Daedalus; or, The Science of the Future: A Paper Read Before the Heretics, Cambridge on February 4th, 1923
| Title | Daedalus; or, The Science of the Future: A Paper Read Before the Heretics, Cambridge on February 4th, 1923 |
| Year for Search | 1923 |
| Authors | Haldane, J[ohn] B[urdon] S[anderson](1892-1964), and Haldane, J. B. S. |
| Pagination | 93 pp. |
| Date Published | 1923 |
| Publisher | Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. |
| Place Published | London |
| Keywords | English author, Male author |
| Annotation | While most of the book is straightforward but wide-ranging explication, part takes the form of “a rather stupid” Cambridge undergraduate reading a paper to his tutor 150 years in the future on the “influence of biology on history during the 20th century” (56-57). The paper (57-68) begins with eugenics (failures applied to humans), the elimination of infectious diseases, applications to agriculture that increased production but that also produced immense damage oceans, the production of an ectogenetic child (a word Haldane coined) with, at the time of the paper, only 30% of children “born of women” (65). In all cases, both the advances and the problems are mentioned. Haldane then makes some more extreme suggestions such as how selective breeding might change politics (69) and the impact of the abolition of disease. The author was generally considered a polymath and is perhaps best known as a geneticist. |
| Additional Publishers | U.S. ed. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924. 93 pp. Rpt. in Haldane’s Daedalus Revisited. Ed. Krishna R. Dronamraju (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1995), 23-50, with an anonymous review from Nature 112 (1924): 740 on 50-51. Originated as a paper at Cambridge University. A different version was published as “If You Were Alive in 2123 A.D.” Century Magazine 106 (August 1923): 549-566. |
| Info Notes | The first volume in the To-day and To-morrow series. |
| Holding Institutions | PSt |
| Author Note | The author (1892-1964) was generally considered a polymath and is perhaps best known as a geneticist. |
| Full Text | 1923 Haldane, J[ohn] B[urdon] S[anderson] (1892-1964). Daedalus; or, The Science of the Future: A Paper Read Before the Heretics, Cambridge on February 4th, 1923. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1923. 93 pp. U.S. ed. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924. 93 pp. Rpt. in Haldane’s Daedalus Revisited. Ed. Krishna R. Dronamraju (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1995), 23-50, with an anonymous review from Nature 112 (1924): 740 on 50-51. The first volume in the To-day and To-morrow series. Originated as a paper at Cambridge University. A different version was published as “If You Were Alive in 2123 A.D.” Century Magazine 106 (August 1923): 549-566. NN, PSt While most of the book is straightforward but wide-ranging explication, part takes the form of “a rather stupid” Cambridge undergraduate reading a paper to his tutor 150 years in the future on the “influence of biology on history during the 20th century” (56-57). The paper (57-68) begins with eugenics (failures applied to humans), the elimination of infectious diseases, applications to agriculture that increased production but that also produced immense damage oceans, the production of an ectogenetic child (a word Haldane coined) with, at the time of the paper, only 30% of children “born of women” (65). In all cases, both the advances and the problems are mentioned. Haldane then makes some more extreme suggestions such as how selective breeding might change politics (69) and the impact of the abolition of disease. The author was generally considered a polymath and is perhaps best known as a geneticist. |
