Evening star., 1932-12-08
FORESIGHT NEED,
i DECLARES WELLS
historian Says World Should
Prepare for Consequences
of Inventions.

LONDON R.-An urgent need for
sprofessors Of foresight" to prepare the
world for the consequences Of new in
ventions, Is seen by H. G. Wells, the
historian.
"All my life have seen the abolition
Of distance becoming more and more
complete" he said in recent speech.
"But, for all practical purposes, we
haven't begun to think yet what we are
going to do about it.
I'VE are all of us behaving as though
there were no need whatever to adapt
our lives and ideas in any way to these
new conditions.
"See how unprepared our world was
Tor the motor car. The motor car
ought to have been anticipated at the
beginning of this century.
1T was bound to come. 1t was
bound to be cheapened and made
abundant 1t was bound to change our
roads, take passenger and goods traffic
from the railways, alter the distribution
of our population, congest our towns
with traffic.
Effects of Neglect.
Ibid we do anything to work out any
OF these consequences Of the motor car
before they came? We did nothing to
our roads until they were choked, we
did nothing to adjust our railroads to
at in with this new element in life
until they were overtaken and bank
tupt, and we have still to bring our po-
lice up to date with the motor bandit.
'It seems an odd thing to me that
though we have thousands and thou
sands of professors and hundreds of
thousands of students of history work
ing upon the records of the past, there
Is not a single person anywhere who
makes a whole-time job of estimating
the future consequences of new inven-
tions and new devices.
I'VE ought to have not simply one
or two professors of foresight, but whole
faculties and departments of foresight,
doing all they can to anticipate and
prepare for the consequences of this
gathering together, this punching up,
which is now going on, of what were
once widely dispersed human relation
ships.
I'VE need to organize foresight In
these matters very urgently indeed.
Because, you see, 1t Is not only that
men will be able to get at and see and
talk to their friends anywhere; they
will also be able to get at those they
suppose their enemies with an equal
facility"
Unpleasant" Side.
In his vision of the unpleasant"
sides of progress, Mr. Wells sees the
possibility of air torpedoes, bombs, gas
and flame delivered wherever you like,
or don't like, at any time"
There are no professors Of foresight
rs yet" he said, "but I am by way of
being an amateur. Let me draw plain
conclusion:
Either we must make peace through
out the world, make one world-state,
one world-pax, with one money, one
police, one speech, and one brother
hood, however hard that task may
seem, or we must prepare to live with
the voice Of the stranger in our ears,
with the eyes of the stranger In our
home, with the knife Of the stranger
always at our throats, in fear and in
danger Of death, enemy neighbors with
the rest Of our species.
Distance was protection, was safety,
though 1t meant also ignorance and IN
difference and narrow, unstimulated
life.
For good or evil, distance has been
done away with. This problem Of COM
munications rllshes upon us today-it
xushes upon us like Jehu the son of
Nimshi It driveth furiously. And it
evokes the same question: Is 1t peace?
Because, If 1t is not to be peace
foreseen and planned and established,
then it will be disaster and death"