"HEINLEIN, Robert A. - The Worlds of Robert A.Heinlein" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

uncertain about just how one does go about the unlikely process of writing
fiction for entertainment of strangers Ч and again finding myself caught up in
the sheer excitement of Wells' story.
"Solution Unsatisfactory" herein is a consciously Wellsian story. No, no, I'm
not claiming that it is of H. G. Wells' quality Ч its quality is for you to
judge, not me. But it was written by the method which Wells spelled out for the
speculative story: Take one, just one, basic new assumption, then examine all
its consequences Ч but express those consequences in terms of human beings. The
assumption I chose was the "Absolute Weapon"; the speculation concerns what
changes this forces on mankind. But the "history" the story describes simply did
not happen.
However the problems discussed in this story are as fresh today, the issues just
as poignant, for the grim reason that we have not reached even an
"unsatisfactory" solution to the problem of the Absolute Weapon; we have reached
no solution.
In the twenty-five years that have passed since I wrote that story the world
situation has grown much worse. Instead of one Absolute Weapon there are now at
least five distinct types Ч an "Absolute Weapon" being defined as one against
which there is no effective defense and which kills indiscriminately over a very
wide area. The earliest of the five types, the A-bomb, is now known to be
possessed by at least five nations, at least twenty-five other nations have the
potential to build them in the next few years.
But there is a possible sixth type. Earlier this year I attended a seminar at
one of the nation's new think-factories. One of the questions discussed was
whether or not a "Doomsday Bomb" could be built Ч a single weapon which would
destroy all life of all sorts on this planet; one weapon, not an all-out nuclear
holocaust involving hundreds or thousands of ICBMs. No, this was to be a
world-wrecker of the sort Dr. E. E. Smith used to use in his interstellar sagas
back in the days when S-F magazines had bug-eyed monsters on the cover and were
considered lowbrow, childish, fantastic.
The conclusions reached were: Could the Doomsday Machine be built? Ч yes, no
question about it. What would it cost? Ч quite cheap. A seventh type hardly
seems necessary.
And that makes the grimness of "Solution Unsatisfactory" seem more like an Oz
book in which the most harrowing adventures always turn out happily.
"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 straight-forward 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 Ч 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 Ч 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 Ч or
could even be on another planet and concern a non-human race. But the story does
apply here-and-now, so I told it that way.