Zoran Zivkovic - First Contact and Time Travel

by Selected Essays

  no need for new ones.”

  The conditions for ideal material prosperity, or rather a very high standard

  of living, led to a dwindling of all ideological disagreements and to the

  disbanding of the standing armies. These global changes, as well as an entire

  range of smaller actions taken by the Overlords, led to a chain reaction of deep-

  rooted improvements in the general situation of many areas of secondary

  significance. The disappearance of state borders created “One World” from

  Earth and began from the ground up to do away with all race prejudices. The

  criminal had practically disappeared as the Overlords had the means for almost

  unlimited monitoring. Mankind had become exceptionally mobile, “and there

  was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide

  one with a comfortable home, if one wanted it badly enough.”

  Some progress was made without the assistance of the Overlords. With the

  discovery of a completely safe oral contraceptive, as well as a reliable method for

  establishing paternity, the human race had finally rid itself of the last vestiges of puritan morals. Finally, the majority of people gained the opportunity to spend

  a good part of their time on various sports and entertainment in general, so that

  the whole planet slowly began to look like “a big playground”.

  In precisely this state we see the first cracks in the structure of the scientific

  Utopia—but cracks only for mankind and not for the Overlords, who never

  saw the Utopia as being the final goal but rather only the means. Although

  people had finally acquired irreproachable conditions for manifesting their

  creative potential, unhindered by the many restraints of the old world, idleness

  as a creative conditio sine qua non began to slowly transform into its negative

  correlate—boredom.

  The course of this regression was reflected on a number of levels, but

  basically it had a uniform cause. The appearance of the Overlords and their

  uninterrupted presence had a very inhibiting and de-stimulating effect on

  Man’s fundamental creative agent—curiosity. There was no longer any sense

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  in wasting the whole lifetime on solving the mysteries of those scientific,

  artistic and philosophical issues which the Overlords, had perhaps discovered

  long ago.

  This lack of enterprise became most evident in the field of art. “The end of

  strife and conflict of all kinds had also meant the virtual end of creative art.

  There were myriads of performers, amateur and professional, yet there had

  been no really outstanding new works of literature, music, painting or sculp-

  ture for generation. The world was still living on the glories of a past that could

  never return.”

  Stagnation in the field of science was partially hidden because there was an

  unprecedented boom in the so-called “descriptive disciplines” where facts were

  only collected and collated—so that almost no one even noticed the lack of

  theoreticians who would organize and link up these facts into a system.

  “Profounder things had also passed. It was a completely secular age.”

  Indeed, the race which had suddenly been guaranteed unlimited freedom

  and had been presented with inexhaustible sources of various kinds of enter-

  tainment—which “by the standards of earlier ages, it was Utopia”—had been

  so immersed in “the satisfaction of the present” that the anxious question of

  rare philosophers: “Where do we go from here?” did not reach them.

  While this fundamental issue, just as in all preceding periods, remained on a

  purely academic level, the cracks in the scientific Utopia of the Overlords

  began to evoke suspicion among spiritually-minded people where they were

  most obvious: in the arts. The fact that stagnation had already turned into

  decadence in this field incited new debates on the motives and policies of the

  newcomers from space. “Was it possible that despite all their enormous

  intelligence the Overlords did not really understand mankind, and were

  making a terrible mistake from the best of motives? Suppose in their altruistic

  passion for justice and order, they had determined to reform the world, but

  had not realized that they were destroying the soul of Man?”

  This first explicit criticism of the scientific Utopia led to the formation of a

  new Utopia which, indeed, was also founded on scientific grounds but whose

  ultimate purpose was not material prosperity but rather the return of the lost

  creative potential of people, who had increasingly turned into “passive

  sponges—absorbing, but never creating.”

  This new artistic Utopia grew at the site where the scientific Utopia began to

  lose its initiative and to close the spiritual horizons of Man. The artistic Utopia

  acquired its direct embodiment in the founding of a colony called “New

  Athens”. The colony originated as the result of complex and voluminous

  plans in the field of social engineering, which served as the groundwork for

  Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End

  41

  reliably-defined optimal measures for the size of this community, its popula-

  tion composition, model of social order, as well as long term goals.

  Still, regardless of this scientific guarantee, the founding of New Athens was

  awaited with a certain amount of skepticism for two reasons. In certain sense,

  the thus-conceived colony represented a challenge to the policy of the Over-

  lords, who had never hindered the artistic ambitions of the people but nor did

  they encourage them. However, just as in many preceding cases, the new-

  comers from space did not react at all, remaining completely indifferent to all

  the activities of the Earth people which did not imperil the general welfare.

  The second reason which partially generated suspicion in terms of the

  tenability of New Athens was founded on experience from earlier periods.

  “Yet even in the past, long before any real knowledge of social dynamics had

  existed, there had been many communities devoted to special religious or

  philosophical ends. It was true that their mortality rate had been high, but

  some had survived.”

  The ideal which was to have been embodied in New Athens was almost

  without precedent in the past. The basic concept of the founders of this

  utopian community was “to build up an independent, stable cultural group

  with its own artistic traditions”. The pre-condition for these traditions

  consisted of providing a high concentration of world artists (“...nothing is

  more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests”), who

  should achieve the optimum of creative utilization of idleness. “Everybody

  on this island”, says one of the managers of New Athens, “has one ambition,

  which may be summed up very simply. It is to do something, however small it

  may be, better than anyone else.”

  It is obvious that the value of this work simultaneously defines the value of

  the artistic Utopia itself. The creative endeavours of the residents of New

  Athens were, first of all, concentrated on discovering original forms of expres-

  sion, in the traditional as well as in the new artistic
areas. It is, however,

  symptomatic that this aspiration toward originality, as an affirmation of

  creativity, was mostly reduced to a number of experiments reasonably

  described on one occasion as being “aggressively modernistic”. As the number

  of experimental possibilities in the context of known artistic domains of

  expression was finite, there were rapid premonitions as to the final horizons

  of all fields of art.

  Indeed, this fact did not threaten the creative potentials of the inhabitants of

  New Athens as generations were needed to finalize the already-initiated

  experiments. Still, the awareness of the existence of the final borderlines of

  art had a significant impact on the discreet occurrence of doubt as to the

  general value of this form of Man’s spiritual expression or rather in its

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  importance outside the narrowly local coordinates of Earth—coordinates

  which now had their incomparably broader correlate in the cosmic perspective

  of the development of mankind, a constant reminder of this being the presence

  of the Overlords.

  In this situation, it was highly interesting but in a certain sense irrelevant to

  hear the opinion of the newcomers from space on the general value of art and,

  in the final analysis, on the usefulness of the Utopia called New Athens. An

  opportunity for this confirmation was shown during the visit of one of the

  Overlords—a visit which was supposedly intended to analyze the way of life

  and the goals of the colony but whose real motives were of a completely

  different nature. “There were some on the island who welcomed this visit as a

  chance of settling one of the minor problems of Overlord psychology—their

  attitude toward art. Did they regard it as a childish aberration of the human race?

  (underlined by Z. Ž.)”

  The viewpoint of the newcomers from space concerning the value of the

  artistic expression of the Earth people was indeed difficult to define due to

  their reluctance to put forward any opinions which could even remotely

  suggest the final ends of their “altruistic” engagement with mankind. Still,

  there were two occasions on which somewhat more could be gleaned about

  this viewpoint.

  In the first case, the conclusion was drawn indirectly, on the basis of the

  reaction of an Overlord when viewing a theatre performance. He actually

  reacted adequately and timely, but a certain doubt still remained. “He might

  himself be putting on a superb act, following the performance by logic alone

  and with his own strange emotions completely untouched, as an anthropolo-

  gist might take part in some primitive rite.”

  On the second occasion, a concrete question was posed to the Overlord

  connected with the traditional dichotomy of the culture of mankind—the

  dichotomy between art and science—which concealed an intention to discover

  if, from the perspective of the Overlord, all artists actually represent abnormal

  individuals embodying “the childish aberration of the human race”. The

  Overlord avoided giving a direct reply, making use of an ambiguous syllogism:

  “So if all artists are abnormal, and all men are artists, we have an interesting

  syllogism...”

  The residents of the utopian commune could only guess at the real meaning

  of this syllogism, which simultaneously implied a judgment on the value of

  New Athens. In this respect, the readers of Childhood’s End are in a somewhat

  more favourable position. They have the opportunity of attending the sub-

  mission of the report by the Overlord who carried out the inspection of New

  Athens—a report which introduces directly, for the first time, a cosmic

  Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End

  43

  perspective in the process of assessing Man’s attempts to safeguard the artistic

  form of expression in his creative spirit, something which had never been

  endangered in the past—at least not in Earthly frameworks. Tantalterresco

  said that no action should be taken in connection with the colony. Also, “It is

  an interesting experiment, but cannot in any way affect the future.”

  Now it is completely certain that the axiological judgment, condensed in the

  adjective “interesting”, was really pronounced from the standpoint of “an

  anthropologist taking part in some primitive rite.” From the perspective of

  the future, or the manifold cosmic usefulness of the human race, the utopian

  experiment called New Athens, which viewed the highest creative values of

  mankind in artistic expression, actually represents only “a childish aberration

  of the human race”.

  However, from this standpoint, any other type of Utopia—which repre-

  sents the end and not only the means for universal cosmic development—is

  equally ephemeral and has no real impact on the future. Its lack of value

  follows from the static, non-progressive character of the mythical theme of

  “Paradise Regained” or the “Golden Age” which lies in the basis of any Utopia.

  In Childhood’s End, only the Overlords possess an awareness of transcience

  and instability of Utopia. At the end of the second part of the book, which

  quite intentionally carries the title “The Golden Age”, the Earth Supervisor,

  Karellen, brilliantly summarizes the whole tragedy of this myth. “They would

  never know how lucky they had been. For a lifetime, mankind had achieved as

  much happiness as any race can ever know. It had been the Golden Age. But

  gold was also the colour of sunset, of autumn: and only Karellen’s ears could

  catch the first wailings of the winter storms. And only Karellen knew with

  what inexorable swiftness the Golden Age was rushing to its close.”

  The easily overlooked issue of the last philosophers again pierce to the

  forefront in all its monumentality: “Where do we go from here?”

  The cosmic dimension of the development of intelligent races—according

  to Clarke’s concept—does not recognize Utopia. Those who have cast their lot

  with the Golden Age, regardless of whether this is founded on science, art or a

  third element, lose all importance in the order of the universe, turning into

  being which inexorably sink to stagnation and decadence. In order to reach

  higher levels of all-cosmic evolution, Utopia should be accepted only as a

  means and not as a final meeting of goals. On the other side of all Utopias,

  petrified in the ephemeral ideals from the period of mankind’s “childhood”,

  there are new dimensions of existence. The road to them sometimes stands in

  opposition to any altruism or the final end of each Utopia: self-satisfied

  prosperity.

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  Of course, nature always creates a prodigal abundance which permits for the

  prevalence of those races which could not muster up courage to confront this

  challenge and surpass the level of Utopia. “They have turned back while there

  was still time, avoiding both the danger and achievement. Their worlds had

  become Elysian islands of effortless content, playing no further part in the

  story of the Universe.”

  Translated from the Serbian by Irene Mirkovic

  3


  Chronomotion

  What do we know for certain about movement through time?

  Not much, actually. Only that, under normal circumstances, we advance at

  a steady pace of twenty-four hours per day in the direction from the past

  toward the future.

  These normal circumstances can be violated, at least principally speaking, in

  two cases: if we alter the pace or the direction. The pace can be changed even in

  reality, and the direction, judging by all things, can be changed only in SF.

  Let us turn our attention first to the pace, to speed.

  It is possible to reach the future faster in two basic ways: suspended

  animation and (actual) fast movement.

  Hibernation slows down physiological processes in the organism, including

  aging. It is possible to resuscitate a frozen person after ten years, for example,

  but they will have aged biologically only one year. The price for this quick

  arrival in the future is the loss of the time “slept through”. That time, it seems,

  passes without dreams. It is no different from death, actually, except that

  resurrection is included in the price of the journey. Or it is, at the very least,

  available by choice. Anyway, it is a matter of choice. If something does not go

  wrong, of course. There is no absolute guarantee. But it is comforting that, if

  indeed something does backfire, at least the person will never know about it. . .

  “Chronomotion.” Written in 1995. Originally published in Serbian in 1995 in Eseji o naučnoj fantastici/

  Essays on Science Fiction, Biblioteka XX vek, Belgrade, Serbia. First published in English in “Two Essays on Time Travel”, “Foundation” #127, Science Fiction Foundation, Harold Wood, Essex, UK, August 2017, 77–83.

  © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  45

  Z. Živković, First Contact and Time Travel, Science and Fiction,

  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90551-8_3

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  Z. Živkovic

  In terms of moving at high speeds (the closer to the speed of light the better:

  the effect of time dilation) the same result is achieved—one arrives far in the

  future with only the brief passage of local time. The advantage of this way is

  that one actively lives in local time. In your “local cosmos” (on a spaceship, for

  example) everything happens quite normally: The usual waking state exists, as