Beyond This Horizon

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"-then a man is something more than his genes!"

"I CANNOT say," remarked the Honorable Member from Great Lakes Central, "that I place high evaluation on Brother Mordan's argument that this project be taken up to get young Hamilton's consent to propagate. It is true that I am not entirely familiar with the details of the genetic sequence involved-"

"You should be," Mordan cut in somewhat acidly, "I supplied full transcript two days ago."

"I beg your pardon, brother. In those forty-eight hours I have held hearings steadily. The Mississippi Valley matter, you know. It's rather urgent."

"I'm sorry," Mordan apologized. "It's easy for a layman to forget the demands on a Planner's time."

"Never mind. No need for finicky courtesy among ourselves. I scanned the brief and the first sixty pages while we were assembling; that, with such previous knowledge of the case as I had, gives me a rough idea of your problem. But tell me, am I correct in thinking that Hamilton holds nothing exclusively in his chart? You have alternative choices?"

"Yes."

"You expected to finish with his descendent generation- how many generations would be required, using alternative choices?"

"Three additional generations."

"That is what I thought, and that is my reason for disagreeing with your argument. The genetic purpose of the sequence is, I think, of greater importance to the race, but a delay of a hundred years, more or less, is not important-not sufficiently important to justify an undertaking as major as a full effort to investigate the question of survival after death."

"I take it," put in the Speaker for the Day, "that you wish to be recorded as opposing Brother Mordan's proposal?"

"No, Hubert, no. You anticipate me-incorrectly. I am supporting his proposition. Notwithstanding the fact that I consider his reasons, though good, to be insufficient, I evaluate the proposal as worthwhile in itself. I think we should support it fully."

The Member from the Antilles looked up from the book he was reading (not rudeness; everyone present knew that he had parallel mental processes and no one expected him to waste half the use of his time out of politeness) and said, "I think George should amplify his reason."

"I will. We policy men are like a pilot who is attempting to do a careful job of conning his ship without having any idea of his destination. Hamilton has put his finger on the weak point in our whole culture-he should be a planner himself. Every decision that we make, although it is based on data, is shaped by our personal philosophies. The data is examined in the light of these philosophies. How many of you have an opinion about survival-after-death? I ask for a show of hands. Come now, be honest with yourselves." Somewhat hesitantly they put their hands up-men and women alike, every one of them. "Now," the Great Lakes member continued, "the hands of those who are sure that their opinions are correct."

All of the hands went down, save that of the Member from Patagonia. "Bravo!" Rembert of the Lakes called out. "I should have guessed that you would be sure."

She took the cigar out of her mouth, said rather sharply, "Any fool knows that one," and went back to her needlework. She was over a hundred years old, and the only control natural in the Board. Her district had confirmed her tenure regularly for more than fifty years. Her eyesight was thought to be failing, but she had all of her own yellow teeth. Her wrinkled, mahogany features showed more evidence of Indian blood than Caucasian. They all claimed to be a little afraid of her.

"Garvala," Rembert said to her, "perhaps you can cut the matter short by giving us the answer?"

"I can't tell you the answer-and you wouldn't believe me if I did." She was silent for a moment, then added, "Let the boy do as he pleases. He will anyway."

"Do you support or oppose Mordan's proposition?"

"Support. Not that you're likely to go at it right." There was a short silence. Every member in the chamber was hastily trying to recall when, if ever, Carvala had been proven to be on the wrong side of a question-in the long run.

"It would seem obvious to me," Rembert continued, "that the only rational personal philosophy based on a conviction that we die dead, never to rise again, is a philosophy of complete hedonism. Such a hedonist might seek his pleasure in life in very subtle, indirect, and sublimated fashions; nevertheless pleasure must be his only rational purpose-no matter how lofty his conduct may appear to be. On the other hand, the possibility of something more to life than the short span we see opens up an unlimited possibility of evaluations other than hedonistic. It seems to me a fit subject to investigate."

"Granting your point," commented the woman representing the Northwest Union, "is it our business to do so? Our functions and our authority are limited; we are forbidden by constitution to meddle in spiritual matters. How about it, Johann?"

The member addressed was the only priest persona among them, he being the Most Reverend Mediator to some millions of his co-religionists south of the Rio Grande. His political prominence was the more exceptional in that the great majority of his constituents were not of his faith. "I do not see, Geraldine," he replied, "that the constitutional restriction applies. What Brother Mordan proposes is a coldly scientific investigation. Its consequences may have spiritual implications, if there are positive results, but an unbiased investigation is no violation of religious freedom."

"Johann is right," said Rembert. "There is no subject inappropriate for scientific research. Johann, we've let you fellows have a monopoly of such matters for too long. The most serious questions in the world have been left to faith or speculation. It is time for scientists to cope with them, or admit that science is no more than pebble counting."

"Go ahead. I shall be interested in seeing what you can make of them-in laboratories."

Hoskins Geraldine looked at him. "I wonder, Johann, what your attitude will be if this research should turn up facts which controvert some one of your articles of faith?"

"That," he answered imperturbably, "is a matter for me to settle with myself. It need not affect this board."

"I think," observed the Speaker for the Day, "that we might now seek a preliminary expression of opinion. Some support the proposal-are any opposed?" There was no response. "Are any undecided?" There was still no response, but one member stirred slightly. "You wished to speak, Richard?"

"Not yet. I support the proposal, but I will speak to it later."

"Very well. It appears to be unanimous ... It is so ordered. I will co-opt an instigator later. Now, Richard?"

The member-at-large for transient citizens indicated that he was ready. "The research does not cover enough territory."

"Yes?"

"When proposed as a means of persuading Hamilton Felix to accede to the wishes of the State geneticists, it was sufficient. But we are now undertaking it for itself. Is that not true?"

The Speaker glanced around the room, picking up nods from all but ancient Carvala-she seemed uninterested in the whole matter. "Yes, that is true."

"Then we should undertake not just one of the problems of philosophy, but all of them. The same reasons apply."

"We are under no necessity of being consistent, you know."

"Yes, I know, am I not trammeled by the meshes of verbal logic. I am interested. I am stimulated by the vista. I want us to extend the research."

"Very well. I am interested, too. I think we might well spend the next several days discussing it. I will postpone co-opting the instigator until we determine just how far we will go."

Mordan had been intending to ask to be excused, his mission accomplished, but at this new twist, fire and earthquake, garnished with pretty girls, could not have tempted him to leave. As a citizen, he was entitled to listen if he chose; as a distinguished synthesist himself, no one would think of objecting to his physical presence in the circle of discussion.

The member for transients went on. "We should enumerate and investigate all of the problems of philosophy, especially the problems of metaphysics and epistemology."

"I had thought," the Speaker said mildly, "that epistemology had been pretty well settled."

"Certainly, certainly-in the limited sense of agreeing on the semantic nature of symbolic communication. Speech and other communication symbols necessarily refer back to agreed-upon, pointed-to referent physical facts, no matter how high the level of abstraction, for communication to take place. Beyond that we cannot communicate. That's why Brother Johann and I can't argue about religion. He carries his around inside of him and can't point to what he means-as I carry mine. We can't even be sure that we disagree. Our notions about religion may be identical, but we can't talk about it meaningfully-so we keep quiet."

Johann smiled with untroubled good nature, but said nothing. Carvala looked up from her fancywork and said sharply, "Is this a development center lecture?"

"Sorry, Carvala. We agree on the method of symbol communication-the symbol is not the referent, the map is not the territory, the speech-sound is not the physical process. We go further and admit that the symbol never abstracts all of the details of the process it refers to. And we concede that symbols can be used to manipulate symbols ... dangerously but usefully. And we agree that symbols should be structurally as similar as possible to the referents for communication purposes. To that extent epistemology is settled; but the key problem of epistemology-how we know what we know and what that knowledge means, we have settled by agreeing to ignore-like Johann and myself in re theology."

"Do you seriously propose that we investigate it?"

"I do. It's a key problem in the general problem of the personality. There is a strong interconnection between it and the object of Mordan's proposal. Consider-if a man 'lives' after his body is dead or before that body was conceived, then a man is something more than his genes and his subsequent environment. The doctrine of no-personal-responsibility for personal acts has become popular through the contrary assumption. I won't go into the implications-they must be evident to all of you-in ethics, in politics, in every field. But note the parallel between map-territory and gene-chart-and-man. These basic problems are all interrelated and the solution to any of them might be the key to all the others."

"You did not mention the possibility of direct communication without symbols."

"I implied it. That is one of the things we agreed to forget when we accepted the semantic negative statements as the final word on epistemology. But it ought to be looked into again. There is something to telepathy, even if we can't measure it and manipulate it. Any man who has ever been happily married knows that, even if he's afraid to talk about it. Infants and animals and primitives have some use of it. Maybe we've been too smart. But the question ought to be reopened."

"Speaking of philosophical questions in general," put in the member from New Bolivar, "we have already agreed to subsidize one. Doctor Thorgsen's project-the ballistic stellarium-eidouraniun, I should call it. The origin and destination of the universe is certainly a classic problem of metaphysics."

"You are right," said the Speaker. "If we follow Richard's proposal, Doctor Thorgsen's project should be included."

"I suggest we did not allot Doctor Thorgsen enough credit."

"The subsidy could be increased, but he has not spent much of it. He seems to have little talent for spending money."

"Perhaps he needs abler assistants. There is Hargrave Caleb, and, of course, Monroe-Alpha Clifford. Monroe-Alpha is wasted in the department of finance."

"Thorgsen knows Monroe-Alpha. Perhaps Monroe-Alpha doesn't want to work on it."

"Nonsense! Any man likes a job that stretches his muscles."

"Then perhaps Thorgsen hesitated to ask him to help. Thorgsen is an essentially modest man, as is Monroe-Alpha."

"That seems more likely."

"In any case," the Speaker finished, "such details are for the instigator to consider, not the whole board. Are you ready for opinion? The question is Brother Richard's proposal in the broadest sense-I suggest that we postpone elaboration of the details of projects and methods until tomorrow and other morrows. In the meantime-does any member oppose?"

There was no opposition; there was full consent.

"So be it," said the Speaker. He smiled. "It seems we are about to attempt to walk where Socrates stumbled."

"Crawl, not 'walk,'" Johann corrected. "We have limited ourselves to the experimental methods of science."

"True, true. Well, 'he who crawls cannot stumble.' Now to other matters-we still have a state to govern!"