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FM-2030
I have often been told that I am too optimistic about the future. How can anyone be too optimistic? My regret is that I am not optimistic enough. (ix) Unfortunately most projections of the future are pessimistic. Western intellectuals in particular hobbled by puritan guilt and self-doubts flood the world with books and films and scenarios foredooming the future. To them our successes and potentials are not real. Only our failures. Their reactionary outlook has helped make people afraid of progress and the future. "If the future is so bleak" is the unconscious reasoning "why think about it? Safer to hide in the womb of the past or of mother nature.” We must develop a bold new philosophy of the future. A hopeful outlook which can embolden people to want to face the future. To want to plan for it. (x)
Lengthy guidelines may have been possible in slower times. Today we cannot and should not even attempt to structure the future through elaborate plans. Our increasingly fluid times demand fluid guidelines. (xi)
Nature governs all life on this planet. Today so far as we know for the first time since the emergence of life on this planet all these premises are being challenged. (5)
To transcend more rapidly to higher levels of evolution we must begin by breaking out of the confinement of traditional ideologies. (6)
Right and Left – even the extreme Left – are traditional frameworks predicated on traditional premises striving in obsolete ways to attain obsolete goals. . . . It is no longer only the Right that is conservative. The entire Left is also suddenly conservative. . . . They still like to view themselves and are viewed by others as progressive. This is precisely where the danger lies. This is one of the main reasons for resistances to more rapid progress. In the name of progress the liberal and the radical Left-winger resist progress. They resist because the new breakthroughs do not fit into their highly structured frameworks and confined goals. Every breakthrough is viewed as a threat. Every new idea viciously attacked as anti-human simplistic utopian. It is particularly important to recognize that the liberal and the radical Left are the new gradualists – the new conservatives. . . . What effrontery calling themselves progressive. What self-delusion. Those who do not believe in progress or in the future have not deserved the right to call themselves progressive. (7-8)
Up is an entirely new framework whose very premises and goals transcend the conventional Right and Left. (9)
. . . We are at the beginning of two major upheavals – 1. The Planetary Movement. Through this movement the Up-Winger wants to do away with age-old social systems. What are these systems? Biological parenthood marriage family school money work bureaucratic-government nations. Not simply to modernize these archaic systems – to do away with them altogether. . . . 2. The Cosmic Upheaval. Here the Up-Winger proceeds from the premise that we are now ascending to a higher evolution and that therefore it is no longer enough to resolve age-old social economic political problems – we must urgently overcome the more basic tyrannies of nature the arbitrariness of evolution the limitations of the human body the confinements of Time and Space. (9-10)
Space programs and biological advances in capitalist and socialist countries are outgrowths of modern science and technology – not of Right-wing or Left-wing ideologies. We are extending ourselves in Space and in Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right-Left Capitalist-Socialist establishments have used their Space programs chiefly to advance their nationalistic militaristic hangups. They still do not comprehend the evolutionary impact of the Space dimension. (10)
The Right-Left establishment wants to maintain an evolutionary status quo. It is resigned to humanity's basic predicament. It simply strives to make life better within this predicament. Up-Wingers are resigned to nothing. They accept no human predicament as permanent no tragedy as irreversible no goals as unattainable. (10-11)
To be Up you must sever all ideological ties with Right-Left establishment. You must make a break the traditional concept of linear historical progress. That is now too slow and limited. . . . Conservatism liberalism Left-wing radicalism will continue to become indistinguishable – they are all conservative. They are all Down. (11)
Optimism as a philosophy is squarely predicated one central development: our emerging situation in Time and Space. Suddenly the barriers are coming down. Suddenly humankind's situation is not circumscribed or limited. Not intramundane and finite. For the very first time our potentials have become totally limitless. Our future open-ended. Everything is now suddenly possible. Everything attainable. . . . (14-15)
Social economic political progress does not by itself justify a philosophy of optimism. . . . The optimism of a Goethe a Nietzsche or a Marx was necessarily a limited optimism based on historical progress. It was an optimism within a basically pessimistic human situation. But the optimism I have been advancing is not based simply on historical progress. It is primarily and ultimately predicated on our evolutionary breakthroughs. . . . (15)
In our preoccupation with daily domestic problems we tend all too often to lose sight of these transcendent dimensions now opening up to us. It is therefore not surprising that we persist in our traditional posture of pessimism. An age cannot be defined by the detail of everyday events. The broader currents are what finally mark an age. These broad and ever broadening currents mark ours as the First Age of Optimism. (15-16)
Anger over our lingering problems is fine. Anger can be a positive force. But pessimism defeatism – never. Pessimism is reactionary and leads to apathy. "What use" the pessimist reasons "human nature is hopelessly evil the world is rotten – why try? The hell with the world. I will think only of myself." . . . Don't listen to the pessimists and the cynics. They are losers They don't even feel they deserve happiness. If we had listened to them we would still be in caves. Don't listen to those who say it can't be done. Remember the pessimists throughout the centuries who were absolutely sure that the world was about to end. Remember those who were absolutely sure that conquests and colonialism would never end. That we would never have a United Nations that Common Markets would never succeed that global communication would never happen . . That we would never have a six-day workweek that we would never have a five-day workweek never a four-day workweek. . . That life expectancy could never go beyond forty never beyond fifty never beyond sixty never beyond seventy . . . That we could never be like birds and fly that we could never reach the moon that we could never that we would never that we will never . . . I am fed up with these messengers of doom. Don't listen to those who say it can't be done. Listen to those who say it can be done. Listen to the optimists. Optimism appeals to the noblest emotions – idealism trust confidence. Pessimism appeals to the basest – guilt shame fear self-hate. Optimism is visionary. Pessimism reactionary. Pessimism is Anti-Future. (19-20)
The whole history of humanity is irrefutable proof of the triumph of optimism over pessimism. The triumph of the doers over the withholders. The triumph of individuals with burning visions who through the ages been prodding and pushing their fellow humans up and up from the abyss from one level of history to the next. Today we are preparing to take giant evolutionary leaps into fantastic beautiful worlds. There is no room for pessimism no room for the Old World psychology of despair. We have come too far triumphed over too many impossible barriers disproven too many timid alarmists to allow ourselves now to remain bogged down in negativism. For the very first time we have the ability and the resources to resolve all our age-old problems. More important we have the potential to up-wing to a higher evolution. What we need today is intelligent planning commitment vision. With these we can now achieve anything. (20)
We are all under the impact of millennia of conditioning. We feel impelled to have a family impelled to have children. Impelled to have a home. Impelled to send children to school. Impelled . . . impelled . . . We accept these traditions as incontrovertible. Consider them biological imperatives seldom questioning them more deeply. Do you really need a family at all? Do you really need marriage? Do you need children? A home? A school? (25)
The craving for marriage family home is chiefly a craving for structure. This craving probably begins in the mother's womb – the first structure. (There is not much we can do now about this earliest structure. Within forty or fifty years we will do away with procreation altogether. We will perpetuate life in the living and this pathological craving for womb-structures may be slowly deprogrammed out of us. Still later future-people may not crave any structures – not even planets.) If the womb is the first structure the second is the family. But in providing a kind of womb-like security the family in reality perpetuates in the individual lifelong vulnerability to insecurity. (25-26)
Attempts are under way to modernize marriage – Trial-marriage serial-marriage group-marriage open-marriage celibate-marriage . . . These timid gropings do not go to the roots of our family problems. Those who advocate these alternatives are like the reformers within the church. Reforms are no longer enough. Marriage itself must go. (26)
Marriage in any form is an inherently primitive system. No variation will work. You cannot modernize such a system. . . . All family systems are monopolistic and exclusivist. This is true of the extended-family the polygamous and polyandrous families the nuclear family the Kibbutz the cooperative the commune. The exclusivity varies in degrees. . . . The very exclusivity of parent-child relationships is unsound. Even where the parent is loving the relationship is intrinsically unsound. The damage is built into the exclusivity of the relationship between parent and child. The infant is early conditioned to the realization that its survival depends on its relationship with the all-important mother. (Or specific mother substitutes.) It is at this earliest stage that the child is conditioned to predicate its survival on a one-to-one relationship. Without my mother I will die. My mother. This is the first act of possessiveness. It means survival to the infant. But long after its survival-linked value has been outgrown its imprint persists and is transferred to others. Without my mother I will die develops into: without my wife (or my husband or lover) I will die. . . . Loneliness bitterness depression hysteria trauma beatings killings suicide. All because of love – fixated love. Fixated on that initial survival-linked love of the mother which leaves the individual forever vulnerable. All this suffering makes no sense. In a world full of people it makes no sense that we suffer loneliness depression or panic over the disruption of one relationship. (27-28)
. . . In possessing a child you create in it the lifelong need to possess and the lifelong need to be possessed. To possess a child is to render it dependent on your continued possession. In other words to make it possessive. . . . The individual who wants to possess and be possessed is never free never at peace. (28)
Conflicts among people have not been spurred so much by hatred as by love – possessive love exclusive love. Every day people kill for love. They kill or hurt their husbands wives lovers. They kill for the love of the motherland or fatherland. They kill for the love of their clan religion gods. Patriotism chauvinism ethnocentricism racism – these (30) are all variations of possessive love. My country my people . . . The initial conditioning to such political and nationalistic exclusivities starts in the exclusive family. . . . (29-30)
The love we develop in our exclusive family systems is too desperate and fragile. It is a narrow vulnerable love built on exclusivity not inclusivity. The family is a disruptive destructive system. (30)
If you are a parent you are a monopolizer of human life. You are a monopolist whether you are a gentle loving parent or a cruel one. You are a monopolist because you own your child. (31)
As the old family systems are breaking down two trends are emerging. Single living and communal living. Living alone is a new concept. It is a rejection of age-old patterns of tribal and family life. A rejection of monopolizations and exclusivities inherent to all kinship ties. Singling is an attempt to assert independence and achieve fluidity. A way of maximizing opportunities to maintain psychological sexual professional economic political freedoms. Precisely because of its newness some singlers are having difficulties breaking away from the age-old conditioning to family life. Loneliness boredom estrangement are problems some experience as they learn to make the transition to the new universal life. (32)
The modern commune is a vast improvement over old exclusivist family systems. It is the first break with hereditarianism. In the modern commune the members choose their fellow communards. They are not foisted on one another by coincidences of biological birth. . . . At this stage however modern communes are still too structured. As a rule communards settle too long in one place and within a fixed group. Invariably this leads to some of the exclusivities of the old family systems. This is particularly injurious to commune children. . . . (33-34)
The de-structuring of our societies may at first seem threatening because we are all molded by structures and therefore feel that we cannot do without them that there will be loneliness chaos disorder. The fact is that there can be more love more security more freedom and communication in a fluid unstructured world than was ever possible in the old fragmented world of families tribes nations and other structures. . . (34-35)
Let us begin by de-structuring the commune. Let us strive for a more fluid commune – a trans-commune. . . . To settle in a fixed place with a fixed group of people or in a fixed job is to fester. It is to thwart your potential for growth. Up-individuals do not settle in a home a commune or a homeland. Rather they move and evolve and transit and shuttle and glide and jet and rocket and float all over the planet. They are not part of a commune a home or a homeland. But part of the whole planet. They are part of the Universal Process. . . . (35-36)
We need a word suggesting motion and fluidity. Mobilia. Mobilia is simply a stopover – any place the individual who wishes to be unalone may stop at to peers and with children. . . . (36)
Are you in love? Are you involved? Are you married? Whose man are you? Whose woman? Do go with someone? These are all anti-universal. The Up-individual has many involvements many relationships many loves. Once you have outgrown the primitive-childhood hang-up of exclusive love you will find fluid love the more humanized. Do not look for some one to love. Look for some ones to love. . . . (40)
Creating a new life is too important a decision to leave to one individual or couple. The concept of individual rights in procreation is primitive. We need collective planning collective procreation collective child-rearing. It is no longer enough to give children suitable environments after they are born. We must give each newborn a chance to start life with healthy genes. This is where the quality of each human life is first determined. We must decrease the quantity and increase the quality of newborn life. (40-42)
Having a child today is an act of supreme selfishness. It is the ultimate indulgence in narcissism. . . . There is no such thing as a biological drive to reproduce. Having children is a cop-out from life. We must spread the awareness that people can now find fulfillment and love in new ways such as becoming involved in the Universal Family – the children and adults who are already here. Instead of indulging yourself having a child indulge yourself by traveling. Don't feed your narcissism. Feed the hungry of the world. . . . The world is still full of unfed unhoused unloved. They are now your children. (42-44)
We must jointly decide how many new lives the world can accommodate every week every month every year. We must jointly participate in procreation by using our healthiest sex cells. We must jointly be involved in child-rearing. . . . Let every newborn belong biologically and socially to the whole world. Only then can we end such primitive monopolies as my own mother my own father my own brother my own sister my own child my own people . . . . (47)
Space Age art like Space Age philosophy will continue to grow more and more cosmic and transcendent. The artist is now as obsolete as the priest. The artists of the new age are primarily the scientists and visionaries who strive for transcendence to new dimensions of Time and Space. (76)
No violent spectacles such as boxing wrestling bull-fighting American football. These spectacles perpetuate pseudomasculine glorification of brute force. People who enjoy watching such brutalities are as sick as the gladiators who engage in them. Instant Communities must also disallow competition in sports. No tournaments matches contests. . . People who play to win want to exercise their egos – not their bodies. Sports should emphasize fun not rivalry. We need no scores no winners no losers no medals. Only the reward of getting together to play – the joy of play. (76-77)
The Instant Community must not accommodate Old World institutions which perpetuate violence and harbor death. Prisons must give way to rehabilitation centers. Slaughterhouses must give way to nonviolent eating habits – eating meat is an act of violence. Cemeteries must give way to Immortality Centers which as I will later explain will help perpetuate life through longevity hibernation temporary suspension or other methods. (77)
The Instant Community must be extensively cybernated. Computerized housework and officework. Universalized education. Tele-medicine. Agro-industrial complexes. Long-distance TV shopping day and night. Automated transportation round the clock. This means no cumbersome hospitals schools shops department stores farms. This also means less and less bureaucracy less and less work. The Instant Community must be strongly oriented to leisure mobility fun. . . . (77)
The Space Age process of government is by Instant Universal Referendum. . . . (77)
We are all so thoroughly programmed by millenniums of struggle for survival that though we no longer need to struggle we still go on struggling. Our economic systems work habits cultural values all arise out of the age-old struggle for survival. Feudalism capitalism socialism are all survival economics. (79)
The new economics is not capitalism or socialism or even the new mixture of the two. The new economics is the new technology – automation computerization cybernation. (81)
Unemployment is no longer the problem. Employment is now the problem. We have the technology to do our work. Free the people so they can grow as humans rather than as working-machines. (83)
Cybernated economies also spread abundance based not on exclusive possession but on temporary usage. People need not own but briefly rent houses gardens villas yachts helicopters hovercrafts computers . . . Cybernation will spread abundance without significant redistribution of wealth. . . . We no longer need to redistribute anything. We need to develop the limitless energies and resources now suddenly opening up to us . . . (85)
People who work eight hours a day five days a week year after year decade after decade are automatons. They may advance professionally but hardly evolve as humans. Whole areas of their minds and personalities remain stunted. They are one-dimensional. But I enjoy my work, you say. The point is that if all you enjoy is your work you are limiting your experiences and enjoyments. Your life is still one-dimensional. The new demand should no longer be we want jobs. Rather WE WANT LEI5URE. More and more LEISURE. (86)
How can you the Up-Winger be an effective participant in this spreading planetary movement? Begin by consciously disavowing your nationality. . . . In refusing to identify with a country you are taking the first conscious public stand against nationality. You are identifying with all humankind. . . . From here on we recognize no national borders. All countries now belong to all peoples of this planet. No government has the right to bar anyone from leaving or entering any territory. To place restrictions on our freedom of movement is a violation of our human rights. Passports visas exit permits residency rights – all these formalize restrictions on our freedom of movement across this planet which now belongs to all of us. Reject all claims to "internal affairs." We must regard any nation's affairs as exclusively internal or domestic. We want more and more involvement in all affairs of other nations. This is our planet – anything occurring anywhere is everybody's affair. (91-92)
If you are studying languages you are wasting your time. Not contributing to the planetary movement. National languages are inoperative in our converging world. French German Spanish Arabic Hebrew Swahili Urdu – all these are dying languages. . . . Today English and Chinese approximate universality. English has distinct advantages. It is the language of international relations modern technology world trade. It is spoken on all continents and is relatively easy to learn. In the next three or four decades English will serve as the universal language – Unilang. . . . (92-93)
On all continents there are now strong movements toward regional cooperation. These multinational ventures need support. Above all get behind the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies. . . . The United Nations is your world government. It is your own government – not simply your country's. You must become personally involved in it. The U.N. charter begins We the Peoples of the United Nations . . . The Peoples – not the governments. Your national government is after its own petty national interests. That is why the United Nations has had difficulties. For you the Up-Winger your government is the United Nations. You must deal directly with your world government helping and strengthening it. (93)
Do not boycott countries whose governments you oppose. Those are precisely the lands to frequent. In boycotting a country you boycott and isolate its people weaken the channels of global communication strengthen the government and perpetuate the status quo. (97)
The greatest movements today are outside politics. The most progressive changes take place in spite of governments. The planetary movement is for the most part beyond the scope of national governments. Politics is no longer the most effective way to change the world. . . . Gone are the days when the government controlled everything. In today's open fluid world the government is only one of many forces influencing events. Global communication for example is a far more powerful force generating its own pace and momentum radicalizing and diversifying all our institutions values life styles. (97-98)
The planetary movement is totally committed to life. There is no cause no goal no ideal worth dying for. Nothing is worth your life. If any movement jeopardizes your life – forget it. Try another way. If anyone exhorts you to any kind of violence get away him. He is not an Up-Winger but part of the old spirit the old tactics the old masochistic death-oriented philosophies and revolutions. The Up-winger is totally nonviolent totally committed to life. To the Up-Winger Life itself is the greatest Revolution. (99)
We must begin to comprehend that living in other worlds and living eternally are no longer metaphysical or theological concepts. People are now actually traveling to other worlds people are now actually striving for physical immortality. . . . We must make everyone aware that Time and Space are the most basic determinants of all life impinging on all aspects of life – from birth to death. They are the root causes of the deepest human suffering – unfreedom robotization inequalities competitiveness violence loneliness identity crisis alienation . . . Parent-child conflicts sexual inequalities social injustices economic imbalances political repressions – these are not the primary determinants of human suffering. They are contributory causes themselves created by the twin pressures of Time and Space. . . . (105-106)
We are all so totally focused on social economic conditions that we never pause to consider freedom and repression in a more basic human context. We are like the shipboard passenger vehemently demanding a better cabin or the freedom to stroll on the first-class deck – on a sinking ship. . . . (106)
What good social freedoms when life itself is based on unfreedom? . . . What good then social economic political freedoms if I cannot enjoy the more primary freedom to free my self from the prison cell of this unwanted body personality brain? How free if I cannot decide if I cannot even know when I will die? What does freedom mean to a terminal patient? In one blow death strikes down all freedoms. Death is Zero freedom. . . . What good freedom to move all over the planet if a mere twelve-foot fall can kill me? What good freedom to sail the open seas if a pint of water in my lungs can drown me? . . . All my attempts at psychological economic political self-determination are child's play. They will not bring me real freedom. They will not set me free. (106-108)
Is there a manipulation more arbitrary than that of environment which without any consultation with me or you decides the seasons the heat of the summer the cold of winter the cycles of night and day light and darkness decides when it will rain or shine when it will unleash a hurricane or an earthquake? . . . The very people who rebel against manipulations by political regime or an economic system obediently even cheerfully accept the more repressive manipulations of biology and environment. "Why do want to make genetic alterations in the human body or implant electrodes?" protests a radical political activist. "What is wrong with the body as it is? Why fight death? When my time comes I'll go. Why control the environment? It is more exciting not to know when it will rain or snow or shine. I like the variety of seasons anyway." But what variety? Variety imposed by environment not by you. People obediently accept such basic manipulations yet invest energy and time even their lives fighting human-made institutions which in relatively superficial ways manipulate them. There is no government no industrial-military complex no economic system no mass media which can ever reduce us to puppets and robots as the biological and environmental dictatorships have. (109-110)
We can continue gaining these equalities – social sexual economic political – but so long as there is no biological equality there can be no real equality. Biology is the primary perpetrator of inequality. People are born unequal. Not simply dissimilar – that is not bad. But unequal. . . . So long as some are born healthy others sickly some strong others weak some bright others dumb some beautiful others ungainly some cheerful others gloomy some vigorous others frail – in other words so long as these gross biological inequalities persist there can be no real equality only the perpetuation of rivalries jealousies conflicts . . . (111)
Not until we have defused the Time-bomb, the imminence of death, will we stop running. Only then will Time cease to matter only then will all competition and pressure become superfluous. For why run then? You can take your time. You have all the time ahead of you. It will never be late. (113)
Life is a relentless struggle against the violence of suffering and the violence of death. This lifelong struggle makes us deeply insecure and suspicious disposing us to violence toward one another. It is curious that we are not more violent. Not until we have remade – completely remade – the biological makeup of the human organism can we overcome our vulnerability to the ever-present threats of biological and environmental violence. (114)
Loneliness is not essentially a psychological or social problem. It is rather a biological reality. So long as we are separate biological entities there will be loneliness. So long as we are separate self-interest is unavoidable. (115)
I may be fortunate and have a graceful body a warm self-confident personality a vibrant mind. Still am caught in a monotony a fixity. Who at times has not grown monotonous to his own self? Only the rooted accepts his biological status. Only the static individual is content – or is it resigned? – to go through life pegged to inherited identities. The dynamic fluid individual wants biological diversity biological emancipation. He does not want only to be himself. That is too static too rooted. He wants the option to be also Andreas and Miriam and Emiliano and Yoshiku and Awolowowo and Jamileh and Stanley and Silvana and Sadruddin and . . . He wants to maximize his fluidity not simply by merging with different people but also having different kinds and shapes of bodies different colors and designs different admixtures of personalities and brains the option to plug into human-machine systems and be such systems. This is the biological freedom and fluidity we are striving for. (115-117)
I want to energize you to action precisely because now at last our tragic human situation can be and must be reversed. Until this stage in history we have run away from these fundamentals. They have been too tragic and we too helpless. At best we rationalized them through theologic fantasies and philosophic speculations. Our attention and energies have been focused instead on immediate social economic political problems. In other words unable to do anything about our sinking ship we have quarreled over cabin rights and household chores. The time has now come for us to confront our fundamental human situation. We now have the potential to overcome the basic tragedies and limitations. But first we must dare to think and act cosmically. We must dare to want to overcome. We must never again be resigned to the human condition. Never again resigned to suffering. All suffering is wasteful and diminishes the human. (120)
From here on we must work toward an entirely concept of the human. We must redo the human. To redo the human we must begin by redoing the human body. The body has been our greatest hangup. Our most serious obstacle to a higher evolution. . . . We must rebel against the vulnerability of the human body. We are all too exposed too fragile. At any instant we may be crippled or maimed for life. At any instant we may suddenly cease to exist. We all go through life on the edge of a precipice. One misstep – just one misstep – and we cease to exist forever. It is outrageous that such a beautiful phenomenon as life should be encased in such a fragile thing as the body. Life is now too precious too full of fantastic potentials to be at the mercy of such a precarious thing as our primitive body. (128-129)
The fusion of the human and the machine is gaining momentum. We will shed more and more of our animal organs and incorporate more and more human-created replacements. Will all this lead to artificial people? Absolutely not. All this is leading to human-created people. The more we humans remake our bodies the more human we will grow. We have been pre-human. . . . (134)
It is our animal-human body that is now artificial. It cannot even keep up with our human visions and dreams. We ourselves can create far more versatile durable beautiful bodies. (135)
The most urgent human problem facing us is death. We must start from here. All other social problems are secondary. When we speak of priorities what is more urgent than this all-encompassing problem of death? (137)
Phase One. Stop-gap measures to forestall death. These include – Anti-aging Measures. . . . Suspended Animation. . . . Long-term Hibernation. . . . Cloning. . . . Life-suit. Phase Two. The actual attainment of immortality. This is a longer-range movement – Genetic Engineering. . . . Cyborg. . . . (138-139)
Once we attain immortality we will no longer need to procreate. We will strive to regenerate and perfect the living. Moreover as already noted in the coming years we will continue to spread out inhabiting deserts and oceans, space stations and other planets. Space is limitless. What about boredom and stagnation? These problems are predicated on our age-old conditioning and limited existences. Immortality and Space will lead to entirely new premises and potentials which may new kinds of problems but not a perpetuation of the old. (140)
Humans are still too death-oriented too guilt-ridden too submissive and fatalistic to demand immortality. To even hope for it. The Future will look back on our times amazed that humanity was so close to attaining immortality yet having done so little. . . . Then too some social scientists and philosophers still urge that we accept death. "Alone among the living man knows that he will die" say the existential psychologists. Alone among the living we humans now know or ought to know that we can overcome death. In all their exhortations to accept pain and death I hear echoes of Old World resignation. Perhaps even a desire for death. They have made a virtue out of what was a necessity. We Up-Wingers are building a New World which is resigned to nothing – no pain suffering or death. (142)
Contemporary philosophers state that we humans are striving to be god. Others more critical admonish us for arrogantly "playing god." They warn of dire consequences. These critics are absurd. We humans do not want to be god or to play god. We aspire to much more. God was a crude concept – vengeful wrathful destructive. We humans want to evolve beyond god. (143)
In our times realism means keeping pace with our rapidly changing situation aware that what is unrealistic or utopian today is reality next month or next year. . . . Utopianism is now too modest. We Up-Wingers are beyond utopia – beyond the most utopian dreams of the most utopian philosophers. . . . (144)
Are we moving too fast? Some social critics think so. They contend that people are having difficulties coping with rapid change. What amazes me is not that a few people have difficulty coping with some aspects of change but the ease with which most people adapt to change – even to monumental breakthroughs. . . . Once change has taken place most people adapt. They then resist new advances. . . . We humans are remarkably adaptable and resilient. This adaptability itself is daily spreading as people grow up conditioned to rapid change. The more we advance the more we want to advance. It is neither possible nor even desirable to slow down progress. We should strive instead to guide our forward thrust. This is not a time to hold back to slow down to waver or to flounder in despair. We want to move on. We want to get on with it. We have too many old problems to resolve. Too many new visions to fulfill. This is a glorious time in human evolution. An age of exploding potentials. We are only now beginning to test our wings. Let us not be afraid of vision and hope. It was the daring of visionaries that has brought us this far – from gloomy primordial marshes to where we are today – reaching for the galaxies reaching for immortality. (144-145) |