American - Physicist | January 30, 1941 -
As fandom grew more variegated, genzines reflected a broadening of interests, carrying personal columns of humor and reflection, science articles, amateur fiction, stylish gossip, and inevitably, thoughtful pieces on the future of fandom.
Gregory Benford
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DNA sequencing opens vast ethical issues. We shall be able to know who has defective genes. What will it mean when we can be sure we're not all born equal? Worked out, the implications will scare a lot of people. Insurance companies will not want to cover those with a genetic predisposition to illness, for example. Here lurk myriad lawsuits.
PeopleInsuranceBornKnowWantDNA
As we all saw in grade school, once you learn how to read a book, somebody is going to want to write one - that's how authors are made. Once we know how to read our own genetic code, someone is going to want to rewrite that 'text,' tinker with traits - play God, some would say.
GodSchoolBookLearnSomeoneYou
In temperate zones, winter is the best insecticide; it keeps the bugs in check. The tropics enjoy no such respite, so plants there have developed a wide range of alkaloids that kill off nosy insects and animals.
WinterBestPlantsEnjoyAnimals
To deliver vast new resources to humanity, we must pioneer and occupy the moon, Mars, and perhaps even beyond.
MoonHumanityNewBeyondResources
Terraforming our moon will take many decades and vast abilities. Before we can begin, we'll have to master the resources of our solar system - especially transporting raw masses over interplanetary distances.
MoonWillSolarResourcesBegin
Our moon was born too small to harbor life. It came from the collision of a Mars-sized world into the primordial Earth. From that colossal crunch spun a disk of rocks that condensed into a satellite.
LifeMoonWorldSmallEarthRocks
The moon's closeness is a huge advantage: To make it habitable, we would first have to bombard it with water-ice comets, a tricky endeavor best attempted with the many resources waiting on and near Earth.
BestWaitingMoonEarthFirstWould
It turns out that if you optimize the performance of a car and of an airplane, they are very far away in terms of mechanical features. So you can make a flying car. But they are not very good planes, and they are not very good cars.
GoodCarPerformanceAirplaneFlying
A view of nature as dense and nonlinear is at the core of our contemporary science. Process and order emerge subtly.
NatureScienceProcessViewOrder
The world is neither running down nor deterministic, and a strict division of order versus chaos is just wrong.
ChaosWorldDownWrongDivisionNor
Nostalgia is eternal for Americans. We are often displaced from our origins and carry anxious memories of that lost past. We fear losing our bearings.
FearMemoriesPastLosingNostalgia
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