Читать книгу The Doll - Nickolay Popov - Страница 4

A few words about the stories. All of them in due time had been published in the newspaper Nashe Slovo. I am grateful for it then to the executive secretary Michael Philippov, who is deceased now. God rest his soul. He tried to draw me into the bustle of a newspaper gently as he could, prompting topics for articles; at any time he’d been finding a minute or two to talk on business or simply heart-to-heart conversation. My first story The Guest, reworked a bit at the request of Michael, was published as a whole, despite the shortage of newspaper strips. The local newspaper in those years went to the book format; a computer layout has been applied, and this attracted me very much. Philippov knew about it, and realized that the author wants to see his thing printed in a book format. I wrote a little, as always, social, cultural and even religious questions required some evaluation or discussion. Sometimes I offered film critique. Executive secretary flattered me: “Nickolay, you write not often, but you will be read by everybody.” He used to say it in order to push me to new materials and stories.

Out of all placed here short stories I want to highlight the one: The Doll, a pamphlet of fantastic content on social and political theme. The real book by Eric K. Drexler served as a material for the story. Drexler E.K. is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engines of creation is the title of his book. The book itself was published in the U.S. in 1986. Eric Drexler worked in the Laboratory of space systems of the same institute. In August 2005 Drexler joined Nanorex, a molecular engineering software company based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Engines of creation shows a broad and complete picture of the greatest revolution in the history of science and technology, which, in author’s opinion, can occur in the first half of XXI century as a result of the development by mankind an alternative technology for production of products by assembling them literally over the atoms!

This refers to the so-called nanotechnology. Nano… who does not know, means small; word-for-word translation from Greek – dwarf. So nanocomputers and nanomachines, which will enable the indicated above assembly of products over natural “bricks”, i.e. atoms. What would come of it, read the story Doll. And who will be interested in the book Engines of creation, can look it on the Internet. Its full name is: Drexler E.K. Engines of Creation Garden City (N.Y.). – Anchor Press. – 298 p.

Human curiosity knows no bounds. We are getting closer to the mysteries of nature. The truth is out there. But here’s the trouble: good intentions pave the road to hell. Do not forget the wise idea. And in this sense, our pamphlet Doll can be called a warning to humanity since wonderful Engines of Creation can be easily turned into Engines of Destruction, depending into whose hands they fall. Did the scientist from Massachusetts think over it? We do not know. May be I’m behind the times now. But. To tell the truth, over the past fifteen years I have heard of nanotechnology and nothing about assemblers, replicators and other accessories of modern shaping. It is possible that the technology had already been tested and approved. In any case, it is quite dangerous, because nuclear weapons fade before a new formidable force.

So as not to finish on a sour note; I want to add that in the end, it’s just a fantasy, a virtual world.

We know that everything is transitory, and Love is eternal. Take a look out of the window: there is certainly good weather or not good, it’s raining or snowing, the sun shines, and perhaps romantic moon, patroness of lovers. Outdoors, say, March or April. In the mornings, caught by light frost, still snow is crunching. And in the daytime on warm islands of land green grass stretches into the light, the birds pour marriage songs and your heart is sweetly shrinking in the chest pending of joyful anticipations.

Michurinsk

March 17, 2020