SPEED

Evening Post, Issue 11, 13 July 1936, Page 3

SPEED

MACHINE SETS PACE

THOUGHT ADAPTS. ITSELF

A FORECAST

(By "Vacation.")

Inventions are displacing ' current practice in, so many, ways that it. is extremely difficult to forecast the .position of any industry," facility-, means- ' of transport,, or method of cpmmunication a decade ahead..; Not .a month passes but there is a new record in speed, whether in' transit, business I methods, or accomplishment of big | works. In some cases it is mechanisation of former manual operations, but just as often it is an improvement of mechanisation to effectmore rapid output. Sometimes it is increased efficiency of system, but whatever the" means, the result is a, gain of hours, days, or weeks on former achievements. Speed is insidiously cumulative. Not only does it apply in industrial and- commercial, life, and, of .course, pleasure, but in scientific, accomplishj ment. Daily the foundations of knowledge are surer and. surer, and unprofitable avenues of .investigation are being avoided. The,tendency, in each decade, is towards more discoveries being made possible by the -rapid advance of research. JOKER IN PACK. Invention is, in fact, the joker in I the mechanised pack. In no case has | this proved more true than in transport, where the combination of,electrical practice and" the internal combustion engine have made undreamtof things possible. Aviation leads: in the wonders of the day, but it would still be confined, if it existed at all, to the glider stage or adaptations of the old balloon principle if it were not for this alliance. The success of the commercial aeroplane has driven all other forms of transit to a very frenzy of speeding up. They... will be left a very bad second. The air . mail and passenger services are to other transport what the telegraph and telephone are to the ordinary mail services, something that, cannot really be compared in the matter of speed. Business communications seem to have reached their maximum of speed, but there is always the joker in the pack, the inventor. What if, any day now, telephonic television wireless is rendered possible by some overlooked link to the extent that heads of firms may conduct important interviews across the world? Facial expression, inflections of voice, rapid question and answer, would surely leave little heed for round the world travel. Unless an overwrought business man needed relaxation 4 in fact, he need not travel at all. There- is always the case of the bagman, whose samples could not be sent over the air,, and one would be shorn of the pleasure of - dining' and wining with. the. interviewed one.' To see each other merely going through the motions of hospitality would be a phantom pleasure. There is no doubt, however, that modern facilities for business communications have considerably reduced travel for business purposes already, and with future possibilities that cannot -be -ignored, travel may, in time, be chiefly undertaken for relaxation only. HALF-WORKED MINDS. Already it is being;recognised.that the greater the strain .of speed, the! more the need/for the leisure that should follow'more rapid-accomplish-ment. If life is to degenerate into a mere speed lust, human, nature will rebel. It is remarkable, however, to note how the world's i greatest minds have been able to work clearly, for more consecutive hours on end than would have been considered possible before they were, born; and it must be realised, whether the slow coaches like it or hot, that speed creates tidier minds and better ..memories. -Those who will not speed .must, drop put, j More, and- more of life's competitors i today are mental 'athletes who start from scratch. ' Given more leisure, however, such people will automatically find their leisure invaded by inspirations for-still further cutting down' the hours of work. • This will naturally tend to make,the working hours,more hectic, and' demand, still- more leisure for the mind to recuperate.. This applies only to those for whom the responsibility for the conduct of affairs rests; the employee will naturally seek evasions of the obsession of the work: ing day's problems, but as both "will have'the'modern idea of relaxation— the desire to get somewhere so rapidly that the mind is absorbed in the wonder of the achievement—travel of some sort will be" the aim of both" in their leisure moments. The thrill of moving so fast that something may happen is apparently : irresistible. SPEED MAKES FOR IDEALS. As the modern trend'is for children to emerge from school earlier, and are found capable of learning more in a shorter space of time, the children of such children will , probably prove even more susceptible.to the siren call of speed in perception and assimilation of knowledge. To .excel, and to be fast about it, has always been * the human ideal, whether it was battering one's opponent's armour to a bloodsodden wreck with a mace, in the olden days, ; or , beating him more tidily. to the . solution of a business problem today. What is,the rational' outcome of these principles" as applied to the future? Surely in an enlightr ened age it should be a better understanding between the nations than a perpetuation of the errors and carej fully-fostered hates of the past. In the j enlightenment of more complete international communications there should be no room for reservations, -. There will be no room for the discreet; but a clamour' for the facts. In such a situation, more " clearly foreshadowed every, day, the . way in .which .the greater leisure- 'and1 added -travel facilities may remove international misunderstandings has yet to' be realised. RESTFUL LEISURE MINDs! While intense nationalisms, fostered by tariffs and out-of-date ideals, threaten the world's peace, there is always the danger that more leisure, will merely intensify them; but-there is the hope that speedy and unrestricted, travel, which seems . the natural cor.ollary,of speed ,in communications and wider knowledge, may, remove some of the intense nationalisms of today. Languages have always formed one of. the chief relaxations of great minds. One does not hear of AI Capohe speaking half a dozen languages, or of a multimillionaire of the American type finding pleasure in reading Greek plays in the original, but there is nothing to encourage understanding, of a nation like knowledge of its' idioms of speech. As the! human mind j has shown itself capable of surmounting tremendous obstacles, and time and space are falling before it, there is hope that international problems may ultimately disappear, under sharpened minds, in a general appreciation of the | real humanity of, the world, when, i preparatory to a three weeks' return trip to Europe from Wellington, the young speed-hound will master German, French, or Spanish sufficiently to converse. The mechanical wonders of the world may yet prove as nothing to- the advance of the human

I outlook whetted by the speed set by Uhe machine. As the machine eliminates waste time, so the mind, forcec! by th-o machine, will crave leisure, and will in the future see that leisuro is not wasted in the petty acrimonies and soul-deadening wastefulness: of unprofitable misunderstandings.'