"Stanley G. Weinbaum - The Adaptive Ultimate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinbaum Stanley G)

containing a fifty-ton locomotive passing over her body. And yet there's an important point we haven't
considered. Adaptation itself is of two kinds."

"Two kinds?"

"Yes. One kind is biological; the other, human. Naturally a biochemist like you would deal only with the
first, and equally naturally a brain surgeon like me has to consider the second as well. Biological
adaptation is what all lifeтАФplant, animal, and humanтАФpossesses, and it is merely conforming to one's
environment. A chameleon, for instance, shows much the same ability as Kyra herself, and so, in lesser
degree, does the arctic fox, white in winter, brown in summer; or the snowshoe rabbit, for that matter, or
the weasel. All life conforms to its environment to a great extent, because if it doesn't, it dies. But human
life does more."

"More?"

"Much more. Human adaptation is not only conformity to environment, but also the actual changing of
environment to fit human needs! The first cave man who left his cave to build a grass hut changed his
environment, and so, in exactly the same sense, did Steinmetz, Edison, and as far as that goes, Julius
Caesar and Napoleon. In fact, Dan, all human invention, genius, and military leadership boils down to
that one factтАФchanging the environment instead of conforming to it."

He paused, then continued, "Now we know that Kyra possesses the biological adaptivity. Her hair and
eyes prove that. But what if she possesses the other to the same degree? If she does, God knows what
the result will be. We can only watch to see what direction she takesтАФwatch and hope."

"But I don't see," muttered Scott, "how that could be glandular."

"Anything can be glandular. In a mutantтАФand Kyra's as much a mutant as your white-eyed fruit
fliesтАФanything is possible." He frowned reflectively. "If I dared phrase a philosophical interpretation, I'd
say that KyraтАФperhapsтАФrepresents a stage in human evolution. A mutation. If one ventured to believe
that, then de Vries and Weissman are justified."

"The mutation theory of evolution, you mean?"

"Exactly. You see, Dan, while it is very obvious from fossil remains that evolution occurred, yet it is very
easy to prove it couldn't possibly have occurred!"

"How?"

"Well, it couldn't have occurred slowly, as Darwin believed, for many reasons. Take the eye, for
instance. He thought that very gradually, over thousands of generations, some sea creature developed a
spot on its skin that was sensitive to light, and that this gave it an advantage over its blind fellows.
Therefore its kind survived and others perished. But see here. If this eye developed slowly, why did the
very first ones, the ones that couldn't yet see, have any better chance than the others? And take a wing.
What good is a wing until you can fly with it? Just because a jumping lizard had a tiny fold of skin
between foreleg and breast wouldn't mean that that lizard could survive where others died. What kept the
wing developing to a point where it could actually have value?"

"What did?"