EPILOGUE 



basic process of nature. Therefore we shall assume that 

 the established pattern of development will continue. 

 The immediate consequence of such a continuation of 

 the established pattern points towards a long period of 

 "complexification" of such a societal organism (or 

 organisms) as may form on the earth. During this pe- 

 riod of increasing complexity the control of living 

 matter over the surroundings should advance to a suffi- 

 cient extent as to make it possible for societal organisms 

 to establish themselves in other localities of our solar 

 system and perhaps beyond that. After such a period of 

 increasing complexity, one would ultimately expect 

 another integration step to take place, leading to the 

 formation of some sort of "super-societal organism" 

 which would again continue to increase in complexity. 

 All this does indeed sound fantastic, like some wild 

 ideas out of a "science fiction" story. The writer is 

 therefore reluctant to present these ideas. Still, are they 

 not the result which appears to be a reasonable conse- 

 quence of a continuation of the established pattern of 

 evolution? After all, the very existence of conscious life 

 in the universe is a fantastic phenomenon. We should 

 not permit our imagination to become frightened just 

 because our reasoning leads to results which seem 

 extraordinary. ^ 



About the nature of such a "super-societal organism" 

 we can hardly even begin to speculate. We certainly 

 lack all specific data for so doing. Furthermore our 



115 



