To Pursue Science Is Not To Disparage

Science Can Give Mankind A Better Standard Of Living, Better Health And A Better Mental Life, If Mankind In Turn Gives Science The Sympathy And Support So Essential To Its Progress.

There Has Been A Great Deal Said About A 3,00-mile High-angle Rocket. The People Who Have Been Writing These Things That Annoy Me, Have Been Talking About A 3,000-mile High-angle Rocket Shot From One Continent To Another, Carrying An Atomic Bomb And So Directed As To Be A Precise Weapon Which Would Land Exactly On A Certain Target, Such As A City.

Thus Science May Implement The Ways In Which Man Produces, Stores, And Consults The Record Of The Race.

Putting A Man In Space Is A Stunt: The Man Can Do No More Than An Instrument, In Fact Can Do Less. There Are Far More Serious Things To Do Than Indulge In Stunts. . . . I Do Not Discard Completely The Value Of Demonstrating To The World Our Skills. Nor Do I Undervalue The Effect On Morale Of The Spectacular. But The Present Hullabaloo On The Propaganda Aspects Of The Program Leaves Me Entirely Cool.

Consider A Future Device For Individual Use, Which Is A Sort Of Mechanized Private File And Library. It Needs A Name, And, To Coin One At Random, "memex" Will Do. A Memex Is A Device In Which An Individual Stores All His Books, Records, And Communications, And Which Is Mechanized So That It May Be Consulted With Exceeding Speed And Flexibility. It Is An Enlarged Intimate Supplement To His Memory.