Description

Is it possible to identify new ideas or technologies that seem desirable or necessary, but will turn out to be huge blunders? ‘Blunders’ because they cause much more harm or danger than benefits. Yet they were developed with the best of intentions.

This boundary-breaking novel weaves a story of confrontation with enormous challenges that cannot be avoided. A lot of it really happened. The rest is likely.

——

The ‘atomic’ bomb was built to prevent the Nazis from conquering the world. It turned out they weren’t even working on a bomb, but ever since the world has been threatened with nuclear holocaust.

The ancient Christian idea of predestined election to eternal salvation or damnation became a central dogma of Puritanism. Promoted to free believers from tyranny, it generated pervasive fear and competitiveness. It also gave America the idea that it is the ’city on a hill’ mentioned by Jesus.

Eventually it may be possible for egg and sperm cells to be created and fertilized in a laboratory, comprehensively genetically engineered, and brought to term as babies in artificial wombs. It promises enormous benefits. Anyone see a concern?

——

“If I can convince one key person that this effort must be made, I believe success is possible.”

“You mean your Soviet adversary.”

“No, Bernard, I mean you.”

__

David Vigoda has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the University of Utah. He directed The ‘Why It’s Great’ Writing Workshop and is a member of PEN American Center. This is his ninth book of fiction.

Excerpts

When they had returned, they hung up their coats and stood by the apparatus. The ‘nuclear reactor’ was all of 16 inches long, 12 inches in diameter, mostly wax. “May I confess something?” asked the younger scientist. “The last hour has been the longest hour of my life. Is there anything else you require before we throw the switch?” Leo shook his head. “Would you care to do the honors?”

“I would, but I think the honor should be yours.”

“I must say, you seem awfully calm.”

“On the contrary, this is me at my least calm.”

“Then you must be an exceedingly calm man. I’m Canadian and look at me.” He held out his quivering hand; then he took a deep breath and threw the switch. The telltale flashes appeared.

__

“General,” he asked, “if I understand the plan—and I’m confident I do—if the Soviets move a few troops toward West Berlin, say, you intend to immediately kill 300 million or 500 million or maybe 700 million, depending on which way the wind blows—let me finish, please. You intend to kill that many people because they live under Communist rule, even though not a hair on the head of a single American has been touched?”

“Mr. Secretary, we don’t think it’s smart to wait till America’s been wiped off the map before we defend ourselves.”

“General,” asked McNamara, holding a slip of paper just handed him by his RAND assistant, “how many big nukes are targeted at Moscow?”

“I don’t have that information at my fingertips, but we can certainly get it for you.”

“Would 170 be in the ballpark?”

“As I say, I can get you the number, but I would suggest we’re missing the point—which is to make sure we hit our targets.”

“That makes me wonder, general. If we have to try 170 times to hit a city…”

__

“Our fundamental concern,” said Joseph,” is that, by rejecting modern concepts of liberty, autonomy, and virtue, of government by consent of the governed, of the pursuit of happiness and its expression in property, you have set yourself against a large and growing portion of this community.”

“All this you discern from my insistence on ‘total helplessness,’ a doctrine so well established that it need not—?”

“That is where our difference emerges, for some of us do not find that we are totally helpless, rather that—”

“You would put yourself in God’s place?”

“We would put ourselves where God has placed us.”

“By rejecting his grace?”

“By accepting it with a capacity that must be part of our nature.”

“Such a capacity would be hopelessly feeble, without God’s infinite goodness and mercy.”

“We pray for that, but find in ourselves a certain autonomy, a capacity for virtue.”

__

To get off the topic of my comprehensive social inadequacies, I told him I was totally immersed in ‘bomb studies,’ and instead of doing an assigned topic had written a report on that accidental dropping of a large hydrogen bomb on North Carolina that almost exploded.

“Oh come on.”

“It’s true. 3.8 megatons, that’s over 250 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, and all its arming mechanisms engaged except for one safety switch.”

Sam scoffed. “How come I never heard of this?”

“That might be because it was covered up for 52 years.”

“I don’t believe it. That can’t be true.”

“And yet declassified documents assure us it is.”

“What did your teacher say?”

“He said I could turn in the assignment within two days or get an F.”

__

“Who was it said, ‘Sometimes I think we haven’t made an inch of progress since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Can anyone think of anything new since then? On a bad day, I can’t think of a thing.’” I watched the blood leave his face.

“What did you do?” he finally asked.

“Bugged a top-secret meeting. Several, actually.” For once, for a moment at least, he was speechless as he turned to stare at my mother. “Don’t worry, I didn’t reveal anything.”

“My God, you have no idea…”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure I do.”

__

When Sammy and Josie decided to have a baby artificially, it was no longer controversial for most people. It wasn’t even called ‘artificial’ anymore, or ‘alternative’ or ‘assisted’ or—somewhat controversial—‘enhanced.’ It was called what scientist-entrepreneurs had called it, IVG + IVF + GE + EGT. Taken together, what those meant was that anyone—or in principle any organization, business, government, or computer—could order a baby, design it, pay for it, and pick it up when ready for delivery.