"Spider Robinson - Too Soon We Grow Old" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

"Oh, on a short time-scale it works just fine," Caleb agreed. "But over a long
range, it works only as hindsight. It's a matter of locating the really significant data
from which to extrapolate. An extrapolator in the early 1900s might have been aware
that a man named Ford had invented a mechanical horseтАФbut how could that
observer have guessed how much significance that should have in his projections?
All the seeds of today were present in your world, and you were almost certainly
aware of them. But if I hand you a thousand seeds, most of which are strange new
hybrids, how are you to know which will be weeds and which mighty trees?"
"I understand," she said, "but I must admit I find the idea disturbing."
"Of course," he said gently. "We all like to think ourselves such imaginative
navigators that no new twist in the river can startle us. The one thing that every
Awakened Sleeper finds most surprising is the depth of his own surprise. The fun in
all stories is trying to guess what happens next, and we like to feel that if we fail, it's
either because we didn't try hard enough or because the author cheated. God is a
much more talented author than thatтАФthank God."
"I suppose you're right," she agreed. "All right, what were the seedsтАФthe data I
overlooked?"
"The biggest part was, as far as I can tell, right under your nose. The spiritual
renaissance in North America was already well under way in your time."
Her jaw dropped in honest astonishment. "Do you mean to tell me that all that
divine mumbo-jumbo, all those crackpot holy men, actually produced anything?"
"The very success of such transparent charlatans proved that they were filling a
deep and urgent need. When the so-called 'science' of psychology collapsed under
the weight of its own flawed postulates, its more sincere followers perforce turned
their attention toward spirituality. Over the ensuing decades, this culminated in the
creation of the first self-consistent code of ethicsтАФone that didn't depend on a
white-bearded know-it-all with thunderbolts up his sleeve to enforce it. It didn't have
to be enforced. When completed, it was as self-evidently superior to anything that
had gone before as the assembly line was in its time. It sold itself.
Behaviorally-determined helplessness may be a dandy rationalizationтАФbut it isn't any
fun.
"At more or less the same time, there was a widespread boom in use of a new drug
called AlphaтАж why are you frowning?"
"I'm familiar with Alpha," she said sourly. "Salvation by drug addictionтАФthat
sounds just great."
"You misunderstand," he said gently. 'It's not that the drug is addictive. Happens
it's not. It's Truth that's addictive."
"Go on," she said, plainly not convinced.
"An interest in spirituality, combined with volitional control of rationalization, led
inevitably to the first clear distinguishing between pleasure and joy. Then came the
first rigorous definition of sharing, and the rest followed logically, Shared joy is
increased; shared pain lessened. Axiomatic."
"But I knew that," she cried, and caught herself.
"If so," he said with gentle sadness, "thenтАФas I have just saidтАФyou did not know
how much significance to assign the awareness. What clearer proof is there than
your presence hereтАФthan the inescapable fact that you used a much greater
proportion of the world's resources than you deserved, specifically to remove
yourself from all possibility of sharing with anyone you knew?"
"Wait a damn minute," she snapped. "I earned my fortune, and furthermoreтАж"
"It is impossible," he interrupted, "to earn more than you can useтАФyou can only