People's voice., 1899-12-21

The following prediction of the future
of the race by a noted scientist is inter
estng and in the main not improbable:
"The man of the remote future, will
develop into creature as superior to
man, zoologically, as man today is su-
perior to the quadrumana. His normal
span OF life will be $50 years, with a
chance for greater prolongation. His
head will not be relatively larger, but
his brain cortex will be thicker and he
will possess in his brain and other ner-
vous centers much greater number of
cell layers. All bodily organs not needed
will have disappeared. This creature
will be much larger and stronger than
man is today. His eyes will be larger
and more mobile in expression.
II believe that acuteness of the senses
will be increased from five to ten times
during the next century alone. The
man OF the remote future will have
senses which we do not possess. He will
be able to hear higher pitches of sound
and to recognize a greater number of
tone qualities. He will be able to dis
crlmlnate beween colors below the red
and above the violet. Five thousand
years from now the human race will
detect ten different steps in each funda-
mental color. The time will come when
mans faculties will have increased from
ten to twenty times in speed of function
ing. He will then actually experience
in normal life time what it would take
us, perhaps, 5000 years to experience
with our mental equipment. He will be
rid OF all depressing, evil, and malicious,
emotions, and because of an introspec-
tive knowledge of his own mind will be
able to control himself in a manner now
apparently impossible. He will be more
atfectionate and will love a greater num-
Der Of things. He will be more artistic,
more esthetic, more Just, and more sym
pathetic. He will be, technically, more
skillful in his trade or profession. He
will not commit crimes or indulge in
warfare.
This future man will be able to def
initely regulate the transmission of &C
qulred characteristics to his children.
His period of childhood will be much
longer than now. Disease will not be
handed down from parent to child.
Ripe old age will fnd itself in pos
session of every faculty. 1t is possible
that the tendency toward a second child
hood will be stimulated into a natural,
rejuvenating process, prolonging human
life indefinitely. Approach of disease Of
degenerative processes will be forecast
in time to check their development.
by artificial selective propagation
foods will be made far more nutritive.
The killing of animals will cease. Food
will be derived from vegetables or micro
organisms. Among these latter single
cell structures are notably the protista.
They can be readily propagated in water.
A ton will become two tons in a short
space of time. Then there are many
millions of single-cell species, both an
imal and vegetable, which would answer
the purpose.
''The large city will have ceased TO
exist. The number of villages will in
crease, and perfected aerial navigation
will allow men TO live hundreds of miles
from their occupations. A man in
one part of the world will be able to
see and talk with another in a distant
part. The atmosphere will not be per-
meated with carbonic acid gas from the
burning of fuels. Porous material will
not be used in the construction of dwell
lings. Dust and germs will be COM
pletly screened out, and man will no
longer waste his energy combating such
things.
Clothing will not interfere with the
ventilation or motion of any part of the
body. Language will be so sinplifed
that when a man shall have learned from
1000 to 1000 simple vocables and syla-
bles, he will have mastered the entire
language. This mode of speaking will
first become common among scientists
Science will be the propagandized relig-
ion. Ascertdinment of truth by investi-
gallon will become a religious purpose.
Children from infancy will be taught
only veritable facts. Man will be afraid
to express hypothesis or theory, and |
will religeously search for veritable ideas. |
Man will develop more in the twentieth
century than he has in the last 1000
years.