WHEN IT'S 300 m.p.h. Will Men be Different?

Shannon News, 27 November 1928, Page 4

WHEN IT'S 300 m.p.h. Will Men be Different?

Every day brings us a record of some new mechanical triumph, and makes' us-wonder what .the whole world and the next generation are going to do about it (writes Sir Edward Parry, im the “Sunday Croniele”). The speed records for aeroplanes must, it seems, be lowered, and for this purpose Flight-Lieut. D’Arcy Greig,'R./Y'.F., has been provided: with a machine which is understood to be capable of travelling at 323 L miles an hour. The distance is practically the. length of England, or let us say from London to Gretna Green.

Then there is a windmill aeroplane which hovers over your garden like a hawk, and the largest Zeppelin ever built is going to start next month for America. * Meanwhile all sorts of excellent Robots have been invented to do the ordinary household tasks, and others are promised that vVill provide plots for novels, act as bookmakers, and in the course of time no doubt sit as judges and decide cases. Driven Underground. America, is building houses without any windows whatever, lit entirely by mechanical artificial daylight. Still this will nbt cut Out the buzz and uproar of the machines, and America and the rest of us will still have to face that music. Unless, of course, as many think, mankind will be driven by the crowds in the air and on the surface of the earth to live underground altogether. In many large hotels the underground rooms are very comfortable, and an underground; house would'be an eligible property in many suburbs, through and over which a traffic of motor charabancs, lorries, and low-fly-ing air lines plies continuously.

This will only be reverting to an earlier civilisation when all our ancestors lived in caves to protect, themselves, not from mechanical - contrivances so much as from wild beasts But there are many legends of flyingmen before our time, and it is, of course, possible that people used to fly and.then gave it up as an over-rated amusement. ( Daedalus, the Athenian, -who was an excellent mechanic and invented quite a lot of useful tools and machines, and built some modern temples and palaces in his day, claims to have held the long-distance record of flight in bis own generation for a “hop” from Crete to Sicily. I understand, however, that his claim is not recognised by the modern air authorities, as it was not officially timed. The effect of the perfection of mechanical contrivances on the human race must necessarily bo to lessen man’s capacity for doing things. Already people -do not learn to play the piano or to draw, and soon they will cease to write-or read or do arithmetic/for these things can be done better for them, - as they suppose, by machine.

Deprived of ;Legs. : Even • to : day, with the exception of a small percentage of athletes, the human race is ceasing to walk. Quite young people become, as we may say, prematurely motor-ridden, and have to be carried about for even'the, shortest distances. This, fallowing the evolutionary laws, can only end in one way. Men and women, ‘ceasing to use their legs for the>purpose of loeomotion, will gradually be deprived of legs as we now know them. They-will becomerudimentary like the claws and tails and fur 'of the animal man, of which little evidence remains. If these evidences of mechanical improvements mnd human dependence on machines continue for another hundred years or so it would seem possible that this civilisation will disappear,.ns many more wonderful ones have done in the world’s history, and bo gradually replaced by something better. In the British Museum to-day there are some marvellous jewels recovered from tombs at Ur, which are at least 5000 years old. There are gold and silver jewels, beads, goblets, and lamps, a-royal gaming board .vases in copper and silver, alabaster and clay, beautiful'bracelets, earrings, and armlets.

And that these things belonged to an ancient and important civilisation in the world’s history was clear from the extraordinary wealth of beautiful objects found in the Queen’s tomb. ! The 1 more highly civilised man becomes, the more money is spent on the adornment of women.

It was in the Queen’s tomb that a wonderful harp was found and a royal sledge with silver rings for the reins to run through, surmounted by a silvergilt mascot such as you place on the bonnet of a motor car to day.

Gazing at thi3 historic salvage in awe and wonder, I could not help trying to imagine what would be known of our civilisation of to-day 5000 years henee.

At a recent congress of librarians, it was announced, not, I thought, without a note of satisfaction, that in 50 or 100 years at most the newspapers and novels of to-day would have crumbled with their authors into dust.

This being so, 5000 years hence no one will be able to read of our mechanical achievements. The whole written history of our race, will have disappeared as completely as the written history ‘ of the kings arid people of Ur.

And though sufficient remains were found to ■ satisfy the men of science that the people of Ur had chariots .on wheels, it was the artists who made fresco drawings on plaques of lapis lazuli .inlaid With shells that enabled us to visualise to-day the form of these carriages.

Not the Millennium. It seems impossible to suppose that the wonderful new machines that genius turns out day by day will be known or in use 5000 years hence. 'But that is no reason why wc should not employ

them to promote peace and. good fellowship as long as they last. Father Time will turn the aeroplane and the taxicab off the rank as he has ticked off the hansom cab and the ‘ ‘growler. ’ ’

"We must admire the ingenuity of the engineer who designs these modern marvels, still more the daring and the skill of the pilot. But the machine age will not last longer than the stone age, the fiint age, the bronze age or the civilisation of the Cities of the Plain.

The 1 only real evolution of mankind is spiritual, not mechanical. An age of supcrvplanos and super-cars is. not necessarily heading for the Millennium, they will take the now generation exactly where it wants to go.