Dr Schiller is of the opinion1 that the evolutionary impetus is spent, and biologically at least we have seen the end of change. I wonder. And supposing he were right? The process might begin again; this time with the men of science at the helm.
The vast and powerful machinery developed to meet the needs of Scientific Management in industry, government, and education may make it possible to initiate and control the operation of the natural laws of change. Side by side with the direct control of character, belief, and action, large-scale experiments in eugenics may proceed. Such experiments would not demand the clumsy expedient of the Act of Parliament. The triple control will provide adequate means for eliminating the intractable factors in the situation. Perhaps the constitution of the United States of America provides the most promising machinery at present for large-scale sociological experiment. These States, moreover, are fortunate in the character of their population. But whether by education or by eugenic control man himself will change. Physically, by a process of atrophy (at which Dr Schiller will not, I trust, demur), he may consist chiefly in a head from which will depend a mass of atrophied limbs. He will presumably be more or less permanently mounted upon a compact automobile, travelling by road or by air. No doubt a submarine attachment will be available to facilitate his morning bath.2 But it is not with his appearance that we are here concerned. What is the future of his mind?
There are interesting possibilities in the sphere of sense alone. Some of our present senses, such as taste or smell, may disappear altogether. More and more we seem to depend upon purely visual cues. On the other hand, vision and hearing may be considerably augmented. Even