What is in Store for the World?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 18

What is in Store for the World?

More Comfort And Leisure Tomorrow . . - Eminent Scientist Envisages Era When World Will Be Relieved of Drudgery and Men Will Turn to Work for Recreation —with More Time to Engage in Pure Science and Pure Art.

HbjTlE and more material morrow. More and more creature comforts. And may come our ruination or our greatest opportunity. Perhaps in the future we may be able to turn a dial on a radio set and see a ski-jumper in Norway, or see and hear a big-game hunter as he stalks a tiger in an East Indian jungle. Our travel will be on swifter wings than any wa now know. We may be eating foods grown in a nearby factory and served at home with a minimum of preparation. The “climate” inside our houses may be what we desire it to be at any time of the year. We will work less' with our hands and more with our heads. Many who work will do so for recreation.

These are some of the most plausible promises that the future holds out to us, according to Dr. George Burgess, Director of the Bureau of Standards in Washington, under whose eyes and hands come hundreds of developments in almost every scientific and economic field. Even though the most vivid imagination of twenty years ago would have failed in foretelling the many wonders we have today, Dr. Burgess spoke of the future only in the terms of actual recent accomplishments. Many of these discoveries and inventions open up wide vistas. “Life has been speeded up tremendously in. recent years and will be speeded up still more,” he said. “Inventions pile upon one another so fast that no person could know of the existence of all of them. In fact, one well-knowm scientist recently suggested in all seriousness that we stop for ten years and try to catch up with ourselves —that we learn the use of the knowledge we already have. “Today the scientists are literally the dreamers of dreams no less than the poets. They are the prophets of the future. Their vision, plus their skill, makes progress possible. “But it is dangerous to predict the future, because one single invention or development so often comes along and changes the entire trend not only of thought, but of material progress in a certain direction. Looking forward, however, is a fascinating business,” Dr. Burgess smiled. “Science does not progress slowly and methodically from point to point, but it moves in cycles or waves of fashion. Tremendous progress will be made in one field and then that field will lie dormant while some other field reaches a climactic development. For instance, at the outset of the World War the work on the development of sound was almost at a standstill. With the war came the necessity for detecting the location of big guns: The study of sound waves has grown tremendously since. Today, as an outgrowth of those studies, we have radio broadcasting and the talkies. “When some great genius develops in a particular field of science, that science develops tremendously under the stimulus he gives it. Then it moves forward at a slower rate until

some other great scientist comes along to pusli it forward. For instance medi cine tinder the outstanding genius of Pasteur made tremendous strides during the latter part of the 19 * h turv Thomas A. Edison has lighted ouii' homes and electrified our machines and labour-saving devices with no more effort to us m Aladdin used to rubbing his lamp. Already scientists and even Edison himself have begun to realise what the loss of his genius will mean to the world. “But despite the danger of prophesying, there are certain developments which it seems reasonable to expect in the very near future. Then Dr. Burgess cited numerous instances where the future is writing its story upon the present. How long man will be able to live is of interest to everybody. Tremendous strides have baen made within the last ten years in increasing the span of human ]ife. But increasing the span of life would liardly be interesting unless it was possible to increase the length of youth at the same time —the length of time during which man-can enjoy health, vigour and keenness of mind and spirit. For 14 years a part of a chicken's heart has been kept alive. That is a first step. Probably in time will come the knowledge of how to prolong the life of the entire animal, and finally of man himself. Already in the laboratory there have been created new

substances whiclt stimulate or reproduce some ot the body functions. Tbein stimulates greatly -without intoxicating. Adrenalin duplicates the natural control of the heart and lungs. Certain of the iodine compounds control body growth. Synthesis has created those important compounds. The creation of new substances in other fields has opened up tremendous visions for the future. Progress is made so rapidly in the fields of transportation and communication that almost any one can see the handwriting on the wall. .The airplane has already become an accepted mode of travel by all but the ultra-conserva-tive. There is no doubt that soon there will be regular airlines over all the continents and oceans. Airplanes now travel more than 300 miles an hour. But how slow they are in comparison with the flight of the muscoid bot, a fly which attains a speed of 815 miles an hour. The astonishing things that .have been done in radio development almost beggar imagination. What we dreamed of yesterday is reality today

and will be history tomorrow. Already it is possible not only to see and hear at the same time by radio, but to see things in their natural colours. Just a short time ago a demonstration was given in New York during which a group of scientists, Dr. Burgess among them, saw and heard Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, as he talked from his office in Washington. And they saw him in small black-and-white miniatures at the time that he was actually making his speech. To. day the same thing could be done in natural colours.

Scientists learned some time ago to “can” both happening and conversation in the talkie, with which every, one is now familiar. Perhaps before many long years we may even be able to get an entire performance both in colour and with voice reproductions in our homes over the radio without going to the theatre at all. Science has already learned to produce and reproduce all possible tone qualities.

A Belgian expert has said that it is time to turn farming over to the factory. Dr. H. E. Barnard declared at a meeting of the Institute of Chemistry the other day that “Thirty men working in a factory the size of a city block can produce in the form of yeast as much food as 1,000 men tilling 57,000 acres of ground under ordinary conditions.” Bertholet, in France, and Baly, in England, have already learned to make starch and sugar directly from the air by the synthesis of moisture, carbon dioxide and ultra-violet light of certain wave-lengths. “But will we be any happier when we have all these new things that science will bring us?” Dr. Burgess asked. “That will be answered only by the way in which we learn to use our leisure,” he continued. “It seems to me that no discussion of the future is complete without some consideration of our increasing leisure. More and more will materials be poured into factories to be turned automatically into finished products without the aid of human labour. All these mechanical and electrical appliances are releasing us from drudgery. but they are furnishing us with another problem. They are releasing the physical and mental energy which we formerly used in getting the necessities of life. What shall we do with this leisure? Unless we use It wisely, we may become as decadent as ancient Rome. “It is said that today one man out of every five is working for the recreation of the five. That is, be is working at making automobiles, radios, boats, moving pictures. “Alan may use his leisure in two ways: He may use it merely to vegetate, to amuse himself, to enjoy the products of those who have laboured to amuse h:m; or he may use it to work at something which he feels is worth while, to create something he has always wanted to work on. “So the problem seems endless.” Dr. Burgess made a gesture of hopelessness and laughed. “It seems that in spite of ourselves, we are going to have too much leisure.”