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The Science Fiction Fan, v. 4, issue 5, whole no. 41, December 1939
Page 8
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8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FAN interplanetary flight, speculation on the cosmos, the future of man, his inventions and society, etc. I have in mind for consideration a volume entitled A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by John Langdon-Davies (Dodd, Mean & Co., 1936). Mr. Langdon-Davies'approach to the question of the future is somewhat difference from that taken by other social theorists. He prefers a coldly scientific and unemotional approach - vaguely similar to that which Technocracy prides itself upon. He refuses to be swayed by his own desires for the future or the Utopian ideals he would prefer to believe in. Carefully he examines the facts of present day life, laying particular stress on the scientific development of the various nations, on their actual polotical histories, and on their economic status. Basing his observations upon these -- and he speaks not as an arm-chair theoretician but as a practising scientist (he is author of works on the atom and on radio) who has also travelled extensively both as a tourist and as a reporter, he then ventures upon a series of 24 prophecies of the future. These prophetic remarks are what he constitutes his short history of the future. He carefully analyses the concepts of democracy, determinism, and individualism, surveys the mechanistic concepts of society as represented in the any world and applies his observations to human society. He is not entirely right in his observations which can be proven by his belief that the next war would be fought by Britain, France, Spain(Republican) and Russia against the Fascist axis. How much this is true and how much false we have only to see by observation of our daily papers.
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8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FAN interplanetary flight, speculation on the cosmos, the future of man, his inventions and society, etc. I have in mind for consideration a volume entitled A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by John Langdon-Davies (Dodd, Mean & Co., 1936). Mr. Langdon-Davies'approach to the question of the future is somewhat difference from that taken by other social theorists. He prefers a coldly scientific and unemotional approach - vaguely similar to that which Technocracy prides itself upon. He refuses to be swayed by his own desires for the future or the Utopian ideals he would prefer to believe in. Carefully he examines the facts of present day life, laying particular stress on the scientific development of the various nations, on their actual polotical histories, and on their economic status. Basing his observations upon these -- and he speaks not as an arm-chair theoretician but as a practising scientist (he is author of works on the atom and on radio) who has also travelled extensively both as a tourist and as a reporter, he then ventures upon a series of 24 prophecies of the future. These prophetic remarks are what he constitutes his short history of the future. He carefully analyses the concepts of democracy, determinism, and individualism, surveys the mechanistic concepts of society as represented in the any world and applies his observations to human society. He is not entirely right in his observations which can be proven by his belief that the next war would be fought by Britain, France, Spain(Republican) and Russia against the Fascist axis. How much this is true and how much false we have only to see by observation of our daily papers.
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