth has atleast we could contemplate the existedelsewhereintheuniverse. possibilities of human grandeur and Itisquite possible,however, that tomeditateonourstation in thereareanswers,betteranswers, infinity. Inthat sense,the most than we have been able to find to signif ic a nt achievement ofthat ourproblemsandourdelusions. lunar voyage was not that man set Ultimately, I thinkthequestion 1 1

4 thatmustignitethe human mind whoformanyyearshavebeen in connection with the Vikingtrip askingwhy,notjustaboutthe t o Mars has to clo with our universe, but about lifeitself. They lonelinessintheuniverse. We are h a ve asked thatquestion from transported by the notionthat different vantage points. I look at theremay be other humans out your right, extreme right,at Philip theretoo.Itisalmost unscientific M o rr i so n, theatomic physicist tothinkthatlifedoes notexist whom I first met, I think, in 1945 elsewherein theuniverse.Nature or'46,inthoseearly days after shuns one of a kind. Infinity the bomb was dropped when the converts that which is possible into atomic scientists were trying to get theinevitable.Thefactthatwe throughtotheAmericanpeople, areattemptingtofindout where tryingtotalkaboutthe andhow maybe theanswerto impl ications of whatthey had the question, "whyexplore the done. Eversincethen, Phil universe?" Morrison has been as much concernedwithphilosophy as he I t isalmost ironic that we shoulcl has been with science.It's difficult havetoaskthis question because fora man toliveclosetothose itisalmost as though we have to things that can fragment our planet apologize for our highest attributes, without ask ingwhyabout a I m ost as though we have to every t hi ng, including thewhys remind ourselves we are, by nature, aboutsome thingsmanyof us creatures of exploration. To have a have not even been able to define rendezvous withinfinitywill be oridentify. Phil Morrison,what the ultimate in human achievement. came toyourmindwhenyou Onourpaneltonightarepeople were invited to join this panel?

1 2

5 Morrisonwas borninSomerville, New Jersey,in1915. He received a bachelor of science degree from theCarnegieInstituteof Technolcgyin1936,anda PHILIP MORRISON doctorateintheoreticalphysics fromtheUniversityof California Dr.PhilipMorrison isInstitute at Berkeley in 1940. For 2 years, Professor and Professor of Physics he taught physics at San Francisco attheMassachusettsInstituteof State College and the University of Technology. Heisa distinguished theoreticalphysicistand Illinois. scholar-philosopher,whose Hewasassociatedwiththe ecu menic alintellectualinterests ManhattanProjectfrom 1943 to embrace the sweep of human and 1946.In1945,he rodeinthe scientifichistory, from the origins back seatof an automobilewith of the universe to the origins and theplutoniumcoreofthefirst definition of life. atomic bomb from Los Alamos to Professor Morrison has made many the New Mexico desert site of the professionalcontributionsto bomb's first test. theoreticalphysics,mostrecently He becameInstituteProfessorat inastrophysics.Heisa specialist MIT in 1973, a rank the Institute incosmology andthe author of reservesforitsmost outstanding detailedtheoliesaimedat scholars. explaining such celestial phenomena Morisonisthe author of several assupernovae, cosmic X-rays, and booksandofpopularscientific quasars. articlesinmanymagazines, He was one of thefirst scientists including participation in aspecial topredictthatknowledge series of "Courses by Newspaper," concerning the existence of life on sponsoredbytheNational other planets may not be beyond Endowment for the Humanities and our reac:-I . He is a frequent administered bytheUniversity of contributortoliteratureonthe CaliforniaatSanDiego.He discoveryoflife elsewhere inthe lectures extensively throughout the universe. world.

6

1 3 PHI LIP MORRISON inventory of physical goods is very small indeed. They ownnothing The question, "Why man explores," thatsitsstill.They carryallthat was put very literallyto us, and I they have, all that they make, in a foundinmyself an arrwer of the pouch of hide which they bear on most I old.fashionedkind, which theirshoulders.Theywander wouldhesitatetoproduce except forever throughlife,stopping now thatitis ,rely an essential piece here, now there, to sleep in a kind of I thestol y. characterize my ofnest,totrythetruitofthis answer thefollowing way:Ifyou tree,to scratch up that waterhole, ask,Why do humanbeings tomeetfor a ritualencounter explore? I would answer as I think withtheirwanderingfriends,and the Greeks would answer, "Because so on. These people, whose minds it is I ournature."Now am are full, thoughabsent writing, anxious not to make the mistake absent crowdsin facttheyare of thinking that the term "human fewlive in smallbandsof natu re" is explanatory,thatit extended families. Each band tends covers every activity of our species, to stay within a region about like the most diverse ethnographies, the thatofLosAngelesCounty,an artifactsthatgracethemuseums, area of a thousand square miles or and thepublicationsthatcrowd two, in quite desert country. From the newsstands of LosAngeles. their point of view they are by no "Human nature"is an impoverished means poor; they manage to make description ofallthatdiversity; an excellentliving, as the but thereis one featurefor me it time-and-motion study people have isperhkos the only featurewhich demonstrated to us, while working doesdefine humannature,wnich rather lesshard :thanthe Harvard partsour species (and a few anthropologists who watched them. vanished species ofourfamily Theirskill is so great, their relatedtous)andhas partedus understanding andtheir wants are from other creaturesforsurely so wellcontrolled in the tens of thousands of years, maybe environment,theyare so for a few hundred thousand years. beautifullyadaptedtotheir We arebeings who constructfor situation, that they need not work ourselves, each separatelyand harder. singly, and as well together in our collectivities,internal models of all Theoneneed theyconstantly that happens, ofall we see, find, discuss as they wander through the feel, guess,andconjectureabout coolmornings,thecoolevenings, our experience in the world. and astheyrestintheheat of A clear context in which this was the day,is to know exactly where putfor me is a beautiful theyare.They discussitalways. ethnographicworkby a woman They note every tree, they describe called Edith Marshall , who everyrock.They recognize every livedfor manyseasons among a featureoftheground. They ask sm a II groupofthewandering how ithas changed, or how far it peoples of the Kalahari whom we has been constant. What story do callBushmen, peoplewhose you know about this place? They

7

1 4 recallwhat grandfather oncesaid inquantitatively distinct form; but aboutit.Theyconjecture, and we need not fear comparison with t hey elaborate;their minds are othercreatures.There is another fi I led; their speech elaborates waytoconstructeven complex exactlywhere theyare. You see architecture without ever having an they have bu i It a n intensely internalmodel; were we built that detailed,brill iant,forever waY, we might yetinthe course reinvigoratedinternal model of the of sufficiently long time evolve all shifting natural world in which thecomplexities we have, evenif theyfindtheirbeing.What that we wouldnotexplore.It's the simplifiedcasesuggests I dare to c onceivable, save onlythat extrapolate toallhumanbeings universe might notlastthat long. everywhere. I see init, I think, Itisthe speed, whichis our way marks my own behavior; I hopeitwill tochange,thateventually be so for others.I tisfair to say us. that ourlanguage,our myth and ritu al,our tools,our science, When I was a schoolboy, I learned indeed our art,areall expressions (from a very bad book, I am now translatedinone way or another sure)that one of the distinctions bythesymbolsofour oftrulyhighcivilizations isthe comm u n icationorotherwiseof ability to construct the true arch, certain featuresofthis grand that curved arch with the keystone internalmodel.Thepresenceof that holds everything togethernot that internal model and its steady thelintel beam which the Mayans need for completion, the obviously hadbut rather those things which adaptive need ofitsleading edges G reeks and Romansand other to have continuity, not to fadeoff propercountrieshad which made intothe nothing or the nowhere: them highcultureandrestricted firstchapter of this is the essential featureof the others to the human exploration,itsroot cause the book. I soon grew away from provincialism, which deep inourminds andinour thiskindof cultures. was more common a hundred years ago when the man who wrote the For me exploration isfilling in the book was trained. blank margins of that inner model, that no human can escape making. I was mostforcefullystruckby Ofcourse,wecanrestcontent thework recentlyreportedby withinthemargins; then welive so me French entomologistswho with a shadow ofuncertaintyat havestudiedinSouth Africa the theedgeofthemap. Indeed a workofcertainspeciesoflarge cultureis free to do that, as many termites.Termites,ofcourse,are cultures have done itI should say socialanimalsof considerable a littlemore auoutthatlater. I power and prowess. The structures want to make quite plain that an these particularformsbuild are internal model is not the only way greatthings. They are15 and 20 in which complex accomplishments feet high on some occasions; they can be produced.I suspect that we dotthelandscapelikeso many are not the only creatures toshow termite skyscrapers. They are large thisquality,although we showit and enduring architecture. Layer 1 5

8 upon layerhddenwithinthis pellets, a f aw inches over." Pretty term itarywhichrisesout ofthe soontheydividethemselvesinto ground, are true arches, curved littlegroups of pelletbuilders,all a rc hes whichsupportthenext making piles of pellets.In between floor,andthenmorearchesfor theyhavestoppedmakingthem, thenext, and so on, exactlylike thosetermitesgatheraroundthe the crypts of a building somewhere larger piles. Now the piles grow to inItaly. You have to ask yourself columns; they stick them together. the question,Aretermitesthen The nextinstructionsays:"If,as suchthinkers andphilosophersas yourpillargetsprettyhigh,you we? Thatwould be themost detectanotherpillarhigherstill, fallaciousview;thereason isnot stop yours and go to work on one that wecandismisstheir thathascrossed a certainlimit." accomplishments. As with the ( We reconstruct these rules by q ualities of human beings, you watching their behavior.) cannotjudgeonlyby what they have done. Youhave tojudge Prettysoonyouhave many them inthe senseofpotential, half-finished stumps of pillars,but becausewhatthey havenotyet youhavealso a fewrather hiyh done,what is contained inthe pillarssittingonthefloor.The internal model,is the key. nextinstructionis: "Iftwohigh The termites, of cow.se, always do p illarschance to be reasonably thesamething. They have done close together,getontopand their thing now for twenty million bu i Id each towardthe other." years without chanc;ing very much. That'sexactly what they do.So, Mindyou,theybuildthetrue of co u r se, in each layerthe archinthedark. Blind animals number, size, and placementof building archesin the dark! There arches is different. No great is noarchitect, there is no architecthas seen where they will building-code inspector, there k no be, no one has counted them, no critic. All there isisa little hollow one has decided on them; but the in theground and a thousand workoverall isadaptive, improves termites milling around in the dark thetermitary,itsstrength andits making pellets. Thereis a built-in ventilation. So they go on building instruction:"Makepelletsoutof arches; they will do so for tens of the discardedleaf matter, the fecal millions of years on end. There is matter,which liesaround on the no i nternalmodel within any floor."They formlots ofpellets. termite, or even in the collectivity, Each one by himself makes pellets. for how thosearchesshouldbe Ifitshouldso happenthatthe built. There isin the DNA, in the densityofpelletconstructionin chromosomes, some kind of simple some regionisgreater than that in rules thattellthem how to make theneighboringregionof course, arches ina broad general waynot itmust happen that way sooner or the making of the architself but laterby the laws of chancethen thegivingofrulesofthekind the instruction is: "Leaveyour described.There isnever an arch pelletswhicharefew and go to p rese nt until one appearsby where there are morefragrant chance; whereaswhen webuild

9

1 6 arches,oranythingelse,the arch that m o del, forextending the in isin some sense present beforeit marginofthemap,are those in everexists.That iswhat I mean which we nowlive,and those byan internalmodel. Now the which weshallliveformostof n eed tocompletethat internal thetimeofhumanhistory. modeltoextendandfillinits Democritussaid,"Iwouldrather fringesis, I think, what we mean find one cause than be emperor of by exploration. Persia." That isa statement which a physicistcanbeautifullyadhere I recognize that this deep need to to; were we to lose that feeling,it complete the internalmodels is would indeed be a heavy loss. certainly expressed differently in different cultures. Sometimes itlies very quietly. The pioneer Alpinists There is oneproblemwhich whocame in the early 19th Viking,theprototype of what I centu rytoSwitzerlandfound am describing, does not solve, that villagers who hadlivedthereall is,accessfora wider number of theirlives andnever had searched persons to this scheme of filling in theirpeaks.But once thevisitors the edge of the incomplete internal raisedtheideathatitmightbe map. We have founded such great wo rthwhile,itturned outthat socialstructurestopyramidour amongthevillagerstherewere a exploration upon that those at the few young men who had quietly base often do not get to see the ventu red i n to the peaks even starsshineabovetheapex.This before the English gentlemen came problem, a gathering hke this,like tohirethem.Tney became the thetelevision screen,willstep by firstguides.Climbingwasn't stepcometosolve. Finally,for celebrated, itdidn'tbutterany me, human beings explore because parsnips orfeed any goats, butit inthelongrun,time after time, was needed somehow tocomplete when we wishtoadapttothe as our innernature has a modelL-. I believethosecultures world which manage to show some public evolved,both by genetics and by concern for fillinginthe edges of culture, we can do nothing else.

1 7

10 COUSINS: Mars? Isn'tit the job of the writer totakethisvastincompre- hensibilityandtoconvertitinto Phil Morrison,in your reference to the corn prehensible?Youwrite theKalahari I foundechoesof about the human situation. We met

Lawrence van derPost's book i n I nd ia once; I don'tknow about the same people. You refer whether you rememberitor not. to them as people who really want We alsometin MadisonSquare toknowwhere theyare.We're Garden once when the Knicks were told by A.L.Rouse, the English playing. We met on a tennis court historian,thatthe one thinythat once. You were inIranlast week; allgreat eventsinhistory have in you were intheSouthPacific; common is thatthepeople who now you're going off to Maryland, are caught up in thoseevents wh eretheoysterswill become neverreallyknowwhat is yourworld.Andallofushere happeningtothem.And I just tonight, Jim Michener, look to you wonder,JamesMichener,whether as someone who wanders not just people today have a sense of what through space buttime,who is happening to them or what will unde rstandshistory and human happentothem.Do they know experience,and who canteHus thattheirliveswillnever be the whether V ik ing can De made same afterthatrobot landson comprehensible to human beings.

1 8

11 Michener won back hisjobasa textbookeditor,andthestories were adapted into themusical play South Pacific, which ran for many JAMES MICHENER se a s o ns onBroadwayandstill enjoys frequent revivals. James A. Michener, world-renowned novelist and travel writer, has led a Michener latercrossedthePacific material for lifeof adventure andexploration many times, gathering since his teens, when he began to thenovelsSayonara,P.eturnto at travelacrosstheUnitedStates, Paradise,andThe13ridges but 3 states before he Toho-Ri. He moved to Honolulu in visitingall in was 20. 1949andbecameactive Hawaiiancivicaffairs.Hisnovel Born in New York City in 1907, Hawaiiwascompleted10years hemovedtoDoylestown, later, on theo day the U.S. Congress Pennsylvania, at the age of 10. He voted Hawaii into the Union. w as graduatedfromSwarthmore Collegewithhighesthonors,and Michener has visited most countries went to St. Andrew's Universityin of the world, finding materialfor Scotland.He thentaughtatthe hisimagination wherever he goes. GeorgeS choolinPennsylvania, A fghanistanprovidedthe Co loradoStateTeachersCollege background for the novel Caravans and,as Assistant VisitingProfessor ( 1 9 6 3 ). TheBridgeatA ndau of History,at Harvard University. (1957)is a nonfiction account of He later became a textbook editor the 1956 Hungarian uprising.The f or a NewYorkpublisher,a Source,anovelofIsraelasthe position interrupted by World War birthplace of the three great world II, when Michener joined the Navy. religions, was published in 1965. The Navy introduced him to the HismostrecentnovelsareThe PacificOcean. He mailed hisfirst Drifters (1971), Iberia (1973), and bookTalesofthe South Pacific Centennial(1974). Anonfiction anonymouslytohisformer book,Sports: A Programfor employer.Publishedin1947,the America, was published in June of book won aPulitzerPrize, this year.

12

1 9 JAMES MICH ENER Butitseemsto me thatifone wants to look at the supreme epic dealing with exploration and come I havealwaysbelievedthat an to grips withit,there is no better event hasnothappeneduntilit placetostartthanthe poem of has passed through the mind of a Lu is de Camoes,the Portuguese creativeartistableto explainits master(usuallypronounced significance. I suppose thatis why Ca moens in English).'His great fromtheearliest have times we work,"TheLusiads,"extolsthe had thenarrators who sat around explorations done by the men of campfiresatnight to recount the Lusitania. Thepoem deals with heroicadventuresofthatday. Vasco da Gama,settingoutto Because those adventures really did explore the hidden corners of the nothappen untilthey were wo r Id, a man ofextraordinary crystallizedintowordsand quality.The book isa paean to comprehensions. the glory of the explorer.Itis the noblest staterne.,t I know of about Itistherefore understandable that why men go forth and what they firstgreatepic,theHomeric our accomplish when they do so.But dual poem,dealtprimarilywith thehighlightof the book, and I man's c arliestadventure in commend th is toyou above exploring.There is nofigurein everything else I will say, comes in I iteratu remoreheroicand Book 4, verses 94to 104, in permanentthanUlysses. He which, as thegreatcaravelsset epitomizestheadventuring forth on this immortal exploration, characteristicinallof us: the ever theold manofBelemappears, searching,the onward probing, the sitting by thesideof the bay to grappl ingwith ancientmyths, watchastheshipsgo down. He convertingtheminto present utters a most marvelous lament for reality,thequestforlandsthat theinsatiableappetite ofall who have been mentionedbutnever are lu red tothehorizon. He seen. It isnot by accidentthat predictsthatthisgreat expedition ouropeningepicdealswiththe can come to no goodend. The explorer inmankind, because Portuguesewillexplore new lands exploringisone ofhis permanent but they willgive those lands no and attractive characteristics. new light. The ships will go forth buttheywillnotcarryany I alsofindtheBible, one of our second or third epics, essentially a goodnesswiththemtothe new lands. The expedition must end in storyof a tribemotivatedby differentgoals and different gods, futility and folly and he continues for 1 0 wonderfulverses, movingtoexplore th e. areainto which they had been called. True, su mmarizing theargumentsthat will later be thrown at space their explorationisas much moral exploration:thatexplorersalways andspiritualasitisphysical, but take on more problems than they itisalways that forward thrusting solve. intoSyria,intoEgypt,intothe Med iterranean,thatcharacterized But at the end, even this old man the second great work. who issopessimistic,soagainst

13

2 0 the grain ofallPortugal,isforced devotehislifeto the exploration to concede: of the eastern portion, which could be exhausted in an afternoon, and "There is no high or fateful enterprise how commendabletoturn By fire, steel, flood, heat, cold though it may be westwardand thusenter upon a roads That sons of man have ever left untried. roadand a complexityof Desperate condition, fate unsanctified." that would lead to the very ends of the Earth. I chose the western There is nowaytohaltthis road. Portugalwillnot gain exploration. Fow years ago, when I was 65, I fromit,but the knowledge of the drew up a memorandum of work be extended,the worldwill stilltobe done and I remarked onwardthrustof implacable uponthefactthat I hadbeen mankind will have been continued. fortunate inbeingabletovisit theoldman'simplicit, So,with everyplace onEarththat I had blessing the great though grudging, wanted to see except three. I had enterprise goes forward. neverbeentoPeking, which my fellowAsian experts told me was I these 11 verses of cherish the greatestcityoftheworld, Camoes because they epitomize the the old days when exploration: We never particularlyin problemof theimagination. Nor gain as much fromitas the wild itcaptivated had I ever seen the Amazon River. enthusiastspromise; weinvariably gain more than the frightened old Nor had I been to the South Pole. of And I reflected then that perhaps menpredict.And regardless it was proper for a man who had predictions,theexploration must seen so m uch to leave three go on because it is in man's nature to explore. These verses are unsatisfied targets. a correctivetoeitherkindof And then, within 2 weeks of my excess intalking about exploration, having written that memorandum, I and I particularly must keep them wasbythe sheerestaccident in mind because I have spent the possibleattheAmazon,and a bulkof my lifeinexploring and weeklaterinPeking. That leaves in have often put my conclusions the SouthPole. I stillfeel as I writing. did.Itisproper that there should always remain one target over the I was a little boy in a small When horizon. town in Pennsylvania, past my doorran a remarkableroad. To I was in Christchurch 2 weeks ago theeastitwent aquarterof a and went to pay my homage to mileandstoppeddead. Tothe thatmarvelousmonumentto westitwaslimitless.It went all R obert Falcon Scott, thegreat the way to thePacific, and from explorer who raced Amundsen to there to Asia and the entire world. theSouthPole.Amundsen went he As achild I looked at that road south to the Pole almost asif andunderstooditstwo were on a weekendpicnic. d i rectionslimitedand Everything went right; he got there unlimitedand thought how craven first;helefthisflag;he returned it would be for a human being to without inCident. 2 1

14 But Scott andhiscrew struggled Tonight, as we contemplate Mars, I southwitheverythingconceivable feel as if I werestanding on a goingwrong, andon the way thresholdofimmensedimension. , as back you remember, they Allmy life I havefollowedthe perishedonebyone.Scott,by explorationsofMarsintellectually, somemiracle,wasthelast left philosophically,imaginatively.Itis a I i vece rt a inlynot because he a p I anetwhich hasspecial shied away from the ultimate tests, connotations. I cannot recall butmaybe because he was in anyone ever havingbeen as superb psychological condition. And interestedas we arein Jupiter or as helayfreezingtodeath,he Saturn or Pluto. Mars has played a wrotethatremarkable letterto specialrole in our lives, because of James Barriein which he recounts theI iteraryand philosophical whatitisliketo be an explorer specu I a tionsthat have centered atthe moment ofdefeat,when upon it. I havealwaysknown everything has gone againstyou Mars. andthe other man has got there f irstandyouwatchyour But tobeheretonight,tohave seen th atremarkable series of companionsdieoff one byone. photographs which has come from Again, thereisno finer statement concerningthenatureof that remote planet, and to realize explorationthanScott'sletterto what a weight of information they are bringing,what a freightof Barrie. I commend it most highly. imaginationandpossiblesolution, is a moment ofsuch excitement I think,however,that when one for me that I can hardly describe deals with exploration, one has got it.Ifthe photographs I have seen to be awarethatinevery doindeed showriverineactionI generation one field of exploration mean those marks which look like ends. We have doneit.We have poss ible riverterracingorthe exhaustedthepossible.With benchmarkscustomarilymade by Darwin we explored the beginning riversthenI,for one, will have to oflife a nd the characteristics admit that a major segment of my whichmodifyit.Asthat epoch inheritedknowledge has been ends, we start something new. We shattered.Muchofwhat I have believed a re alwaysatthe end of about space will have to something, always at the beginning berevised,for we will now have of something else. Thisis true not in Mars a planet which once had a only of societies, not only of total I iq u id component,which means culture, but also of irdividuals.If thatithad a substantial we have no accomplishnlant,if we atmosphere, whichmeansthatit once had illimitable neve r k now success, we lead possibilities. Imagineliving embitteredlives.Butifwe stop in the days when a d iscoveryof such w!th one success and do not fundamental recognize thatitstands merely as significance is possible! a thresholdtosomethinggreater, The Moon never caused me much more complex, more infinite, then trouble. I had to revise few of my I think we do only half our job. concepts.Afterall,gettingthere

15

2 2 was merely a technicalproblem. small nuwber of thresholds that we Scientists had already taught me as liveon 'Fightnow: What are the much about the Moon as I needed ultimatecapacitiesofthemind? tok now.It was a minor H ow docell soperate? Which appendage attachedtoEarth;it organizationsof society are better was egocentric. Butwhen you thantheones we sponsor? I am move out toaplanet whichisa much likethe old man of Belem, creationcomparabletoour own apprehensiveaboutthe and which has similar propensities explorations,yet absolutely certain a nd p ossibilities,then you are that they will go forward and that moving into a whole new orbit of thetriumphs anddefeats that go speculation. The realization that in withthemwillform a basic theseverydays,wearegetting characteristicof man, and one of information from the threshold of th e bestcharacteristics. As a ourparticulargalaxy, an one-timeexplorer I wish I could informationwhich we canthen conformtoTennyson'sstatement applytothebillionthgalaxyin inhis poem "Ulysses." He was an farthest space, is to me an older man when he wrote this, and overwhelmingexperience. I f he spokeof Ulysses, an older subsequent photographs do produce explorer: evidencesofriverineaction,then "Come, my friends, wearefacedwiththequestion: 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Whydidthewaterleave?What Push off, and sitting well in order smite causedthegreatchange? Issuch The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds change inevitable in all such To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths successions?Whatdoes such Of all the western stars, until I die. evidencemean concerninglifeon It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; othercomparable planets, the It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, billions upon billions of other stars And see the great AchiHes. whom we knew. thatareinthis galaxy alone and Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' th e billionsof galaxies beyond We are not now that strength which in old days them? Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are It isthiskindofthresholdthat One equal temper of heroic hearts, has always made the explorer's life Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will exciting. And itis only one of the To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

2 3

16 COUSINS: have that capacity to explore. To killthatoffatany point would Jim, there was excitement in your be disastrous disastrous. voice and manner when you spoke about thewayyourmind was COUSINS: affectedbythelandingon Mars, but I mustsaythattherewas Ithasbeen my privilegeforat eve n moreexcitement in your least 6 monthsnowto be voice .when youspoke about the associatedwiththegentlemanat human spirit. I justwondered my right, Captain Cousteau,in the whether, when youdescribedthe sensethat we both work for the old man o f Belem, you also same magazine. And I would hope, thoughtofHemingway's Old Man Ca ptain Cousteau, thatwe can and the Sea. come to youin your role as an MICHENER: explorer. Why do you do it? What leads youtothesevastwatery

I think that the human spirit, asit wastes?What is itinyoursoul manifestsitself insome sixor that makes you want to do things eightbillionpeople,willalways that have never been done before?

2 4

17 In1950,CGusteauacquiredthe shipCalypso, aminesweeperof Americanconstructionthatwas transformedintoan oceanographic researchvessel.Scientific investigationsaboardtheCalypso includeexpeditionsoffthecoast of Greece; inthe Red and Black Seas;andinthe Atlantic,Indian, andAntarcticOceans.Famous amongtheseexploitsarethe JACQUES COUSTEAU archeological digs at the site of an Jacques-YvesCousteauhas ancientwrecknearMarseille. dedicatedhislifetothe Cousteaualsocreateda nonprofit explorationofEarth'sseasand researchanddevelopment oceans for the past 30 years. associationthroughwhichto conduct his experiments. BorninSt.AndredeCubzac, Gironde Province, France, in 1910, In1950,Cousteau,collaborating heenteredtheFrenchNaval with Andre Laban, was thefirst Academyin1930.Afterseveral persontoperfectunderwater navalassignments,including cameraequipmentfortelevision campaignsintheFarEast,he transmission. A yearlater,he begana seriesofdiving createdtwocompaniesforthe experiments in his spare time. manufactureofunderwater equipment. Investigationsbeganin1936 with variousprototypesofbreathing HewaselectedDirectorofthe apparatus,leadingtothe Musee Oceanographique of Monaco conceptionoftheaqualung in in1957. He left the French Navy 1943withEmileGagnan.This withtherankofCaptainof inventionmadepossible,forthe Corvette. firsttime, a moreextensive Cousteau helped develop a highly explorationoftheoceansby maneuverabletwo-mansubmarine, mankind. theDiuingSaucer,andhas DuringWorld WarII,Cousteau conductedseveral saturation diving participatedintheFrench experiments: Conshelf Iin the area Resistance,helpingorganizethe of Marseille (1962), Conshelf IIin FrenchNavy ExperimentalDiving the Red Sea (1963), and Conshelf UnitatToulon.Healsohelped III(1965), a version that permits de-m inetheharborsofseveral six men toliveand work for 3 areas. weeks at a depth of 100 meters.

18

2 5 JACQUES COUSTEAU generally. I am going to recall this because I thinkitis typical of the I f I want to answer your question, mentalmechanismofexploration. a I have toturn the clockquite Our research vessel Calypso arrived bit,because of the 40 years that inCreteandwe dockedinthe this has beengoingon,atthe harbor of Heraklion on the north beginning asan amateur and then coastofCretenearKnossos. A as a professional.Then, I shall violent North Sea storm, the wind recall a story.Thisisthestory. named"Meltem," made our Afteran exhausting day that was situationalmostintolerableinside interrupted by two airraid alarms theharbor,inspiteofthefact in ourMarseilleapartment, my th atwe weresheltered by a wife and I had hastily packedall modern jettybuiltofconcrete. ourbelongings in trunks and Then as a sailor I started reasoning suitcases.Our twoboys,aged6 thatinantiquity the tiny primitive and4,were fastasleep. We were harbor of Knossos could not have toleavethe next day for Lisbon, protected the ships of King Minos where I had been commissioned as from Meltem. Looking at a map, I an assi sta ntnavalattache. deductedthattheonly safe Suddenly, over the radio we heard anchorages in case ofNorthern the announcement that close by in windsweretobe found un the Toulon theFrenchfleet had been south coast of Dhia, a sm1 island scuttled rather than haveitfallin lying only 8 miles north Crete. the hands of the invading Germans. That was a deductiv -andard Our tears were for the loss of our mental processcal It rtical fleetthelasttraceof thinking. i ndependence,ofpride, and of hop e. Thenextdaymy We explored the watersaround nomination to Lisbon was canceled, Dhia, indepthsrangingfrom 20 my diplomatic career was aborted, feet to 300 feet,with divers and ou r explo ration submarine. We and I became a sea explorer.In discovered sixancientshipwrecks my case; I could simplify the a n swer to thesubject ofthis ra nging from the 16thcentury symposium, "Why Man Explores": A.D. to the first century A.D. The ships werecarryingbronzeguns, I was cut out for exploration by tragicevents.Others become copper and silverware, hundreds explorers by rivalry, by despair, or andeventhousandsof amphorae, to get away from their wives. And and dozens of large blocksof marble,someof them ornateor I wonderifanyone can seriously pretend that he always steeredhis sculptured.They may havebeen life the way he wanted it to go. the remains of a stolen palace or a stolen temple transportedinparts, Oneofthe m ost exciting like the famous Hearst Castle. expeditionsof my lifeto dateis t hecurrentarcheological We were about to leave when my exploration of Greek waters, where chief' diver, Albert Falco, asked me we are looking for remains of lost tolet him havea last swim near civilizationsaswellaslooking for shore.He snorkeledin the bay of archeologicallessons from antiquity St.George inDhia while we were

19

2 6 warming upthemotorstosail cou Idonl y seetracesof its away. He came back reporting that foundations on thephotographs, he found a strange heap of stones takenwithlow Sun forcontrast. ofcolossalstature nothing much Minoanfragments ofpottery and a f terall, a fewstonesor atleast one Minoanidolon land werefoundbeforean excavation maybe . . ., maybesomething unexpected.Thislast-minutefind, was made. vague and dubious, did not fit into our program. We were to explore Afull-scaleunderwater excavation oftheharbor a 3-month the southerncoastofCrete. I effort confirmedallour theories. hesitatedfor one minute and then Five thousand years ago the island I stoppedthemotors.There was of Dhiawas a paradisecovered no committee I had to report to with woods and refreshed by large for a change of program. rivers, a paradisewhereTheseus There was no logic for abandoning elopedfor a famous honeymoon our initial program. Falco's hesitant withAriadne, daughter of Minos, report appeared to be uncorrelated after he killed the Minotaur. Then withour aims. Fortyyears of t he island was progressively explorationhadrepeatedlyproven deforested to build or repair ships to me thatthe deductive process and tocook d in ners in the ofthinking vertical thousandsofhomes. Dhia 4000 years thinking althoughitis a powerful succumbed,probably a lesson tool, rarely leads to a breakthrough ago, from overpopulation ofecologyfromantiquity.Then lateral d i scovery . I ndependently, 500 yearslater,the explosion of thinking, the process by which the the volcanic island of Thera, better mind scans events or facts that are known as Sa ntorini, raised a apparen tl yu ncorrelatedto 300-foot-hightidal wave that investigatewhether inreality they washedcleantheislandfromits could be even remotely correlated, fortifications,villages,towns, walls, has oftenled us and many others harbors. Ever since, Dhia has toimportantbreakthroughs. What remained a desolate rock. This is lead, frl lowedisendless.The heapof major discovery goingto ce rtainly,to decades ofvery stones provedto be a large difficultand systematic excavations su bme rgedmanmade harborof on land. Then it was no more our probab leM inoanorigin. business and we went on to some Then backtoverticaldeduction other discoveries. th istime we thoughtthatif there hadbeen a harbor on that When man exploresforresources, desolatepiece of rock(theisland his motivations are clear. They are of D hi a),thenthere also what wecall,superficially,logic. necessarilyhad beenhuman But why would we spend one full settlements. Our helicopter made a yearofourlivesand over $2 photomosaic coverage of the island, millionjust toraisea tiny corner revealingseveralvillagesor towns oftheveil concealing a few anda huge Cyclopean fortification episodes of our past? What is the system,totallyerasedtoday we originofthedevouringcuriosity 0r7 I

20 thatdrives men to committheir the S tars." Nobody has bett, lives,their health, their reputation, describedthe advent of the mind. their fortunes, to conquer a bit of The I it tl eboy'sdrivefor knowledge, to stretch our physical, exploration*issooncurtailed emotional, or intellectual territory? temporarilyby language. The The more I spend time observing human species is the only one that nature,themore I believethat hastheability to transfer to the man's motivation for exploration is new waveofmen, through butthesophisticationof a I an gu a g e, printedmaterial, and u niversal instinctive drivedeeply electronic media, the results of the ingrained in all livingcreatures. exploration of the world performed Lifeisgrowth individualsand by previous generations. speciesgrowinsize,innumber, and in territory.Theperipheral Mostindividualsfindtheir hunger m a nifestationofgrowing is and t he irthirstfor discovery exploring the outside world. Plants satiatedbylearning.Learning and develop in the most favorable experiencearefactorsthatoften direction,whichimplies that they extinguishcuriosity,but for those caveexploredtheother who sufferfrom an unquenchable onantaticnsandfoundthatthey intellectualthirst,of course, are ;nadeqoate. learningisafabulous springboard. The exploring part of a plant, of a Some plantssendfeelersatgreat creature, of a crowd, is always the d istances;they send avant-garde mostvigorous,themost shoot s beforethey invadethe enterprising. When the shoots of a spacethat has been acknowledged plant, a wisteria,forexample, propitious.For young animals the slowly creep over a wan, they are wo rld i s to be explored and theprivilegedpartsofthe discovered from their birth on, and plant those that are favored with thatexplorationonlyendswith the largest circulation of sap. From death;fortheyoungfox, a purelyphysiologicalstandpoint, wildernessis unlimited; for a tuna, intheAmerican conquest of the the oceans are infinite.Stillin the West,the American pioneers, who animal world, the physical need for of ten we-re originaryEuropean exploration develops as well in outlaws or very rough adventurers, . i nd ividuals as in collectivities we rebiologicallythecream of tribes,schools,swarms,packs.In Europe; andittook Europe more being fact,if thebabyhuman than a centurytorecoverfrom showsthesame motivation as a that loss of substance. young cat,to explore withallhis sensors the strange env ironment he When the impulse to explore built was born into, the big difference is ineachindividual human beingis thatthelittlebabysoonstands confined or antagonized by arigid erect. That radical change came in socialor familiar structure,it may evolution the day described so well be forcedintounnatural by Ovid,a few yearsafter Christ drives exploring a.lcohol, drugs, or wasbo rn. "G od elevatedthe sexual perversions. Drug addicts are forehead ofMan,"wroteOvid, perverted explorers. Today, most of "and orderedhimto contemplate themodernexplorations are 2 8 21 projectingthemind inside out. initiative,andlateral thinking. The They need collectiveefforts, being enemiesoftheexplorationspirit thesenseofsecurity no moreatthe scale of an aremainly individual. When the tools are not and responsibility, redtape,and there money,technology, exclusive vertical thinking. instruments some human minds, To conclude,if you allow me, as onthecontrary,turnthemselves a man who has dedicatedhislife outsidein,lookingtowards to exploring the water world,itis immediateknowledge through a special satisfactionforme to contemplation. Theexploration turn to the etymology of the word drive,pureand natural, is "to explore": from ex-plorareto associatedw ith risk, freedom, make to flow.

2 9

22 COUSINS: 1969, we got the headlines about theMoon, I thoughtit was a terrible Captain Cousteau, we're allin your injustice that they did not at leastrunthesubhead,"Ray debt for the privilege of being able Bradbury, Vindicated." You've been toexplore thatjunction where atthe head of this parade along sc i e nce, philosophy, and poetry time, Ray Bradbury, so I meet in the modern world. think it's naturalforustoaskyou, What Ray Bradbury, when on July 20, next? What do you see ahea :?

3 0

23 RAY BRADBURY 20,000Fathoms,andItCame Ray Bradburyisaprolific writer From Outer Space. He wrote the in a field of literature, often called screenplay for John Huston's 1954 scienceorfuturisticfiction,that filmversionof HermanMelville's seeks to extend man's present into Mo by Dick. notbehis whatmayormay Bradburyformedhisownstage future. group,The Pandemonium Theatre Bradbury has published more than Company, in 1964 to produce his 500shortstories,poems,novels, playsThe Anthem Sprinters,The and plays in the past 35 years. His W on derfu 1IceCreamSuit, workhasappearedinalmostall Dandelion Wine,AnyFriendof majorU.S.magazines,fromthe Nicholas Nickleby'sis a Friend of Saturday Evening Post to Playboy, Mine, and Leviathan 99. andfromthe New Republicto He spent 35 years writing his first Harper's.Hisworkhasalso When Elephants Weird Tales, Amazing bookofpoetry, appearedin theDooryardBloomed, Stories, and Dime Detective. Lastin thatwasrecentlypublished.His NovelsbyBradburyincludeThe latest bookis Pillar of Fire, three MartianChronicles,Something one-actfuturetimeplays.He is W ickedThis Way Comes,and finishingworkon a book Dandelion W ine. concerning creativity,entitled How F i 1 ms havebeenmadeofhis to Keep and Feed a Muse, and his novelsFahrenheit451andThe next volume of short stories, Long Illustrated Man, and his stories The AfterMidnight,willbepublished Picasso Summer, The Beast From this year. 31 24 RAY BRADBURY that. This metaphor reminds me of Nietzsche'soldsaying,"We have artthatwe do notdieof the Everything, the Universe of course, truth." and itremainstremendously A mericanssuffer exciting. The one question thatis We fromtoo askedtimeandagainby people muchdata,toomanyfacts,at who think they are being practical times. We are bombarded by it on is,"Haven't theycaught up with our television. One of the problems you?" Well, of course not, because we've had thelast few years, that we haven'tcaughtupwiththe NASA hashad, isthat we have Universe yet. We're at the rim of seenalmost too much Space and thecave,andI'mthe maker of have seen the wrong kind. We have m et a p h ors I've discovered this been given the facts over and over again, andthey arealways alongthe way. I can service the cause by trying to find metaphors diminishedby what I call the to fit what we're doing. We survive aestheticofsize.Television d i m inishes everything ittouches inso many ways.I'mreminded and makesit smal I. Ittakes a ratherfacetiouslyofthisand I rocketthat is300 feethigh and giveyou a humorous example. I c ru shes itdownto a 14-inch have a friend,ChuckJones,the image. I haveusedthissortof cartoonist,whocalls meallthe comparisontimeand again over time withrevelationshefindsin the years; I've told my friends that dictionaries and all kindsof oneof my favoritefilmsisKing reference books heisreading.He called me on the phone and said, Kong, that everyone should go see it,itwouldbe goodforthem. "Ray,"and I said,"What?" He Andpeople see itontelevision said, "Didyouknow?" I said, andcome back say, "No,tellme." He said, "Did you to me and knowthatwhentheywere "Whatareyoutalkingabout? I bu ildingtheTrans-Egyptian saw Kong and it wasn't that much." I it Railroad acrossAfrica100years said, "No, no, you mustn't see ago and they ran out of fuel, they on TV, thereyouholdKong in wou Id stopthelocomotive,run your hand.You'vegottogo to intothenearestgraveyard, steal the theatre where Kong holds you mummies out of the tombs, bring inhis hand and drops you off the themback,shove themintothe side of the Empire State Building." firebox of the locomotive, and use So itis with the Space program. them asfueltogo across Egypt The first time I went toItaly, I late atnight?!" I said, "That's saw therealRenaissance paintings, great!" I threw down the phone, a realBotticelli, a realda Vinci, ran to my typewriter, and wrote a orwhateveritwas,or a poem ca I led "TheNefertiti-Tut Tintoretto. These things were larger Express"!Well, .there's a metaphor than myself. A really fine Botticelli ofsurvival,isn'tit?Ifa mummy isbigger than ourselves, and as we works,youburnit.Andallthe stand beforeit,an incredible light Egyptian gods and goddesses haunt comes outoftheframe and we youacross the desert forever after are changed. We've been raised on

3 2 25 a culture where wehold things in fallthrough Deep Spaceinthe ou r hands books they're arms ofGeorge Bernard Shaw? I smaller theycan beshut.And can't think of anything better, so I you'rebiggerthanBotticelli.We wrote a story. areraised on TV, which we treat that we are Along the way, I take my robot as children. Anything Shaw upabove and we lookat larger than, we have contempt for. the stars together and we begin to The TVissmaller thanourselves, on TV must talk of the Future and we look at soanything we see Universe andthegreat ofthat thegreat becontemptiblebecause Milky Way, and we drinkinthe Now, as soon as the aesthetic. nighttogether. And he points his screen gets larger, we begin tosell beard at the Pleiades and we talk the Space Age again, because the I say to him a whole great talk and finally Space Age istitanic;it's it,Mr. Shaw," and he says, Universe we are talking about. But "Say "What?" I say, "You know what I we've beendoingitallwrong; want to hear, say it." He turns to o rientedwhen we we' re d at a and he beginstoexplain and symphony me should bepoetry he islookingat to everythingthat oriented.That's my business and he says, "What isthis Thing? metaphorthatexplains findthe What is theLifeForceinthe the Space Age, and along the way Universe? Whatisthis remarkable write stories. thing that we are? We are matter Let me give youanexampleof andforce changing ourselvesover the sort of thing I do. I'm going i ntointelligence and will. Into tobe repeatingthesemetaphors imaginationandwill!Matter and again and again during the evening forcethatdoesnot knowitself, that sum it up for me. I wrote a changing itselfin the long night of storyabout ayear ago about a theUniverseinto imagination and sp aceshipgoingoffinto Deep will,wi llingitselftosurvive." Space.Everyoneelse onboard the Th ese w ords are fromShaw's spaceship has gigantic lady toys to religious science fiction writings of takealongand windup robot 50,60,and 70 years ago that I women for the journey. ButI,as put in a story to explain just what a frivolousintellectual,take along we are doing in Space in thefirst on the journey a specialold robot place. that I summon tolife every night. I a story I go down below bythegreat And after had finished engines and I speak into the dark likethat, I finally wound up going and this old man intellectual robot down to Kennedy Space Center 4 I am wakesand How do I wake weeks ago for the first time. vehicleassembly him? I say, "Shaw,Mr.Shaw, ta k en tothe Mr.GeorgeBernard Shaw?" And building, I walkin and they take this robot blinks his eyes and sits me .upin the strut-works, 500 feet upright and says, "By God, I do above the hangar floor, and I look accept it." I say, "What?" He says, down atthe great rocket engines, "The Universe.Itthinks; therefore th e g reat containersofSaturn waitingtobefilled I am!" And we are off and components running. How would youliketo with energyto go offtothe

26

3 3 Moon on another journey. I am in Seek God's Will, to find lost man tearsthewholeafternoon. I am And send him up the hill of stars looking down 500 feet at this and To change the dreadful dates of 1984 and send them up with shouts I lookatthe hangaritself. I try tofindthemetaphortoexplain To make a score man could not dream or hope or care to do. thistitanicthing I am looking at Make Orwell laugh in year 2002. and the only thing I can think of Grand Things To Come? Yes. Cabell stands here, isthat I am walking around inside the towering son of Wells, who saw a sea of Shakespeare's head. That is the wheeling orbs and sparks and cried, metaphor. And then you come 'Which shall it be,' down out ofallof that and you Sink back to dust and tomb, to worms and grave, write a poem. Now that I have Or onward to lost Mars and mankind save? youtrapped here, here is the And star-blown winds then echo endlessly, poem: Which shaH it be? Oh wandering man, which shall, which shall it be? "Othello's occupations, here they lie In countries where the space men flow in fire I tread this place and read his time and dream, And much desire the Moon and reach for Mars his corridors of night, And teach the fiery atoms how to sing His islands lost in time. His thunders, rumors, And bring intemperate blood to God.lost lands Questionings of self To warm his snow-frost lunar sands To be or not to be on Saturn's shelf. And never ask To Be or Not To Be I measure our vast journeys in his head For here All Is And find alive what was considered dead. And is again at our behest. From ear to ear tread halls of fire blood Man's quest makes footfall here Where room in room like chambered Nautilus lost for transfer across space man makes neighborhood To lift mankind. Here blind Of KennedyCanaveral Avon's birthing place. We catwalk breadths and heights, Not lost? No no, not lost in dust Fix sights in rare assembly shops Or rain or falling down of years. As vast as Shakespeare's mind From Yorick's skull, God's manifesto peers. And think that Melville once drowsed here From graveyard dirt he shapes a striding man And dreamt the Beast awake, To jig the stars and go where none else can. Pumped Lox for blood What pulls him there in aeroflights of ships? And with one quake of God's triumphant voice A birth of sons that fall from Shakespeare's lips. Made rocket blast Not dumb dull TV news inspires lost man Thus rousing lunar whales to swim in star tides vast. But will, But this too solid flesh will fall, Who turned in sleep earthquakes are plan Resolve itself into a dew. And answers Job No, ask this solid flesh to rise, Whose agonies and sulks ask why Resolve itself into a fire, This fragile flesh is thrust forth cold Conspire to see and know and build and try, To sink and die For if God's dead 'Not so!' says Pleiades for tongue, Then Man will surely die. But all being one 'Not so, not so!' It is, it is! God, Man, Ghost takes as bride, From Stratford's fortress-mind we build and go Entire comet Universe, to yoke with pride. And strut-work catwalk stars across Abyss Put out the light And to small wondering seedbed souls do promise this: And then put out the light? To Be is best No, No, rekindle night! and Not To Be far worse And then rekindle night. And Will says What? Othello unemployed, now reemployed Stand here, grow tall, rehearse. To summon racial memory from Jung and Freud Be God.grown-man, And in genetics marrow. Act out the Universe!"

27 34 Open Discussion COUSINS: Inthe briefexchangewe had before we came out, RayBradbury point. COUSINS: had a comment on just that Ray, would you care totalk about allof I n just a minute or two, your pyramid. you will be invited torecite verse to the panel. But before weturn BRADBURY: togeneral thism eeting open aretalking wonder whether any Yes.Well,againwe discussion, I metaphorto like aboutmaking the members ofthe panel would what weare been said showtoourselves to comment on what has doing. We have already led upto so far. it here. NASA should make a base of MICHENER: 3-minute film showing the the pyramid, 100 000workers. This We havebeendiscussing would be a giant rocket structure. exploration asifitwerealways Actuallybuild a rocket asyour theproductofindividual metaphor.Thebottomofit is action . . . an individual 100 000peoplethat have been responsibility. I wonderwhat active i n bu ildingtheApollo responsibilitysocietyatlargehas rockets or the spaceships thathave for the sponsorship ofexploration. taken the Lander off toMars, and the secondlevelof that rocketis MORRISON: 50 000people.Thenextoneis is 10 (100, Well,isn'titclearit isreallya 25 000 people, the next it is 2 socialexploration? The men who thenit is 1000,then stood on the Moon werethe point dozen,andthenitis1/2 dozen. of gets to the three men of a tremendouscompany Finally,it peoplewhothrustthemthere. wholandedonthe Moon. You Now we send ourinstruments out. take that whole metaphor,build it up Here locallythere are 1000 in a structure,andshootit createthe persons,more orless,who must intospace.Thus, you readand markwhatthe metaphor ofallthe men andall i nstruments see and feel. That thewomeninoursociety who makes a world very differentfrom builtthe Apollos andfired them this done thetimewhen a ship'sband off. I havenever seen so circumnavigatedtheglobe. True, by N ASA. Again,we are not theytoowere mountedbythe d ata-orientedthatwe have y a rds who supplied shipsand bothered to find the metaphor. stores.Butit seemsto me the imagination has not yet succeeded inconveying to people in general COUSINS: what kind of role one canhave in pyramid today's complexexploration. Very Captain Cousteau, can that ever takeshapeandthepeople many are theindispensable porters, to do and only very few are theintrepid insideiteverbeinspired something except as the resultof a mountaineers. 3 5 28 few words from a single individual bealive.Thereis one phrase that

to start the process? weusethat I don'tlike:whose

responsibilityisit. I hate the word COUSTEAU: "responsibility" on exploration. But

I don't think that there is a social I'm a truebelieveroftwo co ntradictorythings,the re sp onsibilityforexploration. I importance of the inspiration from thinkthattheremustbesocial enthusiasmforexploration.It is a leaderandthenecessityof a collective enthusiasm.They seem very different. contr adictory because inspiration COUSINS: cannotcomefromthemass it has nevercomefromthe Jim, do you agree. .? mass butinspiration can do MICHENER: nothingwithoutthe mass.Thus, the types of things that we were No, I don'tagreeatall.Not at in talk ingabout today flight all. I thinkthatsociety goes explorations haveto be inspired forwardnotonly with the bright and triggered by a leader, but they insightsofindividualsbut witha have to meet with the acceptance generalconsensusamongthe and the enthusiasm of all the populationthatgreatthings are crowd. That was the case for the afootandthattheywillsupport years space exploration. first of it. I find this in most of the great One of the reasons why it cooled exploringsocieties:Portugalin the off a littlewas acertain amount 14 50's, Spai n i n the 1490's, of poor public relations. There was EnglandintheageofElizabeth, nobody like Ray Bradbury to force and the United States for the past N AS A make really striking to 15or 20 years. I don't want to f ilms;3-minutefilmswould be see this base eroded in any way. I enough, and they my friendsat am fullyconvincedthatin NASA, I cancriticizethemvery exploration as in so much else gently were turning out 3-minute societyprogressesonly with good films.Butallthe films that have leadership supported by a vital, appeared as publicservicespots committed public. were terrible. I mean they are boring to death, and thisispartly COUSINS: due to what I called organization andred tape andallthe enemies Questions from the floor please. ofexploration that are there COUSTEAU: i mm ediately as soon as a big explorationtries to organize. I am That'sexactlywhat I said. We strongly against organization charts. don't disagree. I think that people have to build their own rectangle in the chart by FLOOR: depthqualitiesandthisrectangle moves;itdoes not stay there. As Captain Cousteau. soon as you begintoorganize COUSINS: something,it is dead. An explorationcannotdie;ithasto Could you identify yourself please?

29

3 6 FLOOR: that's lateral thinking. She had anticipatedthatthedoge would I am JerrySoffen,theProject haveput two blackballsinthe Scientist.Your concept of vertical bag. deductions and horizontal scanning isvery new and very provocative COUSINS: tome. We areaboutto embark Next question, please. onthis marvelousadventure in Viking. How can I sensitize myself FLOOR: andtheother Viking workersto takeadvantage of those concepts? I havea questionfor anyone, I can'tselectbetweenallofyou. COUSTEAU: What do youthinkor dream or hope willbe the effect on allof booksabout lateral T h ere a re usif,perchance, we find any form thinking. The best ones I know are of life on Mars or elsewhere? b y a Britishauthorcalled De

Bono, and I recommend them to COUSINS: y ou . He gives a verystriking example oflateralthinking:There Phil, would you like to begin? isa dogeinVenice who, likeall doges,too old andugly,fallsin MORRISON: lovewith a 16-year old beautiful m a id a classic story and he Well,I'llbegin. The enthusiasm for proposes himself to the maid. The Vikingis an old one, of course, it maid laughsitoff, "How could I began with that particular dream. I getmarriedto a manofyour remember thedaysbeforeitwas age?" The doge is furiousand quite well established that it would pleases tofollowthemaid,the happen,and we wereallsaying storyconti nues. Finally, after thatall we really needed to reduce enoughadventures he offersto ourpresencehere from whatit make a dealwiththemaid. He nowappearsto be an said,"Look, okay,let's putina interventionist miracle of the most bag two spheres, two little spheres, extraordinary kindwas any kind one white and one black. We will ofcounterpart,howeverfaltering, shake the bag. You'll pick up one h owevertenuousorincomplete. of theballs.Ifitis white, I free Givenone new startoflife,we your father and you are free.Ifit could say at least we had become is black,you marryme."The astatistic.(Idon't know whether maidthinks a littlewhile,and statisticalthinkingis not the third says, "okay," and she gets close to k i nd, besidesvertical and thewindow overthe canal in horizontal;probablyit is.) If I Venice. The doge hands over the haveto arguevertically, I would bag to her. She picks up one ball say,mind you, we willprobably and without looking at it throws it notfindit.We willfindsome quickly into the canal. "What did fascinatingthingsthat we will be you do?" askedthe doge. "Why, wo rryi ngaboutforanother 5 it'sso easy. Look at the ball that years.Stillthere's a chance, a real remains in the bag;it's black." So chance. I hate to speculate so late 37 30 inthevoyage; we ought to wait of burgeoning life. However, at this for a month or two until we see moment I don'trequirelifeon those pictures. The donkey has Mars to excite me. All I requireis almost caught the end of the stick. a knowledge that Mars at one time Surely he should getto taste the had the capacity forit.Because if carrots before we speculate whether Marshadthatcapacity,and we they are real or false! havethecapacity,we've become Ifthere were lifeinany way,it not guessworkbut a statistic, a sample wou Id release a great deal of oftwo!We canproject imaginative force. For me, at least, that statistic out to the infinity of itwouldassureanotherkindof the universe, and my mind dwells search we can make, another kind on life out there, not on Mars. ofexploration,staying here physically, but looking for signals, MORRISON: hop ingtofind somewhereout thereour I must saythatanhour and a ownvenerable half ago at alittle gathering here, counterparts.They are much I asked a verywell-informed beyond us, modifying their world, person what was flowing long ago makingsignals,makingtheirstars inthatriver,and hesaid, shine up brightly in some unknown "Well, perhapsit was hydrochloric acid!" frequencyinsomeunknown directions.Maybe we shouldstart COUSINS: lookingforthattoo, I am sure that the best possible support for Captain Cousteau. thatwouldbe a finding strange COUSTEAU: Martian clam shellin the old delta that we are going to explore. Even Well,iftherewereoceans, ifitisnot there, thatisn't going apparently they are dried out. So to end my enthusiasm for the next I'll... exploration. But I admititwill slow me down! COUSINS: COUSINS: No place for you to go? Jim Michener. COUSTEAU: MICHENER: It'snot my cupoftea.Butif there is lif e, it is extremely In my comments I didn't speculate different from life on Earth. So if aboutfindinglife on Mars; that's thereisanylife,then we know beyondmycapacity. I did thatitwill beworthwhile going speculate upon finding evidence of theretostudyseriously. Andat riverineaction of some magnitude thattimeitwill raiseall the inpast times. Well, obviously, I'm problemsofpreventingthe dodgingthequestion, becauseif astronauts and the ships, when you have riverine action, what was they comeback,from in the river? And we know enough contaminatingtheEarth with aboutthe action ofwaterto unknown germs. But, learning from realizeitcarries a presupposition entirelynew formsoflife would

31

3 8 If I hearit be, for biology, I think, something spaceexploration?" entirelyfascinating,veryfruitful, once again! Heavens!I t's still being and would accelerate the sure drive asked! thatwearemakingtheworld's I did some research down at Cape immortality. Canaveral. I got out the figures on COUSINS: what we' v e actually spent on Space. It is so small! You Ray Bradbury. wou Id n'tbelievethesmall amounts!I n any one yearinthe BRADBURY: last15 years, we've spent 1/50 of military I would liketo turn to someone 1 percentofthe I ike N ich ol as Kazantzakis, and budget 1/50 of 1 percent!In the remind you of his writings at this biggestyear when we spent $500 opportunity. He wrote a million,thatis only about 1/2 of remarkable book called The Saviors 1 percentofthemilitarybudget of God it'savailablein forthatyear.Thisyear we are paperback. It'sunusualfor one going tospend $118billionon wri tertoplug anotheron an weapons wecannot use,do not evening like this. dare to use. Next yearitis going to be up to $140 billion.There's COUSINS: wherethemoneyis! ForPete's sake, stop asking me about Space He's dead. money,andgotothePentagon BRADBURY: with me and graballthat money! O.K.? And abestseller.But he goes into manyofthethingswe'vebeen COUSINS: discussingtonight. I hopethat a I finditdifficult to resist getting lotof you willleave here and go into the act here. I would say that andgetKazantzakis' book Saviors I would hopethatthecertain of God, because he speaks again of knowledge that life exists elsewhere Force.Ifwe findeven theLife intheuniverse,would produce a the smallestbacillior green forms desire to make lifeon Earth safe onMars,that meanslifeinthe andfitfor human habitation.I'd onemorepartof Universe, hopethatoutofitmight ourselves, no matter how small.It's also c o me increased respectforthe veryimportantthatwediscover fragilityofliferighthere. Are this. there any other questions? But I wouldliketoshiftgears It'shardforus to see you, but herefor a moment. I wanted to perhapsyou canstepforward to say som et hing earlier on this. themicrophone.Isanyone saying alwayssaying and I Peopleare anything? One more. am ti redof hearingthis I'm goingtostrikethenextperson FLOOR: that asks me this, "With so much to be done in the world, why are I wonder what your predictions are wespendingallthismoney on at the Tricentennial. Are we likely 3 9 32 tobecelebrated, we Vikings,or United States,part elsewhere. I am are we likelytobe forgotten? v ery apprehensiveabout Central Doesit depend on our discoveries, America, because of their extreme or doesit depend on our energy? growth of population. And I think this sortofinevitability might COUSINS; overtakeus bytheTricentennial, Wi 11 th ere be anyone leftto and we might by then be in very celebrate,sir? Jim, would you like serious trouble. How wewould to respond to this question? look back upon this period I don't know because I would suppose MICHENER: thatcoincident with ourtroubles, there would be other greatforces Well, as a memberofthe coming up intheworld;there commissi on responsible for the would be other hegemonies and we celebration of the Bicentennial we would be forcedtooperatein accomplished solittle I can only relation to them. saythat I have thought for some timethattheUnitedStateshas I haveeveryconfidencethat as enoughkineticenergyto carryit long as thisplanetstayswarm, th roughthenext75 years there will be sentient human beings su cc ess fu Ily ...and conspicuously who willbe fighting the kinds of battlesthat we aref ighting success fu II y. I think we have tonight ...with greateror less enough educatedpeople, I think we have enough intellectual leaders, success. I thinktheknowing peopleinthose days will have to I think we have enough raw look back upon our generation as m aterials. I think we have an absolutely stu nning system of one of great exploration,the way tripartitegovernmentwhichmost we look back upon the Portuguese, of the nations of the world either theSpaniards, and theBritish.In don't haveorare notableto their days of intellectual adventure, we were not a craven society. operate. So I would think that our energy and beingwillcarry us through another 75 years. I do not MORRISON: foresee the collapse of the United Could I add a remark appropriate Statesinany conceivable form. I can see thelossof cities through toyourlastsentence?Itistrue and enemyaction, a hydrogen bomb amply documented,but very little known. It has to do with the here or there, but even then I do not see the end ofAmerican time of the discoverer, the hero of Camoens,Vasco daGama. When civilization. I cannotconceiveof this within the next 75 years. Vasco da Gama sailed around the CapeandupthecoastofEast

Beyond that, I am apprehensive. I Africa, he landedfinally in think that we are a fragile society. Malindi, alittleport, rather sleepy

I think we have the capacityfor now and partlyinruin, but stilla se I f-d estruction. Forexample, I workingplace, a smalltownnot wouldexpectto see Canada farfromthebigport, Mombasa.. fragmented inthenexthundred There he negotiated tofind a years,part ofit coming with the skillfulMuslimpilotwho would

33

4 0 take him to the ports on the coast so much upon what you do but of I ndia wherehewasbound. dependsonwhathappens Having made theCape,he knew afterwards, whether what you do is he could get there. But he wanted part of a visible continuous stream, localpilotage.He hiredthebest or is lookedatonlybythe pilot. I nfact,there was afamily scholarslateron who try to put of persons who livedin that port, the unfamiliar pieces together. who wereallgreat pilots up the COUSINS: coasttotheArabianGulf,and down the coast of India. He hired You'llhavetoforgive usifwe aman, and that man's diary,his can'tseeyour hands because of journal, isin our handsan able thelights,soifyou would just andliterateprofessionalnavigator sta nd up and speak, we'd be and pilot. Nowthe remarkable grateful.Arethere questions, thingthat I want totell isnot please? Yes, sir. thatfact;that'sjust the context. Butthatpilot'sgrandfather,that FLOOR: veryman's grandfather,hadbeen hiredinthe same port 50 years I'dlike to ask the members of the panel.I n the past, exploration has beforeas a pilot,by aChinese fleet that had come the other way usuallybeen followedbyother boundforthe unknown Cape of membersofsocietyfollowingin explorers;for Good Hope, butneverquitegot thepathsofthe started there. The Chinese admiralwas example, Captain Cousteau makingsuccessivevoyages justas peopleunderwaterswimming and Henry didlater,until the political diving and now it's a very popular a situa ti on back home in China pastime. .1 wouldliketoask two-folded question here: ch a nged. We cannotfindgreat kindof t r ea su re f leets ofthe Chinese What do you think in the future, fa rth er downthe coast than inthe same kind of time period somewherearoundMombasa.But we are discussing toward the next oftheUnitedStates, there's a feelingthat maybe one centennial junktriedit.On the famous Fra might be theroleofthe widest Mauromap,itactually says sectionof society in following the that "AjunkoftheIndies footsteps of the explorers into the cr ossedtheCapein solarsystem? And thena second But that'sstill question,Howfar do you think 1460 something." our exploration might range? Also: co njectural. We don't have the documents. Both in Lisbon and in Arethereany limits? Can we bureauc:ats reachthestars?Can we colonize Pekingthesucceeding the galaxy? Can we travel between inlargepart destroyedthefiles. the galaxies? We have a veryhardtime reconstructing those times. Allthis COUSINS: isto say in the first place that we of the West have no monopoly on Thankyouverymuch sir.The discovery. Ours isthediscovery wordsthatstandoutfromthat thathappenedtoremain qu esti on,of course, are "the continuous; it doesn't really depend future" and "What do you think?"

& 34 That points to Ray Bradbury, first Now this is a practicalthingin of al I. which many large groups of people will be involved.If we do it right, BRADBURY: itwillbea true example and we Doyouwantthe10-minuteor can change the fates of our world. I think it.I'msure 2-hourresponse?F irstofallon we can do the earlier questionI'llten you a going totry!Now, what was the otherquestion? Oh thefuture? fascinatingthingthatisgoing on right now that I'm helping out on. Wen,yes! We are going out into theUniverse,ofcourse. We go Oneof thereasons that I am there because we lovelife. We go optimisticisthat there are lots of terrifiedof peopleinthe world, includingall therebecause we are of us hereontheplatform death. We go therebecause as tonight. who aredoingthingsto Ahab said, "This was rehearsed by try to change the future. We really thee and me abillion years before careabout thatfuture. So during the oceans rolled."It's inour the last several months I've become genetics. We are set by genetics to involvedwiththeDisney dothisthing.So wearegoing organization thatisgoing to build ou t. I messentiallyoptimistic a small cityofthefuturein aboutit,and we will makeit. I Florida during the next 10 or 12 don't know how far out into the years, a prototype which win hold galaxy we wih make it, but indeed about 50 000 people and will bring we win. i n studentsfrom all overthe COUSINS: world. I t w ill be a college comniunity,actually.Andifthe One more question, please. city works,i f we can lookatit, we canput in 12 kindsof FLOOR: tran spo rtation instead of being Gentleman, my nameis R ichard locked intotheautomobile. We Rody.I'mfromPalm Springs.It canputinsolarenergy. We can tookallthe exploratory energy I putinhydrogenenergy. We can couldmuster togetmyself from u se an the energy sources we there to here. But aside from that haven'tyetused.That prototype I was wonderingwhatdoyou citywillbeone moreofwhat thinkthesignificancewillbeof Schweitzer called the Example. Set thefindingsofnext week not an example, pointtoit.Then between now and the end of the three hundred years from now, but next week asfar asthefuture century, build300more small extensionof the space program is towns across yourcountry and concerned?Youfeelthat we save the people. We wouldbegin if to airlift people out of New York findlife on Mars that thisis going City,ai-hft them outofDetroit, to inspire our country to do more airlift tnem outofChicago!The oracceleratetherateof exploration? poorthingsaredyingthere! We arebusyairliftingpeople outof COUSINS: othercountries,butwehaven't begun to do it here! Any volunteers?

35

4 2 MICHENER: e nv ironment. Those species that were born immortal disappeared at for I wouldI ike to reiteratethat thefirstchangesinour me alldepend upon itdoes not env ironment. So I believe that findinglife on Mars. 1 think that biological immortality is possible explore whateveristhere we can and I thinkthat we are going to and then build fromit and go cn learnsoon how to achieveitfor andon; I seeno diminution of ourselves. When I sayverysoon, this exercise. I think we may have of cou r se,itmay be several a dropinpublic support for the hundred years. But biologyis now I 'm so time being. That'swhy i n fullthrottleand is already excited, so interested, about publ ic beginning to manipulate genes with support,because I don't want to verygreatcare.In a number of seeit drop. But if you go back to hundred years we willbe able to 1960 and counterlogeverything create immortal man. That doesn't thathas happened since 1960, the mean that he will not die, because rateisso tremendous that I can't therewillalways be accidents. He see stoppingit. We may stop it in could becrushed anddestroyed. the United States,but then China Hewillnot age and he willnot willpick itup;therearevery die. Forthatreasonhewillbe brightpeople over there.Ifthey able totravelforthousandsof dropitinChina, Russia will pick years,ifnecessary, to reach other itup. We are not bound to one galaxies. group inthe Los Angeles area at all. COUSINS: COUSINS: We will make an exception. I believeyouwantto ask a Captain Cousteau .. . question, sir. COUSTEAU: FLOOR: Therewasonequestionofthe previous inquirer that has not been Okay, my name is Mike Van Ness. I was wondering answered.He specificallyaskedif I'm a student and we would be capable of going far aboutthetheologicalimplications outintotheuniverse. Ray of,wellnot only the results that Bradburyhassaid, "Yes" without will come backfrom Viking, but ofthis sa y i ng how. I'm sure he has alsobehind thespirit thousands of solutions. But let me qu estionofwhy manexplores about challenging absolutes. What is tellyouwhat my solutionis. I believeverymuch that inthe this going to do for man's future? courseofthreebillionyearsof evolution, some species, a great COUSINS: nu m be r o f species, have been I n theological terms? created immortal because the aging processanddeath aretheonly VAN NESS: wayyetthatthe speciescould adjusttochangesinour Yes. 4 3 36 BRADBURY: You Jonahs travelling in the belly of a new-made whale,

May I try that? You swimmers in the far sea of Space, Blaspheme not against yourself or the frightening COUSINS: twins of yourself you find amongst the stars. But ask to understand the miracle which is Certainly. Space, Time, and Life in the high attics and lost BRADBURY: birthing places of eternity. "Woe to you if you do not find all life most holy Happen to have another poem with And coming to lay yourself down cannot say, me. I wrote about arobot priest 'Oh, Father God, you waken me, I waken thee. in a playseveralyears ago.This Immortal We then walk upon the waters electronicprieststands upbefore of Deep Space in the new morn which thestarshipmen beforetheygo Names itself Forever." out into Space. He makes a speech similar to that of Father Mapple in Moby Dick. And the robot priest COUSINS: says: To thegentleman who asked the

question: I don't think that, when "Is God dead? An old question now, Viking goes to Mars,itwill be on But once hearing itI laughed and said, a collisioncoursewiththeology. 'No, not dead, but simply sleeping until Science at its best provides us with you chattering bores shut up.' betterquestions,notabsolute "A better question is, 'Are you dead? answers. The more we know, the Does the blood move in your hand? m ore informed we are in our Does that hand move to touch metal? speculations;butthespeculations Does that metal move to touch Space? willcontinue. Tonightwe have Do wild thoughts of travel and migration attemptedtoaskourselves, "Why

move behind your flesh?' They do. ex plore?" I think we have You live. Therefore, God lives. attempted to express the view that You are the thin skin of life upon an t he liberationof human beings unsensing Earth. from Earth gravity has enabled the You are that growing edge of God which speciesto becomelesstheoretical manifests itself in hungers for Space. about andless detached from the "So much of God lies vibrantly asleep. u n iverse. As a resultof these The very stuffs of worlds and galaxies, explorations, we have been able to

they know not themselves. perceive larger relationships. I think But here God stirs in His sleep. You we willhave an increased sense of are that stirring. He wakes. human uniqueness. You are that wakening. God reaches for the stars. You are His hand. The effectisphilosophical. To be Creation manifest, You go in search. He goes able to rise from the Earth; to be to find. You go to find Himself. able, from a station in outer space, Everything you find alone the way, therefore, to see the relationshipofthe will be holy. planetEarthtootherplanets; to "On far worlds you will meet your own flesh, be able to contemplate the gift of terrifying and strange, but still your own. life unencumbered by proximity; to Treat it well. Beneath the shape you share the be able to meditate on journeying Godhead. through aninfinity of galaxies; to 4 4

37 be able to dwell on the encounter an d, beyond that, the universe of the human brain and spirit with withthesensethatthey can be theuniverse allthis enlarges the unafraid oftheirfellowhumans human horizon.It also offers proof and can facechoicesnotwith thattechnologyissubordinateto dread but with great expectatioi human imagination.We wentto Don Hearth. Marsnotbecauseofour technology,but because ofour imagination. HEARTH: Solongas human beings do not Itisvery hardtoconcludethis persuadethemselvesthatthey are evening, but we must. I would just creatu.res offailure, so long as liketo express to Norman and to theyhave avisionoflife as it th e restofthepanelmy ought tobe,so long as they can appreciationfortheircoming this comprehendthefullmeaning and evening and sharingtheir thoughts power of the unfettered mind, so on a very difficult question. Thank long as theycandoallthese you very much. That concludes the things, they can look at the world program. -

4 5

38 NASA-Lang1cy, ;3711 0 03 Ur, cir) Rd, cr,z

03 _C c