Worlds Enough, and Time

By K. ERIC DREXLER

Unless they are held together by book covers or hypertext links, ideas will tend to split up as they travel. We need to develop and spread an understanding of the future as a whole, as a system of interlocking dangers and opportunities. This calls for the effort of many minds. The incentive to study and spread the needed information will be strong enough: the issues are fascinating and important, and many people will want their friends, families, and colleagues to join in considering what lies ahead. If we push in the right directions -- learning, teaching, arguing, shifting directions, and pushing further -- then we may yet steer the technology race toward a future with room enough for our dreams.

Eons of evolution and millennia of history have prepared this challenge and quietly presented it to our generation. The coming years will bring the greatest turning point in the history of life on Earth. To guide life and civilization through this transition is the great task of our time.

If we succeed (and if you survive) then you may be honored with endless questions from pesky great-grandchildren: "What was it like when you were a kid, back before the Breakthrough?" and "What was it like growing old?" and "What did you think when you heard the Breakthrough was coming?" and "What did you do then?" By your answers you will tell once more the tale of how the future was won.