Word: stapledon
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...Among them: Philosopher William Olaf Stapledon, Astronomer Michael W. Ovenden, Nuclear Physicist L. R. Shepherd, Mathematician D. F. Lawden...
Died. William Olaf Stapledon, 64 Egypt-born British philosopher (A Modern Theory of Ethics) and fiction writer (such early-Wellsian fantasies as Last and First Men, Odd John, Sinus); of a coronary occlusion; in Cheshire, England. A longtime one-worlder, Stapledon achieved a measure of distinction in March 1949 as the only British delegate at the Communist-backed Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace* in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria...
...grey-haired Dr. Stapledon has lived happily with the same wife for 28 years, but declares that "monogamy is not for everybody." The ideal arrangement, he believes, is "monogamy with well-spaced holidays...
Special Bodies. "By very drastic eugenical operation on the existing human form," suggested Dr. Stapledon, "it might be possible to enable the present human brain to be supported, in spite of excessive gravitation, by throwing man into the quadruped position, greatly strengthening the four legs, and at the same time pushing the head far backwards so as to distribute its weight evenly between the fore and hind legs. But what of the problem of providing hands? . . . My only suggestion is that the nose might be greatly elongated into a trunk equipped with delicate grasping instruments like fingers. It would probably...
These planetary colonies, thinks Dr. Stapledon, might bring about earthwide luxury and ease. But the effort should not be made, said Dr. Stapledon (who, for a scientist, is something of a moralist*); from such low motives. The only respectable and sufficient motive would be to stimulate and diversify the growth of the human spirit. The hardy, high-stepping Martians, the heat-resistant Venerians, the squat, four-legged Jovians and Saturnians with their triple proboscises-all would contribute, Dr. Stapledon thinks, to the spiritual growth of the U.S.S. (United Solar System...