Things to Come

makes one vulnerable to manipulation by others (which is why Christianity encourages it so). The amoralist is likely to reject guilt and replace it with remorse. Remorse contains no element of self-hate or self-pity. It is an open recognition that one acted against one’s more important values and preferences, either by mistake or due to weakness of will, and it involves an eagerness to make amends and to work to prevent a recurrence of the mistaken behavior. Remorse, as opposed to guilt, obviously has a place in an amoralists system since it acts as a regulator of behavior which helps the individual to do what he most deeply wants to do.

Amoralism is a view whose time has come. Old moralities have created innumerable miseries for individuals and societies. Moralities, even if held subjectively, threaten to twist the rapidly approaching vastly powerful new technologies in a destructive direction or to slow their introduction. Since I have a strong interest in seeing those technologies come about as soon as possible and with no distortion from moralities blind to the facts of reality, one of my values is to promote amoralism, to explain its benefits, and to refute the myth of morality. I hope you will join me in rejecting morality in favor of reality.

‘The learned judge correctly that people of all ages have believed that they KNOW what is good or evil, praise- and blameworthy. But it is a prejudice of the learned that WE KNOW BETTER than any other age.’ Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak.

THINGS TO COME

An appreciation of H. G. Wells’ greatest speech, by Max O’Connor.

H. G. Wells wrote some very extropian stories - stories of mankind using intelligence, courage, and perseverance to overcome the obstacles of Man and nature to achieve new heights. His characters were dynamic, brilliant figures who were determined to eradicate ignorance, to discover new

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truths, and to use technology to better themselves and the human race. These are goals and values that we approve of. One beautiful expression of the extropian vision comes at the conclusion of the film Things To Come. The great scientist, Cabal, and his group are being pursued by a mob of entropic fools who want to prevent the launch of the first moon mission. The heros reach the ‘space gun’ and manage to fire it just in time, sending Cabal’s daughter and Passworthy’s son into space. Here is the concluding piece of dialogue which we fully endorse (apart from the implication that individuals have to die - a failure of thought on Wells’ part):

Cabal watches the mirror intently, then cries to Passworthy:

‘There - there they go! That faint gleam of light.’

‘I feel that what we’ve done is monstrous.’

‘What we’ve done is magnificent.’

‘Will they come back?’

‘Yes. And go again and again, until a landing is made and the moon is conquered. This is only a beginning.’

‘If they don’t come back - my son and your daughter - what of that Cabal?’

‘Then, presently, others will go.’

‘Oh, God, is there never to be an age of happiness? Is there never to be any rest?’

‘Rest enough for the individual man - too much, and too soon, and we call it Death. But for Man no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.’

‘But…we’re such little creatures. Poor humanity’s so fragile, so weak. Little…little animals.’

‘Little animals. If we’re no more than animals we must snatch each little scrap of happiness and live and suffer and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done.’

Cabal points to the image of space in the mirror. ‘It is this - or that: all the universe or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?’

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