‘That’s why
the MIPS said you weren’t part of the human race, Manalone. That’s what made you an untouchable. You’re part of a sub-group – left behind whilst the rest of mankind evolves itself into idiocy.’
‘What will happen when the machines stop?’ he asked Hanser.
‘Inevitably the most serious famines and shortages the world has ever known. There can only be a swift collapse back into a form of primitive barbarity, with the diseases of massive death also taking their toll. Hopefully about one in a million will survive, and even that will be a strain on the available food supply.’
‘The whole idea of it makes me sick,’ said Manalone. ‘How could such a monstrous scheme have got started in the first place? Surely it wasn’t by common consent?’
‘It was done by stealth. The public weren’t informed. The reducing factor was included in standard immunological serums, and in a series of world-wide campaigns against disease, virtually the entire population was injected.’
‘And nobody realized what was being done?’
‘Some suspected, but these were removed or effectively silenced by security agencies such as our own MIPS. When computer statistics began to give real values for the declining norm in size, security forces also arranged “accidents” for those who grew too tall. “Unlucky Lofty” became a catchphrase which was also a death sentence for those who thought too seriously about it. And the decline in size was such a small increment for each generation that probably very few people ever paused to wonder.
‘The follow-up provided the pay-off. Housing units could be built progressively smaller, and population densities could be vastly increased. Inadequate roads gradually became major highways, and a limited supply of food just about held pace with the demands of the increasing population. Even pollution scarcely increased. It was a triumph of genetic and social engineering.’
‘I can’t agree,’ said
Manalone. ‘I see it as the foullest crime in history.’
‘But then, you’re a natural dissenter, Manalone. Look at the other side of the coin. By doing as they did, the originators of the scheme gave a chance of life to countless billions who could not otherwise have lived because of lack of food and lack of space. You’re probably one of those billions of people, and so were your parents. If you hold that human life is sacrosanct, and that each man has the right to procreate his own kind, then you must admit that logically they had very little alternative. Remember, they had the same evidence as you that the ecology was dangerously near collapse. Placed in their situation, do you think you could’ve done as well?’
‘I take your point,’ said Manalone at last. ‘But the question’s academic now. Can’t anything be done about the decline?’
Hanser’s face was possessed by a kind of grim humour.
‘Certainly! We could reverse the trend tomorrow. If we reversed the decline in size, we could halt the decline in intelligence. But to attempt to do so would render the population problem completely untenable. Think about it. If we could restore Man to his original size within a generation we’d have a lot better than twenty-seven people competing for the space and resources sufficient for only one. Only by killing ninety-six percent of the population, could we ensure that the remainder lived. And even then the survivors would be as crowded as we are now. Is that the kind of solution you’d choose?
‘You see what our choices are: revert men to the original and have to eliminate ninety-six percent to make it viable, or allow the current trends to continue and try to salvage a new race from the ruins. Welcome to the Masterthinkers, Manalone. You’re a problem solver. Take a seat – there’s a hell of a lot of problems to be solved.’
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Cageworld
1.
Search for the Sun
(1982) (aka
Cageworld
)
2.
The Lost Worlds of Cronus
(1982)
3.
The Tyrant of Hades
(1982)
4.
Star Search
(1983)
Other Novels
The Dark Mind
(1964) (aka
The Transfinite Man
)
The Patterns of Chaos
(1972)
The Wizard of Anharitte
(1973)
Survival Game
(1976)
The Chaos Weapon
(1977)
Manalone
(1977)
The Ion War
(1978)
The Timewinders
(1980)
Collections
The Unorthodox Engineers
(1979)
Colin Kapp (1928 – 2007)
Born in 1928, Colin Kapp was both a British SF author and a worker in electronics, later becoming a freelance consultant in electroplating. His writing career began with the publication of ‘Life Plan’ in
New Worlds
in November 1958. Kapp is best known for his stories about the Unorthodox Engineers, which gained a modest cult following. He passed away in 2007.
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Colin Kapp 1977
All rights reserved.
The right of Colin Kapp to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2012 by Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 13379 2
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.