248 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



Consider that the growing efficiency and greatly stepped- 

 up capacities of the machines of tomorrow promise astro- 

 nomical levels of production, with fewer and fewer men to 

 man them. In our day there is the beginning of the fully 

 automatic factory, the production speed-up through which 

 backward areas of the earth may be industriaHzed with only 

 a limited number of trained men. Everywhere, in all prob- 

 ability, the fully automatic factory will introduce very dif- 

 ficult problems in the unemployment of peoples and in the 

 educational and economic necessities of the growing popu- 

 lations. It would seem that, at least in most places in the 

 world, the social, the cultural, and the political advances and 

 the levels of unselfishness may not be able to cope with the 

 situation. 



Consider that the rapidly growing, particularized tech- 

 niques and sciences of tomorrow will, as they have already, 

 make it impossible in the short life span of man for the in- 

 dividual, even of the highest intellect, to become truly fa- 

 miliar with the knowledge of his day. The problem of spe- 

 cialization and the narrowing of the educational programs 

 to adapt a population to the future needs of society will not 

 be easily resolved. One could hope for a longer life with a 

 longer and more thorough education, and such is not out- 

 side the realm of possibility. The complex of heredity and 

 physiology that controls the life span of man may not al- 

 ways be the mystery that it now is. But again, while longer 

 life would be a boon educationally, it would add to the so- 

 cial and overpopulation problems of the future. 



Consider also, as we already have, that dwindling re- 

 sources, the demands of expanding populations, the possible 

 decline in intelligence levels will all add still further to the 

 problems the man of the future must solve, and it would seem 

 very clear that his only hope lies in the direction of a free 

 and inspired scientific and philosophical leadership. 



In spite of all these difficulties, however, one can envision 

 for some distant day, when evolution comes into its own, 



