If 1954-08 - If, ebook, Temp, pobierz pdf

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//-->RECONNAISSANCE SHIP-This specially designed "flying laboratory" isequipped- for research and living so that scientists, away from the homebase for long periods of time, can make prolonged and intimate inspectionof the Moon's surface. The ship's equipment includes radar, solar reflectors,radio, astrodome top, two huge fuel tanks, electronic instruments, computers,hemical laboratory and other exploration necessities, as well as healthand comfort facilities. Now turn to inside back cover.1~1~1I1 1 1 1 1 1 1I:~I: l! ~1WORLDSofSCIENCE FICTIONmlllllll~11111AUGUST 1954All Stories New and CompleteEditor: JAMES L. QUINNAssist. Editors: THOR L. KROGH, EVE P. WULFFArt Editor: ED VALIGURSKYCoverbyKen Fagg:The Old Spaceman's Taleslie111I111I1111I11I111I111I11111111.~1Il1l1ll1lJ1I1I1I1I1I1II1I1I1IJ1II1II1I1II1II1I1I1II1I1II1I1IJ1I1I1IJ1I1I1I1I1I1IJ1II1Il1I1l1l1II1II11IJ1JI1l1JI1JI1II1I1JI11II1lIIIII 11I1111I11I1111I111I1111I11 IIIII IIINOVELETTESTHE UNLEARNED by Raymond F. JonesTHE ACADEMY by Robert SheckleyBEING by Richard Matheson44576SHORT STORIESTHE JOY OF LIVING by Witliam F. NolanEXHIBIT PIECE by Philip K. DickCONTACT POINT by Poul Anderson andTheodore Cogswell3563102FEATURESA CHAT WITH THE EDITORWHAT IS YOUR SCIENCEI.Q.?WORTH CITINGTODAY AND ATOMICS by M. T. KayLOOKING AHEADCOVER PICTORIAL:Investigating the Moon's Resources_.5111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111I11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111~275101117120IF is published monthly by Quinn Publishing Company, Inc. Volume 3, No.6.Copyright 1954 by Quinn Publishing Co., Inc. Office of publication, 8 Lord Street,Buffalo New York. Entered as Second Class Matter at Post Office, Buffalo NewYork. Subscription $3.50 for 12 issues in U.S. and Possessions; Canada$4for 12issues; elsewhere $4.50. Allow four weeks for change of address. All stories appear-ing in this magazine are fiction; any similarity to actual persons iscoincide~tal.Not responsible for unsolicited artwork Or manuscripts. 35c a copy. Printed in U.S.A.EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES, KINGSTON, NEW YORK.Next issue on saleJuly10thA CHAT WITHTHE EDITORMOST OFthe "chatting" this issuecomes in the form of an interestingletter received from Mrs. AlmaMcCormick, of Richland, Wash-ington' who takes slight issue withThe Golden Man,by Philip K.Dick, which appeared in the Aprilissue. Mrs. McCormick enjoyed thestory but disagrees with the mutanttheme. We enjoyed her letter, andthink you will too.Dear Mr. Quinn:YourChat With the EditorinApril IF is thoroughly enjoyable...But I have another theme to sug-gest: the theme thathomo superior,the mutants, will be and must behunted out and destroyed byhomo$apienswhen and if he ever occurs.I admit that "The Golden Man" byDick doesn't deal withhomo su-perioras much as it does with"horrible tribes of mutant freaks"who might justifiably be a source ofhorror and terror. But the last para-graph, page 17, takes the samestand that was taken in the book"Dragon Island" (and countless-other stories) :"Which race? Not the humanrace. . .Ifwe introduce a mutantto .keep us going, it'll be mutants,not us, who'll inherit the earth.It'll be mutants surviving for theirown sake. . . To survive, we've gotto cold-deck them right from thestart."Now, really!I'm a teacher ... of exceptionalchildren. This semester they arementally retarded children, as farbelow the abilities. of normal chil-dren ashomo sapienswould be be-low.homo superior.They cannotand never will be able to take careof themselves, but we carefullyteach them all theycanlearn (verysimple reading, social graces,grooming, use of household andplay equipment, counting and useof coins). We don't, and never ex-pect the rest of the world to, com-pete with them. They're certainlynot being "cold-decked" from thestart.On the other hand, I have taughtsuperior children. Not superior tothe extent ofhomo superior,true.I did have one "gifted class" how-ever that had an average I.Q. of128...IfI remember correctly, thehighest 3 or 4 members rated be-tween 140 L_Q. and 167 LQ.-rat-ings that occur in a very, very thin"cream" on top of the generalpopulation. The 167 LQ. rating oc-curs about 3 times in 10,000 chil-drenifwe can trust statistics...And what were they like? Andhow did the schools and the gen-eral population treat them? Well,2A CHAT WITH THE EDITORthey were a joy to teach and some-times a bit difficult to handle. Allof them spoke two languages (Eng-glish and Spanish) and had learnedto speak Spanish fluently and rea-sonably correctly in six weeks. Manyalso spoke from one to three morelanguages. (They were children ofdiplomats and industrialists andhad travelled extensively. ) Theylearned everything else as rapidlyas they learned languages, and thefew merely average children, wholearned at merely average rates, notonly enjoyed the pyrotechnics ofsome of their discussions butseemed to catch fire from them todo better work of their own. Forexample, have you ever seen thetrouble teachers of average' highschool classes (or even collegeclasses) have when they try to· getstudents to "document" papers theywrite or ideas they propound bysufficient reading even when theteachers give a bibliography alreadyprepared? These 8 to 9 year oldchildren would discuss a new itemof knowledge or a new idea, andthe next day a good many of themwould come to class with armloadsof books from the library with para-graphs, chapters, or full-time treat-ment of the subject. At firstitwasonly the brighter ones; later eventhe few merely average were do-.ing the same thing.Such children are not only a joy(though I know some teachersloathe working with "precociousbrats"); they seem to be a lift toothers. Except in one situation:when you have one exceedinglybrilliant child in an average classor school, you have a bored, con-ceited, self-centered, isolated, re-bellious, bothersome pest. One mu-tant, onehomo superiormight belike that.But from my.experience with thesuperior child, and from the kudosour world hands such men as Ein-·stein, Oppenheimer, etc., I thinkwe would merely bemoreim-pressed and even happier with atruly new race, a truly superiorrace. They might not be highly im-pressed with us, but even now wehave our intelligentsia who associatemostly with each other, our aver-age who associate with the average,and the dull who are happy withthe dull . . . and even our way-down-below-average like my littleones who are happy as larks whenthey are with each other. Brainsseek their own level. . .Rather than ero Magnon kill-ing off all the Neanderthal, isn't itpossible that their taking over wasa matter of natural selection plusabsorption?Ifmutants arrived, itseems more likely (to me) thathomo sapienswould be absorbedgradually (many a genius marries amere average spouse) ; ifhomo su-periorbred true, his ·more resistantbody could probably stand the dis-ease and injuries the world handsout better and his childrenwouldinherit the earth.Ifpresent man-kind died out, I doubt that it wouldbe in gas chambers or crematori-ums, and those of us who lived outa full life-time (as the Neander-thals perhaps did) would live it ad-miring and accepting the leader-ship of the· superior race becausethey'd make our lives richer andfuller too.Sincerely yours,(Mrs.) Alma McCormickA CHAT WITH THE EDITOR3 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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