Sept/Oct 1997

ARTICLE TOOLS

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology," wrote Arthur C. Clarke, decades ago, "is indistinguishable from magic." Thus was born the First Great Commandment of science fiction, a dictate so all-pervasive in the annals of SF that Clarke actually quotes himself in his latest novel, 3001: The Final Odyssey.

3001--the final installment in the series that began with 2001: A Space Odyssey--opens with the rescue of astronaut Frank Poole, last seen being shoved into space by the out-of-control computer Hal. Poole wakes up from a thousand-year sleep brought on by the coldness of space and discovers himself in the year 3001. The fourth millennium is, indeed, a world of wonders. Poole muses, eying the Braincap that all humans now wear: "Someone once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Will I meet magic in this new world--and be able to handle it?"

Poole's Braincap does look like magic--it fits onto his skull and downloads the history and customs of humanity into his brain--but Clarke explains that the Braincap is actually "the end product of more than a thousand years of electro-optical technology."

The Braincap rescues Poole from years of catch-up study, but it has a more important payoff: It has eliminated religion. When children are fitted for the Braincap, they are mentally "calibrated"--a process that serves as an early-warning system for psychosis. Any mental deviancies are treated immediately. As a result, no one in the fourth millennium starts wars, eats meat, or believes in God. (Marriages have also taken the eminently reasonable form of 15-year renewable contracts, but that's another issue.) Anyone with strong religious beliefs is classed as either certifiably insane or mentally impaired ...