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Of Time and Space and Other Things
by Isaac Asimov

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INTRODUCTION


As we trace the development of man over the ages, it seems
in many respects a tale of glory and victory; of the develop-
ment of the brain; of the discovery of fire; of the building
of cities and of civilizations; of the triumph of reason; of
the fimng of the Earth and of the reaching out to sea and
space.
But increasing knowledge leads not to conquest only, but
to utter defeat as well, for one learns not only of new po-
tentialities, but also of new limitations. An explorer may
discover a new continent, but he may also stumble over
the world's end.
And it is so with mankind. We are distinguished from
all other living species by our power over the inanimate
universe; and we are distinguished from them also by our
abject defeat by the inanimate universe, for we alone have
learned of defeat.
Consider that no other species (as far as we know) can
possess our concept of time. An animal may remember,
but surely it can have no notion of "past" and certainly not
of "future."
No non-human creature lives in anything but the present
moment. No non-human creature can foresee the inevita-
bility of its own death. Only man is mortal, in the sense
that only man is aware that he is mortal.
Robert Bums said it better in his poem To a Mouve.
He addresses the mouse, after turning up its nest with his
plough, apologizing to it for the disaster he has brought
upon it, and reminding it fatalistically that "The- best-laid
schemes o' mice and men / Gang aft a-gley."
But then, in a final soul-chilling stanza (too often lost
in the glare of the much more famous penultimate stanza
7


about mice and men), he gets to the real nub of the poem
and says:

"Still thou art blest compar'd wi' me!
"The present only toucheth thee:
"But oh, I backward cast my e'e
"On prospects drear!