"Raymond Z. Gallun - Dawn of the Demigods Or, People Minus X" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gallun Raymond Z)

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pushed around."
****
In the months that passed, from out on an asteroid came the
step-by-step reports of the building of the first huge star ship. At home, one
by one, old acquaintances -- or was it just their reasonable facsimiles? --
reappeared. Gradually most of the dead of the lunar blowup were restored to
life -- except for certain scientists who remained unforgiven.
But a new type of population was creeping into the fabric of human
society. Its humanness, in an old sense, could be debated. Its first quiet
intrusion was marked by an awe that faded into a shrug; it began to be
accepted casually and somewhat dully as most past novelties had been accepted
before. Foresight could extend into tomorrow, but its pictures remained not
quite real. The skills of cool, clear thinking, which education tried to
impart in an era that needed it so much, fell short again. No doubt it should
have been remembered that the shift from inattention to unreasonable panic can
often be swift.
Even young Ed Dukas, though dedicated in his heart to New and Coming
Things, sometimes lost sight of these deeper concerns because of his lighter
interests. Without much help from art, Barbara Day turned out to be beautiful.
She had a pair of suitors automatically. Ed could have had his stocky frame
lengthened. Les Payten could have had his big ears trimmed. But young men
often frown on the vanity of tampering with one's appearance. Sometimes there
is even a certain pride in minor ugliness.
They all had their dates, their dancing, their canoe rides --
traditional pleasures, inherited from generations past. And they had the
age-old problems of youth approaching adulthood. But now, for them and for
their increasingly complex civilization, there was a new problem -- vitaplasm,
which could be grown like flesh, though faster, impressed with a shape,
personality and memories. It was said that 30 per cent of those who died in
the explosion of the Moon lab were brought back in this firmer, cheaper
medium. But its use did not stop here. For one thing, there were certain
adventurous persons, alive and healthy, who changed the character of their
bodies willfully.
One fact some might forget: there were other dead from years before,
but remembered and still loved -- parents, grandparents. Besides, there were
historical characters -- Washington, Lincoln, Edison, Cleopatra.
Possibly Joe Doakes could awaken from extinction, puzzled, wondering,
frightened, but finding himself at least superficially the same, eating much
the same food, enjoying much the same things. Then something super in his body
would dawn on him, scaring him more or making him exultant. But it all seemed
good at first glance, so a joyful world forgot its times of suspicion, even
against the warnings of specialists, and released the new processes to almost
any operator who could construct the needed equipment.
The solar system was big; the universe, optimistically promised, seemed
endless. There was plenty of room. And the task of bringing back just those