The World, the Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul (Radical Thinkers)
by J. D. Bernal
On This Page
Description
Written by the pioneering scientist, theorist and activist J. D. Bernal, this futuristic essay explores the radical changes to human bodies and intelligence that science may bring about, and suggests the impact of these developments on society. Bernal presents a far-reaching vision of the future that encompasses space research and colonization, material sciences, genetic engineering, and the technological hive mind. In his view, it will be possible for the conditions of civilization to reach show more a state of materialist utopia. For all three realms--the world, the flesh, and the devil--Bernal attempted to map out the utmost limit of technoscientific progress, and found that there are almost no limits. With a new introduction by McKenzie Wark. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Clarke so strongly recommended this concise speculative essay in Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations that I just had to read it - tonight. Despite the title, this is less theological then cyberpunk, but from the dieselpunk 1920s. This visionary published in 1929 a considered, thoughtful and logical pronouncement on the future that included space travel"
including such conveyances as the recently trotted out light-sail:
This seer would not be surprised by the dreams of nanotech and in this own Brave New World moment foresaw cybernetically transformed humans and brain-in-a-pan immortality:
Even this tether can be snipped for a truly unfettered apotheosis:
show more
Once the earth's gravitational field is overcome, development must follow with immense rapidity. Without going too closely into the mechanical details, it appears that the most effective method is based on the principle of the rocket, and the difficulty, as it exists, is simply that of projecting the particles, whose recoil is being utilized, with the greatest possible velocity,
so that to economize both energy and the amount of matter required for propulsion.
including such conveyances as the recently trotted out light-sail:
...form of space sailing might be developed which used the repulsive effect of the sun's rays instead of wind. A space vessel spreading its large, metallic wings, acres in extent, to the full, might be blown to the limit of Neptune's orbit.
This seer would not be surprised by the dreams of nanotech and in this own Brave New World moment foresaw cybernetically transformed humans and brain-in-a-pan immortality:
If a method has been found of connecting a nerve ending in a brain directly with an electrical reactor, then the way is open for connecting it with a brain-cell of another person. Such a connection being, of course, essentially electrical, could be effected just as well through the ether as along wires. At first this would limit itself to the more perfect and economic transference of thought which would be necessary in the co-operative thinking of the future. But it cannot stop here. Connections between two or more minds would tend to become a more and more permanent condition until they functioned as a dual or multiple organism.
Even this tether can be snipped for a truly unfettered apotheosis:
Finally, consciousness itself may end or vanish in a humanity that has become completely etherealize...show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Cape Editions (41)
Radical Thinkers (124 - Set 15(4))
Common Knowledge
- First words
- FOREWORD
TO THE SECOND EDITION THIS SHORT BOOK WAS THE FIRST I EVER WROTE.
THERE ARE TWO FUTURES, THE FUTURE OF DESIRE and the future of fate, and man’s reason has never learnt to separate them. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Having seen it, are we to turn away from something that offends the very nature of our earliest desires, or is the recognition of our new powers sufficient to change those desires into the service of the future which they will have to bring about?
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 64
- Popularity
- 487,441
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.86)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 1

























































