XTTOBER 1980 $; SECOND ANNIVERSARY ISSUE COLLECTOR'S EDITION HUMAN EVOLUTION: FUTURE onnruiOCTOBER 1980 EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EXECUTIVE EDITOR: BEN BOVA ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING ED:"CR J. ANDERSON DQRMAN FICTION EDITOR: ROBERT SHECKLEY EUROPEAN EDITOR- [R iitRNARD >XON DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: BEVERLEY WARDALE EXECUTIVE ViCE-PRES DENT IPVvlX I- 3ILLMAN ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (INT'L). FRANCO ROSSELLINI CONTENTS PAGE FIRST WORD Opinion Kathy Keelon f> EARTH Environment Kenneth Brewer 16 MIND Behavior R. Webster and L. Miner 18 SPACE Astronomy Jerry Grey 20 24 VIDEO/FILM The Arte LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 28 UFO UPDATE Report James Qberg 30 CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 COUNTDOWN TO HABITAT ONE Art,cle John Pleiffer 44 52 TO PAY FOR THE FUTURE Article James S. Albus THE MARCHING MORONS Refer. C. M. Kornblulh 56 PREDESTINATIONS Article David Rorvik 6B' 74 PRAIRIE SUN fiction Edward Bryant 82 ECOSHELTER ArliCie H. Bruce McColm TORRENTS OF BABEL Article Edwin Newman 88 HAUTAVAARAS CASE Rctkxi Philip K Dick 92 100 SWEPT AWAY Pictorial Kathleen McAulitte THE GOD IN SCIENCE FICTION Arficte Ray Bradbury 106 CYRIL PONNAMPERUMA Interview Eileen Zalisk 114 11B NOBLE SAVAGE Pictorial L. Sprague de Camp . FUTURE VIEWS Opmions Various Authors 124 EASY POINTS Fiction Kathleen V. Westfall 128 STARS Astronomy Patrick Moore 174 EXPLORATIONS Travel Kenneth Jon Rose 176 PEOPLE Names and Faces Dick Teresi 1B0 BIRTH OF AN ISLAND Phenomena Nicholas DeVore 190 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 192 LAST WORD Opinion Isaac Aslmov 194 The visual etfect oi Fred-Jurgan Rogner's cover painting is due to a special daylight fluorescent "B treatment that provides the brightest ink in printing. Limited G;C"D'iO-5 U.S AFO-J'S!)': rail- V3S-. avail- quantities of this cover are • i 'f:M ' able as a poster. Send $5 to Omni : .-- s:\ei-~: Art Department, 90S Third in^E^EtMfje". c! ;-- --'- ca-.'.-s -5-5: J- Avenue, Wew York, NY 10022. A OMNI Frai - : - - itfiis magazine' .-- - : .:" per _ sfoetefti r Bot .. -. Ttej ep resent Or. :"":-" .' .- "- : fh-e fifsi visuc s 'forever unsteka 1 :. i rhpicying, smono FIRST oiher ifungs, '.ho LAJDRD By Kathy Keeton » Space science is the £'t'nrs.-.nation.pri\i ' - single most 2ns such.as the magnificent instrument of scientific • inquiry the human race has ever produced'.?' ' QruiruiBU! One hundred twenty- - Evolution. David Rorvik. the controversial author for 28 years, appea.-ng rcgu.arly on Today. one years afterCharles Darwin oilnHisImage The Cloning of a Man MeetthePress, and NBC Update. Read published his landmark Origin of (Lippincott, 1978). talks about mankind's "Torrents of Babel," beginning on page 88. Species, that single word continues either firmest grip on evolution— the ability to James S. Albus, a robot-building scientist to evoke controversy or to inspire revela- engineer one's own future through working at the National Bureau of Stand- tion. Hundreds of books devoted to the genetics. In "Predestinations" (page 66) ards, examines the future implications subject attest to the importance we place Rorvik explores trie .5";o„s ;e"e" : of a robot-based economy in "To Pay for on the future'course of our own species. frontiers, from gene splicing to test-tube the Future" (page 52). fey Bradbury. Still, not enough has been said. The fertilization. "We should be hopeful but perhaps the best-known science- fiction startling breakthroughs of today alter cautious," Rorvik warns. "We basically writer in the world, examines the future of tomorrow's realities in ways no one has yet have to decide whether the perils out- religious concepts in "The God in Science imagined. Therefore, it seemed appro- weigh the progress." With a tinge of the Fiction" (page 108). The irrepressible priate in -his. our second -anniversary, muckraker. Rorvik asserts. ""Scientists Isaac certainly Asimov , the world's best- issue to peer ahead and try to get a underrate the public's ability to grasp known writer of science fact, offers a Last bearing on destiny. A team of the world's these issues." Rorvik began as Time Word about one slight genetic alteration most knowledgeable and most gifted magazi first ne's free-roving science that could solve all Ihe human problems futurists agreed to serve as our guides. reporter, but he left in 1970 to pursue we find so perplexing (page 194). In "Countdown to Habital One" (page politically oriented issues. Since then Many of these problems become meta- 44) the celebrated science writer John Rorvik's information crusade has taken phors in C. M. Kombluth's "The Marching Pfeiffer compares the future of human him on lecture tours all over the world. Morons" (page 58), a science-fiction evolution to the takeoff of a rocket. We "even to the intellectual backwaters." treasure that is as timely now as when have just reacned the 'ignition" stage. Acclaimed television newsman and it was first published in 1951. and soon we will propel ourselves rapidly commentator Edwin Newman reveals how Boris Vallejo. an illustrator who enjoys toward the stars. "I think a lot about the the English language is evolving even as international acclaim, collaborated with future," Pfeiffer muses. The Yale graduate we speak ii. Unforlunately, according to fantasy, science-fiction, and historical speaks wifh heartening enthusiasm. "You Newman. Ihe American way of speaking Writer L Sprague de Camp to create an might as well be an optimist: its no fun tho English has fallen into the hands of disc alluring pictorial entitled "Noble Savage" oi'iei way." Originally trained in physics jockeys and teachers, bureaucrats (page 1 18). Vallejo in his superbly crafted and mathematics. Pfeiffer switched to "the and electronic computers. Though most oils has almost singlehandedly forged our -oro comolex" social sciences. "I've journalists been are exceptionally aware of composite image of the magnificent bar- shifting to where the problems are." he words, Newman has surfaced as a kind barian (for instance, Conan and Tarzan of quipped. Pfeiffer has handled those prob- of protector of English usage. His two the Apes). lems well, The Emergence of Man (Harper books on language. S; hctw Speaking: Will Finally, of course, there are more pic- & Row. 1969) will soon appear in its fourth America Be Ihe Death oftnoiish? (Bobbs- torials, columns, special features, and edition (under'ihe title Emergence), its and Merrill. 1974) and A Civil Tongue (Bobbs- gripping fiction to help us celebrate sequel. The tmagence of Society, Merrill, 1976), are national bestsellers. Omni's second birthday. They're all yours continues to engross readers. Newman has been an NBC correspondent to examine, to ponder, to enjoy! DO e OMNI LETTERS CDnnnnuruicMTorLis Robot Precedent Face the Facts Ben Bovaand Harlan Ellison now join I was shocked by Omni's decision to use Isaac Asimov as patron saints of robotics, Craig Covault's essay "Universe Red" as following their legal battle with ABC and the lead story in the August issue. This is Paramount. In defending trie copyright not 1960. You can no longer use the Red on their short sfory "Brillo." which they Menace as jusfification for another space claimed had been infringed by the race in the 1980s. ABC/Paramount TV series Future Cap , Since the late 1960s we have learned they set a precedent. Albert Judge that cooperation— not competition — is Stevens ruled that robots have the same the most desirable method of space re- status as humans when used as char- search Because of the Soviet invasion of acters in stories and are protected Afghanistan U.S.-Soviet cooperation has by the copyright laws. This may be the cooled. I have the impression that Covault first time robots have ever been legally is exploiting current international tension equated with human beings hi any to enlarge NASA's budget during a connection. Surety this case will be cited presidential election year. centuries hence when robots seek legal Frankly, it is irresponsible to fan anti- recognition of their "personhood' It is Soviet hysteria when rational cooperation ;-= i.-i- zz- -.t .=z =:-=: "e -;: is needed for mutual survival. subsequently dec-de to found their own Bradley G.Englert nation, they will choose a steel-wool Austin, Tex. scouring pad as their n.a&onal embiern. Bova and Ellison can be proud We're sorry you didn't like Mr. Covault's = --, - Z -;. report, but we're much sorrier that the "'-. ''-"" Soviet Union has less use for "rational cooperation" than for killer satellites and Some Consolation military might And we're sorriest of all that I wish to clear up the c*d question. Which many Americans, such as you, refuse to is hotter, heaven c hetP Verse 26 of face even the most obvious facts. — Ed. Chapter 30 of Isaiah defcies the energy radiated heavenward by the su^ and In His Image moon in terms of the amount received by Sandy Shakocius s letter [July 1980] that the earth: "Moreover me Sght from the suggests cioning Jesus Christ from a cell moon shall be sevenfoid as the *ght from taken from the Turin Shroud is misleading. seven days." While science might permit this (and I Thus, heaven receives from fre moo- as would indeed be interested in knowing much energy as the earth does from the what He looked like). I doubt the newly sun. If we add to that 49 times ('seven resurrected Jesus would be performing times seven") the earth's solar radiation any miracles. Duplication of a human falling on heaven, we have a total of 50 body is a far cry from duplication of a times the energy we receive from the sun. mind. If Ms. Shakocius's proposals were Using a known absolute temperature of realistic, we could make 100 copies of the earth and the Slefan-Boltzmann Albert Einstein and solve all ihe mysteries fourth-power law, we arrive at the de- of the universe! If Ms.