in the Ekcolir Reality |
I just discovered that Michael Anthony Foster died last year. I remember M. A. Foster for his imagined human variant, the Ler. I read Foster's three novels about the Ler and two of his other novels (The Morphodite and Waves) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Given my interests in biology, I greatly enjoyed Foster's fictional concept of a new human species (the Ler) that had been created by genetic engineering. Foster's story took place several hundred years in our future. Since the Ler could not get along with regular humans, they had to go off into outer space and find their own place to live.
I've long wished that Foster might have written a sequel to his 1970s Ler books, but I have to content myself with imagining that in another Reality, the analogue of Foster might have written more stories -or different stories- about the Ler.
selling Heinlein |
Sadly for Heinlein, he wrote "Methuselah's Children" before the molecular basis of heredity was known. Unable to imagine genetic engineering, Heinlein imagined that it could be possible to selectively breed humans for a long lifespan. Of course, humans have been selectively breeding animals for thousands of years. Imagine a sheep that could live for 200 years and produce wool for many decades. That's right, there is no such thing and you are just as likely to breed humans who live to be 200 years old, but that did not stop Heinlein from writing "Methuselah's Children" nor did it stop John Campbell from buying and publishing the story.
bio-electricity in 1939 |
Heinlien's Foundation. I got in my time machine and went back to 1941 and read "Methuselah's Children" as originally published in Astounding. The story begins with Heinlein playing a trick on his readers who are told that Mary Risling appears to be about 30 years old. Then, on the next page, readers are told that Mary is actually 183 years old. What's going on here? Lucky for readers, they were immediately provided with a snippet of backstory in which Heinlein explained the origins of a secret human breeding project carried out by the Howard Foundation.
Ralph the psychometrician |
Asimov was among the first to use the term "robotics". In "Methuselah's Children", Heinlein used the term "genes group", missing a prime opportunity to instead say "genetic group". In 1942, Asimov began writing his stories about the Encyclopedia Foundation and Hari Seldon, the first great psychohistorian. As shown in the passage to the left on this page, Heinlein's psychometrician, Ralph Schiltz, admits to having failed to predict the course of events in the future.
future science of symbiotics |
For his story of the future, Heinlein invented the "law of psychological trends" and told his readers that in the future "symbiotics" began to allow psychometricians to better predict social trends. Heinlein was engaged in a bold act of handwavium, but he seemed to suggest that it was only by understanding intestinal bacteria that accurate predictions of human behavior would become possible.
I wonder if Heinlein's imaginary science of symbiotics was a tip of his hat to Olaf Stapledon's 1937 science fiction story Star Maker, which featured some telepathic symbiotic aliens called the "symbiotics".
more images |
In Heinlein's case, we can only wonder how "colloidal theory" contributed to progress for the struggling psychometricians of the Howard Foundation. In the real world, "colloidal theory" in biology developed in the late 1800s before scientists understood the molecular and organelle components of our cells. Miss Risling assures dubious readers that due to "symbiosis and gland theory" she will long retain her youthful appearance and active mind. The state of medical science has reached the point where she anticipates having a mere three months of senility at the end of her long life.
interior art by H. Rogers |
Heinlein spent many pages using his psychometricians's mumbo jumbo to explain why it would be impossible for people of the future to understand and accept that members of the Howard Families lived a long time because of their unique genes. And in the absence of genetic engineering in Heinlein's imaginary future, there is no discussion of identifying the longevity genes and providing them to anyone who wants them. If not genes, then what? A sciensy mystery!
Interstellar spaceship: New Frontiers. |
Part 2. August 1941. After a 10 year trip, they find an Earth-like planet populated by a humanoid alien species (Zhachera) that has telepathic contact with one of the Earthlings.
Friday |
My advice: skip part 2 of "Methuselah's Children" and read the summary provided at the start of part 3.
Part 3. September 1941. The members of the Howard Families are kicked off of the first habitable exoplanet that they found, but that is something of a blessing because in the process they learn that faster-than-light travel is possible. On the second planet that they visit, the telepathic residents help the Earthlings perfect a form of spaceship drive that allows them to return home to Earth in 3 weeks. Back on Earth, the secret of longevity has been found. Heinlein tells us that a big part of living hundreds of years is just believing that you will live a long life. He throws in some additional hand waving about: "the radioactive qualities of vitamins".
in the Ekcolir Reality |
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Related Reading: "The Ultra-Elixir of Youth" by A. Hyatt Verrill - the fictional science of radiogens -and- discussion of Heinlein at BlackGate.
Next: The Last Evolution by John Campbell
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