Biological Possibilities in the Next Ten Thousand Years 
pleasures, our successors will, I hope, convert them into servants 
rather than masters. One of the human goals is emotional 
homoeostasis. I do not think this will be achieved by the mas- 
sacre of emotions, as religious ascetics have attempted, but by 
their integration, as our nervous system integrates the activities 
of antagonistic muscles. 
If the capacity for consciousness and control of physiological 
processes is prized by posterity, steps will probably be taken to 
make it commoner, and it may be that ten thousand years 
hence our descendants will differ from us not only in achieve- 
ments but in capacities and aspirations, to so great an extent 
that it is useless to attempt to follow them further. It is doubt- 
less more probable that human interests may be concentrated 
on some different goal, such as music, economic activity, or 
religion. I have sketched my own utopia, or as some readers 
may think, my own private hell. My excuse must be that the 
description of utopias has influenced the course of history. 
