From owner-qed Sun Aug 21 02:24:56 1994 Received: from localhost (listserv@localhost) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) id CAA15279 for qed-out; Sun, 21 Aug 1994 02:21:53 -0500 Received: from earth.anu.edu.au (earth.anu.edu.au [150.203.20.5]) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) with SMTP id CAA15274 for ; Sun, 21 Aug 1994 02:21:41 -0500 Received: by earth.anu.edu.au id AA07750 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for qed@mcs.anl.gov); Sun, 21 Aug 1994 17:21:51 +1000 Received: from Messages.8.5.N.CUILIB.3.45.SNAP.NOT.LINKED.earth.sun4.51 via MS.5.6.earth.sun4_51; Sun, 21 Aug 1994 17:21:48 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <0iJk2A2KmlE50DtW40@earth> Date: Sun, 21 Aug 1994 17:21:48 +1000 (EST) From: Zdzislaw Meglicki To: qed@mcs.anl.gov Subject: Re: Automath restaurant In-Reply-To: References: Sender: owner-qed@mcs.anl.gov Precedence: bulk Since we ended up, it seems, in the "Automath Restaurant" let me cite prophetic words from Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves". On page 161 (chapter 3, part III) Montez and Gottstein, two Terrestrial officials representing Earth in the Moon colony, discuss "a lack of desire to risk change because of the possible side-effects" that seems to plague Earth society at that time (2100). [...] Gottstein: 'I take it you refer to the program on genetic engineering' 'That's the most spectacular case of course, but not the only one,' said Montez, bitterly. 'Frankly, I can't get excited over the abandonment of genetic engineering. It was a tissue of failures.' 'We lost our chance at intuitionism.' 'There has never been any evidence that intuitionism is desirable, and considerable indications of its undesirability... Besides what about the Lunar colony itself? This certainly is no indication of stagnation on Earth.' [...] Cordial greetings to QED, Zdzislaw Meglicki, Zdzislaw.Meglicki@cisr.anu.edu.au, Automated Reasoning Pursuit - CISR, and Plasma Theory Group - RSPhysSE, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., 0200, Australia, fax: +61-6-249-0747, tel: +61-6-249-0158