"Norman Spinrad - He Walked Among Us" - читать интересную книгу автора (Spinrad Norman)

intelligent species out there who have successfully passed through their transformation crises, they don't
seem to have any interest in foreign aid to Third World planets.

The government tries to sit on it, since it is evident that the measures necessary to avert catastrophe
would require enormous funding and a consequent politically-impossible massive tax increase on the one
hand, and the cessation of economic activities amounting to something like a third of GNP on the other.

But a few scientists in the know are horrified, and a secret conspiracy of тАЬTransformationalistsтАЭ gradually
comes together.

Whathas to be done to transform the human race into a successful long-lived space-going species is not
so difficult for this international network of major scientific talents to figure out. Big bucks have to be
poured into fusion, space-born solar energy, the colonization of the solar system, artificial photosynthesis.
The burning of fossil fuels and the use of dirty fission reactors must be halted come what the economic
consequences may, massive tracts of farmland must be reforested, and, oh yes, complete nuclear
disarmament will probably be required too.

Right. Sure. Andhow are they supposed to cram all this down the speciesтАЩ throat?

After a few suitable plot twists and turns, they hit upon the idea of creating an alien from outer space, a
visitor from a far distant civilization that has survived its own transformation crisis, to serve as their
mouthpiece.

Their psychosocial studies show that a Goddess from space will be more acceptable than a God, so
they recruit a 16 year-old orphan hippie-dip runaway and go to work. They profile the perfect
transnational wet-dream fantasy and surgery and genetic tinkering transform her into the most stunning
woman the world has ever seen, with apple-green skin and purple hair.

With drugs and various sci-fi gizmos, they raise her intelligence to super-genius level, program her with
the millennial history and scientific knowledge of this imaginary advanced civilization she's supposed to be
from, and with more drugs and sophisticated hypnotic techniques erase all memories of her previous
incarnation so thatshe is convinced she is Lura, ambassador from the Galactic Brotherhood of Advanced
Civilizations, dispatched over vast distances at great expense to save the Earth.

With the various special effects at their command, the Transformationalists sell Lura as the savior from
space and begin to effect the great Transformation through her, presenting their visionary program as the
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tried and true path of all those civilizations who have succeeded in passing through their Transformation
Crises.

Many plot twists later, the civilization of the Earth is indeed transformed, the final McGuffin being the
capture of Lura by a mob of the dispossessed, and her impending martyrdom.

Some of the Transformationalists try to tell the world the truth to save her. But since Lura herself, even
unto death, contradicts them, sincerely believing that she is a noble being from an advanced civilization,
they fail, she is martyred, and the Transformationalists have no pragmatic choice but to turn her into the