The fate of homo sapiens : an unemotional statement of the things that are happening to him now, and of the immediate possibilities confronting him / H.G. Wells.

  • Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946.
Date:
[1939]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The fate of homo sapiens : an unemotional statement of the things that are happening to him now, and of the immediate possibilities confronting him / H.G. Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/344 (page 14)
    There are the facts before us, the novelties, the triumphs, perpetually reinforced. In the world as I see it to-day, the powers and possibilities of human effort appear enormously greater than they did in 1888. And still they increase. Still the prospect and the promise expand. The case for optimism about physical wants is stronger now than ever. So far as economic circumstances go, the world could be organised to provide every living soul upon it with abundant food, housing and leisure, and that without either direct compulsion to toil or any irksome mono- tony of employment. We have passed in a single lifetime from a general neediness to a practicable plenty for all. The story is too familiar to need exhaustive recapitulation here. Aviation and radio communication have abolished distance. In 1888 the unity of the world as one community was a remote aspiration ; now it has become an imperative necessity. Fifty years ago none of us dreamt of the freedom and fullness of life that is now a plain possibility for everyone. To many hopeful people in the past few decades, an age of power, freedom and abundance has seemed close at hand. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, it is only now entering into the human imagination to conceive, the wonder of the years to come. And now suddenly we are confronted by a series of distresses and disasters, of a nature to convince the most hopeful of us that all this happy