Evening star., 1939-03-11
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
Civilizations, like little boys, grow by
jumps.
Within a century or SO take place
enormous advances. Then folks settle
down to a few thousand years Of read
justment to the violent changes in their
traditional ways of life which have been
brought about and during this time there
Is very little further advance.
This is true not only of the advance
OF the human race as a whole during the
past 10000 years but of the groups which
have taken part in this progress such
as the Egyptians and Sumerians about
5000 years ago and Europeans and
Americans in the last two centuries.
This is the thesis advanced by DR..
Ralph Linton, professor Of anthro-
pology at Columbia University. Man
somehow lacks the capacity for steady
climbing. Most of the time he is con-
servative creature, satisfied to stay put.
The nature of the push behind the
great spurts is mystery, Prof. Linton
holds. They usually depend on the in
ventions of relatively few men with no
discernible common factor. They do not
come in response to necessity. Actually
they usually have gotten underway IN
periods OF relative peace and plenty when
the great mass of people was well enough
satisfied. They do not come in response
to social demands. Usually, in fact, it
takes society some time to catch up with
them.
There are probably always, Prof. Lin
ton points out, certain individuals who
are dissatisfied with the status quo. 1t
Is they who are dissatisfied, rather than
society as a whole. Most of the time
they are not able to get anywhere with
their dissatisfaction, but sometimes So
ciety seems to be in the mood to make
place for them-at least not to oppose
them too much. They are actuated for
the most part by curiosity and an ire
sistible inner drive, not by any particular
desire for profit. Their personal gains
have, in most cases, been quite insignif-
icant and often non-existent.
Records show" says DR.. Linton,
that the growth of civilizations Is of
a very irregular sort, periods of very
rapid and extensive change alternating
with periods of comparative quiet in
which the new things borrowed or in
vented during the active period are sorted
out, usually with the discarding of some
of them, and modified to fit the soclety's S
needs. Societies can change their meth
DDS of life with great speed. In tie
Southwest United States, where tree
rings give us exact dates for the ruins,
we know that the people changed from
a method of life much like that of the
crude Apache to the civilization of the
Cliff DWellers within 200 years. In an
cient Egypt the great pyramids were
built within $50 years of the first use Of
stone for construction. In our own
civilization all the chronological ad Z.
vances based on the production of power
have taken place within less than 200
years.
What produces such periods of rapid
change and growth is still unknown. We
know that they are usually correlated
with increasingly close contact with
other societies and increased opportun-
tiles for borrowing, but We also know
that this situation does not always pro-
duce rapid culture growth. This princi-
pie of rapid mutation alternating With
periods of comparatively slow change
seems to hold not only for individual civ
lllzatlonS but also for the advance of
civilization as whole. There have
been three great and basic mutations
in the course Of human progress. The
first came when our ancestors, who still
had not evolved to their present form
at that time, invented tools and began
to use fire. The second great change
came in the Near East about 5000 years
ago with the discovery of how to raise
food instead of simply gathering it.
"Tlfis same discovery was made indie
pendently in several different parts Of
the world and at several different times,
but the Near Eastern event was the
earliest and the most widespread in its
effects. Within 1000 years of the first
invention of food raising in this region
the foundations of all Old World civil
izations prior to the rise of the machine
had been laid. During the last 1000
years metal working, writing, the wheel,
plow, loom, weights and measures, city
life, ETC., were all developed.
although there were many variations
and minor improvements upon the foun-
dations laid at this time, nothing of
basic Importance happened again until
about $50 years ago, with the sudden
rise of machine and scientific techniques.
We are now in the middle of the third
great mutation and most of our social
and economic troubles derive from that
fact
1T is highly improbable that the pres
ent rate of advance will continue for
long. 1t is probable that it will be sue
ceeded, as always in the past, by a
much longer period Of gradual adjust
ment and organization of the new ele-
ments of civilization now being created. -
Nobody knows how long the present
squirt will last. 1t may be, to judge from