Richard Shirley Richardson - Disturbing Sun.pdf - Richard Shirley Richardson - allforjesus2001

Disturbing Sun

Richardson, Richard Shirley

Published: 1959

Type(s): Short Fiction, Science Fiction

Source: http://gutenberg.org

check the copyright status in your country.

Note: This book is brought to you by Feedbooks.

http://www.feedbooks.com

Strictly for personal use, do not use this file for commercial purposes.

This, be it understood, is fiction—nothing but fiction—and not, under any cir-

cumstances, to be considered as having any truth whatever to it. It's obviously

utterly impossible … isn't it?

An interview with Dr. I. M. Niemand, Director of the Psychophysical Insti-

tute of Solar and Terrestrial Relations, Camarillo, California.

In the closing days of December, 1957, at the meeting of the American Associ-

ation for the Advancement of Science in New York, Dr. Niemand delivered a pa-

per entitled simply, "On the Nature of the Solar S-Regions." Owing to its unas-

suming title the startling implications contained in the paper were completely

overlooked by the press. These implications are discussed here in an exclusive in-

terview with Dr. Niemand by Philip Latham.

LATHAM. Dr. Niemand, what would you say is your main job?

NIEMAND. I suppose you might say my main job today is to find out

all I can between activity on the Sun and various forms of activity on the

Earth.

LATHAM. What do you mean by activity on the Sun?

NIEMAND. Well, a sunspot is a form of solar activity.

LATHAM. Just what is a sunspot?

NIEMAND. I'm afraid I can't say just what a sunspot is. I can only de-

scribe it. A sunspot is a region on the Sun that is cooler than its sur-

roundings. That's why it looks dark. It isn't so hot. Therefore not so

bright.

LATHAM. Isn't it true that the number of spots on the Sun rises and

falls in a cycle of eleven years?

NIEMAND. The number of spots on the Sun rises and falls in a cycle

of about eleven years. That word about makes quite a difference.

LATHAM. In what way?

NIEMAND. It means you can only approximately predict the future

course of sunspot activity. Sunspots are mighty treacherous things.

LATHAM. Haven't there been a great many correlations announced

between sunspots and various effects on the Earth?

NIEMAND. Scores of them.

LATHAM. What is your opinion of these correlations?

NIEMAND. Pure bosh in most cases.

LATHAM. But some are valid?

NIEMAND. A few. There is unquestionably a correlation between

sunspots and disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field … radio fade-

outs … auroras … things like that.

LATHAM. Now, Dr. Niemand, I understand that you have been in-

vestigating solar and terrestrial relationships along rather unorthodox

lines.

NIEMAND. Yes, I suppose some people would say so.

LATHAM. You have broken new ground?

NIEMAND. That's true.

LATHAM. In what way have your investigations differed from those

of others?

NIEMAND. I think our biggest advance was the discovery that sun-

spots themselves are not the direct cause of the disturbances we have

been studying on the Earth. It's something like the eruptions in rubeola.

Attention is concentrated on the bright red papules because they're such

a conspicuous symptom of the disease. Whereas the real cause is an in-

visible filterable virus. In the solar case it turned out to be these S-

Regions.

LATHAM. Why S-Regions?

NIEMAND. We had to call them something. Named after the Sun, I

suppose.

LATHAM. You say an S-Region is invisible?

NIEMAND. It is quite invisible to the eye but readily detected by suit-

able instrumental methods. It is extremely doubtful, however, if the radi-

ation we detect is the actual cause of the disturbing effects observed.

LATHAM. Just what are these effects?

NIEMAND. Well, they're common enough, goodness knows. As old as

the world, in fact. Yet strangely enough it's hard to describe them in ex-

act terms.

LATHAM. Can you give us a general idea?

NIEMAND. I'll try. Let's see … remember that speech from "Julius

Caesar" where Cassius is bewailing the evil times that beset ancient

Rome? I believe it went like this: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our

stars but in ourselves that we are underlings."

LATHAM. I'm afraid I don't see—

NIEMAND. Well, Shakespeare would have been nearer the truth if he

had put it the other way around. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in

ourselves but in our stars" or better "in the Sun."

LATHAM. In the Sun?

NIEMAND. That's right, in the Sun. I suppose the oldest problem in

the world is the origin of human evil. Philosophers have wrestled with it

ever since the days of Job. And like Job they have usually given up in

despair, convinced that the origin of evil is too deep for the human mind

to solve. Generally they have concluded that man is inherently wicked

and sinful and that is the end of it. Now for the first time science has

thrown new light on this subject.

LATHAM. How is that?

NIEMAND. Consider the record of history. There are occasional peri-

ods when conditions are fairly calm and peaceful. Art and industry

flourished. Man at last seemed to be making progress toward some high-

er goal. Then suddenly— for no detectable reason —conditions are reversed.

Wars rage. People go mad. The world is plunged into an orgy of blood-

shed and misery.

LATHAM. But weren't there reasons?

NIEMAND. What reasons?

LATHAM. Well, disputes over boundaries … economic rivalry … bor-

der incidents… .

NIEMAND. Nonsense. Men always make some flimsy excuse for go-

ing to war. The truth of the matter is that men go to war because they

want to go to war. They can't help themselves. They are impelled by

forces over which they have no control. By forces outside of themselves.

LATHAM. Those are broad, sweeping statements. Can't you be more

specific?

NIEMAND. Perhaps I'd better go back to the beginning. Let me see… .

It all started back in March, 1955, when I started getting patients suffer-

ing from a complex of symptoms, such as profound mental depression,

anxiety, insomnia, alternating with fits of violent rage and resentment

against life and the world in general. These people were deeply dis-

turbed. No doubt about that. Yet they were not psychotic and hardly

more than mildly neurotic. Now every doctor gets a good many patients

of this type. Such a syndrome is characteristic of menopausal women

and some men during the climacteric, but these people failed to fit into

Richard Shirley Richardson - Disturbing Sun.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: