ReADING SAMPLES

My eyes wandered to the bookshelves and fell on Newton’s Millennium, the 31st. I got up, walked over to the shelf, and picked it up.
"What’s this book about, if you don’t mind my asking?" I said.
"It’s a description of Newton's age."
"But the 31st millennium? Newton lived three centuries ago!"
"Of course, of course!" The professor laughed. "It’s science fiction, nothing more. The author assumes that history repeats itself over and over again, and Newton will be back at work in the 31st millennium."
"So, just a fun read?"
"Indeed. A physicist can have a little fun with science fiction now and then, don’t you think?" He smiled.

"So do we have free will?"
"Sure, but just in the small area of consciousness."

"You mean you figured out, based on random mutations, it's not possible for humans to evolve in the time elapsed?"
"That’s about it."
"Michael, whatever made you set out to calculate something like that?"
"Don’t you see?" he replied. "This is mathematical proof that some ordering principle has helped evolve Earth's inhabitants."

Just as I was about to get up and turn off the equipment, the screen flickered again. Surprised, I looked up. The picture showed a kitchen in a nineteenth-century house. There was a deep sink with running water. On a wood stove, a kettle steamed. Dozens of test tubes, small round containers, and antique chemistry equipment sat on a table. A middle-aged woman walked into the picture. She had short hair and deep, intelligent eyes.
She looked into the camera and said, “Thank you, Alfred, for your messages and greetings. I am always glad to hear from old comrades. You are in Africa! In our era, few have traveled to Africa, only a handful of adventurers, and we cannot imagine this 'terra incognita'.

"My teeth are striking proof that a human being is not a perfect, fully realized, and divine creation."

Only one thing had become clear to me in this confusion of time. The developmental level of the people around me had not changed significantly. People remained concerned mainly with their own affairs. That much I understood.

Instead of libraries, we had databases. Global communication fostered instant access and enabled each researcher to review previous findings and seamlessly expand upon them. Basic groundwork did not have to be tediously repeated. Research was systematized as never before. In earlier times, centuries passed between major discoveries, moving us from one epoch to another, but the intervals had shrunk considerably. For example, the intervals between the major discoveries in physics were continuously shrinking—from Euclid to Newton to Einstein—and in modern times, the famous names fell in line one right after the other. As a result, new findings and technical innovations flooded humanity, the rate of change increasing rapidly. This was true not only for people and their environment, but also for social organizations. Political structures, companies, and even nations constantly changed, requiring repeated renewal and adaptation. This spiraling rate of change even held true for historical eras. For example, the agricultural age had lasted several millennia, while the industrial age lasted only a few centuries. The age of a service-based economy lasted just a few decades, and the era of communication had only just begun.