to come[7]. In The Time Machine, the Time Traveler has spent all his time making the time machine to see wonderful advances in technology, knowledge, and intellect in the future. Instead, he finds only decay and degeneration. As this report is being written, a Summit of the Americas is being held in Quebec City, Canada to discuss the development of global trade. World leaders are inside a fortified section of the city to protect themselves from the thousands of protesters who have marched there to disrupt the meeting. The world leaders say that opening up the undeveloped world to industrialization will make it a better place for everyone. The protesters, made up of labor leaders and environmentalists, are saying that removing trade restrictions will exploit the workers and destroy the environment of the world. This is the kind of dilemma we see in Wells novels. He prophesized that technology can bring destruction as well as advancement. Wells urges scrutiny of the inanimate vastness of sidereal space.[7] Today for example, we in America are very concerned with what happened in the airspace over the Chinese island of Hainan. This unexpected accident between Chinese and American aircraft may affect the future security of all of us. As Wells would say, destruction of the earth by humankind is always possible. He even suggests, in a book like War of the Worlds, that it maybe inevitable. Wells was closer to future reality then even he seemed to know.The difference is that in our time the media has changed the situation dramatically. The scientists in Wells nnovel their experiments in secrecy and isolation. Today the whole world can find out what is going on, or even what being planned, by reading the newspapers or watching television. In other words, secrecy is very difficult when the media and computers make most knowledge accessible to interested people in the Western world. If we are going to be destroyed, it is not only...
