Nikola Tesla Shows How Men of the Future May Become as Gods
“When a child is born, its sense organs are brought in contact with the outer world. The waves of sound, heat and light beat against its feeble body, its sensitive nerve fibers quiver, the muscles contract and relax in obedience—a gasp, a breath, and in this act a wonderful little engine, of inconceivable delicacy and complexity of structure, is hitched to the wheelwork of the universe. Left to itself the engine stops; it has no power to draw energy form Nature’s inexhaustible store.
”The little engine moves and works, changes size and shape, performs more and more varied operations, becomes sensitive to more and more different influences, and now there begins to manifest itself in it a mysterious force. It becomes capable of responding to stimuli of a more subtile nature and of drawing, for its own use, energy from the environment. Gradually the engine has been transformed into a being possessed of intelligence, which perceives, discerns, does like others of its kind.
“The experiences multiply, the knowledge increases, the discernment becomes keener, the human being, responding to the faintest influences, is awakened to the consciousness of Nature and its grandeur, and in its breast there is kindled a desire to imitate Nature, to create, to work itself the wonders it perceives.
”But the exercise of this power does not satisfy the mind, which rises to still higher, undefinable perceptions, not of this world, and inspired by them the artist, the inventor and the man of science give expression to the longing of the soul.
“What can man, with his power of creating, in his striving toward the ideal, produce; what result can he attain which would be of the greatest consequence in this universe, his greatest achievement? A scientific idea which I advanced nearly two years ago in an unpublished address may serve to answer this question, form a point of view likely to be taken by an inventor or engineer.
”According to the adopted theory, first clearly formulated by Lord Kelvin, all matter is composed of a primary substance of inconceivable tenuity, vaguely designated by the word “ether.” The atom of an elementary body is differentiated from the rest of this substance, which fills all space, merely by movement, as a small whirl of water would be in a calm lake.
“All matter, then, is merely whirling ether. By being set in movement, ether becomes matter perceptible to our senses; the movement arrested, the primary substance reverts to its normal state and becomes imperceptible. If this theory of the constitution of matter is not merely a beautiful conception, which in its essence is contained in the old philosophy of the Vedas, but a physical truth, then if the ether whirl or atom be shattered by impact or slowed down and arrested by cold, any material, whatever it be, would vanish into seeming nothingness, and, conversely, if the ether be set in movement by some force, matter would again form. Thus, by the help of a refrigerating machine or other means for arresting ether movement and an electrical or other force of great intensity for forming ether whirls, it appears possible for man to annihilate or to create at his will all we are able to perceive by our tactile sense.
”This conclusion, though startling, is not contradictory to the adopted doctrine of the indestructibility of matter, and in the light of modern views it may be considered as a scientific possibility. It does not require the exercise of great powers of imagination to conceive that by harnessing the sun’s energy and making his machines self-acting these processes of creation and annihilation might be made to go on without human intervention other than the control.
“Could he do this, man would then have god-like power, for he could create any kind of material substance, of any size and shape, seemingly out of nothing, and he could make all perceptible substance revert to its primary from, lose itself forever in the universe.
”At his command, almost without an effort on his part, worlds would be born. This, according to my ideas, would be the grandest feat which might be performed by man, the most consequential, his greatest achievement.“
By Nikola Tesla
New York Herald, December 30, 1900.
No comments:
Post a Comment