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Fantasy Aspects, issue 2, November 1947
Page 10
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definate possibility for some forms of life, and perhaps even for man under very rigidly controlled conditions unknown to us at the present time. Most certainly sperm can be so preserved, for that has been done successfully already. The world into which Kirk Hammond is thrust on his resurrection is one in which the normal human species exists under the domination of a mutated human type. These "Second Men" are immortals who arose when interstellar explorers penetrated a distant star cluster, where they were exposed to hard radiations which produced an evolutionary change rendering them immune to natural death. The Second Men consist entirely of the original exploration parties, plus later recruits to their ranks. All were originally normal men, but on exposure to the rays from the Star of Life they had undergone the metamorphosis to the immortal species. Here Hamilton makes the mistake of having the adult individuals themselves mutate to the second men, rather than have the change occur in their decendents. This is probably impossible, as it would require the same gene change in every cell of the body and then somatic development of the whole system towards a one-line evolution. The immortal second men have children who are further mutations, in a one line direction, and constitute the Third Men, who are entirely mental in their reactions to environment and thus completely unhuman in their mental processes. Now it is a genetic impossibility for a whole group of people to mutate all in one direction! Most mutations are lethal, and the beneficial ones would yield many variant strains, instead of one. Hamilton may have considered that man can mutate in only one direction, but on the basis of already accomplished work in genetics, I believe this, too, must be dismissed as impossible. Thus dozens of traits would appear, some goog, some bad, but it is possible that a few individuals would have children who were a new species, but not possible for all the group to mutate first themselves and then produce children of the same genetic make-up to produce a third species, and in turn a fourth species. There you have the first major flaw in Hamilton's story; gross sscientifi impossibility. A second fallacy, which is equally bad, is in the matter of human relations and common sense. For thousands of years the Second Men had denied themselves love, and by direct implication sexual intercourse and marriage, because their children would be the inimical Third Men. That is the most boious tommy-rot I have encountered in a long time in science fiction. Let us assume all the bases of one-line mutation in the story and accept the situation as presented. Obiously the logical thing would be for the Second Men to practice rigid birth control or even outright sterilization, and live a normal emotional life. Instead, Hamilton pictures them as horribly repressed, and the whole social set-up that he en- (cont on page 24) ----(Page 10)----
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definate possibility for some forms of life, and perhaps even for man under very rigidly controlled conditions unknown to us at the present time. Most certainly sperm can be so preserved, for that has been done successfully already. The world into which Kirk Hammond is thrust on his resurrection is one in which the normal human species exists under the domination of a mutated human type. These "Second Men" are immortals who arose when interstellar explorers penetrated a distant star cluster, where they were exposed to hard radiations which produced an evolutionary change rendering them immune to natural death. The Second Men consist entirely of the original exploration parties, plus later recruits to their ranks. All were originally normal men, but on exposure to the rays from the Star of Life they had undergone the metamorphosis to the immortal species. Here Hamilton makes the mistake of having the adult individuals themselves mutate to the second men, rather than have the change occur in their decendents. This is probably impossible, as it would require the same gene change in every cell of the body and then somatic development of the whole system towards a one-line evolution. The immortal second men have children who are further mutations, in a one line direction, and constitute the Third Men, who are entirely mental in their reactions to environment and thus completely unhuman in their mental processes. Now it is a genetic impossibility for a whole group of people to mutate all in one direction! Most mutations are lethal, and the beneficial ones would yield many variant strains, instead of one. Hamilton may have considered that man can mutate in only one direction, but on the basis of already accomplished work in genetics, I believe this, too, must be dismissed as impossible. Thus dozens of traits would appear, some goog, some bad, but it is possible that a few individuals would have children who were a new species, but not possible for all the group to mutate first themselves and then produce children of the same genetic make-up to produce a third species, and in turn a fourth species. There you have the first major flaw in Hamilton's story; gross sscientifi impossibility. A second fallacy, which is equally bad, is in the matter of human relations and common sense. For thousands of years the Second Men had denied themselves love, and by direct implication sexual intercourse and marriage, because their children would be the inimical Third Men. That is the most boious tommy-rot I have encountered in a long time in science fiction. Let us assume all the bases of one-line mutation in the story and accept the situation as presented. Obiously the logical thing would be for the Second Men to practice rigid birth control or even outright sterilization, and live a normal emotional life. Instead, Hamilton pictures them as horribly repressed, and the whole social set-up that he en- (cont on page 24) ----(Page 10)----
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