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Southern Star, v. 1, issue 3, August 1941
Page 11
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LIFE EVERLASTING A Debate .Article - Pro: D. George Fenton Con: Fred W. Fischer. - [illegible] The question: Would you like to live forever? Pro says: Mental science claims that man's mental peak is reached at sixteen years. This statement, idly uttered in conversation, brought on the usual screwy argument between myself and a friend of mine one night recently, and gradually the conversation shifted to immortality, its benefits and its drawbacks. For my part I could envisage practically none of the latter and many of the former. Ten thousand years ago in a small Roman village, a man was standing in a crowd, gleefully watching the execution of another. The stories vary in detail, but it seems that this sadist was told to remain on earth until "He" came again. To the sadist this was a punishment, but I have always thought that to me it would have been a privilege, if the privilege had not been imposed by religious or inhuman intolerance. Just imagine: Days, months, years, and centuries pass — the history of the human race unfolds before you. "But," said my friend, "in 500 years you would be, to the rest of the human race, as a man of Columbus' day would be to us." Bosh! Evolution of the human race is counted in millions of years, not in centuries. "But," said he, "you would stand still. You could not understand the new mathematics, the new medical discoveries, the new social order — " "As to that," I said, "listen! Day after day, the newspapers come out with this and that. I go down the years, gradually absorbing the new knowledge. Today, I read of a new drug on the market. Tomorrow I get sick and my doctor uses this drug. I am alive. Next year I read of a much improved radio. I naturally buy one. Through the advertising I absorb, I understand as much as any layman about this new improved radio. Centuries pass, and I have gone along with them, adding daily to my knowledge of the world and its changes, just as YOU do, even though you've passed the age of sixteen. — My friend interrupted there. "Don't forget that the human brain will hold only so many convolutions." Bosh again. The largest brain ever known to medical history was the brain of an imbecile. There is no limit to the amount of knowledge a human brain can absorb. If a human were to be transported 1000 years into the future in a flash, naturally he would be behind the times. He would probably walk to a house and no door, no keyhole, no handle would greet his expectant eye. He would walk around, foolishly, trying to get into the house while the people inside would look out at him through the transparent walls of the house (transparent from the inside out, but of a material that would allow the sun's beneficial rays to shine in, yet keep out harmful effects and curious vision) — The people inside would look out, saying "Look at that poor dumb-witted, dopey cave-man out there trying to get in. My, ain't he the dope?" Finally he would be shown the way in and he would try to turn on a light. No fixture, no bulb, is visible. He wanders around punching things and twisting knobs, and the Moderns just laugh and laugh. For they know that one merely "thinks" a light on. But! If the poor dopey caveman had lived day after day, he would have seen the changes come. The irradiated walls, the photoelectric light that turned on at a thought, the pocket telephone everybody carried (the size of a quarter and almost as thin) which allowed two-way conversation to everyone.
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LIFE EVERLASTING A Debate .Article - Pro: D. George Fenton Con: Fred W. Fischer. - [illegible] The question: Would you like to live forever? Pro says: Mental science claims that man's mental peak is reached at sixteen years. This statement, idly uttered in conversation, brought on the usual screwy argument between myself and a friend of mine one night recently, and gradually the conversation shifted to immortality, its benefits and its drawbacks. For my part I could envisage practically none of the latter and many of the former. Ten thousand years ago in a small Roman village, a man was standing in a crowd, gleefully watching the execution of another. The stories vary in detail, but it seems that this sadist was told to remain on earth until "He" came again. To the sadist this was a punishment, but I have always thought that to me it would have been a privilege, if the privilege had not been imposed by religious or inhuman intolerance. Just imagine: Days, months, years, and centuries pass — the history of the human race unfolds before you. "But," said my friend, "in 500 years you would be, to the rest of the human race, as a man of Columbus' day would be to us." Bosh! Evolution of the human race is counted in millions of years, not in centuries. "But," said he, "you would stand still. You could not understand the new mathematics, the new medical discoveries, the new social order — " "As to that," I said, "listen! Day after day, the newspapers come out with this and that. I go down the years, gradually absorbing the new knowledge. Today, I read of a new drug on the market. Tomorrow I get sick and my doctor uses this drug. I am alive. Next year I read of a much improved radio. I naturally buy one. Through the advertising I absorb, I understand as much as any layman about this new improved radio. Centuries pass, and I have gone along with them, adding daily to my knowledge of the world and its changes, just as YOU do, even though you've passed the age of sixteen. — My friend interrupted there. "Don't forget that the human brain will hold only so many convolutions." Bosh again. The largest brain ever known to medical history was the brain of an imbecile. There is no limit to the amount of knowledge a human brain can absorb. If a human were to be transported 1000 years into the future in a flash, naturally he would be behind the times. He would probably walk to a house and no door, no keyhole, no handle would greet his expectant eye. He would walk around, foolishly, trying to get into the house while the people inside would look out at him through the transparent walls of the house (transparent from the inside out, but of a material that would allow the sun's beneficial rays to shine in, yet keep out harmful effects and curious vision) — The people inside would look out, saying "Look at that poor dumb-witted, dopey cave-man out there trying to get in. My, ain't he the dope?" Finally he would be shown the way in and he would try to turn on a light. No fixture, no bulb, is visible. He wanders around punching things and twisting knobs, and the Moderns just laugh and laugh. For they know that one merely "thinks" a light on. But! If the poor dopey caveman had lived day after day, he would have seen the changes come. The irradiated walls, the photoelectric light that turned on at a thought, the pocket telephone everybody carried (the size of a quarter and almost as thin) which allowed two-way conversation to everyone.
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