after-life, it is certainly not that that we live for. I am sure no man
wants to die. Yet what aim have we? What function must we perform? Why
should we wish to live? Our life is a constant struggle, the machines,
at least, had eliminated that. There seems to me no reason why a
machine should want to live, but certainly it has less reason to pass
out of existence than we have!
That war was destructive--terribly so. But it has brought its
compensations. More than fifteen million human beings lost their lives
in that great struggle, either in the battles in space, or caught in
the Dis rays during that battle on Venus.
But those fifteen millions have died a painless death, and twenty
billions live because of their sacrifice. And it was not a vain
sacrifice. We have learned much in return. No machines man ever made
equaled the machines we captured there on Mars. And man will never
experiment on the lines of the machine-brain. He has been warned. The
brain-machine we captured was destroyed without investigation. The
machines we use, the wonderful worker machines, have been modified to
permit of radio control.
And Stephen Waterson's discovery of the de-activating field not
only helps in law enforcement, but makes war with material energy
impossible. No, in all, we have lost little.
Mars lost its cities, its forests, its ancient civilization. New cities
are being built on the modern plan, larger, finer, more beautiful;
the forests are being replaced; but the records, the relics of a
civilization have been lost forever. In that we have lost much. Though
all moveable things were moved when the warning came, there was much
that could not be moved. The great palace of Horlak San was destroyed,
but it is being rebuilt in the exact spot, in exactly the same manner.
It is a worth-while project, but there is much which cannot be restored.
It will be eleven more years before we will know whether we can
ever communicate with the Sirian men. The speed of light is too low
for rapid communication, and as the first signals were sent out in
September, 1961, and it is now September, 1968, the signals are not due
to reach Sirius for two years more. Then it will be 1979 before we can
hope to receive their reply. I often wonder if they will ever get those
signals. I can remember distinctly the recoil of the great projector as
the mighty surges of light flashed out across the universe. It seemed
like some great gun--the back pressure of the light was so great. And
what will those replies tell us? It is interesting to speculate on that
subject.
The End