Future of the Mind 
BROCK CHISHOLM 
The threat is produced by man’s own extensive inter- 
ference with the biological function of his mind. It is 
his mind which constitutes man’s major difference from, and 
competitive advantage over, other forms of life. His mind has 
enabled man to control many aspects of his physical environ- 
ment, to adjust effectively to those aspects he is not yet able to 
control, to compete successfully with all other forms of life on 
earth and completely to control most of them. In recent years 
man has extended his knowledge and controls into the sub- 
microscopic world of the filterable viruses and the atom, and 
he is now adventuring into the vast areas of space. Increasingly 
he is gathering material with which his mind can work more 
efficiently, and is developing his mental skills. During this long 
process of increasing his knowledge and skills man has come 
into possession of enormous power, which he is using both 
constructively and destructively, for and against his physical 
environment, other forms of life and himself. 
Not all man’s thinking patterns have been uniformly 
successful. Many of them were effective only temporarily or 
locally under special circumstances, and whenever they were 
carried over into other circumstances or times disaster could 
result. Some ways of thinking became rigid and authoritarian 
and were imposed on whole populations and supported by 
powerful priestly and lay hierarchies. Any such rigidity, or 
pretence of possession of final truth, has slowed, distorted or 
even halted man’s intellectual, scientific and social development 
for long periods, and over large areas. Whenever an unques- 
tionable orthodoxy has been proclaimed, imposed and accepted, 
Me: existence now, and for the first time, is threatened. 
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