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diff --git a/58826-0.txt b/58826-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bd089c --- /dev/null +++ b/58826-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58826 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + DOUBLE TAKE + + BY WILSON PARKS GRIFFITH + + _The Chicago Time Capsule was indeed an elaborate production. + The greatest of American acting, writing and electronics + went into its story of Man, 1960, for future historians. And, + centuries later, it was dutifully recovered. Only...._ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1955. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +When the Travelers from Outer Space dug into the pile of moldering +rock, they found the metal capsule their senses had told them was +there. Battered and corroded though it was, the shadow vibrations +showed that it had once been smooth and shiny. As smooth, shiny and +impervious to wear as Twentieth Century Earth technology could make it. + +At the time the Mayor of Chicago had ceremoniously tossed a handful +of lake sand into the hole, had his picture taken smiling against +the skyline, and had moved away to let the workmen fill the hole with +cement and place the marker, the Time Capsule had been bright with the +hopes of civilization sending its proud present into the uncertain +future. + +Time passed.... + +The tiny radio transmitter in the capsule began throwing out its wide +signal at the exact instant planned for it many centuries before. No +one heard. Eventually, the tiny powerful batteries gave out. The signal +died. + +Time passed.... + +When the Travelers from Outer Space took the capsule back to their ship +and opened it, they found the contents in perfect order. Even the reel +of magnetic tape had not succumbed to the centuries. + +In due course, the Travelers examined the tape, divined its purpose, +and constructed a machine that would play back the recording. + + * * * * * + +Out of a million evolutionary possibilities in a Universe of planets, +the chances of two intelligent races being even roughly similar are +astronomically remote. + +A being develops sense organs for no other reason than to make it aware +of its environment. The simplest primitive being's awareness of its +environment centers around food, its means of survival. It develops +organs and appendages that will enable it to ferret out, obtain and +ingest its food. As the food differs, so, then, does the eater. + +The Travelers had no ears or eyes, as such. They had other organs for +other purposes, but the net result was that they "saw" and "heard" +quite as well--even better--than Earthmen. + +Perhaps that explains why the Travelers gleaned so much more from the +tape recording in the Twentieth Century capsule than its originators +had planned or intended. + + * * * * * + +Not just any radio show could be placed in the Time Capsule. What +picture of contemporary 1960 mankind would the men of the future derive +from a soap opera? A news analysis? Or top comedy show? Certainly not +a flattering one, and so, reasoned the brass in charge of the project, +not a true one. + +No, the only answer was to produce a special documentary program, +painting on a broad canvas the glories that were the common man's +birthright in an enlightened democracy. As July 4th was only a +month away, the idea was a natural. The program would be carried +simultaneously on four networks, then placed in the Time Capsule so +that historians of the future would have something solid on which to +base their conclusions. + +A famous poet-radio writer was hired to write the script. Hollywood's +greatest young male star donated his services (with much attendant +publicity) as narrator. A self-acknowledged genius who directed radio +shows for a living condescended to lend his talents to the production. +Numerous other actors, musicians, technicians and assistants were +hired ... none well-known, but all quite competent. + +July 4th, the big day, arrived. The cast went into rehearsal early in +the morning. By the second complete run-through, just before the break +for lunch, the show was hanging together nicely. After four hours of +polishing in the afternoon, it was ready to go on the air. Everyone's +nerves were raw, but the show sounded great. + +Naturally, when a room full of creative people have been rubbing +against one another for a full day, a lot of emotions are generated. +The listening audience never knew about it, but it took the actors, +directors, musicians and technicians several days to get the session +out of their systems. During rehearsals, the young Hollywood star +developed a consuming lust for one of the minor actresses. One of the +minor actors developed a consuming lust for the young Hollywood star. +Everyone immediately hated the director, and he, lofty and all-wise, +contemptuously hated them in return. By eight o'clock that night, show +time, the splendid documentary on the splendid American people was not +the only thing that was at peak pitch. + +It was the only thing, however, that the radio audience heard. It was +magnificent. Future students hearing the tape could not but conclude +that here was the Golden Age. Man, at least American man, circa 1960, +noble, humble and sincere, was carrying in his bosom the seeds of +greatness. Difficulties still existed, of course, but they were not +insurmountable. A few deluded people seemed to be working against the +common good, but the program left no doubt that this would be cleaned +up in short order. The millenium was at hand! + + * * * * * + +When the Travelers from Outer Space, who were a team of historians +doing research on the history of life throughout the Universe, listened +to the tape recording, their "ears" heard none of the program as it had +been originally broadcast. They were no less fascinated, however, for +what they heard was the thought patterns of the people who had been +connected with the program. These thoughts, in the form of electrical +impulses, were also recorded on the magnetic surface of the tape, and +were the only sounds audible to the Travelers. + +What a pity these future historians didn't get mankind's version of +the life of mankind in 1960, after the producers had gone to so much +trouble to tie it up in a package for them. Their conception of Earth +culture was based on the thought impulses they "heard", and their +History of Earth was written accordingly. The last paragraph is worth +noting: + +"In the main, it is quite fortunate for life in the Universe that these +primitive people destroyed themselves before they learned how to leave +their planet. Lustful, murderous and guilt-ridden, they are perhaps the +worst examples of intelligent life that we have ever discovered. And +yet, paradox supreme, they had one quality that we ourselves would do +well to emulate. That quality we can only surmise, for nothing on the +recording spoke of it, yet it is obvious, for if they hadn't had this +quality, there would have been no recording left for us at all. + +"_How strange that these tortured people should practise an +unparalleled example of Life's highest achievement ... complete honesty +with themselves and others._" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Double Take, by Wilson Parks Griffith + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58826 *** |