<![CDATA[<body><script type="text/javascript">
function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) {
if(window.addEventListener) {
window.addEventListener('load',
function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false);
} else {
window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; });
}
}
</script>
<div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() {
if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) {
gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({
url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/10851068?origin\x3dhttp://thethinkingmachine.blogspot.com',
where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"),
id: "navbar-iframe"
});
}
});
</script>]]>
Monday, January 15, 2007
~ 11:47 PM ~
"So what do you think?" Jove questioned. I shook my head. "It is beyond my ethical limits, Mr. Von Neumann."
"Ethical limits? You are a geneticist, for goodness sake! There is no morality in this name!"
"As ironic as it may sound, Mr. Von Neumann, I am a man of principles and ethics. I cannot do this."
"Even if it is for the better of mankind?"
"Better? You call the desertion of mankind 'for the better'? We use a different dictionary in the scientific world."
"It is not desertion, but the proliferation of the human species extraterrestrially. Think of all the possibilities mankind can have for restarting their stages of evolution to prevent the errors we made."
"And the people left on Earth?"
"They'll stay and try to survive, just like they have for the past millennia."
"How are you selecting people to board your interspace vehicle?"
"Select? No, no, no... There will be no selection. Only operators of the machines and essential engineers will be present. That includes the whole of your little clique of course."
"Isn't Prof. Hephaestus in charge of the whole project? He designed your interspace vehicle, and derived most of the technology. Why shouldn't he be in charge?"
"Hephaestus? That cunning man is worst of you all!"
"You gave your daughter's hand to him, right?"
"Unwillingly, yes! Only a scoundrel would devise such treachery to extort me of my adopted child!" And on he went with the story of how Prof. Hephaestus married Alice.
It was the day Prof. Hephaestus showed Jove the actual interspace vehicle. Jove was of course happy, but his wife Juno, disgusted by Prof. Hephaestus's physical deformity, complained of everything in the vehicle from the ceilings to the temperature. Prof. Hephaestus, unwilling to bear this grievance, 'invited' Juno to sit on an armchair, which kept her seated despite struggling. The capitalist couple could do nothing to appease the Prof., so they came up with the last resort - to marry their beloved adopted child Alice to this deformed genius.
"I see. So you wish that I lead the researchers into developing mankind with the gene pool you're bringing on board?"
"Yes, if you please."
"I will see what I can do. Have your astrophysicists mentioned of the possible planets we can inhabit?"
"Yes, of course. It is...similar to Earth."
