"Mack Reynolds - Equality in the Year 2000" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

There was a distressed look in her eyes when she handed him his
whisky. "I don't know what to say, Jule. I heard father tell you about the
so-called knowledge explosion the other day, but I wonder if you
completely followed through on the ramifications."
"You mean that quote from Dr. Robert Oppenheimer that human
knowledge is doubling every eight years?"
She nodded. "You see, he made that statement about 1955. So let's take
the year 1940 as the takeoff point. In the following eight years, various
major breakthroughs were made, including nuclear fission, the first space
ship, the German V-2, the first practical radar, and, in medicine,
penicillin and the sulfas. Between 1948 and 1956 came additional
breakthroughs: the conquest of polio, the modern computer, the first
Sputnik in space, transistors. By this time, doubling each eight years,
human knowledge was four times what it had been in 1940. Between 1956
and 1964, organ transplants; man went into space, following his
history-long companion, the dog. Lasers and masers made their
appearance, the supersonic aircraft, and nuclear fision, and human
knowledge was eight times what it was in 1940. By 1972 it was sixteen
times, we were on the moon, constructing space platforms, and relaying
communications from scores of artificial satellites. Among other
achievements, for the first time a living man—you—was put into artificial
hibernation, to be awakened thirty-three years in the future."
She took a sip of her wine and regarded him thoughtfully. "And while
you slept, the knowledge explosion went on. In 1980 knowledge was
thirty-two times that of 1940; by 1988 it was sixty-four; by 1996 it was
one-hundred twenty-eight times greater than in 1940. And shortly, in
2004, or the year 4 New Calendar, the multiple will be two-hundred
fifty-six."
Julian shook his head wearily.
Edith continued, "Suppose we put it another way. Let us say a child was
born in the year 1940 and that, given modern medicine, he lives to be
ninety-six years of age, dying in an accident. That would mean in the year
2036, using the old calendar. By that time, Jule, human knowledge will be
4096 times as much as when he was born. Believe me, it even shakes us
up. Way back in your day, a Julius Horwitz of the New York Department
of Welfare, put it bluntly. The aged in a big city have no economic status;
they have no status in the household, they have no vocational skills to pass
on to the younger generation. Their special problem is survival in a society
which finds their minds and bodies superfluous.'
"Well, we cherish our older people these days, as we do our children;
nevertheless, the generation gap is present with a vengeance. In fact, the
gap begins no more than halfway through a generation: the
thirteen-year-olds show impatience with the twenty-five-year-olds.''
"What are you leading up to, Edie?" he asked.
She eyed him compassionately. "Jule, when you went into stasis, human
knowledge was sixteen times what it had been in 1940. Do you remember
1940?"
"Vaguely; I was a young child."
"When you went into stasis, to what degree were you up on the latest
scientific and technological breakthroughs?"