"Searchlight" is almost pure extrapolation, almost no speculation. The gadgets in it are either hardware on the shelf, or hardware which will soon be on the shelf because nothing is involved but straightforward engineering development. "Life - Line" (my first story) is its opposite, a story which is sheer speculation and either impossible or very highly improbable, as the What - If postulate will never be solved - I think. I hope. But the two stories are much alike in that neither depends on when it was written nor when it is read. Both are independent of any particular shape to history; they are timeless.
Free Men' is another timeless story. As told, it looks like another "after the blowup" story - but it is not. Although the place is nominally the United States and the time (as shown by the gadgetry) is set in the not - distant future, simply by changing names of persons and places and by inserting other weapons and other gadgets this story could be any country and any time in the past or future - or could even be on another planet and concern a non - human race. But the story does also apply here - and - now, so I told it that way.
"Pandora's Box" was the original title of an article researched and written in 1949 for publication in 1950, the end of the half - century. Inscrutable are the ways of editors: it appeared with the title "Where To?" and purported to be a nonfiction prophecy concerning the year 2000 A.D. as seen from 1950. (I agree that a science fiction writer should avoid marijuana, prophecy, and time payments - but I was tempted by a soft rustle.)
Our present editor (1965) decided to use this article, but suggested that it should be updated. Authors who wish to stay in the business listen most carefully to editors' suggestions, even when they think an editor has been out in the sun without a hat; I agreed.
And reread "Where To?" and discovered that our editor was undeniably correct; it needed updating. At least.
But at last I decided not to try to conceal my bloopers. Below is reproduced, unchanged, my predictions of fifteen years back. But here and there through the article I have inserted signs for footnotes - like this: (z) - and these will be found at the end of the 1950 article ... calling attention to bloopers and then forthrightly excusing myself by rationalizing how anyone, even Nostradamus, would have made the same mistake... hedging my bets in other cases, or chucking in brand - new predictions and carefully laying them farther in the future than I am likely to live
and, in some cases, crowing loudly about successful predictions. (Addendum 1979: I have interpolated the later comments, and marked each item 1950, or 1965, or 1980.) So -
WHERE TO?
A bloomin', foolish sparrow Built his nest in a spout, And along -
- came a building inspector, looked over the site, and the plans, and okayed them, after requiring the sparrow to buy eleven different licenses totaling 18% of the sparrow's building budget, plus something called special service, and along -
- the bleedin' rains came, And washed the sparrow out.
Again the foolish sparrow, Built his nest in the spout, And again -
- came that building inspector, bawled out the sparrow for failing to get special licenses and permits covering typhoons, sun spots, and ice ages, required him to buy seventeen permits and/or licenses and appear before boards controlling zoning, economic impact, ecological protection, energy conservation, and community esthetics, plus something called "very special service" - and a second mortgage, and along -
- the bleedin' rains came,
And washed the sparrow out. (Around again.., and again.., and - )
1950 Where To?
Most science fiction consists of big - muscled stories about adventures in space, atomic wars, invasions by extra - terrestrials, and such. All very well - but now we will take time out for a look at ordinary home life half a century hence.
Except for tea leaves and other magical means, the only way to guess at the future is by examining the present in the light of the past. Let's go back half a century and visit your grandmother before we attempt to visit your grandchildren.
1900: Mr. McKinley is President and the airplane has not yet been invented. Let's knock on the door of that house with the gingerbread, the stained glass, and the cupola.
The lady of the house answers. You recognize her - your own grandmother, Mrs. Middleclass. She is almost as plump as you remember her, for she "put on some good, healthy flesh" after she married.
She welcomes you and offers coffee cake, fresh from her modern kitchen (running water from a hand pump; the best coal range Pittsburgh ever produced). Everything about her house is modern - hand - painted china, souvenirs from the Columbian Exposition, beaded portiиres, shining baseburner stoves, gas lights, a telephone on the wall.
There is no bathroom, but she and Mr. Middleclass are thinking of putting one in. Mr. Middleclass's mother calls this nonsense, but your grandmother keeps up with the times. She is an advocate of clothing reform, wears only one petticoat, bathes twice a week, and her corsets are guaranteed rust proof. She has been known to defend female suffrage - but not in the presence of Mr. Middleclass.
Nevertheless, you find difficulty in talking with her. Let's jump back to the present and try again.
The automatic elevator takes us to the ninth floor, and we pick out a door by its number, that being the only way to distinguish it.
"Don't bother to ring," you say? What? It's your door and you know exactly what lies beyond it - Very well, let's move a half century into the future and try another middle class home.
It's a suburban home not two hundred miles from the city. You pick out your destination from the air while the cab is landing you - a cluster of hemispheres that makes you think of the houses Dorothy found in Oz.
You set the cab to return to its hangar and go into the entrance hall. You neither knock nor ring. The screen has warned them before you touched down on the landing flat and the autobutler's transparency is shining with: PLEASE RECORD A MESSAGE.
Before you can address the microphone a voice calls out, "Oh, it's you! Come in, come in." There is a short wait, as your hostess is not at the door. The autobutler flashed your face to the patio - where she was reading and sunning herself - and has relayed her voice back to you.
She pauses at the door, looks at you through one-way glass, and frowns slightly; she knows your old-fashioned disapproval of casual nakedness. Her kindness causes her to disobey the family psychiatrist; she grabs a robe and covers herself before signaling the door to open.
The psychiatrist was right; you have thus been classed with strangers, trades people, and others who are not family intimates. But you must swallow your annoyance; you cannot object to her wearing clothes when you have sniffed at her for not doing so.
There is no reason why she should wear clothes at home. The house is clean - not somewhat clean, but clean - and comfortable. The floor is warm to bare feet; there are no unpleasant drafts, no cold walls. All dust is precipitated from the air entering this house. All textures, of floor, of couch, of chair, are comfortable to bare skin. Sterilizing ultra - violet light floods each room whenever it is unoccupied, and, several times a day, a "whirlwind" blows house - created dust from all surfaces and whisks it out. These auto services are unobtrusive because automatic cut - off switches prevent them from occurring whenever a mass in a room is radiating at blood temperature.
Such a house can become untidy, but not dirty. Five minutes of straightening, a few swipes at children's finger marks, and her day's housekeeping is done. Oftener than sheets were changed in Mr. McKinley's day, this housewife rolls out a fresh layer of sheeting on each sitting surface and stuffs the discard down the oubliette. This is easy; there is a year's supply on a roll concealed in each chair or couch. The tissue sticks by pressure until pulled loose and does not obscure the pattern and color.