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DIP INTO THE FUTURE.

$~ WHAT WILL WORLD BE LIKE IN 1973?

WAR, SCIENCE. HISTORY

; While to-morrow's breakfast may often subtend a greater angle than the fate of the world, mankind has always found a fascination in trying to pierce . the veil of the future. There have always beem people of imagination who agreed with the saying of Cicero:— "That lonjj; stretch of time in which I shall no longer exist touches my emotion more than this short span of life." In the last 50 years the life of ;man and the face of the globe have been changed perhaps more than in all the ages since man appeared on the earth. What will the world he like at the end of another half-century? 'Mr Justice Higgins (says the Sydney Sun) tried the otker evening to answer this question. In an address to the Millions Club entitled "Fifty Years Hence," he first glanced at the developments of the last half-century and at the position of the world today, and then turned to the future. Industrial is, he said, a problem which must be solved within the next 50 years, unless humanity is to come to ruin. Would the men of j 1973 be faced with as many strikes and disputes as the men of 1923? "What about our Australian public debts?" said Mr. Justice Higgins. "Are they to go. on increasing? If so,_ what will be their amount in 1973? What about our forests? Are they to go on decreasing? What about food? Will the population of the world h^ve .so increased by 1973 that there will not bo enough food for it? "Deaths by pestilence have been much decreased by the efforts of men of science, but deaths by war have been vastly increased by their efforts. Malthus held that population increased in a geometrical ratio, while food increased in an arithmetical ratio only. Malthus had no knowledge of what could be done by artificial manures, such as superphosphates. "But he also had no knowledge of still more recent doctrine, that there is no need to look to plants or to the bodies of animals for food—that food can be directly manufactured from the earth and tho air, vitamines and all. The possibilities aro infinite "Have you ever heard" of what seven grammes of acid sodium phosphate will effect? The Germans used to give tho dose to their shock troops in the war. The coalminers in Germany took the drug for a stretch of nine months, with the result of a remarkable increase in output. It appears to increa.se the capacity for prolonged muscular effort, and mental effort also, and without causing any hurtful reaction. "The end-of the world's supply of coal is within calcuable ctfs'-ance; what is to happen? The use of coal For ktem\ power is wasteful and dirty. Oil is coming more and more into 'use, even on big ships. But it is likely' there is To be something better still. j "The wind and th^ sunlight are in-} exhautsible source? of power; and son-^i.

day the energy of the moving air, if j not of the moving ocean, may be stored J so as to supply power. '■Fancy the effect on our factories system in our cities. Moreover, the | land obstructs movement, the water obstructs movement, but the air is a much less obstructive medium. "jtfy 1073 will Germany have had her war revenge on France? Will the population of France he swept out of existence by poison from bombs aiid shells ? Must the men of one nation i murder the men of another nation in I order to enforce what are regarded as national rights:* I;l find ths feeling growing of late years that we havel been carrying the sentiment of nationalism, combative nationalism, to excess since the Roman i«.nipir.& was broken up. I find also a living writer of great spiritual power, Mr Glutton Brock, exclaiming: 'There is no superstition so blind as bloody nationalism.' "What is the glory of France? It lies not in the Imperial conquests of Louis XIV., or of Napoleon; it lies in its contributions to thought, its men of genius, its idealism. "As Lloyd George said, 'It is not what a nation gains, but what it gives, that makes a. nation great.' "Lord Hugh Cccil —a Conservative — said recently: 'To make an end of war nothing less is necessary than a shifting of the centre of human allegiance i from nationality to something wider. We need to feei a supeinational patriotism.' In other words we need to give , allegiance to humanity. j "A British scientist, Professor Low, i reminded us lately that we have already wireless - controlled automatic aeroplanes which can be used by the hundreds to drop gas-bombs, sweeping to death the population of a whole city in a few minutes; and the principal factor in war is going to be wireless transmission of electric energy for the purpose of rendering great regions uninhabitable. Will the men of 1973 make war in that way? "But what about the marvels of the atom? The accepted theory now is that the atom is an electrical structure held together by electrical forces. It is like the solar system in itself— a neucleus of hydrogen, with electrons swirling round it. Some of the electrons, it is said, have a speed of 6000 miles a second, the innermost of more than 90,000 miles a second. ''What new discoveries are to be made by 1973? To what human use can these wonderful discoveries be turned? Since the discovery of radium eager workers have sought to find a way of making use of the atom's energy; bat they have, so far, failed. "Shall the men of 1973 know something as to the mystery of existence? Is there nothing to com© out of tho discovery as to the electrical nature of the atom, the discovery that Time is subordinate to a larger unity than mere succession, that Space is—what is it? Sometimes, indeed, these attempts of man to understand exitsence seem comparable to the attempts of ants if they tried to undersand the ways of their capacity? "Yet it is our nature to "be curious about this subject; and the curiosity has led to man's greatest spiritual de- , velopment. We have but five sense's, j they say; are these senses at the limit j of their capacity ? ""We are told that civilised men differ from uncivilised men in this, that, uncivilised men can hold tvvo contradictory beliefs at the same time without perceiving that the are inconsistent. Most of ns must ha still uncivilised at times. But it is possible that a new sense is to be developed—'man with new power old sense to leaven'—a sense such as seems to he found in certain hyper-sensitive souls—and that the sense will gradually become common to mankind? We have all heard of inexplicable feats of thought-reading. The gift is confined to a very few; is it to become general ? "I cannot believe that this is aU fancy Or illusion. The mere fact that we, of grosser nature aftd duller perceptions, cannot realise for ourselves the universal Presence is not enough to justify our disbelief. Like the man with the muck-rake in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' we kee*> our eyes to the ' ground, intent on rubbish, while a golden crown hangs over our head. j "Even among ourselves .one who gazes quietly and observantly, without distraction, for half half an hour, on the nightly stars or the sea or the distant hills, has a .revelation to his spirit such as he will never forgot. What if it should turn out. 50 years hence, that we have been worrying ourselves about the wrong things—that i w<s have been ignoring the Presence which alone is worth while?" |

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS19240103.2.5

Bibliographic details

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 3 January 1924, Page 2

Word Count
1,295

DIP INTO THE FUTURE. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 3 January 1924, Page 2

DIP INTO THE FUTURE. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 3 January 1924, Page 2