Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
I think that if Mr. Greenfield will reread the story, noting
the following references, he will agree that if the
hypothesis is accepted the conclusion is logical:
1--It is only Jackson Gee and not Drayle who speaks of
transmitting the constituent elements by radio (page 120).
2--The scientist, Drayle, says, (page 129) "We already know
the elements that make the human body, and we can put them
together in the their proper proportions and arrangements;
but we have not been able to introduce the vitalizing spark,
the key vibrations, to start it going." He does not say that
tangible matter can be transmitted by radio.
3--In the account of Drayle's preliminary experiments (page
122) there is no statement to the effect that the original
material composing the disintegrated glass was used in its
recreation.
4--There is nothing in the story to indicate that the
original physical composition of the disintegrated man was
transported, in any manner to any outside location. The
process of disintegration was necessary to obtain the
vibrations that would make possible their repetition, which
under proper conditions would induce a reproduction of the
original, just as a song must be sung before it can be
reproduced upon a phonograph disc, but which, once recorded
can be repeated times without number.
5--Drayle's question (page 124) "Have you arranged the
elements?" refers to the elements out of which all mankind
is composed and which Drayle has previously mentioned (page
120).
6--The narrator emphasizes this aspect of the discovery when
he says, on page 124, "I seemed to see man's (not the man's)
elementary dust and vapors whirled from great containers
upward into a stratum of shimmering air and gradually assume
the outlines of a human form that became first opaque, then
solid, and then a sentient being." And again (page 126),
"The best of the race could be multiplied indefinitely and
man could make man literally out of the dust of the earth."
This does not imply a split-up of one individual into
several smaller sizes or fractional parts, but rather the
production of identical entities exactly as thousands of
phonograph records can be created from the master matrix.
7--As to the question of soul, I suggest that inasmuch as
what we call the soul of an individual is always judged by
that individual's behavior, and that medical science now
maintains that behavior is largely dependent upon our
physical mechanism, it would follow that the identical human
mechanisms would have identical souls.--Jackson Gee.
"_The Readers' Corner_"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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